#Sacred text of Purana

[indiansareedesigns07]

Hinduism's Puranas: Their Importance

Puranas are revered Hindu texts: The Puranas describe the universe's creation, deities, and Hindu ideology.

Puranas are based on five matters: They cover creation, secondary creation, god origins, Manu's regimes, and historical dynasties.

18 main Puranas: The texts tell mythological stories of gods and goddesses, such as Shiva, Vishnu, and Parvati.

Vishnu Purana is considered a gem: It presents Vedantic realities through mythical stories.

Puranas convey Vedas' message: They make Hindu principles accessible to common people.

[drmohitchangani]

Wisdom of Ancient Indian Education: The 8 Limbs of Yoga and Beyond

Since times before the antiquities, Indian education system has been very robust. One of the core objective was to shape the individual and the society with highest virtues. How an individual should be is mentioned in various scriptures like Ved, Puran, Upanishad and others. In present times, one may consider these texts as purely religious scriptures. It is a common belief of most of the people,…

[blazescompendium]

Blaze's Compendium Entry #10: The Khyah (Cyak, Kack, Khya)

Warning: Faith and religion are important real life topics, that tackles the culture and way of life of millions of real life people. It is a cultural expression, and must be respected by all means. Here, we use a video-game ( some times) and other media series only to ignite the flame of learning about the matter, using its art when well depicted, but we do this with all due respect to the cultures we talk here, grounded by real life sources, cultures and people. And i mean this with respect. Hope you all enjoy.

Also, please note that the Sources for this one will be a bit tricky, since we are talking about a regional and always developing urban legend and cosmology, which is not very well documented in traditional books. In this case we have to turn our attention to personal stories and every day people who lives in this culture.

The Khyah (ख्या) is a mythical creature that is part of the greater Nepali folklore and cosmology. Specifically from the Newar people from the Kathmandu Valley.

Some sources will say that its name means literally ''Ghost'' or ''Haunt'', ''Phantasm'', etc... However i was not able to confirm this. The language spoken by Newar people is the Nepal Bhasa, which is also written in the Devanagari script, just like Hindi. I do not speak this language, so please if you do, reach me out! But in any case, it seems that the word for ''Ghost'' in Newar is ''गुफा'' or ''gupha''. It may be the case that the name: ''Kyah'' got so used to general supernatural occurrences, that it got mixed up. Just like we talked about the Saci in my other post. -This is not uncommon to happen- I used regular online translators to reach this conclusion, but feel free to correct me if i am wrong because i could not consult any native to talk about this matter during my research.

For a bit of context, The Newar are people that historically inhabited the Kathmandu Valley, and the regions around Nepal. As we said before, they speak Newari (Nepal Bhasa). They have 3 major cities, those being Kathmandu, Patan and Bhatgaon. [1] The academic research on the Newar people just started at the early 20th century, the french anthropologist Sylvain, wrote a very famous and complete work called Le Nepal, that was one of the first western written works about the region, and its people. Their religion are mostly Hinduism, Buddhism and there are minorities from other beliefs.

The Newar live in this region since ancient times, way longer before Nepal even existed as a Estate. According to most history books, the Newar would live alone in the region, being sovereigns of the Kathmandu valley up until the Gorgkha Kingdom in 1769. It is very hard to know much about the Newar before that in details, since they are in the region for so long, and mixed so much with other people from around the Nepal, that even their history ends up blending with mythology.

For example: according to the sacred Swayambhu Purana, a Buddhist scripture, the Kathmandu Valley was once a huge lake, Inhabited by Nagas*. That is, until one day the Bodhisattva Manjusri with the help of a powerful sacred sword, sliced the surrounding hills, which in turn made the water flow away. This information is even on Kathmandu government official site!

This myth was later confirmed to have a basis, since NASA themselves found out clues that Kathmandu was in fact, once a huge lake. NASA did not reply me about the Naga thought. Bummer...

*The Swayambhu Purana is a Buddhist text essential to Newar Buddhism. However i sadly could not find a copy online, but there are some summarized versions translated to English, which i am using as guide. For instance the US Wikipedia article, sources books that i also could not find, but i could verify the authors! So... That's something, i guess.

This goes to show how the Newar people are rooted in their mythology, and how this is completely absorbed by even their space and surroundings. Even something as the very foundation of their lands is a hierophany.

This brings us to the Kyah, that we will see can show us a lot about this society.

About the Khyah

The Khyah are supernatural creatures that are hairy, looks like apes, sometimes extremely chubby and have their bodies are totally covered in hair. This description is corroborated my multiple sources, like ''Dietrich, Angela (1998). Tantric healing in the Kathmandu Valley: A comparative study of Hindu and Buddhist spiritual healing traditions in urban Nepalese society. Book Faith India.'' But not only that, the Khyah are also represented in multitudes of paintings and also in costumes for the Yenya Festival. The only thing that can sometimes be different, is that if it will be treated like a Ghost or a more physical creature.

The wealth goddess Lakshmi and two Khyah serving her, in a painting on a Kathmandu temple.

About this painting and sourcing the Khyah appearance:

I have made tireless efforts to pin down the origin of this painting. And many others! This one is present in most of the articles about the Khyah in the internet, even local articles from Nepal itself. However i was not able to pinpoint where it came from. All the sources i found either say this is from a ''temple'' or that it was taken by an individual named: Karrattul. This is not the photographer's name, but instead the name of the profile who uploaded it on the Wikipedia, where it was uploaded in 2012! I tried to reach to Nepali communities and other enthusiasts of History and Mythology, but no one could help me. If you know anything about this painting, please contact me!

For the same reason, it is almost impossible to find sourced materials about the khyah appearance. We know that there are traits like the hair, that keep intact from place to place, but i could not find a central work detailing the creature. We have those paintings from so called temples to trust, and the ceremonial suits used in the Khyah dance.

I will link here a video of a Khyah Dance performance, so you can see the physical traits of this creature are well agreed between the locals.

The Khyah is popular among children, or at least were at one point. This can be seen in a popular children song sang in Nepal. It depicts the Khyah as a cute and hungry little critter, as the kid in the song is encouraged to give food to it. The Kyah seems never to be satisfied sadly...

A banger...

