Wednesday, March 18, 2015
How large is Large
We read almost every day about how the earth is becoming overpopulated. Suppose we put this to the real world test. I form a cube which is 1000 yards on a side. This is not a small cube.Its length is ten football fields laid end to end. However, we could imagine laying these ten football fields end to end through the middle of the campus, and doing the same for the width, and the height. That is, this cube would fit nicely into the center of our campus. Would you believe, that this cube will hold every man,woman and child on earth and still have a lot of empty space left over? If the entire population of the earth could be put in a box in the center of our campus, is the earth really overpopulated? I leave that for you to think about.Problem 1:Take a piece of paper and fold it in half, fold it in half again,fold it in half again, and do this 51 times. The average piece of paper is .003 inches thick. How high is the stack of paper?
The United States government now spends one and a half trillion dollars a year. This is 1,500-billion dollars. (Be careful here. The word "billion" comes from Italian where it stood for a"million- million" . In the United States it was "mis-translate d" and ended up representing a "thousand- million" .) To grasp the magnitude of such a number, we would have to understand how large a billion is first. Actually, a billion itself is already an incredibly large number. For example, if I invested a billion dollars in a bad company, and this company lost $10,000 per day,seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year, then I might worry if I will have any money left at retirement. But, I am still alright, since even at this rate, it will take the company over 200 years to lose my investment. On the other hand, if I took the cap of my pen and magnified it a billion times, then it would be 95,000 miles long and 8,000 miles wide, and the entire earth would
fit inside it (The diameter of the earth is about 7,900 miles.) In fact, a billion is so large, that it was not until 10:40 a.m. on April 20, 1902, that exactly a billion minutes had elapsed since the birth of Christ. I hope that I have now convinced you that a billion is truly a large number. However,it cannot be too large since there are more than one billion ways to give change for a $5 bill.
The United States government now spends one and a half trillion dollars a year. This is 1,500-billion dollars. (Be careful here. The word "billion" comes from Italian where it stood for a"million- million" . In the United States it was "mis-translate d" and ended up representing a "thousand- million" .) To grasp the magnitude of such a number, we would have to understand how large a billion is first. Actually, a billion itself is already an incredibly large number. For example, if I invested a billion dollars in a bad company, and this company lost $10,000 per day,seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year, then I might worry if I will have any money left at retirement. But, I am still alright, since even at this rate, it will take the company over 200 years to lose my investment. On the other hand, if I took the cap of my pen and magnified it a billion times, then it would be 95,000 miles long and 8,000 miles wide, and the entire earth would
fit inside it (The diameter of the earth is about 7,900 miles.) In fact, a billion is so large, that it was not until 10:40 a.m. on April 20, 1902, that exactly a billion minutes had elapsed since the birth of Christ. I hope that I have now convinced you that a billion is truly a large number. However,it cannot be too large since there are more than one billion ways to give change for a $5 bill.
Jack and the Beanstalk Fairy Tale
Once upon a time there was a poor widow who had an only son named Jack and a cow named Milky-White.
And all they had to live on was the milk the cow gave every morning, which they carried to the market and sold.
But one morning Milky-White gave no milk, and they didnt know what to do.
"What shall we do, what shall we do?" cried the widow, wringing her hands.
"Cheer up, mother, Ill go and get work somewhere," said Jack.
"Weve tried that before, and nobody would take you," said his mother. "We must sell Milky-White and with the money start a shop or something."
"All right, mother," said Jack. "Its market day today. Ill soon sell Milky-White, and then well see what we can do."
So he took the cows halter in his hand and off he started. He hadnt gone far when he met a funny-looking old man who said to him, "Good morning, Jack."
"Good morning to you," said Jack, wondering how the man knew his name.
"Well, Jack, where are you off to?" asked the man.
"Im going to the market to sell our cow."
"Oh, you look the proper sort of chap to sell cows," said the man. "I wonder if you know how many beans make five?"
"Two in each hand and one in your mouth," said Jack, as sharp as a needle.
"Right you are," said the man. "And here they are, the very beans themselves," he went on, pulling out of his pocket a number of strange-looking beans.
"As you are so sharp," said he, "I dont mind doing a swop with you—your cow for these beans."
"Go along," says Jack; "wouldnt you like that!"
"Ah! you dont know what these beans are," said the man. "If you plant them tonight, by morning they will grow right up to the sky."
"Really?" said Jack. "You dont say so."
"Yes, that is so. And if it doesnt turn out to be true, you can have your cow back."
"Right," said Jack, handing him Milky-Whites halter and pocketing the beans.
As Jack hadnt gone very far, it wasnt even dusk by the time he got to his door.
"Back already, Jack?" said his mother. "I see you havent got Milky-White, so youve sold her. How much did you get for her?"
"Youll never guess, mother," said Jack.
"What was it? Five pounds, ten, fifteen? No, it cant be twenty."
"I knew you couldnt guess. What do you say to these beans?
Theyre magical, plant them tonight and—"
"What!" cried Jacks mother,
"Have you been such a fool, such an idiot, as to give away my Milky-White for these beans? Take that! Take that! Take that! And as for your precious beans, here they go out the window! Now off with you to bed. Therell be no supper for you!"
So Jack went upstairs to his little room in the attic, a sad and sorry boy.
When Jack woke up, the room looked very strange.
The sun was shining into part of it, yet all the rest was quite dark and shady. So Jack jumped up and dressed himself and went to the window.
And what do you think he saw?
Why, the beans his mother had thrown out of the window into the garden had sprung up into a big beanstalk that went up and up and up till it reached the sky!
So the man spoke truth after all.
The beanstalk grew quite close to Jacks window.
All he had to do was open the window and jump on to the beanstalk, which ran up just like a big ladder.
Jack climbed and climbed and climbed till at last he reached the sky. And when he got there he found a long, broad road going as straight as an arrow. So he walked along the road till he came to a great big tall house. And on the doorstep there was a great big tall woman.
"Good morning, mum," said Jack, politely.
"Could you be so kind as to give me some breakfast?"
"Its breakfast you want, is it?" cried the great big tall woman.
"Its breakfast youll be if you dont move off from here. My man is an Ogre, and theres nothing he likes better than boys broiled on toast."
"Oh! please mum, do give me something to eat. Ive had nothing to eat since yesterday morning, really and truly, mum."
Well, the Ogres wife was not half as bad as she looked or sounded. So she took Jack into the kitchen and gave him some bread and cheese and a jug of milk. But Jack hadnt half finished when he heard a great thump! thump! thump! and the whole house began to tremble.
"Goodness gracious me! Its my old man," said the Ogres wife.
"What on earth shall I do? Come along quick and jump in here." And she bundled Jack into the oven just as the Ogre came in.
He was a big one, to be sure. At his belt he had three calves strung up by the heels. He unhooked them and threw them down on the table and said: "Here, wife, fix me these for breakfast. Ah, whats this I smell?
Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, Ill have his bones to grind my bread." ?
"Nonsense, dear," said his wife, "youre dreaming. Or perhaps you smell the scraps of that little boy you had for yesterdays dinner. Go and wash, and by the time you come back your breakfastll be ready for you."
So off the Ogre went.
Jack was just going to jump out of the oven and run away when the woman told him to stay. "Wait till hes asleep," she said. "He always has a nap after breakfast."
After breakfast, the Ogre went to a big chest and took out a couple of bags of gold. He sat down and began to count, till at last his head started to nod and he began to snore till the whole house shook.
Then Jack crept out of the oven.
Taking one of the bags of gold, he ran until he came to the beanstalk. Then he threw down the bag of gold into his mothers garden and climbed down and down till at last he got home.
He showed his mother the gold and said, "Well, mother, wasnt I right about the beans? They are really magical, you see."
They lived on the gold for some time, but at last it came to an end. So Jack made up his mind to try his luck once more up at the top of the beanstalk.
One fine morning he rose early and climbed and climbed and climbed till at last he came out to the road again and walked up it to the great big tall house. There, sure enough, was the great big tall woman standing on the doorstep.
"Good morning, mum," said Jack, as bold as brass. "Could you be so good as to give me something to eat?"
"Go away, my boy," said the big tall woman, "or else my man will eat you for breakfast. But arent you the lad who came here once before? Do you know that very day my man missed one of his bags of gold?"
"Thats strange, mum," said Jack, "I dare say I could tell you something about that, but Im so hungry I cant speak till Ive had something to eat."
Well, the big tall woman was so curious that she took Jack in and gave him something to eat. But he had scarcely begun munching it as slowly as he could when thump! thump! thump! they heard the giants footsteps.
"Into the oven with you!" cried the Ogres wife. "You can tell me about the gold when he goes to sleep."
came the Ogre, with three great oxen tied to his belt. Throwing them down, he began to sniff the air.
"Fee -fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman.
Be he alive, or be he dead, Ill have his bones to grind my bread."
"Nonsense, dear," said his wife. "Its only the bones of the boy you ate last week. They are still in the garbage."
"Humph! Well, broil these oxen over the fire and Ill have breakfast."
After he had eaten, the Ogre said, "Wife, bring me the hen that lays the golden eggs."
So she brought the hen and the Ogre said: "Lay," and it laid an egg all of gold. And then the Ogre began to nod his head and snore till the house shook.
