ADITI -A devi (goddess), Mother of The Gods, Aditi devi story

    There are few interesting myths to tell about Aditi, but her status and roles change so remarkably that she illustrates the fluidity of Hindu myths. Her name literally means eternity (free, boundless, infinity), so philosophically she is a per­sonification of time. Aditi slowly evolved as the prototype of…

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44) SAGE PARASHAR

The Sages asked Suta how Shakti had been devoured by a demon named Rudhir. Sutiji replied— Once, Sage Vashishtha was presiding over a grand Yagya being organized by a king named Kalmashpad. Vashishtha had a rivalry with Vishwamitra. On seeing Vashishtha busy in that Yagya, Vishwamitra instigated Rudhir– a demon,…

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22) Krishna’s Tapasya

Krishna was the eight incarnation of Vishnu and he was born as the son of Devaki and Vasudeva. Initially, Krishna did not have any sons. Desirous of obtaining a son, Krishna went to visit the sage Upamanyu. The sage’s hermitage was beautiful. Wonderous were the trees and flowers and grew…

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18) Vana

Bali had a hundred sons, the eldest among whom was Vana. Vana was devoted to Shiva. He was also extremely powerful. He defeated Indra and conquered the three worlds.   Indra and the other gods went to Shiva. “Your devotee, Vana is oppressing us,” they told Shiva. “Please take care…

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13) Hiranyakashipu

Hiranyakashipu pleased Brahma through his prayers. As a result of the boon that he received from Brahma, he became invisible and started to oppress the world. He drove the gods out of heaven. The gods and the sages went to Brahma to persuade him to do something about Hiranyakashipu. “I…

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12) Daksha’s Story

Daksha was Brahma’s son and had a daughter named Sati. Sati was married to Shiva. Daksha was thus Shiva’s father-in-law.   Once Daksha came to visit his son-in-law. But although Shiva worshipped him with all due respect, Daksha felt that he had been slighted. Subsequently, when Sati went to visit…

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11) The Line of Uttanapada

It is hoped that you have not forgotten that Svayambhuva Manu and his wife Shatarupa had a son named Uttanapada. Uttanapada’s brother was Priyavarta. Dhruva was Uttanapada’s son. Dhruva was so devoted to Vishnu that Vishnu earmarked for him a place in the heaven known as Dhruvaloka. (Dhruva became the…

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9) Rudra

Brahma returned to his seat on the lotus flower.   Suddenly, two demons named Madhu and Kaitabha appeared. They were exceedingly strong and threatened to destroy everything that Brahma would create. Brahma therefore requested Vishnu to kill these two demons. Vishnu created two beings from his own body and these…

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8) Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva

The gods and the sages told Vishnu, “We are getting a bit confused. You have told us that Brahma emerged from Vishnu’s body. And yet you have also told us how Brahma was born inside a golden egg. Which of these is the correct account? Then again, you have told…

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PURANAS – The heart of Hindu mythological literature

Purana means “ancient” and thus this body of literature claimed to be authori­tative, especially for the kali yuga (the present age). Scholars date their compo­sition in three periods (300-500; 500-1000; 1000-1800). Puranas deal with both philosophical and existential issues, mostly presented through a poetic narra­tive. The five topics covered in…

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MITRA – One of the twelve adityas; a sun god

In the Rigveda Mitra’s name was often associated with Varuna. One chapter (Sukta) in the Rigveda said that if Mitra and Varuna were prayed to, the result would be an abundance of rain. Mitra was also glorified as the god of night and as ruling the earth and sky, together…

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MANVANTARA – Manu-antara (age of Manu)

There are many different calculations about just how long a manvantara is—but all agree that it is in the millions of human years. A smaller figure sets the num­ber of years at only 4,320,000, while a larger calculation came to 306,720,000 human years. Each day in the life of Brahma,…

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KALA – The god (deva) of death; time

As time is a great imponderable, it is related to death. The two words, time and death, are the same in Sanskrit. Kala is popularly known as Yama. Born from the union of Surya (the sun god) and Samjna, daughter of Kassyapa-prajapati, Yama (Kala) was given the duty to retrieve…

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17) THE PURANAS

Lomaharshana now gave the sages a list of the eighteen mahapuranas. In the beginning, there was only one Purana. The sage Vedavyasa divided this original Purana into eighteen mahapuranas. The mahapuranas have four lakh shlokas all together and their names are as follows. (i) The Brahma Purana: This was originally…

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DESCRIPTION OF PURANAS AND UP-PURANAS

Once, while describing the origin of Puranas, Sutji told the sages who had assembled at Naimisharanya–‘Lord  Shiva had  first  revealed  the contents  of Skanda  Purana to  Parvati  at Kailash Mountain. Lord Brahma and few other deities were also present there at the time when Shiva was narrating the tale. Subsequently,…

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THE AUSTERITIES OF VED VYASA

Narrating about the life of Sage Veda Vyasa, Suta said to the sages- “Once while sage Parashar was on his pilgrimage, he arrived at the bank of Yamuna. Satyavati, who emitted the smell of fish, helped him cross the river. Sage Parashar was very pleased with her. He transformed the…

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2) CHAPTER TWO GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION

The  earth  has  seven  great  islands-  Jambu,  Plaksha,  Shalmali,  Kusha,  Kronch,  Shakh  and Pushkar. These are surrounded by oceans having saline water, sugarcane juice, wine, ghee, curd, milk and sweet water respectively. Jambudweep is situated at the center. Situated at the center of Jambudweep is golden Sumeru Mountain (Himalayas), which…

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6) CHAPTER SIX BRANCHES OF SAMAVEDA AND EIGHTEEN PURANAS

 Sage Jaimini, a disciple of Veda Vyasa, effected branches of Samaveda. Sage Jaimini had a son, Sumantu. Sumantu in turn had a son, Sukarma. Both of them studied a branch of Samaveda each. Sukarma divided his branch of Samaveda into sub-branches and taught them to his two disciples- Kaushalya Hiranyanabh…

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