The Khyah is indeed often treated like a type of ghost. In my personal opinion they are simmilar to Djinn, some kinds of yokai and can be classified generically as a type of monster or apparition, in my view at least. (This means a supernatural creature, that is in between a human and a god like being.) The Newar believe that the Khyah has active participation in events of their daily lives. But they also are not all bad or good, they are multiple entities, some good and some bad. Usually there are white colored Khyah who are good, and black colored Khyah who are bad.

They have their own lives, families, and friends. There are a lot of tales and works related to this creature, not counting personal tales of every day people and their encouters with this little devil. That's how ingrained in the Newar culture the Khyah is.

I was able to track the writings of a Kathmandu Valley denizen, which happened to write about the Kyahk! [3] This person was kind enough to provide a lot of personal information about the regional culture, in their personal website. According to the locals, the Khyah would often live in houses, squares, public spaces, and would regularly interfere with their existence. Not all Khyah are bad, some can protect the households they inhabit, they can bring fortune and good luck. Although, the Khyah fears light, so they have to live in dark corners of the house, like the attic or some empty room.

The Unitedstatian Wikipedia page for Khyah shares some unusual information, that we can not trace to any sources. For instance, they mention that this creature supposedly fears electricity. As interesting as it may seen, the source from this particular information goes to a book called: '' Asian folklore studies, Volume 55. Nanzan University Institute of Anthropology'' Which i was unable to find to read online, and was also unable to find it by its ISBN trackers: 9057890984, 9789057890987. Those took me to another book, called: ''Caturmāsa. Celebrations of Death in Kathmandu, Nepal’'

This one seems to exist, but i also could not find it anywhere online. Google Books has some samples, and it guarantees that the word ''Khyak'' or any variations of sorts, are not on it, which means this is a misinformation. Someone probably interpreted that the fact that Khyah fear light, can also apply to electricity as an energy source. I think you won't be letting your homie Khyah uncomfortable having electricity at your house, don't worry.

Again, according to locals [3] There are two variable Khyah: Black and White. The white are the ones who bring luck, and the Black ones gives you trouble. No matter what kind of this creature you have in your house, you should respect it. They are often revered and well treated. They have their own cozy dark place to hide, like the bhandar and dhkuti. Those are places of the house used to store grains and valuables.

There are other variations according to other local sources sources [3] [4] Those Khyah are usually described as:

-Bārāy Khyāh (बाराय् ख्याः) appears in rooms where girls are kept in seclusion during their rite of passage to adulthood (first period). [5] (Very documented, and easy to track on western sources)

-Bhakun Gwārā Khyāh (भकुं ग्वारा ख्याः), literally football, rolls on the ground to move around. (Most common Khyah, probably the one Kaneko tried to draw! Most commonly seen in regional urban legends. Not very documented in translated to English literature)

-Dhāpalān Khyāh (धापलां ख्याः) is a very hairy Khyah. (Very popular because of that children's song, still sang to this day.)

-Lanpan Khyāh (लँपं ख्याः) blocks people’s way on dark streets. (Not much about this one, really. At least not in western sources. It seems that, along with Bhakun Khyah is probably more of a word of mouth thing)

The relationship with Kawancha

The origin legend for the Khyah goes that, in the distant past, two gods had a baby. They fought to see who had the right to hold the baby, but ended up tearing the child apart. The skin peeled off, revealing just flesh and bones that would separate. The flesh became Khyak, and the bones Kawancha, a skeleton that would be the Anthitesis to the Khyak. This relationship is portrayed in paintings and regional dance festivals. [3]

Also known as Kavam, the skeleton monster seems to be the other half of the Khyah. It is extremely hard to find sources about this, not only because it is a very specific regional folk belief passed down orally, but also because the language barriers. One could in theory go there in person to collect sources about this part of the lore, but it is not an option for me. Someone at Reddit pointed out to me that in some regions, they are not related at all, being just monsters from the same sources. So, their lore seem to vary from place to place.

Painting depicting Kwancha/Kavam and Khyah in Kathmandu. Origin Unknown.

As much as I tried for months, I could not come with a source for this information besides literal oral tradition. But for sure these two are indeed connected in some places. You can see them in several paintings at Kathmandu, and they also have their own dance performance telling their story and painting their relationship. As the Reddit user mentioned, their connection will vary from place to place. Being more of a localized and oral tradition.

In the performance you can see Khyah and Kwancha performing together, as they show their relationship. Still according to [3], the instrument played in these performances is the Dhimay. Its made from tree bark, and the legend says the gods later created this tool to help control the beings, and communicate with them. In the author's perspective, this was meant to showcase the duality of our universe. This being the real nature of those beings.

Again, I lack written and traceable sources. While the Dhimay is indeed a real instrument, used on those performances, there are almost no mentions of it being related to Khyah or Kwancha in the western internet. This also falls in the category of facts I could not check because of being probably too of a localized oral tradition.

I could at least find some sourced paintings. Like this one, shared by the Twitter user Sanjib Chaudhary Who is an author himself on Nepalese culture.

Kwancha and Khyah are shown in this painting on Jaya Bageshwori temple, in Gaushala.

Also, while Khyah is very well documented in the west, the same can not be said about Kwancha. It is easy to find dances, masks, his Megami Tennsei design (being the most easy result) and paintings about the skeleton monster, but almost nothing on its nature and lore. This means I highly doubt everything the Megaten games say about it to be factual, although they do in fact exist in Nepalese culture.

One thing i noticed is that Kaneko himself could have watched a dance performance of Kwancha and Khyah, or at least seen pictures. Because his Kwancha design for Devil Summoner has the clothing in colors and shapes very similar to some Kwancha performers:

This specific clothing can be seen here: Kawancha (Skeleton) Dance of Bhaktapur कवांचा प्याखं , तौलाछें, भक्तपुर ll Part of Bharab Dance ll

The final point on this part is their origin: Which gods crated them? This rent a space in my brain for free for the last year or so. While I could not find it for sure, this does not mean it is wrong or not factually a belief in their tradition. Buddhism has many gods and entities, and i suspect the ones who created the Khyah accidentally, are just regular Devas.

Modern mentions?

Khyah tales are in the heart of Kathmandu people, and many other Nepal regions. For centuries they dominated the children's tales and late night scare stories of that region. In 1992, Jim Goodman published a book called ''Tales of Old Bhaktapur'' Which complied some folk tales from Nepal.