Then Jack crept out of the oven, caught hold of the golden hen, and was off before you could say "Jack Robinson." But the hen gave a cackle which woke the Ogre. Just as Jack got out of the house, he heard him calling:
"Wife, what have you done with my golden hen?"
But that was all Jack heard, for he rushed to the beanstalk and climbed down like a house on fire. When he got home, he showed his mother the wonderful hen, and said "Lay." And it laid a golden egg every time he said "Lay."
Well, it wasnt long before Jack determined to have another try at his luck. So one fine morning, he rose early, got on to the beanstalk, and climbed and climbed and climbed till he got to the top. But this time he knew better than to go straight to the Ogres house.
When he got near it, he waited behind a bush till he saw the Ogres wife come out with a pail to get some water.
Jack then crept into the house and hid in a huge copper pot. He hadnt been there long when he heard thump! thump! thump! as before, and in came the Ogre and his wife.
"Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman," cried the Ogre.
"I smell him, wife, I smell him."
"Do you, dearie?" said the Ogres wife.
"If its that little rascal who stole your gold and the hen that laid the golden eggs, hes sure to be in the oven."
And they both rushed to the oven. But Jack wasnt there, luckily, and the Ogres wife said, "There you go again with your fee-fi-fo-fum.
Why of course its the boy you caught last night that Ive just broiled for your breakfast."
So the Ogre sat down to breakfast, but every now and then he would mutter, "Well, I could have sworn—" and hed get up and search the cupboards. Luckily, he didnt think of the copper pot.
After breakfast was over, the Ogre called out, "Wife, wife, bring me my golden harp." So she brought out the little harp and put it on the table before him.
Then he said: "Sing!" and the tiny golden harp sang most beautifully. And it went on singing till the Ogre fell asleep, and commenced to snore like thunder.
Then Jack very quietly lifted up the lid of the big pot, and got out like a mouse, and crept on hands and knees till he came to the table. He crawled up until he could reach the golden harp. Then he dropped to the floor and, holding the harp under his arm, dashed towards the door. But the harp called out, "Master! Master!" and the Ogre woke up just in time to see Jack running off with his harp.
Jack ran as fast as he could, and the Ogre came rushing after him. When Jack got to the beanstalk, he began to climb down for dear life. Well, the Ogre didnt like trusting himself to such a ladder. While he stood there, Jack got another start.
But just then the harp cried out: "Master! Master!" and the Ogre swung himself down on to the beanstalk, which shook with his weight. By this time Jack had climbed down till he was nearly home. So he called out,
"Mother! Mother! Bring me the ax, bring me the ax." And his mother came rushing out with the ax in her hand.
Jack jumped down, took the ax, and gave a chop at the beanstalk. The Ogre felt the beanstalk shake and quiver. Then Jack gave another chop with the ax, and the beanstalk began to topple over. Then the Ogre fell down and broke his crown, and the beanstalk came toppling after.
What with showing the people the singing harp, and selling the golden eggs that the hen laid, Jack and his mother soon became very rich. Jack then married a beautiful princess and they lived happily ever after.
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And all they had to live on was the milk the cow gave every morning, which they carried to the market and sold.
But one morning Milky-White gave no milk, and they didnt know what to do.
"What shall we do, what shall we do?" cried the widow, wringing her hands.
"Cheer up, mother, Ill go and get work somewhere," said Jack.
"Weve tried that before, and nobody would take you," said his mother. "We must sell Milky-White and with the money start a shop or something."
"All right, mother," said Jack. "Its market day today. Ill soon sell Milky-White, and then well see what we can do."
So he took the cows halter in his hand and off he started. He hadnt gone far when he met a funny-looking old man who said to him, "Good morning, Jack."
"Good morning to you," said Jack, wondering how the man knew his name.
"Well, Jack, where are you off to?" asked the man.
"Im going to the market to sell our cow."
"Oh, you look the proper sort of chap to sell cows," said the man. "I wonder if you know how many beans make five?"
"Two in each hand and one in your mouth," said Jack, as sharp as a needle.
"Right you are," said the man. "And here they are, the very beans themselves," he went on, pulling out of his pocket a number of strange-looking beans.
"As you are so sharp," said he, "I dont mind doing a swop with you—your cow for these beans."
"Go along," says Jack; "wouldnt you like that!"
"Ah! you dont know what these beans are," said the man. "If you plant them tonight, by morning they will grow right up to the sky."
"Really?" said Jack. "You dont say so."
"Yes, that is so. And if it doesnt turn out to be true, you can have your cow back."
"Right," said Jack, handing him Milky-Whites halter and pocketing the beans.
As Jack hadnt gone very far, it wasnt even dusk by the time he got to his door.
"Back already, Jack?" said his mother. "I see you havent got Milky-White, so youve sold her. How much did you get for her?"
"Youll never guess, mother," said Jack.
"What was it? Five pounds, ten, fifteen? No, it cant be twenty."
"I knew you couldnt guess. What do you say to these beans?
Theyre magical, plant them tonight and—"
"What!" cried Jacks mother,
"Have you been such a fool, such an idiot, as to give away my Milky-White for these beans? Take that! Take that! Take that! And as for your precious beans, here they go out the window! Now off with you to bed. Therell be no supper for you!"
So Jack went upstairs to his little room in the attic, a sad and sorry boy.
When Jack woke up, the room looked very strange.
The sun was shining into part of it, yet all the rest was quite dark and shady. So Jack jumped up and dressed himself and went to the window.
And what do you think he saw?
Why, the beans his mother had thrown out of the window into the garden had sprung up into a big beanstalk that went up and up and up till it reached the sky!
So the man spoke truth after all.
The beanstalk grew quite close to Jacks window.
All he had to do was open the window and jump on to the beanstalk, which ran up just like a big ladder.
Jack climbed and climbed and climbed till at last he reached the sky. And when he got there he found a long, broad road going as straight as an arrow. So he walked along the road till he came to a great big tall house. And on the doorstep there was a great big tall woman.
"Good morning, mum," said Jack, politely.
"Could you be so kind as to give me some breakfast?"
"Its breakfast you want, is it?" cried the great big tall woman.
"Its breakfast youll be if you dont move off from here. My man is an Ogre, and theres nothing he likes better than boys broiled on toast."
"Oh! please mum, do give me something to eat. Ive had nothing to eat since yesterday morning, really and truly, mum."
Well, the Ogres wife was not half as bad as she looked or sounded. So she took Jack into the kitchen and gave him some bread and cheese and a jug of milk. But Jack hadnt half finished when he heard a great thump! thump! thump! and the whole house began to tremble.
"Goodness gracious me! Its my old man," said the Ogres wife.
"What on earth shall I do? Come along quick and jump in here." And she bundled Jack into the oven just as the Ogre came in.
He was a big one, to be sure. At his belt he had three calves strung up by the heels. He unhooked them and threw them down on the table and said: "Here, wife, fix me these for breakfast. Ah, whats this I smell?
Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, Ill have his bones to grind my bread." ?
"Nonsense, dear," said his wife, "youre dreaming. Or perhaps you smell the scraps of that little boy you had for yesterdays dinner. Go and wash, and by the time you come back your breakfastll be ready for you."
So off the Ogre went.
Jack was just going to jump out of the oven and run away when the woman told him to stay. "Wait till hes asleep," she said. "He always has a nap after breakfast."
After breakfast, the Ogre went to a big chest and took out a couple of bags of gold. He sat down and began to count, till at last his head started to nod and he began to snore till the whole house shook.
Then Jack crept out of the oven.
Taking one of the bags of gold, he ran until he came to the beanstalk. Then he threw down the bag of gold into his mothers garden and climbed down and down till at last he got home.
He showed his mother the gold and said, "Well, mother, wasnt I right about the beans? They are really magical, you see."
They lived on the gold for some time, but at last it came to an end. So Jack made up his mind to try his luck once more up at the top of the beanstalk.
One fine morning he rose early and climbed and climbed and climbed till at last he came out to the road again and walked up it to the great big tall house. There, sure enough, was the great big tall woman standing on the doorstep.
"Good morning, mum," said Jack, as bold as brass. "Could you be so good as to give me something to eat?"
"Go away, my boy," said the big tall woman, "or else my man will eat you for breakfast. But arent you the lad who came here once before? Do you know that very day my man missed one of his bags of gold?"
"Thats strange, mum," said Jack, "I dare say I could tell you something about that, but Im so hungry I cant speak till Ive had something to eat."
Well, the big tall woman was so curious that she took Jack in and gave him something to eat. But he had scarcely begun munching it as slowly as he could when thump! thump! thump! they heard the giants footsteps.
"Into the oven with you!" cried the Ogres wife. "You can tell me about the gold when he goes to sleep."
came the Ogre, with three great oxen tied to his belt. Throwing them down, he began to sniff the air.
"Fee -fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman.
Be he alive, or be he dead, Ill have his bones to grind my bread."
"Nonsense, dear," said his wife. "Its only the bones of the boy you ate last week. They are still in the garbage."
"Humph! Well, broil these oxen over the fire and Ill have breakfast."
After he had eaten, the Ogre said, "Wife, bring me the hen that lays the golden eggs."
So she brought the hen and the Ogre said: "Lay," and it laid an egg all of gold. And then the Ogre began to nod his head and snore till the house shook.
Then Jack crept out of the oven, caught hold of the golden hen, and was off before you could say "Jack Robinson." But the hen gave a cackle which woke the Ogre. Just as Jack got out of the house, he heard him calling:
"Wife, what have you done with my golden hen?"
But that was all Jack heard, for he rushed to the beanstalk and climbed down like a house on fire. When he got home, he showed his mother the wonderful hen, and said "Lay." And it laid a golden egg every time he said "Lay."
Well, it wasnt long before Jack determined to have another try at his luck. So one fine morning, he rose early, got on to the beanstalk, and climbed and climbed and climbed till he got to the top. But this time he knew better than to go straight to the Ogres house.
When he got near it, he waited behind a bush till he saw the Ogres wife come out with a pail to get some water.
Jack then crept into the house and hid in a huge copper pot. He hadnt been there long when he heard thump! thump! thump! as before, and in came the Ogre and his wife.
"Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman," cried the Ogre.
"I smell him, wife, I smell him."
"Do you, dearie?" said the Ogres wife.
"If its that little rascal who stole your gold and the hen that laid the golden eggs, hes sure to be in the oven."
And they both rushed to the oven. But Jack wasnt there, luckily, and the Ogres wife said, "There you go again with your fee-fi-fo-fum.
Why of course its the boy you caught last night that Ive just broiled for your breakfast."
So the Ogre sat down to breakfast, but every now and then he would mutter, "Well, I could have sworn—" and hed get up and search the cupboards. Luckily, he didnt think of the copper pot.
After breakfast was over, the Ogre called out, "Wife, wife, bring me my golden harp." So she brought out the little harp and put it on the table before him.
Then he said: "Sing!" and the tiny golden harp sang most beautifully. And it went on singing till the Ogre fell asleep, and commenced to snore like thunder.
Then Jack very quietly lifted up the lid of the big pot, and got out like a mouse, and crept on hands and knees till he came to the table. He crawled up until he could reach the golden harp. Then he dropped to the floor and, holding the harp under his arm, dashed towards the door. But the harp called out, "Master! Master!" and the Ogre woke up just in time to see Jack running off with his harp.
Jack ran as fast as he could, and the Ogre came rushing after him. When Jack got to the beanstalk, he began to climb down for dear life. Well, the Ogre didnt like trusting himself to such a ladder. While he stood there, Jack got another start.
But just then the harp cried out: "Master! Master!" and the Ogre swung himself down on to the beanstalk, which shook with his weight. By this time Jack had climbed down till he was nearly home. So he called out,
"Mother! Mother! Bring me the ax, bring me the ax." And his mother came rushing out with the ax in her hand.Jack jumped down, took the ax, and gave a chop at the beanstalk. The Ogre felt the beanstalk shake and quiver. Then Jack gave another chop with the ax, and the beanstalk began to topple over. Then the Ogre fell down and broke his crown, and the beanstalk came toppling after.
What with showing the people the singing harp, and selling the golden eggs that the hen laid, Jack and his mother soon became very rich. Jack then married a beautiful princess and they lived happily ever after.
Sri Chamundeeswari amman
The male trinity of Hindu theology is complemented by the female trinity represented by Mahalakshmi, Parvathi and Saraswathi. The trinity are the Goddesses of wealth, strength and knowledge respectively. While all of them symbolise the mother figure in their own way in caring for their devotees, it is principally Parvathi who is most worshipped as the mother or Amba as she is known. Parvathis various incarnations were primarily to underline her prowess against evil which affected the lives of her devotees. She appeared in the world in various forms of beneficence as Kamakshi, Meenakshi and Visalakshi. Being the consort of Lord Shiva, she was also known by the name Eswari. One such form is that of Chamundeeswari. The Goddess in this form graces the small hill shrine in Mysore.
The legend of Chamundeeswari - how the Goddess got that name is recounted in Markandeya Purana. Long ago, there were two Asura brothers called Sumban and Nisumban. By performing rigorous penance they had acquired rare boons bestowing strength and power on their evil selves. They became a source of great harassment to the Devas.
Hindu lore is replete with such instances where the evil are blessed with boons of power in recognition of their penance and devotion. But when they put the power of their boons to wicked use, the wrath of God descends on them and ends their atrocity. The stories of Hiranya, Mahishasura are instances in point. Coming back to the Markandeya Purana, the devas prayed to Parvathi for a solution. Hearing the pleas of the devas, a beautiful form emerged from Parvathi and went forth towards the Asuras. When the Asuras beheld the surpassingly beautiful form, they were smitten and wanted to marry the beautiful maiden. When certain Asura emissaries approached the maiden with the suit of their kings, the maiden replied that she would only wed the man who defeated her in battle.
Amused by this, the asura kings sent Dumralochanan to entice the maiden with promises of a luxurious life, but all the attempts of Dumralochanan bit the dust and he was reduced to ashes. The Asura kings then despatched Sandan and Mundan. This enraged the maiden who was none other than Parvathi herself and from her forehead emerged Kali.
A fierce battle raged between Kali and Sandan and Mundan. Finally, Kali exterminated the two Asuras and was named by the devas as Samundeeswari, the one who slew Sandan and Mundan. The first thing that one can see as the train pulls into Mysore is the hill with the temple that looms in the eastern direction. This is the Chamundi hill, which has become the foremost landmark in a city that is dotted with tourist attractions. The drive up the Chamundi hill takes about 15 minutes. The hill is just 1000 metres high and at the summit abides the mother. What strikes the eye as you reach the top is the massive statue of Mahishasura with a snake in one hand and a dagger in the other. Mahishan was a demon who was destroyed by Parvathi who is known as Mahishasuramardhini.
The Chamundi temple was renovated in the year 1827 by Krishna Raja Wodeyar III. She was the presiding deity of the Wodeyar kings. The Wodeyar kings did a lot to decorate the deity with gold ornaments, a golden lion throne, and gold armour. The goddess also dons a necklace of star shapes inscribed with some divine slokas in Sanskrit. The ambience in the temple is very unique. It is said that the Muslim kings of Mysore Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan were devotees of Chamundeeswari whose sincere worship works miracles in peoples lives. On the way down, one can see a small Shiva temple in front of which is the famous 16-foot granite Nandi or Holy bull with exquisite bells around its neck. There is a deep cave near here. A visit to Chamundi hill to pray to Goddess Sree Chamundeeswari is bound to bring good to the devotee.
PURANIC STORY
1. Matsyavatharam story
We all know about Dasavatharam and Matsyavatharam is the first one.
Matsyavatharam story in brief is saving earthly beings in a boat by Vaivaswatha
Manu during the big flood and tying the boat to the horn of fish which was the
incarnation of Mahavishnu. When floods receded procreation could so again
started. This Vaivaswatha Manu was the son of Sun God and father of King
Ikshvaku. Matsyavatharam happened after millions of years after earth and its
beings are created.
2. Creation of Universe story
In the beginning only darkness and Brahman (Not Brahma) in the universe. The
creation story in brief is as follows.
When the time of creation came darkness was removed and Brahman divided itself
to three- Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara.
First water appeared. Vishnu slept in water.
A golden egg appeared in the water and Brahma resided in to it. After many years
he split it in to two and came out. This egg is Hiranya garbahm and very often
our sasthrikal refer in his manthra recitation- "Hiranyana Garbha Garbhastham
Hema beejam Vibhangithae?"
From one side of the egg, the Heaven and from the other side Earth came up. All
the land masses, the oceans, the rivers and the mountains, had been inside the
egg in embryonic form. Brahma made them manifest.
First the sun was born. Since it appeared first he is called Aditya.
Brahmas first act was to meditate. It was while he was meditating that the
Vedas, the Puranas and the other shastras (sacred texts) emerged from Brahmas
mouth.
Ten sons were born to Brhama from his mental power. They were the saptharishies
Marichi, Atri, Angiraasa, Pulasthia, Pulaha, Krathu and Vasistha. Other three
were Prachetha, Brighu and Narada.
From his right toe Daksha was born. Dharma was born from his chest.
Brhama created two more beings from his body for procreation. Male was called
Manu and female was called Satrupa. Brahma married Shatrupa and the son born to
them was Svayambhuva Manu.
Svayambhuva Manu after much thapasya got of Tapasic power a wife Ananti. Ananti
had two sons named Priyavrata and Uttanapada. They had one daughter Prasuti.
Prasuti later became the wife of king Daksha.
Prachinavarhi was the son of Uttanapada. Prachinavarahi married Savarna, the
daughter of the ocean, and they had ten sons. These sons were known as the
Prachetas. The ten Prachetas married a woman named Marisha. That is, all of them
had the same wife.
Daksha was the son of the Prachetas and Marisha. He married Prasuti daughter of
Swayambhumanu and Satrupa.
2. Persuading Dakshas sons not indulging in procreation by sage Narada
We have the story of Daksha marrying Prasuti and had thousand sons and Daksha
desired them to have procreation. But Sage Narada persuaded them from it. Daksha
cursed Narada to be a bachelor.
3. Sixty daughters of Daksha
We have the story of 60 daughters of born to Daksha. Some of them were married
to sage Kashyapa. Kashyapas procreation with his wife forms the word today.
A few were married to Dharma and few others were married to other sages.
27 of them were married to Moon god. We know the favouritism story of Moon God
Chandra with Rohini and Dakshas warning and later cursing for favouritism and
Hence the increasing and decreasing of Kalas for Moon.
Dakshas daughter Sati was married to Lord Siva. The details about these sixty
daughters are told in Matsya purana.