Sure enough, Khyah makes an appearance in it. At page 28, there is a story about a Khyah haunting a house, and how a boy deals with it. Sadly the book is not openly available on the internet, but google books have some parts readable:

There is also the book: Tales of Kathmandu: folktales from the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal (1980). This book was published by the authors Karna Sakya, Linda Griffith. This book seems to put together many popular folk tales from Nepal, and in the page 105 we have a story called ''The Khya of Marusata.''

Now, as this seems to be the case with every freaking material in this search, this book is not available online, but google books has many parts available. Sadly, we can only see the title of the story. What we can know by a quick google search, is that Marusata is some kind of square in central Kathmandu. I tried to search this tale online, but I could not find. Will try to keep searching for it eventually.

Also, in the books first pages, around 20 or so, Khyah are mentioned too:

It seems to classify Khyah as demons, just like their neighbors Rakshasas. Which is not exactly on the point here, but its interesting nonetheless.

The Khyah are still recognized today, and are well known in the community. But even if the western internet made a good job of preserving its lore and some of their character, their presence is very scarce. By going on Eirikr Kaneko Crib's notes I found that one of the most recent official appearances of the creature online was on the site Local Nepal Today. This seems to be a site dedicated to portray and preserve Nepalese culture and report on situations at the region. It is however, done by foreigners that went to Nepal afterwards. The site seems to be dead, but they do mention their hearings about the Khyah! Here they call it Kack.

The authors compare it to European elves and trolls, which is not exactly a good match. They are more akin to Brownies, Silkies and some kind of Kikimora.

In any way, their description matches most sources, and oral sources alike: They are shy, prefer dark and isolated places, and hate the light. They also comment on the duality between the white Khyah and the black Khyahk.

Most important thought, they mentions talking to an elderly woman in Kathmandu, who shared her own stories about meeting the creature:

''An elderly woman in Kathmandu who saw several kacks – all white ones. The closest encounter was with a quiet, furry fellow who came and sat on her lap! Many of those who’ve seen a kack will tell you how these “little people” would come and sit on the edge of their bed for a while, keeping them half amazed, half in shock the rest of the night. A white kack is friendly – but it can still be a bit scary.''

They also gathered information from old Kathmandu citizens on why the Khyahk tales are vanishing nowadays:

'''Well, old people who grew up in the heart of kack territory – Kathmandu – will usually tell you a simpler reason: kacks are shy creatures and so, since the capital has become crowded and noisy, many have left. Sure kacks can hide and move about by stealth, but there’s a limit. Either way, now it’s no-longer in Kathmandu but in the villages you’ll hear about kacks the most.''

In my personal view, its interesting to connect the vast and accelerated growth of Kathmandu, to the losing of traditions and oral folk tales, which ended up making the Khyah tales vanish bit by bit, becoming isolated to small nearby villages.

This makes me a bit sad, because if there is no one trying to preserve those traditions, it may very well disappear as the times goes on. The internet has this amazing tool to preserve culture, but we do not seem to be using it enough.

In this regard, I am glad that Kazuma Kaneko imortalized Kyahk in the Shin Megami Tensei series, even if they are not regular monsters on the newer games, many people probably had their first encounter with this critter through that.

And that is it! Everything I could gather! Hope you guys enjoyed!

Beware the Kyhak at the feet of your bed!

Thank you for reading through it all. I actually started this research more than 1 year ago, but postponed it multiple times, since I started doing scientific research at college, and other monsters looked way more easy to research.

Stick with me for more deep dives on critters from around the world.

Sources: [1]- "Elements of Newar Social Structure". Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.’’ - Christoph Von Furer- Haimendorf, 1956.

[2]- Dietrich, Angela (1998). Tantric healing in the Kathmandu Valley: A comparative study of Hindu and Buddhist spiritual healing traditions in urban Nepalese society. Book Faith India.

[3]- Himalayancultures.com -Personal blog of a Kathmandu citzen that shares a bit about regional folklore and culture. Extremely interesting to see stuff from a personal point of view.

[4]-Archive My Sansar - Regional website about Nepali culture.

[5]- Growing Up: Hindu and Buddhist Initiation Rituals Among Newar Children in Bhaktapur, Nepal, 2008, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. (Pag 174)

[6]- Tales of Old Bhaktapur'' - Jim Goodman (1992)

[7]- Tales of Kathmandu: folktales from the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal (1980)

[8]- Local Nepal Today

[whencyclopedia]

Agni

Agni is the Hindu god of fire. He is regarded as the friend and protector of humanity, in particular, he safeguards the home. Various forms of fire are associated with Agni and include the sun, lightning, comets, sacrificial fire, domestic fires, the fire of the funeral pyre, and the digestive fire which is within all humans. Agni was especially important in the Vedic period (1500-500 BCE), and the Vedas contains more hymns to him than to any other deity. He is still considered today omnipresent though not directly worshipped. Agni knows the thoughts of all people and is a witness to all important actions, hence the use of fire in many important Hindu ceremonies such as marriages. He is also referred to in sacred texts such as the Mahabharata as the 'Oblation-devourer' and the 'Purifier'. With flaming hair and riding a goat, he is easily identified in Hindu art.

Agni's wife is the daughter of King Nila who impressed the fire god by being the only woman in the kingdom who managed to kindle a flame in the royal palace. In some myths, Karttikeya (Skanda), the Hindu god of war, is Agni's son and the result of Agni's conquest of the Pleiades, the wives of the Seven Sages.

Agni & Various Fires

Agni is the son of the Celestial Waters, and that element is closely connected with fire which is thought to be carried down to earth within rain. From there fire is drawn up by vegetation and so when two sticks are rubbed together fire appears. Agni is also responsible for lightning which is born from the god's union with the cloud goddess. Another fire Agni is associated with is the funeral pyre; in this role, he leads the dead to their final judgement by Yama, ruler of the Underworld.

Agni is perhaps most closely associated with sacrificial fires where he is thought to carry the offerings of humans to the gods. According to various myths, Agni was at first afraid to take on this duty as his three brothers had been killed already whilst performing the task. Consequently, Agni hid in the subterranean waters but, unfortunately, fish revealed his hiding place to the gods. As a result, Agni cursed them so that fish would become the easy prey of men. In another version it is frogs, then elephants, and then parrots which reveal Agni's attempts at hiding and the god punished them all by distorting their speech ever after. The final hiding place of Agni in this version was inside a sami tree and so it is considered the sacred abode of fire in Hindu rituals and its sticks are used to make fires. Reluctantly taking up his duty again Agni did negotiate by way of compensation to always receive a share of the sacrifice he carried to the gods and he was given the boon of ever-lasting life.

Agni appears in all forms of fire and even those things which burn well or have a certain lustre. In the Brhaddevata we are told that at one point Agni is dismembered and distributed among earthly things. The god's flesh and fat becomes guggulu resin, his bones the pine tree, his semen becomes gold and silver, his blood and bile are transformed into minerals, his nails are tortoises, entrails the avaka plant, his bone marrow sand and gravel, his sinews become tejana grass, his hair kusa grass, and his body hair becomes kasa grass which was used in sacrificial rituals.

Over time Agni's importance as a god diminishes, a fact explained in the Mahabharata as due to his overindulgence in consuming one too many offerings. In the Visnu Purana he is described as the eldest son of Brahma and Svaha is his wife. Together they had three sons, Pavaka, Pavamana, and Suchi, who in turn had 45 sons, which, including their fathers and grandmother, totals 49, the number of sacred fires in the Vayu Purana.

Agni, according to one Rigveda hymn attributed to the sage Vasistha, also has a darker side. Similar in nature to the 'flesh-eater' demons, the raksasa, he has two wickedly sharp iron tusks and he devours his victims without mercy. However, when called upon by the gods, Agni destroys the raksasa with his flaming spears. This episode, when Agni becomes a servant of the gods, is illustrative of his fall from the pinnacle of the pantheon.

Continue reading...

[talonabraxas]

The Sudarshan Chakra Talon Abraxas

The Sudarshan Chakra is regarded as one of the most potent weapons ever used in the celestial world. Sudarshan Chakra is derived from two words – su and darshan. It means auspicious (su) vision (darshan). Sudarshan means Divine Vision. If there is any other weapon that could rival the Sudarshan Chakra, it is Shiva's trident. Chakra is derived from chruhu, which denotes ‘movement’ and kruhu, which indicates ‘to do’.

The Sudarshan Chakra finds mention sometimes in the ancient Hindu Vedic texts of Rigveda, Yajurveda, and the Puranas. It is described as the ultimate weapon that can destroy an enemy - the asuras, rakshasas, and vikrutatma.

In the Dwapara Yuga, Shri Krishna received the Sudarshan Chakra from the Fire God, Agni. Sri Krishna was the eighth avatar of Vishnu. It was the mighty sage Parashurama, said to be the sixth avatar of Vishnu, who taught Sri Krishna to master the weapon.

There are some details about the Sudarshan Chakra about which some of us may not have the complete awareness. This powerful weapon has some incredible features. Listed below are five amazing features of the Sudarshan Chakra.

Five Unbelievable Features of the Sudarshan Chakra

1. The Sudarshan Chakra is considered one of the most powerful weapons ever used in the cosmic world. This divine discus is believed to have 108 notched edges and travels at incredible speed. The Chakra is stated to travel millions of Yojanas (1 Yojana= 8 kilometers) by the time we blink once. The Sudarshan Chakra is said to have millions of spikes in two rows moving in opposite directions that give it a serrated edge.

2. The Sudarshan Chakra is synonymous with Vishnu and sits on his right index finger. The sacred disc is believed to be very auspicious. The movement of the Sudarshan Chakra is such that it does not move by any action, like throwing the disc. The Chakra moves through sheer willpower, the first of its kind that can be controlled or powered by thought alone. The Sudarshan Chakra is said to possess immense spiritual and mystical powers. The sacred wheel is in constant motion, and it is said to have been created by the combined powers of the Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.

3. The Sudarshan Chakra is powered by the mind and thought. Once it leaves the finger, there is no looking back. The Chakra goes after the enemy and chases them down. It will not return to the owner unless it has completed its task. The Sudarshan Chakra, once it leaves the finger, goes chasing the enemy down relentlessly and destroys them. There is no way to escape from its wrath. The only option is to stop running and surrender to the Chakra. Lord Vishnu, it is believed, comes to the rescue of those who surrender themselves to him.

4. Sri Krishna was in possession of the Sudarshan Chakra in the Dwapara Yuga. He is the eighth avatar of Vishnu and obtained this powerful weapon from the Fire God, Agni. It is believed that the Great Sage Parashurama taught Sri Krishna how to master the Sudarshan Chakra perfectly.

5. Mythology has it that Vishnu did not own the Sudarshan Chakra. The Devas (celestial beings) were being incessantly harassed by the Asuras (demons). The Devas approached Vishnu for help. He, in turn, approached Shiva as he was not sure he had complete power to defeat the asuras. He prayed to Shiva for thousands of years, and finally, Shiva, pleased with Vishnu's devotion, granted him the boon to defeat the Asuras and presented him the Sudarshan Chakra. Vishnu in all his avatars retains the Sudarshan Chakra on his right index finger.

The Sudarshan Chakra is a symbol of power and acts as a shield to destroy and negate any negative or evil forces that can cause suffering. A powerful quality of the Sudarshan Chakra is Papa Nashanam (destruction of sins). While there are many speculations about the origin of Sudarshan Chakra, Sudarshan is none other than Vishnu himself. He is called Sudarshan because he wields the mighty and indestructible Sudarshan Chakra.

[magnificentknowledge]

#मेरे_अज़ीज़_हिंदुओं_स्वयं_पढ़ो अपने ग्रंथ

Our Hindu religion has not included its sacred texts Geeta, four Vedas, Mahabharata and eighteen Puranas.

understood.

Sant Rampal Ji Maharaj

[vedicstory12]

What Are the Sawan 2024 Rituals and Significance?

Hindu mythology is full of interesting Vedic tales. One such legend we narrated at Vedic Story about the Sawan Shivratri in Hinduism. However, today we are discussing why Sawan Month is important in Hinduism. What is the significance, and should devotees observe the religion fasting or vrat?

Before we start narrating the significance of Sawan Shivratri month, let’s inform you that the Sawan began on July 22 and it will end on August 19.

What Are the Important Timings of Sawan 2024?

Sawan is the most important month in Hinduism and the Panchang Calendar.

It is the sacred month of Sawan, the month of rain, religious fasting, fertility, and soul purification.