4. Birth of Indra, Mitra and varuna
Indra, Mitra and Varuna the nature Gods told In Rig Veda were born as sons of
sage Kashyapa with his wife Aditi.
5. Prahalada and Mahabali
We know the story of Prahalada who was a devotee of Vishnu. We know about the
Narasimha avathara of Lord Vishnu by which Hiranya Kasipu, father of Prahalada
was killed for his adamancy that Prahalada should say Hiranyaya Nama and not
worshipping Vishnu.
Every body know the story of Mahabali and later becoming king of Pathala after
he was sent down earth in the Vamana avathara.
Hiranyakshipu was the son of sage Kashya-pa with his wife Diti. His son was
Prahalada and Virochana was born to Prahalada. Mahabali was the son of Virochana
and Vanasura was the son of Mahabali.
The details of all these persons are told in Matsya purana.
My acknowledgement- Sri Dilip kumar Raveendran had earlier posted in US Brahmins Group as series Matysa purana. This article has inputs from his posting.
6 How the earth got the name Prithwi?
There was a king by name Pithru who was born from the body of another king by name Vena churning his body by sages. Pithru was a very nice king in opposition to Vena who exhausted every thing and bad in nature.
People were dissatisfied since nothing was there when Pithru became the KIng. Pithru felt earth is not giving food grains and decided to fight with earth. Earth pleaded if she is destroyed every thing will be lost and asked the king to milk her. (Make use of)
King Pithru did so and the country prospered. From king pithru the earth got the name Prithvi.
7. Relation between Lord Yama and Saneeswara
Both Lord Yama and Saneeswara are first cousins, father being Lord Soorya and mothers Samjana and chaya. Lord Yama was born to mother Samjana.
{My note -Soorya had two sons and a daughter from Samjana. They were Vaivaswatha manu, Yama and Yami. Yami later became River Yamuna.
Soorya had two sons and two daughters from Chaya. They were Savarnani manu,Sani, Thapti and Vishti. Tapthi later became river}
Samjana could not bear the heat of Sun God. She made her identical figure and named her as Chaya. Samjana left leaving Chaya with Lord soorya, to join her father Viswakarma for some time . Soorya did not felt much the difference of Chaya, being both identical. Saneeswara was born to Chaya.
From the above it is clear Yama is the elder brother of Saneeswara.
8. How Lord Yama became king .
As the days went on, Chaya started showing partiality to her children. So one day not able to see this partiality Yama raised his feet to kick his step mother Chaya. Chaya cursed his feet should bear wound which will never get cured.
Lord Sani told his father Sun God what happened. Sun God became clear Chaya is different from Samjana. To mitigate the effects of the curse, Surya gave Yama a bird which ate up all the worms. Thereafter, Yama went to a tirtha named Gokarna and started to pray to Shiva Later Yama went to do Tapasya to Lord Siva.
Shiva granted Yama the boon that he would be the god of death. He would mete out punishments to sinners in accordance with the sins (papa) that they had committed. He would also keep account of the store of merit (punya) that righteous people accumulated.
9. Birth of Aswini kumars
We know Aswini Kumars are the twins born to Sun God soorya and his wife Samjana in the form of mare.
Let me brief the story again. After leaving Chaya with Sun God Samjana spent some time with father and then took the form of a mare and started wandering.
On getting the clarification that Chaya was the creation of Samjana , Sun God located her in the form of mare. He too adopted the form of a horse and joined her. As horses, they had two sons. Since ashva means horse, the sons were known as the Ashvinis.
They became the physicians of the gods and were also known as Nasatya and Dasra. After the Ashvinis were born, Surya and Samjna gave up their forms of horses and returned to their usual forms.
10. How Vishnu got chakra and Lord Siva the trident (Soolam)?
Viswa karma came to know of all the details. He shaved of some portions from the body of Sun God so that Samjana could bear the heat. This shaved portion energy was used by Viswa karma to make Vishnus discus (Chakra), Sivas trident (Soola) and Indras Vajrayudaha.
11. Why we should not visualise Suns feet while praying?
After Viswakarmas shaving of energy made the suns visage much more pleasant and bearable. The only parts of Suryas body that were not thus modified were his feet.
No one can bear to look at Suryas feet and it is forbidden to visualise the sun-gods feet when one is praying to him.
MY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT- Sri Dilip kumar Raveendran had earlier posted in US Brahmins Group as series Matysa purana. This article has inputs from his posting.
12 Urvashi and Pururava story
I have written many times in my postings about the love affair between king Pururava and Apsaras Urvasi. King Pururava could traverse between Devaloka and Earth, on one such occasion he saved Urvasi from miscreants, which made her fall in love with Pururava and Indra, granted a married life to her for some period.
13. Who was king Pururuva?
Members may recollect, in yesterday posting you would have read Vaivaswatha manu was the son of Sun God with samjana. Vaisvasvata Manus eldest son was Ila (According to Matsya purana).
When Vaivasvata Manu became old, he retired to the forest. Ila was appointed the ruler in his place. Ila set out on a voyage of conquest and travelled throughout the world.
There was a forest named sharavana, frequented by Shiva and Parvati. Shiva had decreed that any man who entered the forest would become a woman. King Ila did not know about this rule and set foot in the forest inadvertently and he immediately got transformed into a woman. He even forgot all about his earlier life. He started wandering in the forest.
The moon-god, Chandra, had a son named Budha ( Our planet Budha) . While Ila was wandering around, Budha came upon there and Budha fell in love with her. The two borne a son and he was named Pururava and Pururava so became ancestor of the lunar line (Being born to Moon God).
14. Do Ila became male later?
Meanwhile, Ikshvaku and the other brothers of Ila started to look for Ila. When they could find no trace of their brother, they asked the sage Vashishtha if he knew of Ilas whereabouts.
Vashishtha used his mental powers to find out what had happened. He asked the princes to pray to Lord Shiva and Parvati. That was the only way to make Ila a man once more.
The prayers pleased Shiva and Parvati and they found out what the princes wants. Siva said "Ila can never be made a man once again. At best, we will alternate Ila between being a man for one month and a woman for one month."
As a man, Ila came to known as Sudyumna and had three sons named Utkala, Gaya and Haritashva.
15. King Brahmadatta who knew all languages
Brahma dattha is a common name among Nampoothiri Brahmins of Kerala. Until I read the matsya purana translation, I was never knowing so much is there about Brhamadattha. Since I have not posted about Brhama Dattha I will go a little bit in detail.
King Kousika had seven sons. They became the disciples of sage Garga. Once during famine time Garga ordered them to graze in the near by hill top grass. Being very hungry they killed one of the cows after rituals and ate it. They lied to sage the cow was eaten by tiger. Because of the sin in the next birth they became seven hunters with quality of jathis maras. ( Knowing previous birth)
The hunters fasted until death and they were born as seven deer. The seven deer too fasted un to death and were born as seven birds.
During that time king of Panchala by name Vibhraja came to forest. One of the birds desired to be born as son to King and other two as sons to ministers of the king. The remaining four did not desire any thing and they were born as the sons of a Brahmin.
THE BIRD BORN AS THE SON OF KING WAS BRAHMADATTHA. In due course he married a princess Kalyani. This Kalyani was nothing but the re birth of the cow they had killed earlier while disciples of sage Garga.
Brahmadattha could understand the language of all creatures on account of a prayer made by king Vibhraja. Once he made a big laugh hearing the conversation between two ants. The queen not knowing about his capacity could not make it out and felt he was laughing at her. On that restless night brahmadatta had a dream of Lord Vishnu that, he will understand every thing next day morning.
The four sons born to Brahmin wanted to do Tapasya. They told their aged father that he need not worry; king Brahama dattha will help, just tell him disciples of sage Garga.
The next day the Brahmin approached the king and told Disciples of sage Garga. King Brahma dattha realised about his materialistic pursuits. He gave as much wealth as the Brahmin required and joined his brothers to do meditation. His two sons born as ministers sons too joined him.
King Brhama dattha before proceeding declared his son Viswak sena as heir of the kingdom. Are we referring him in Vishnu sahasranama?
MY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT- Sri Dilip kumar Raveendran had earlier posted in US Brahmins Group as series Matysa purana. This article has inputs from his posting.
16 Birth of Chandra
Sage Atri, mind born son of Brahma once performed a very difficult tapasya. A tremendous amount of energy was released as a result of this meditation and the moon-god, Chandra or Soma, was born from this energy. (There are other versions also of this story)
Brahma appointed Chandra as the ruler over all stars, planets and herbs (oshadhi).
At appropriate time twenty-seven of Daksha daughter was married to Chandra. These were the nakshatras (constellations). The story of Chandras favour to ROHINI STAR has already told by me in earlier postings. Rohini is in Edava rasi and Moon get exalted in Edava rasi because of his special happiness while being with her.
We know Dakshas daughter Sathi was married to Lord Siva and Dakshyagam story. Some of the Dakshas daughters were married to sage Kashyapa also and we know the creation of beings in the word. So Chandra in essence is a co- brother to sage Kashyapa and Lord Siva.
17. Birth of Planet Mercury (Buddha)
Once Chandra performed a rajasuya yajna (royal sacrifice) and the ceremony was an outstanding success. The preceptor of the gods sage Brihaspati attended it with his wife Tara.