Sawan month is a month of Lord Shiva that lasts for a full lunar cycle and starts Ashadha Purnima. However, the month is also known as the Shravan and Kawar Shivratri or Kawar Yatra. It began on 22nd July, Monday, and will end on 19th August, Monday. It lasts for 1 month, and this year the festival is going to last for 29 days.

What is the significance of the Sawan Shivratri Vrat or festival?

Sawan 2024 fast has special meaning and space in Hinduism. Sawan Sonwar Vrat is a rite that unmarried girls perform for getting grooms with qualities of Lord Shiva.

Goddess Parvati also performed Sawan Shivratri to get married with Lord Shiva in the month of Sawan. Thereafter, it became a ritual for Indian women to fast in Sawan month.

Indian mythology and sacred texts of Shiva Purana narrates that whoever keeps the fast in Sawan month on Mondays, Lord Shiva will bless them and fulfill the wishes.

Every Monday, devotees observe the fast throughout the day without eating food or water and pray to Lord Mahadev.

What Are the Rituals Devotees Can Perform During Sawan 2024 Month?

Throughout the sacred Sawan month 2024, devotees of Lord Shiva can pray by performing some rituals that not only clean the devotees internally but also bring happiness into their lives.

Kanwar Yatra

Kanwar Yatra is a festival that devotees perform by going to Haridwar and bringing holy Ganga water barefoot. This pilgrimage yatra signifies the cascading of Goddess Ganga from heaven into the life of Lord Shiva to cool down his poison.

Fasting

Many people in Hinduism perform fasts, the Sawan Somwar Vrat, throughout the month. They don’t consume food and water until the evening and after the prayer of Lord Shiva.

Shiva Lingam Abhishek

Devotees in Sawan month perform rituals and rites that cool down Lord Shiva and bless them with prosperity and happiness. They bathe Shiva Linga with water, milk, honey, datura, vel patra, and flowers. This ritual signifies the purification of devotees.

Chanting Mantras

Devotees chant the Shiva mantras, especially the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra in Sawan. It is believed that whoever chants the mantra gets protection from Lord Shiva himself and is blessed with long life.

What Are the Other Festivals Falling in the Month of Sawan?

Sawan month is sacred and has many ancient legends to this month.

Let’s find out some of the most auspicious festivals and Vrat fall in this month.

Shravan Shivratri: This festival falls in the Krishna Paksha of Sawan month. Devotees of Lord Shiva perform fasts and perform puja to the blessings of Mahadev.

Nag Panchami: It falls on the fifth day, Panchami of the Shukla Paksha. People worship snakes in this festival to get protection from snake bites.

Hariyali Teej: This festival also falls in the Sawan month. People worship Goddess Parvati and seek her blessings.

Raksha Bandhan: Sawan month also brings the most auspicious festival of Rakhi, the festivals of brother and sister. It is believed the Goddess Parvati tied the Rakhi to Lord Vishnu, and thereafter it signifies the day dedicated to brothers and sisters.

Kajari Teej: This festival falls in the monsoon Sawan month. Married women sing folktales and sing for good harvest.

Janmashtami: Lord Krishna was born on this day, and the entire India and Hindu people celebrate Krishna Janmashtami, the birth of the most beloved deity in Hinduism. Krishna was born on the eighth day of the darkest night in Sawan month.

Therefore, Sawan 2024 is a sacred month in the Hindu calendar.

[shivansh2shiv]

What is the Sacred Narmadeshwar Lingam and Why is it a Symbol of Divine Presence and Spiritual Power?

The Narmadeshwar Lingam, also known as the Narmada Shivling, is a sacred stone found in the Narmada River, one of the seven holy rivers in India. This unique stone is revered in Hinduism and is believed to embody the presence of Lord Shiva, one of the principal deities in the Hindu pantheon.

Significance

Spiritual Importance: The Narmadeshwar Lingam is considered one of the most powerful and sacred symbols of Lord Shiva. It is said to possess natural energy that radiates peace, prosperity, and harmony.

Natural Formation: Unlike other Shiv lings that artisans carve, the Narmadeshwar Lingam is naturally formed in the Narmada River. The river's currents shape these stones into elliptical forms, which are then collected by devotees.

Symbol of Purity: The Lingam is regarded as a pure and self-manifested symbol of Shiva. Its natural formation is seen as a divine miracle, enhancing its sanctity and significance.

Physical Characteristics

Shape and Size: The Narmadeshwar Lingam typically has an elliptical shape and smooth surface. The size can vary from small, portable pieces to large, immovable stones used in temples.

Colour and Texture: These Lingams often have a black or dark brown hue, with some variations in colour and markings depending on the specific stone.

Worship and Rituals

Daily Puja: Devotees perform daily rituals and prayers to the Narmadeshwar Lingam, including offerings of water, milk, honey, and flowers.

Abhishekam: A special form of worship called Abhishekam involves bathing the Lingam with various substances such as milk, yogurt, ghee, honey, and water while chanting sacred mantras.

Festivals: The Lingam is especially venerated during festivals like Maha Shivaratri, when devotees fast, meditate, and offer special prayers to honor Lord Shiva.

Benefits of Worship

Spiritual Growth: Worshiping the Narmadeshwar Lingam is believed to aid in spiritual growth and enlightenment, bringing the devotee closer to Shiva.

Health and Well-being: Many believe that the Lingam’s divine energy can help in healing physical and mental ailments.

Prosperity and Protection: It is also thought to bring prosperity, remove obstacles, and protect the household from negative influences.

History and Legend

Ancient Origins

The Narmadeshwar Lingam's history is intertwined with the Narmada River, which is considered one of the oldest rivers in the world. The river flows through the central Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and its significance is mentioned in several ancient Hindu texts.

Mythological Significance

According to Hindu mythology, the Narmada River was created by Lord Shiva himself. Legends say that Shiva's perspiration, after a vigorous dance of destruction (Tandava), formed the river. Hence, the Narmada is often called the "daughter of Shiva."

The Legend of Narmadeshwar Lingam

A popular legend narrates that the Narmada River is the only place where naturally occurring Lingams are found, signifying the river's divine connection to Shiva. It is believed that these stones carry the essence and vibrations of Lord Shiva, making them especially potent for worship.

Cultural and Religious Context

The Role of the Lingam in Hinduism

The Lingam is a symbolic representation of Lord Shiva, often interpreted as a phallic symbol representing the cosmic pillar of fire. It signifies the union of the quality of life – the masculine and feminine, creation and destruction.