Chandras eyes fell upon Tara and her movements so much impressed her that Chandra forcibly abducted her. On several occasions Brihaspati asked Chandra to return Tara, but he did not listen. A terrible war then raged between the gods and demons over Tara.
The gods fought on Brihaspatis side ( Brihaspathi being Deva guru) and the demons fought for Chandra. Lord Shiva also fought on the side of the gods seeing the injustice.
A war started between Lord Siva and Chandra themselves using destructive weapons . These destructive weapons were such that they could burn up the entire universe if the war continued. Brahma decided that it was time for him to intervene. "Stop this nonsense at once," he told Chandra. "What you have done is most improper. Return Tara at once to Guru."
Chandra obeyed Brahma and returned Tara. But Chandra and Tara had already had a handsome son by the time named Buddha. ( Some puranas say Tara was conceived by the time and later she gave birth to a son Buddha)
Buddha became very skilled in the handling of elephants. In fact, the knowledge of tackling and handling elephants goes back to Buddha.
18. King Yayati and Puru
In my previous posting I had told about Buddha marrying Ila and son Pururava was born who married apsaras Urvashi and about their children born to them. Nakusha was a king in this lineage. King Yayati was the son of Nakusha.
Yayati was a Good king. He had two wives. Sharsmishta in the royal lineage and Devayani daughter of Sukracharya.
I have already made postings about Devayani , her relation with Kachha (son of Guru) came to learn from Sukracharya with out giving identity and failed love of Devayani with Kachha and later marrying king Yayati.
Puru was the son of Devayani born to Yayati and Yayati handed over the kingdom to Puru. (Yayati was very pleased with Puru on his giving young age to Yayati story)
19 Who was Tarakasura?
Diti performed Tapasya a 2nd time on sage Kashyapa to have a son who can kill Indra.( The first attempt was spoiled by Indra in the last phase which gave rise to Maruts)
Kashyapa agreed with stipulated conditions again. This time Diti succeeded and a son was born to them. He was Vajranga.
Vajranka defeated Indra and captured, but released him on request of all Devas. As a gift Brahma created a woman Varangi and Brahma married her to Vajranga. Vajragna started penance.
But after some time again Indra started disturbing Varangi when she was mediating and Vajranga too mediating in water.
Knowing about the atrocities of Indra Vajranga again performed Tapasya for a son to kill Indra and pleased with his penance Brahma granted a son to him.
This son born to Vajranga and Varagi was Tharaka.
20 Taraksuara vadham
The story of killing of Tarakasura is told in detail in Matsya puranam.
Tharaka performed Tapasya on Brahma and Brahma granted him boon that he can be killed only by a son of Lord Siva and Tharaka himself can be invisible too as he desire. He further laid the condition he can be killed by a son of Lord Siva who is seven year old. This too was agreed by Brahma.
At that time Lord Siva was performing Tapas after immolation of Sati in Daksha yaga. Taraka started ruling demons as a good king and later started attacking Deva loka after arranging good army of demons.
Devas got getting killed. The invisibility helped Taraka much to conquer. The only possibility to defeat Tarakasura was to get a child for Siva who was mediating.
Detailed description of how Parvathi daughter of Himavan ultimately got married to Lord Siva is not necessary because every body know the story.
The seven great sages went and told Shiva about Parvatis tapasya and Shiva agreed to marry Parvati. The marriage took place amidst a great deal of fanfare. All the rivers and the mountains came to attend the ceremony.
So did the sages, the gods, the gandharvas, the apsaras and the yakshas. Brahma himself acted as the priest for the marriage ceremony.
To Balance the weight of all those assembling in Himalayas, sage Agasthya was sent to South. Sage Agasthia witnessed the marriage standing at Chengannur in Kerala, southern part of India.
Later Parvathi and Siva came there in person and at that time she had her monthly period. Hence the legend behind the monthly periods of Chengannur Devi . This I have posted in my series "Believe it or not"
The son born to Lord Siva was destined to kill Tarakasura. The son born was Karhtikeya (After Parvathi became Gowri) and he killed Tharaka with his own weapons at the age of seven.
21. Who is Koushika? How Parvathi became Gowri?
Initially Parvathi was dark complexioned. Siva once teased her for the complexion. Parvathi performed tapasya on Brahma. Brahma appeared before Parvathi pleased on her Tapasya.
From her body a woman appeared called Koushika and her kosha of black complexion got transferred to the new woman. Brahma ordered Koushiki to go to Vindhya Mountains. So Koushiki is also called Vindhya vasini.
Parvathi got named as Gowri after her complexion became fair. Karthikeya was born after some days Parvathi became Gowri.
We all know about Dasavatharam and Matsyavatharam is the first one.
Matsyavatharam story in brief is saving earthly beings in a boat by Vaivaswatha
Manu during the big flood and tying the boat to the horn of fish which was the
incarnation of Mahavishnu. When floods receded procreation could so again
started. This Vaivaswatha Manu was the son of Sun God and father of King
Ikshvaku. Matsyavatharam happened after millions of years after earth and its
beings are created.
2. Creation of Universe story
In the beginning only darkness and Brahman (Not Brahma) in the universe. The
creation story in brief is as follows.
When the time of creation came darkness was removed and Brahman divided itself
to three- Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara.
First water appeared. Vishnu slept in water.
A golden egg appeared in the water and Brahma resided in to it. After many years
he split it in to two and came out. This egg is Hiranya garbahm and very often
our sasthrikal refer in his manthra recitation- "Hiranyana Garbha Garbhastham
Hema beejam Vibhangithae?"
From one side of the egg, the Heaven and from the other side Earth came up. All
the land masses, the oceans, the rivers and the mountains, had been inside the
egg in embryonic form. Brahma made them manifest.
First the sun was born. Since it appeared first he is called Aditya.
Brahmas first act was to meditate. It was while he was meditating that the
Vedas, the Puranas and the other shastras (sacred texts) emerged from Brahmas
mouth.
Ten sons were born to Brhama from his mental power. They were the saptharishies
Marichi, Atri, Angiraasa, Pulasthia, Pulaha, Krathu and Vasistha. Other three
were Prachetha, Brighu and Narada.
From his right toe Daksha was born. Dharma was born from his chest.
Brhama created two more beings from his body for procreation. Male was called
Manu and female was called Satrupa. Brahma married Shatrupa and the son born to
them was Svayambhuva Manu.
Svayambhuva Manu after much thapasya got of Tapasic power a wife Ananti. Ananti
had two sons named Priyavrata and Uttanapada. They had one daughter Prasuti.
Prasuti later became the wife of king Daksha.
Prachinavarhi was the son of Uttanapada. Prachinavarahi married Savarna, the
daughter of the ocean, and they had ten sons. These sons were known as the
Prachetas. The ten Prachetas married a woman named Marisha. That is, all of them
had the same wife.
Daksha was the son of the Prachetas and Marisha. He married Prasuti daughter of
Swayambhumanu and Satrupa.
2. Persuading Dakshas sons not indulging in procreation by sage Narada
We have the story of Daksha marrying Prasuti and had thousand sons and Daksha
desired them to have procreation. But Sage Narada persuaded them from it. Daksha
cursed Narada to be a bachelor.
3. Sixty daughters of Daksha
We have the story of 60 daughters of born to Daksha. Some of them were married
to sage Kashyapa. Kashyapas procreation with his wife forms the word today.
A few were married to Dharma and few others were married to other sages.
27 of them were married to Moon god. We know the favouritism story of Moon God
Chandra with Rohini and Dakshas warning and later cursing for favouritism and
Hence the increasing and decreasing of Kalas for Moon.
Dakshas daughter Sati was married to Lord Siva. The details about these sixty
daughters are told in Matsya purana.
4. Birth of Indra, Mitra and varuna
Indra, Mitra and Varuna the nature Gods told In Rig Veda were born as sons of
sage Kashyapa with his wife Aditi.
5. Prahalada and Mahabali
We know the story of Prahalada who was a devotee of Vishnu. We know about the
Narasimha avathara of Lord Vishnu by which Hiranya Kasipu, father of Prahalada
was killed for his adamancy that Prahalada should say Hiranyaya Nama and not
worshipping Vishnu.
Every body know the story of Mahabali and later becoming king of Pathala after
he was sent down earth in the Vamana avathara.
Hiranyakshipu was the son of sage Kashya-pa with his wife Diti. His son was
Prahalada and Virochana was born to Prahalada. Mahabali was the son of Virochana
and Vanasura was the son of Mahabali.
The details of all these persons are told in Matsya purana.
My acknowledgement- Sri Dilip kumar Raveendran had earlier posted in US Brahmins Group as series Matysa purana. This article has inputs from his posting.
6 How the earth got the name Prithwi?
There was a king by name Pithru who was born from the body of another king by name Vena churning his body by sages. Pithru was a very nice king in opposition to Vena who exhausted every thing and bad in nature.
People were dissatisfied since nothing was there when Pithru became the KIng. Pithru felt earth is not giving food grains and decided to fight with earth. Earth pleaded if she is destroyed every thing will be lost and asked the king to milk her. (Make use of)
King Pithru did so and the country prospered. From king pithru the earth got the name Prithvi.
7. Relation between Lord Yama and Saneeswara
Both Lord Yama and Saneeswara are first cousins, father being Lord Soorya and mothers Samjana and chaya. Lord Yama was born to mother Samjana.
{My note -Soorya had two sons and a daughter from Samjana. They were Vaivaswatha manu, Yama and Yami. Yami later became River Yamuna.
Soorya had two sons and two daughters from Chaya. They were Savarnani manu,Sani, Thapti and Vishti. Tapthi later became river}
Samjana could not bear the heat of Sun God. She made her identical figure and named her as Chaya. Samjana left leaving Chaya with Lord soorya, to join her father Viswakarma for some time . Soorya did not felt much the difference of Chaya, being both identical. Saneeswara was born to Chaya.
From the above it is clear Yama is the elder brother of Saneeswara.
8. How Lord Yama became king .
As the days went on, Chaya started showing partiality to her children. So one day not able to see this partiality Yama raised his feet to kick his step mother Chaya. Chaya cursed his feet should bear wound which will never get cured.
Lord Sani told his father Sun God what happened. Sun God became clear Chaya is different from Samjana. To mitigate the effects of the curse, Surya gave Yama a bird which ate up all the worms. Thereafter, Yama went to a tirtha named Gokarna and started to pray to Shiva Later Yama went to do Tapasya to Lord Siva.
Shiva granted Yama the boon that he would be the god of death. He would mete out punishments to sinners in accordance with the sins (papa) that they had committed. He would also keep account of the store of merit (punya) that righteous people accumulated.
9. Birth of Aswini kumars
We know Aswini Kumars are the twins born to Sun God soorya and his wife Samjana in the form of mare.
Let me brief the story again. After leaving Chaya with Sun God Samjana spent some time with father and then took the form of a mare and started wandering.
On getting the clarification that Chaya was the creation of Samjana , Sun God located her in the form of mare. He too adopted the form of a horse and joined her. As horses, they had two sons. Since ashva means horse, the sons were known as the Ashvinis.
They became the physicians of the gods and were also known as Nasatya and Dasra. After the Ashvinis were born, Surya and Samjna gave up their forms of horses and returned to their usual forms.
10. How Vishnu got chakra and Lord Siva the trident (Soolam)?
Viswa karma came to know of all the details. He shaved of some portions from the body of Sun God so that Samjana could bear the heat. This shaved portion energy was used by Viswa karma to make Vishnus discus (Chakra), Sivas trident (Soola) and Indras Vajrayudaha.
11. Why we should not visualise Suns feet while praying?
After Viswakarmas shaving of energy made the suns visage much more pleasant and bearable. The only parts of Suryas body that were not thus modified were his feet.
No one can bear to look at Suryas feet and it is forbidden to visualise the sun-gods feet when one is praying to him.
MY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT- Sri Dilip kumar Raveendran had earlier posted in US Brahmins Group as series Matysa purana. This article has inputs from his posting.
12 Urvashi and Pururava story
I have written many times in my postings about the love affair between king Pururava and Apsaras Urvasi. King Pururava could traverse between Devaloka and Earth, on one such occasion he saved Urvasi from miscreants, which made her fall in love with Pururava and Indra, granted a married life to her for some period.
13. Who was king Pururuva?
Members may recollect, in yesterday posting you would have read Vaivaswatha manu was the son of Sun God with samjana. Vaisvasvata Manus eldest son was Ila (According to Matsya purana).
When Vaivasvata Manu became old, he retired to the forest. Ila was appointed the ruler in his place. Ila set out on a voyage of conquest and travelled throughout the world.
There was a forest named sharavana, frequented by Shiva and Parvati. Shiva had decreed that any man who entered the forest would become a woman. King Ila did not know about this rule and set foot in the forest inadvertently and he immediately got transformed into a woman. He even forgot all about his earlier life. He started wandering in the forest.
The moon-god, Chandra, had a son named Budha ( Our planet Budha) . While Ila was wandering around, Budha came upon there and Budha fell in love with her. The two borne a son and he was named Pururava and Pururava so became ancestor of the lunar line (Being born to Moon God).
14. Do Ila became male later?
Meanwhile, Ikshvaku and the other brothers of Ila started to look for Ila. When they could find no trace of their brother, they asked the sage Vashishtha if he knew of Ilas whereabouts.
Vashishtha used his mental powers to find out what had happened. He asked the princes to pray to Lord Shiva and Parvati. That was the only way to make Ila a man once more.
The prayers pleased Shiva and Parvati and they found out what the princes wants. Siva said "Ila can never be made a man once again. At best, we will alternate Ila between being a man for one month and a woman for one month."
As a man, Ila came to known as Sudyumna and had three sons named Utkala, Gaya and Haritashva.
15. King Brahmadatta who knew all languages
Brahma dattha is a common name among Nampoothiri Brahmins of Kerala. Until I read the matsya purana translation, I was never knowing so much is there about Brhamadattha. Since I have not posted about Brhama Dattha I will go a little bit in detail.
King Kousika had seven sons. They became the disciples of sage Garga. Once during famine time Garga ordered them to graze in the near by hill top grass. Being very hungry they killed one of the cows after rituals and ate it. They lied to sage the cow was eaten by tiger. Because of the sin in the next birth they became seven hunters with quality of jathis maras. ( Knowing previous birth)
The hunters fasted until death and they were born as seven deer. The seven deer too fasted un to death and were born as seven birds.
During that time king of Panchala by name Vibhraja came to forest. One of the birds desired to be born as son to King and other two as sons to ministers of the king. The remaining four did not desire any thing and they were born as the sons of a Brahmin.
THE BIRD BORN AS THE SON OF KING WAS BRAHMADATTHA. In due course he married a princess Kalyani. This Kalyani was nothing but the re birth of the cow they had killed earlier while disciples of sage Garga.
Brahmadattha could understand the language of all creatures on account of a prayer made by king Vibhraja. Once he made a big laugh hearing the conversation between two ants. The queen not knowing about his capacity could not make it out and felt he was laughing at her. On that restless night brahmadatta had a dream of Lord Vishnu that, he will understand every thing next day morning.
The four sons born to Brahmin wanted to do Tapasya. They told their aged father that he need not worry; king Brahama dattha will help, just tell him disciples of sage Garga.
The next day the Brahmin approached the king and told Disciples of sage Garga. King Brahma dattha realised about his materialistic pursuits. He gave as much wealth as the Brahmin required and joined his brothers to do meditation. His two sons born as ministers sons too joined him.
King Brhama dattha before proceeding declared his son Viswak sena as heir of the kingdom. Are we referring him in Vishnu sahasranama?
MY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT- Sri Dilip kumar Raveendran had earlier posted in US Brahmins Group as series Matysa purana. This article has inputs from his posting.
16 Birth of Chandra
Sage Atri, mind born son of Brahma once performed a very difficult tapasya. A tremendous amount of energy was released as a result of this meditation and the moon-god, Chandra or Soma, was born from this energy. (There are other versions also of this story)
Brahma appointed Chandra as the ruler over all stars, planets and herbs (oshadhi).
At appropriate time twenty-seven of Daksha daughter was married to Chandra. These were the nakshatras (constellations). The story of Chandras favour to ROHINI STAR has already told by me in earlier postings. Rohini is in Edava rasi and Moon get exalted in Edava rasi because of his special happiness while being with her.
We know Dakshas daughter Sathi was married to Lord Siva and Dakshyagam story. Some of the Dakshas daughters were married to sage Kashyapa also and we know the creation of beings in the word. So Chandra in essence is a co- brother to sage Kashyapa and Lord Siva.
17. Birth of Planet Mercury (Buddha)
Once Chandra performed a rajasuya yajna (royal sacrifice) and the ceremony was an outstanding success. The preceptor of the gods sage Brihaspati attended it with his wife Tara.
Chandras eyes fell upon Tara and her movements so much impressed her that Chandra forcibly abducted her. On several occasions Brihaspati asked Chandra to return Tara, but he did not listen. A terrible war then raged between the gods and demons over Tara.
The gods fought on Brihaspatis side ( Brihaspathi being Deva guru) and the demons fought for Chandra. Lord Shiva also fought on the side of the gods seeing the injustice.
A war started between Lord Siva and Chandra themselves using destructive weapons . These destructive weapons were such that they could burn up the entire universe if the war continued. Brahma decided that it was time for him to intervene. "Stop this nonsense at once," he told Chandra. "What you have done is most improper. Return Tara at once to Guru."
Chandra obeyed Brahma and returned Tara. But Chandra and Tara had already had a handsome son by the time named Buddha. ( Some puranas say Tara was conceived by the time and later she gave birth to a son Buddha)
Buddha became very skilled in the handling of elephants. In fact, the knowledge of tackling and handling elephants goes back to Buddha.
18. King Yayati and Puru
In my previous posting I had told about Buddha marrying Ila and son Pururava was born who married apsaras Urvashi and about their children born to them. Nakusha was a king in this lineage. King Yayati was the son of Nakusha.
Yayati was a Good king. He had two wives. Sharsmishta in the royal lineage and Devayani daughter of Sukracharya.
I have already made postings about Devayani , her relation with Kachha (son of Guru) came to learn from Sukracharya with out giving identity and failed love of Devayani with Kachha and later marrying king Yayati.
Puru was the son of Devayani born to Yayati and Yayati handed over the kingdom to Puru. (Yayati was very pleased with Puru on his giving young age to Yayati story)
19 Who was Tarakasura?
Diti performed Tapasya a 2nd time on sage Kashyapa to have a son who can kill Indra.( The first attempt was spoiled by Indra in the last phase which gave rise to Maruts)
Kashyapa agreed with stipulated conditions again. This time Diti succeeded and a son was born to them. He was Vajranga.