Shiva Purana: The Shiva Purana, one of the principal scriptures dedicated to Lord Shiva, extols the significance of the Narmadeshwar Lingam. It is described as the embodiment of Shiva's omnipotent and all-pervasive nature.

Skanda Purana: Another ancient text, the Skanda Purana, elaborates on the holiness of the Narmada River and the divine origins of the Narmadeshwar Lingam.

Types of Narmadeshwar Lingams

Bana Lingam

Bana Lingam is another name for the Narmadeshwar Lingam. These are specifically collected from the bed of the Narmada River and are characterized by their smooth, cylindrical shape. They are named after the demon king Bana, who was a devout follower of Lord Shiva.

Spatika Lingam

While not exclusively from the Narmada River, Spatika Lingams (made of crystal) often share similar veneration. The Narmadeshwar Lingam and the Spatika Lingam are both considered highly auspicious for worship.

Conclusion The Narmadeshwar Lingam stands as a powerful symbol of divine presence and spiritual power. Its unique natural formation, coupled with its deep-rooted connection to Lord Shiva, makes it a revered object of worship in Hinduism. Whether for personal devotion or temple rituals, the Narmadeshwar Lingam continues to inspire and bless devotees with its sacred energy and profound spiritual significance.

[skumburgers]

text from Pir Zia Inayat Khan's essay Persian & Indian Visions of the Living Earth in book Spiritual Ecology: Cry of the Earth

photos: Portrait of Shaikh Mu’in al-Din Hasan Chishti / The magical bird Simorgh / Shahnama / Amesha Spentas & Chakras / Shahnama cover Ferdowsi / Bhagavata Purana / Hazrat Inayat Khan

Ideas do not occur in a vacuum, and spiritual ideas are no exception. Sacred visions emerge from the disposition of human personalities, from the shape of historical events, and from the momentum of hallowed customs, but perhaps most fundamentally (transcendental sources aside), they emerge from “airs, waters, and places,” from the character of the landscapes in which they are born.

When epiphanies are redacted and passed down, the loamy pungency of their genesis frequently fades away, so that an abstract doctrine is perpetuated in place of an embodied insight. Such, however, is not always the case. Spiritual traditions are often the deepest repositories of a culture’s knowledge of the ancient bond between person and planet, soul and soil.

[...] The forces of light will thus gain ground, advancing in ascendancy, dispelling malevolence, and speeding the long-awaited day known as the frashkart, when the whole of creation is to be purified, redeemed, illuminated, and rendered immortal.

[...] All that exists is of light, for light is existence itself, the very essence of apparency. God is the “Light of Lights,” and as light kindles light, creation proliferates as a cascade of illumination poured into the dark abyss of nonbeing. In this great chain of being, the angels are links, uniting the manifest world with the infinite brilliance that is its source.

[...] There follows a long, though not infinite, series of Intellects, each receiving light from the Light of Lights and its predecessors, and bequeathing light to its successors. By this causal chain the starry sky is lit up.

[...] Nothing exists on Earth without an underpinning in the world of pure light.

[...] In like fashion, Suhrawardi’s cosmology envisions a universe that is intensely alive and inherently sacred. All existence is the effusion, in pulsing waves, of the holy of holies, the Light of Lights. Transpiring in every clod, puddle, flaming wick, and fluttering breeze is an angelic presence, a sentient and radiant delegate of the cosmic order.

[...] The Qur’an begins, “Read in the name of your Lord” (96:1). What must be read are the ayat, the signs of God. The verses of scripture are signs, but so too are the verses inscribed ”on the horizons and in themselves” (41:53). The holy books of the prophets, Earth’s rapturous geography, and the interior landscapes of the human soul are all of a piece, all pages in a single book, the book in which God’s own story is told. This is a story without end, for, “If all the trees on Earth were pens and the ocean ink, with seven oceans behind it to add to its supply, yet the words of God would not be exhausted” (31:27).

[...] As widely different as were the theological views of Muslim Sufis and Hindu yogis, they had two spiritual perceptions fully in common: the vital livingness of the elements and the status of the human form as a microcosm encapsulating the breadth, depth, and range of the whole universe.

[...] The Vamana Purana sings, “Let all the great elements bless the dawning day: Earth with its smell, water with its taste, fire with its radiance, air with its touch, and sky with its sound.”

[...] Hindu acts of worship are traditionally preceded by bhutashuddhi, the ritual purification of the elements in the body and in the landscape. In this manner the inner and outer dimensions of the universe are brought into symmetry, and the human being is sanctified as an epitome of the surrounding totality. The human heart contains fire and air, sun and moon, lightning and stars, pronounces the Chandogya Upanishad.

The Chishti Sufis share this perception. In the Sum of Yoga attributed to Khwaja Mu’in al-Din Chishti, the entire cosmos is mapped onto the human form:

Know that by His power God Most High created the human body to contain all that He created in the universe: “We will show them Our signs in the horizons and in themselves, until they see …” (41:53). God created the twelve signs of the zodiac in the heavens and also in the human body. The head is Aries, the neck is Taurus, the hands are Gemini, the arms are Cancer, the chest is Leo, the intestine is Virgo, the navel is Libra, the phallus is Scorpio, the thighs are Sagittarius, the knees are Capricorn, the shanks are Aquarius, the soles of the feet are Pisces. The seven planets that revolve beneath the zodiac may be located thus: the heart is the Sun, the liver is Jupiter, the pulmonary artery is the Moon, the kidneys are Venus, the spleen is Saturn, the brain is Mercury, the gall bladder is Mars. God the Glorious and Most High made 360 days in the year, 360 revolutions in the zodiac, 360 mountains on the face of the Earth, 360 great rivers, and in the human body, 360 segments of bone (like the mountains), 360 arteries (like the rivers), 360 epidermal tissues (like the days of the year). The motion of the stomach is like the sea, hairs are like trees, parasites are like beasts of the jungle, the face is like a built-up city, and the skin is like the desert. The world has its four seasons, and these are also present in man: infancy is spring, youth is summer, quiescence is fall, and old age is winter. Thunder corresponds to the voice, lightning to laughter, rain to tears.