Vajranka defeated Indra and captured, but released him on request of all Devas. As a gift Brahma created a woman Varangi and Brahma married her to Vajranga. Vajragna started penance.
But after some time again Indra started disturbing Varangi when she was mediating and Vajranga too mediating in water.
Knowing about the atrocities of Indra Vajranga again performed Tapasya for a son to kill Indra and pleased with his penance Brahma granted a son to him.
This son born to Vajranga and Varagi was Tharaka.
20 Taraksuara vadham
The story of killing of Tarakasura is told in detail in Matsya puranam.
Tharaka performed Tapasya on Brahma and Brahma granted him boon that he can be killed only by a son of Lord Siva and Tharaka himself can be invisible too as he desire. He further laid the condition he can be killed by a son of Lord Siva who is seven year old. This too was agreed by Brahma.
At that time Lord Siva was performing Tapas after immolation of Sati in Daksha yaga. Taraka started ruling demons as a good king and later started attacking Deva loka after arranging good army of demons.
Devas got getting killed. The invisibility helped Taraka much to conquer. The only possibility to defeat Tarakasura was to get a child for Siva who was mediating.
Detailed description of how Parvathi daughter of Himavan ultimately got married to Lord Siva is not necessary because every body know the story.
The seven great sages went and told Shiva about Parvatis tapasya and Shiva agreed to marry Parvati. The marriage took place amidst a great deal of fanfare. All the rivers and the mountains came to attend the ceremony.
So did the sages, the gods, the gandharvas, the apsaras and the yakshas. Brahma himself acted as the priest for the marriage ceremony.
To Balance the weight of all those assembling in Himalayas, sage Agasthya was sent to South. Sage Agasthia witnessed the marriage standing at Chengannur in Kerala, southern part of India.
Later Parvathi and Siva came there in person and at that time she had her monthly period. Hence the legend behind the monthly periods of Chengannur Devi . This I have posted in my series "Believe it or not"
The son born to Lord Siva was destined to kill Tarakasura. The son born was Karhtikeya (After Parvathi became Gowri) and he killed Tharaka with his own weapons at the age of seven.
21. Who is Koushika? How Parvathi became Gowri?
Initially Parvathi was dark complexioned. Siva once teased her for the complexion. Parvathi performed tapasya on Brahma. Brahma appeared before Parvathi pleased on her Tapasya.
From her body a woman appeared called Koushika and her kosha of black complexion got transferred to the new woman. Brahma ordered Koushiki to go to Vindhya Mountains. So Koushiki is also called Vindhya vasini.
Parvathi got named as Gowri after her complexion became fair. Karthikeya was born after some days Parvathi became Gowri.
THE THING UNSPOKEN
I never talk about this. This being one of the most important things of my life, it comes within the few things I really care about. Ive always had a nice person for a proper guidance. You know like the perfect meaning of a friend and a philosopher - compiled into one. I share whatever I have in my head and unusually, I do not feel shy nowadays, I mean mostly. That person shares a lot of it, too. I mean you know,its like opening up and blabbering and cracking horrible jokes sometimes. But most importantly, that persons responsible - a lot,for the ground I am standing on today. And the ideological part,too, well - its very similar - you can say its the same - communism, but ideologies always very from person to person, ALWAYS, and I dont think IDEOLOGIES CAN BE CONGRUENT! (See, I have this huge love for Maths) So, that person had and has a lot of role to play for the kind of person I am today and out of those people I really respect, I really, really respect - that person holds a major part. I know Ive been bugging you by not leaving a single clue about who it is, I will - but youll have to wait for 3-4 years. I am not going to tell anything or leave a single hint before that! Though I cant shout it out loud now, Ill do it after some time and this was a little,very little of the tribute I should have given to that person.
NEI APPAM THINNAL
NEI APPAM THINNAL RANDDU UNDDU KARYAM
EATING APPAM MADE IN GHEE
SERVE TWO PURPOSE
Dear friends
As usual I went for my afternoon nap after meals and was woken up by the smell of frying appam from the Kitchen today. I saw the clock needles showing 4.00 PM. I asked my taste buds to wait for another 2 Hours. It could physically enjoy the appam after the Nivedyam before Lord Krishna.
While taking my evening tea it came to my mind why should not I make out a posting about Appam and it took me to my laptop. I hope I can provide somewhat sweet appam.
1. Appam- introduction
Most probably appam is a more favoured sweet by Brahmins than other Hindu communities though they too like them. In most of the Krishna, Devi, Sastha and Ganapathi temples vazhipadu of appam is an important offering. In Ganapathi temples appam takes equal importance with Vedalai (Medium coconut breaking). If we go to Sabari malai temple, after pilgrimage we will return only with appam Prasadam. We may wait for hours in the Q to get 4-5 packets of appam. In all most all Brahmin functions appam has an important part. There will not be a house with out appakkarai though we make use of it only for functions.
2. Kottarakkara Ganapathi and appam
In Kottarakkara temple Ganapathi is facing south outside the sanctum of Lord Siva. (Actually in Kottarakkara Lord Siva is the main deity) It is a very small idol. Appam is prepared in front of Ganapathi which itself is Nivedyam in the temple. Still it is made using fire wood aduppu there. If we are lucky we can make an offering of appam. Normally pre booking is there and devotees waiting for days. Some thing similar to Ambala puzha palpayasam or Cherthala Thadi.
3. Appam moodal
There is an offering called appam modal for Ganapathi. In this offering, appam is made and the Ganapathi is fully covered with appams and pooja is done. I was not knowing of such an offering earlier, until my daughter in Laws mother offered it in the Ganapathi temple at West fort at Trivandrum, after her daughter became my daughter in Law. These appam is freely distributed to all present there in plenty after pooja.
4. Pazhavangadi Ganapathi and appam
In Pazhavangadi Ganapathi temple two types of appam offerings are made. One the normal and the other is called Koottappam. The koottappam offering is made for 7-20 weeks on a particular day as directed to the devotee mostly by astrologers. It is an offering specially in the case of delays of getting things done like marriage etc. This too can be done with advance bookings only normally.
While I write about Pazhavangadi, I have to make a special mention of devotees offering Vedalai from 51-100 at a time as a normal thing. Some times even 501 or 1001 are offered. For breaking coconuts some times we have to wait for at least fifteen minutes, to finish by another devotee.
5. Panguni Uthram and appam
It is a practice to offer Appam Nivedyam at Pandalam Valiyakoyikkal sastha temple in the evening on Panguni Uthram day after Neivedyam. Every person is given 2 appams on distribution. I do recollect impatiently waiting for appam in my boyhood days in the temple. While we were waiting by the side of big Uruli, our Kochumadathil Periyppa used to instruct to compete few more pradikshanam and wait for pooja.
6. Ashtamirohini appam and Kaipuzha temple
The same way on Ashtamirohini day appam is distributed after pooja in my local Krishna temple. Here the difference on those days was that quantity was limited to one and offering was made in small Uruli. Though appam was prepared in our houses too, this was special and we felt very much tastier.
7. Bring things for appam offering
On earlier days for most of the offerings the devotees had to bring the necessary things. For appam offering things like rice, jaggery, plantain, oil etc. Only appakkara and firewood used to be in the temple. A minimum charging was done in the temple for them. The same was for payasam etc also.
But for the last 10 years at least the practice has changed. A normal quantity of things is stored and devotees can just pay for the offerings.
In Valiya koyikkal sastha temple in my last visit I could see a temple employ break in to two and keep 15-20 coconuts for neeranjanam with Kizhi. When once it is completed he will break new coconuts. Thrimadhuram was getting prepared at one place. Those who make offering it will be given after Nivedyam.
We should pay money in counter with details and take and offer broken coconuts before sanctum.
The same way for most of the offerings. If appam is to be offered only thing you have to intimate the previous day. Manual grinding and all have disappeared in almost all the temples for appam etc.
8. Brahmins and appam
Brahmins make offering of appam in the house for festivals like Trikarthika, Ashtami rohini etc and conduct pooja in their pooja room. We use appam for our different samskaras. During seemantham appam and Kuzhakkata are tied to the girls lap . This function is also called Appam Kuzha kkataai.
Appam is a savourite for Sraadha also. Brahmins are fed with " appam, vada, Ellurunda" as sauvourite in the leaf. It is also a savourite for Sumangali Prarthani.
However appam is not a commonly prepared sweet in the house. Just like Vada, appam is not prepared. I thought a lot to get a logical answer, but could not get. Learned members can write about it. Even for feasts appam is not served.
9.Appam in Potti and Udupi hotels
Equally appam was not so common in all hotels also though it is a delicious item. Potti hotels and Udupi hotels used to make a small quantity every day and stored on plantain leaf in the glass almirah during evenings. However when once exhausted , no fresh make is made there too.
11. Athirasam
Athirasam one of the "cheer" item in Brahmin marriage is an elder cousin brother . The making is slightly different from traditional appam.
12. Kuzhipaniyaram
I do not know how far Kuzhipaniyaram is a younger cousin brother of Appam. It s made using a dove similar to iddali dove in appakkarai. Kuzhipaniyaram is however is not a common preparation in Kerala.
13. Saying "Appam Thinnal porae Kuzhi Ennano"
There is a saying in Malayalam and Tamil as above. In simple English the saying means, if some thing is got down with difficulty, further we should not think of how it got done. The saying is related with timely help by relatives and friends who could not actually accomplish it in the normal way.
14. Appam Vada Suhiyan
While I was in Nagerkovil in 1979s some Brhamins used to prepare these things , put it in a tin with glass on one side and keeping on shoulder and move through streets saying "appam vada suhiyan" in the evenings . My wife used to purchase and give to my father for evening snacks. I am not sure whether such practice is there now. But this preparation is as a trade item.
15. Teashop and appam
It was a practice for teashops to prepare Appam, Suhiyan etc and store in Chill Almirah in Kerala. It will be prepared in the evenings and may some times last for one or two days. A fresh preparation is made after exhausting. This was called "Unniyappam". Many a time it was not "Unni" but "moothathu". However now a day appam is loosing priority in teashops.
16. Bakaries and appam
Appam in Kerala now a day more available in bakeries than in Hotels. There it is packed and kept for sale .
17. Appam in Siva temples
I am not 100% sure, but commonly it is not a common offering in Siva temples. Learned members can write about it.
18. Nei appam
Appam made in Ghee has special taste and flavour. In Sabarimala appam is made in ghee. But appam from Sabarimala is not soft as made in other temples.
There is another saying in Malayalam " Nei appam Thinnal Randundu karyam". It will feed stomach and ghee remaining in the hand while eating can be applied on skin. My title.
This also used as a phrase. This is used when some body perform some thing with some more inner intentions than external clear reasoning.
19. Appam to day in Chennai
In Chennai at Grand snacks ( shop) appam prepared on the spot and available every day. It is in Adyar. Only thing we have to make a phone call for availability and go early and get.
EATING APPAM MADE IN GHEE
SERVE TWO PURPOSE
Dear friends
As usual I went for my afternoon nap after meals and was woken up by the smell of frying appam from the Kitchen today. I saw the clock needles showing 4.00 PM. I asked my taste buds to wait for another 2 Hours. It could physically enjoy the appam after the Nivedyam before Lord Krishna.
While taking my evening tea it came to my mind why should not I make out a posting about Appam and it took me to my laptop. I hope I can provide somewhat sweet appam.
1. Appam- introduction
Most probably appam is a more favoured sweet by Brahmins than other Hindu communities though they too like them. In most of the Krishna, Devi, Sastha and Ganapathi temples vazhipadu of appam is an important offering. In Ganapathi temples appam takes equal importance with Vedalai (Medium coconut breaking). If we go to Sabari malai temple, after pilgrimage we will return only with appam Prasadam. We may wait for hours in the Q to get 4-5 packets of appam. In all most all Brahmin functions appam has an important part. There will not be a house with out appakkarai though we make use of it only for functions.
2. Kottarakkara Ganapathi and appam
In Kottarakkara temple Ganapathi is facing south outside the sanctum of Lord Siva. (Actually in Kottarakkara Lord Siva is the main deity) It is a very small idol. Appam is prepared in front of Ganapathi which itself is Nivedyam in the temple. Still it is made using fire wood aduppu there. If we are lucky we can make an offering of appam. Normally pre booking is there and devotees waiting for days. Some thing similar to Ambala puzha palpayasam or Cherthala Thadi.
3. Appam moodal
There is an offering called appam modal for Ganapathi. In this offering, appam is made and the Ganapathi is fully covered with appams and pooja is done. I was not knowing of such an offering earlier, until my daughter in Laws mother offered it in the Ganapathi temple at West fort at Trivandrum, after her daughter became my daughter in Law. These appam is freely distributed to all present there in plenty after pooja.
4. Pazhavangadi Ganapathi and appam
In Pazhavangadi Ganapathi temple two types of appam offerings are made. One the normal and the other is called Koottappam. The koottappam offering is made for 7-20 weeks on a particular day as directed to the devotee mostly by astrologers. It is an offering specially in the case of delays of getting things done like marriage etc. This too can be done with advance bookings only normally.
While I write about Pazhavangadi, I have to make a special mention of devotees offering Vedalai from 51-100 at a time as a normal thing. Some times even 501 or 1001 are offered. For breaking coconuts some times we have to wait for at least fifteen minutes, to finish by another devotee.
5. Panguni Uthram and appam
It is a practice to offer Appam Nivedyam at Pandalam Valiyakoyikkal sastha temple in the evening on Panguni Uthram day after Neivedyam. Every person is given 2 appams on distribution. I do recollect impatiently waiting for appam in my boyhood days in the temple. While we were waiting by the side of big Uruli, our Kochumadathil Periyppa used to instruct to compete few more pradikshanam and wait for pooja.
6. Ashtamirohini appam and Kaipuzha temple
The same way on Ashtamirohini day appam is distributed after pooja in my local Krishna temple. Here the difference on those days was that quantity was limited to one and offering was made in small Uruli. Though appam was prepared in our houses too, this was special and we felt very much tastier.
7. Bring things for appam offering
On earlier days for most of the offerings the devotees had to bring the necessary things. For appam offering things like rice, jaggery, plantain, oil etc. Only appakkara and firewood used to be in the temple. A minimum charging was done in the temple for them. The same was for payasam etc also.
But for the last 10 years at least the practice has changed. A normal quantity of things is stored and devotees can just pay for the offerings.
In Valiya koyikkal sastha temple in my last visit I could see a temple employ break in to two and keep 15-20 coconuts for neeranjanam with Kizhi. When once it is completed he will break new coconuts. Thrimadhuram was getting prepared at one place. Those who make offering it will be given after Nivedyam.
We should pay money in counter with details and take and offer broken coconuts before sanctum.
The same way for most of the offerings. If appam is to be offered only thing you have to intimate the previous day. Manual grinding and all have disappeared in almost all the temples for appam etc.
8. Brahmins and appam
Brahmins make offering of appam in the house for festivals like Trikarthika, Ashtami rohini etc and conduct pooja in their pooja room. We use appam for our different samskaras. During seemantham appam and Kuzhakkata are tied to the girls lap . This function is also called Appam Kuzha kkataai.
Appam is a savourite for Sraadha also. Brahmins are fed with " appam, vada, Ellurunda" as sauvourite in the leaf. It is also a savourite for Sumangali Prarthani.
However appam is not a commonly prepared sweet in the house. Just like Vada, appam is not prepared. I thought a lot to get a logical answer, but could not get. Learned members can write about it. Even for feasts appam is not served.
9.Appam in Potti and Udupi hotels
Equally appam was not so common in all hotels also though it is a delicious item. Potti hotels and Udupi hotels used to make a small quantity every day and stored on plantain leaf in the glass almirah during evenings. However when once exhausted , no fresh make is made there too.
11. Athirasam
Athirasam one of the "cheer" item in Brahmin marriage is an elder cousin brother . The making is slightly different from traditional appam.
12. Kuzhipaniyaram
I do not know how far Kuzhipaniyaram is a younger cousin brother of Appam. It s made using a dove similar to iddali dove in appakkarai. Kuzhipaniyaram is however is not a common preparation in Kerala.
13. Saying "Appam Thinnal porae Kuzhi Ennano"
There is a saying in Malayalam and Tamil as above. In simple English the saying means, if some thing is got down with difficulty, further we should not think of how it got done. The saying is related with timely help by relatives and friends who could not actually accomplish it in the normal way.
14. Appam Vada Suhiyan
While I was in Nagerkovil in 1979s some Brhamins used to prepare these things , put it in a tin with glass on one side and keeping on shoulder and move through streets saying "appam vada suhiyan" in the evenings . My wife used to purchase and give to my father for evening snacks. I am not sure whether such practice is there now. But this preparation is as a trade item.
15. Teashop and appam
It was a practice for teashops to prepare Appam, Suhiyan etc and store in Chill Almirah in Kerala. It will be prepared in the evenings and may some times last for one or two days. A fresh preparation is made after exhausting. This was called "Unniyappam". Many a time it was not "Unni" but "moothathu". However now a day appam is loosing priority in teashops.
16. Bakaries and appam
Appam in Kerala now a day more available in bakeries than in Hotels. There it is packed and kept for sale .
17. Appam in Siva temples
I am not 100% sure, but commonly it is not a common offering in Siva temples. Learned members can write about it.
18. Nei appam
Appam made in Ghee has special taste and flavour. In Sabarimala appam is made in ghee. But appam from Sabarimala is not soft as made in other temples.
There is another saying in Malayalam " Nei appam Thinnal Randundu karyam". It will feed stomach and ghee remaining in the hand while eating can be applied on skin. My title.
This also used as a phrase. This is used when some body perform some thing with some more inner intentions than external clear reasoning.
19. Appam to day in Chennai
In Chennai at Grand snacks ( shop) appam prepared on the spot and available every day. It is in Adyar. Only thing we have to make a phone call for availability and go early and get.
__._,_.___
Hydra
A while back I posted some pictures of Hydra viridis (see http://beyondthehumaneye.blogspot.com/search/label/Hydra) showing its remarkable ability to change shape. The pond that I regularly use for collecting small freshwater protists and invertebrates is currently teeming with these tentacled hunters, so I took the opportunity to shoot this short video sequence of this elastic animal in motion.
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