To bring microcosm and macrocosm into harmony, yogis and Sufis practiced, and still today practice, kriyas, or meditations, corresponding to the four elements. In his Secret of Love, the twentieth-century Chishti Sufi ‘Aziz Miyan describes the elemental kriyas in this manner: “Earth kriya: Meditate while incrementally burying the body in the ground, from feet to head. Water kriya: Meditate while sitting underwater, lying in the rain, or pouring water over the body. Fire kriya: Meditate before a fire, uniting first with the smoke and then with the flame. Air kriya: Meditate standing on a tree, hill, or roof, wearing a single cloth, facing the wind. Breathe in and out slowly and deeply, inducing the sensation of flight.”

[...] Hazrat Inayat Khan conceived of the Earth as an animate, and in some sense sentient, whole. He wrote, “If the planet on which we live had no intelligence it could not have intelligent beings on it.”9 If Earth possesses a kind of sentience, it follows that the planet may be susceptible to suffering, and Hazrat Inayat Khan made just such an assertion when he wrote, “My deep sigh rises above as a cry of the Earth, and an answer comes from within as a message.” The message of his talks and writings was a call to contemplate the moral and spiritual interconnectedness, and ultimate ontological unity, of all life.

[...] The sacred texts of Mazdaism, Hinduism, and Islam provide a profusion of illuminating perspectives on the nature of embodied existence. While there are undeniable differences in the worldviews communicated in these texts, certain key principles emerge as common understandings. Foremost among these is the insight that the manifest universe is a marvel of providential grace. Following on this is the perception that not only humans, animals, and plants, but all material forms partake of the pervasive light and power of creation, and bear recognition as spiritually alive. Further, the texts make clear the error of imagining human life as hovering autonomously above the natural world. Mystical contemplation of the human form conduces to the realization that the body is profoundly embedded within the wholeness of nature, a totality that each human physically and spiritually personifies. The Indo-Persian prophetic traditions agree: the Earth is alive, we live in and through her, and as we are in her keeping, so is she in ours.

[mariacallous]

In the mornings in Varanasi, the air on the banks of the Ganges fills with the scent of burning bodies. On the steps of the Manikarnika ghat—the holiest of the city’s stepped riverbanks, upon which Hindu dead are cremated—the fires are already lit, and mourners assemble by the hundred to accompany their loved ones at the end. Pyres of sandalwood (for the rich) and mango wood (for everyone else) are already burning; on one, a corpse wrapped in white is visible in the flames.

Down at the river, where I’m watching from a boat, some families are engaged in the ceremonial washing of their dead, the corpses shrouded in white linen and decorated with flowers. A few meters away, a man from another family (usually, the honor is bestowed on the eldest son) wades into the water, casting in the ashes of an already cremated relative so that the Ganges might carry their spirit onwards to the next life or even moksha, the end of the rebirth cycle, and transcendence.

The funeral ceremonies, held against the backdrop of the ancient city, are undeniably beautiful; but the same can’t be said of the river itself. The water’s surface is flaked with ashes; ceremonial flowers linger in the eddies. Just downstream, a couple of men are diving for discarded jewelry. Not 50 meters upstream, another group, having finished their rites, are bathing in the filthy water. An older man, clad in white, finishes his bathing with a traditional blessing: He cups the fetid Ganges water in one hand and takes a sip.

The Ganges is one of the most densely populated river basins in the world, providing water for an estimated 600 million people. But to Hindus, it is more than a waterway: It is Ma Ganga, the mother river, formed—according to the sacred text the Bhagavata Purana—when Lord Vishnu himself punctured a hole in the universe and divine water flooded into the world. Water from the Ganges is widely used in Hindu prayer and ceremony; you can buy plastic bottles of it from stalls all over the subcontinent—or order one on Amazon in the UK for as little as £3.

And yet despite its sacred status, the Ganges is one of the most contaminated major rivers on earth. The UN has called it “woefully polluted.” As India’s population has exploded—in April 2023, it overtook China to become the world’s most populous country—hundreds of millions of people have settled along the Ganges�� floodplain. India’s sanitation system has struggled to keep up. The Ganges itself has become a dumping ground for countless pollutants: toxic pesticides, industrial waste, plastic, and, more than anything, billions upon billions of liters of human effluent.

It’s March 2022, and I’ve come to India while reporting my book, Wasteland, about the global waste industry. And few issues in waste are more critical (yet less sexy) than sanitation. In the global north, sewage is a problem that many of us assumed was more or less fixed in Victorian times. But access to clean water and adequate sanitation remains an urgent global issue. Some 1.7 billion people worldwide still do not have access to modern sanitation facilities.

Every day, an estimated 494 million people without access to flushing toilets and closed sewers are forced to defecate in the open, in gutters, or in plastic bags. The World Health Organization estimates that one in 10 people consumes wastewater (aka sewage) every year, either via unclean drinking water or contaminated food. In India, the result is that 37 million people are thought to be affected by water-borne illnesses such as typhoid, dysentery, and hepatitis every year. Worldwide, poor sanitation kills more children annually than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.

Sanitation is one of those amenities that most of us in the global north don’t think about until something goes wrong. In the UK, sewers have lately dominated news headlines for the wrong reasons: Many of Britain’s rivers and beaches are being polluted by sewage overflow and farming runoff. According to the UK’s Environment Agency, water companies discharged sewage into English rivers on 301,091 occasions in 2022, totaling more than 1.7 million hours; on Britain’s beaches, sewage is reportedly making swimmers sick. Britain’s sanitation woes have been caused by years of neglect: systemic underinvestment by profit-chasing ownership; austerity-starved and ineffectual regulation; and the ever-widening expansion of our concrete urban spaces, which divert water away from natural soaks like soil and wetlands and into our watercourses.

In India—like much of the global south—the issue is the opposite: In most cases, the sewers were never there in the first place. In this respect, the Ganges’ pollution is a strange mark of success. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was first elected in 2014, among the first things he did was launch the Clean India Campaign, a nationwide effort to install sanitation and modern waste facilities in a country that had previously lacked them.

Even those critical of Modi’s government—denounced for alleged Islamophobic policies and oppression of the press, among many other things—have to admit that the numbers since have been astonishing. Between 2014 and 2019, by one official estimate, India installed 110 million toilets, providing sanitation for an estimated half a billion people. Little more than a decade ago, India was known for having the highest rate of open defecation (that is, shitting in the open) in the world. Thanks to this massive expansion of public and private toilets, that rate has reportedly plummeted. The issue is that with so many new toilets, the sewage needs to go somewhere.

In that sense, India is like many rapidly urbanizing countries in the global south. But India is also unique, in that Hindu culture places rivers at the center of religious beliefs. And it’s for this reason the Modi government, alongside its Clean India Campaign, launched an expensive infrastructure plan to clean up the national river: the Namami Gange (“Obeisance to the Ganges”) program. It is by no means the first attempt. Previous governments have been launching “‘action plans”’ to clean the Ganges since at least the 1980s. But past efforts, beset by alleged corruption and mismanagement, rarely got far.

To date, the Namami Gange program has cost over 328 billion rupees ($3.77 billion) and promised the construction of more than 170 new sewage facilities and 5,211 kilometers of sewer lines—enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean. It is a fascinating test case in the global effort to clean up our rivers and seas. After all, if you can’t clean a river sacred to hundreds of millions of people, what hope do the rest of us have?

The offices of Varanasi’s water board, are a traffic-clogged drive west from the cremation ghats and the old city, in one of Varanasi’s increasingly busy commercial neighborhoods. When I arrive there is construction work and activity everywhere. In his air-conditioned office, Raghuvendra Kumar, Jal Kal’s general manager, explains that this is one of the challenges that the Namami Gange project has faced. “This city does not sleep,” he explains.

Kumar, a neat man with a side parting, in a black leather jacket and surgical mask (when we speak, India is not long out of a Covid spike), has been at Jal Kal since 2018. “When I joined, the situation in the city was much worse, because the work was still in progress,” Kumar says. “Sewers were flowing everywhere. It flowed into the streets.”

Varanasi is among the oldest inhabited cities in the world. It is situated at the confluence of two rivers: the Varuna and Assi, both tributaries of the Ganges, which join the river course here. The city’s spiritual and tourist center, on the western bank of the river, is a warren of alleyways, many too narrow to move cars down and often blocked by stray cows and market stalls. The city’s original trunk sewer (the main sewer, into which smaller pipes feed) was built by the British in the early 20th century, but local officials explain that the precursor can be traced back to the Mughal Empire.

Until a few years ago, much of the city’s sewage was released untreated into the Ganges via public drains, or nullahs, which discharged along the same bank as the ghats, where people habitually bathe. Since 2016, the center of the city has seen the installation of several kilometers of new sewer lines, connecting pipes that once spewed straight into the river to a new intercepting sewer, which now carries much of the flow off to one of three new sewage treatment plants. Out of 23 known drains that previously carried raw sewage into the Ganges, Kumar says that 20 have been capped, with the rest in progress. Later, on the same boat that took me past the cremation sites, I see it myself: The city’s most notorious drain, Sisamau, is now capped. Only a steady trickle remains.

In a city that has seen near-constant civic engineering work going on for the last two decades, the sewer project has not always been popular. (“Changing the mindset of the people is a very difficult task,” Kumar says.) To improve uptake of the new waste regime, Jal Kal and the state’s Pollution Control Board put out a series of local adverts; the city ran public announcements over loudspeakers from garbage collection vehicles, warning against open defecation and asking inhabitants not to pollute the river and new drains with garbage. “In the last three to five years, it has come into the habit of the citizens that we have to improve our lifestyle, we have to change our behavior,” Kumar says. “And now it has become the habit of the people.”

It’s not the only change that has taken place in Varanasi. The temple flowers that once clogged the banks of the Ganges after cremations and religious festivals are now collected on the banks in marked bins and in the river using floating barriers; the remains are composted or collected by a local startup, Phool, which converts them into incense sticks. The city’s wider green policies have helped cut pollution levels: Varanasi has passed laws banning certain plastics within the holy city and launched a scheme mandating that more than 580 diesel-powered boats on the river be converted to run on compressed natural gas, reducing oil slicks on the water’s surface. The city also set about “beautifying” the ghats, employing teams of workers to collect leftover waste for recycling, and artists to paint murals celebrating the Namami Gange campaign. And most importantly, 361 public toilets have been built, connected to the new sewers, to reduce the rate of open defecation.

Among the Namami Gange projects inaugurated by Modi himself are a new sewage treatment plant in Dinapur, to the northeast of the city, designed to process up to 140 million liters of effluent per day. Similarly, as the city has expanded, so by necessity has the sanitation system. The day after I visit Jal Kal, I am given a tour of a brand-new sewage plant in Ramnagar, on the river’s west bank, where the population is booming. On the road to the plant I’m surrounded by building works, formal and informal; at one point, we pass a group digging up bricks from a newly laid road, presumably for housing construction.

I’m met by Shashikari Shastri, an engineer in charge, who shows me around. The sewage treatment plant is a modern and pleasant place (at least, as pleasant as sewage works get), with pale green buildings and neat rows of trees in the flower beds.

Most sewage treatment plants work in a similar way. To grossly simplify: The bigger solids (i.e., feces) are screened out in large, often open tanks, and those solids that remain are allowed to settle on the bottom of the tank or float to the surface, and are removed. The remaining water is then passed into a series of tanks and mixed with bacteria, which digest the leftover organic matter and kill off remaining pathogens. The ponds are aerated to encourage digestion. (The result tends to be bubbling lanes of sewage which, if you close your eyes, could sound like water fountains, were it not for the smell.) At this stage, any lingering solids are again settled out. Different technologies exist for third and even fourth steps to clean the water further—UV light, chlorination, etc.

The older sewage treatment plants in Varanasi work using an activated sludge technique, in which some of the solids removed during the settling process are reinjected as a kind of bacterial starter. Ramnagar, however, uses a modern A20 (anaerobic-anoxic) design, in which the effluent is passed through additional tanks to reduce dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus. “Our focus is to minimize eutrophication, because last year lots of algae and eutrophication was found [in the Ganges],” Shastri explains. Eutrophication is when a body of water becomes overly enriched with nutrients and minerals, leading to an explosion of algae, which can choke the river of aquatic life.

We arrive eventually at the outlet pipe, a cascading series of tiled waterfalls at the river’s edge. By now, Shastri says, the treated water is far cleaner than when it arrived. This is measured using biological oxygen demand (BOD)—the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water that bacteria need to remove any unwanted organic matter, a proxy measure for how much waste is in the water. “The BOD at the inlet is 180 mg/liter,” Shastri explains. “At the outlet, it’s 5 to10 mg/liter.” Down on the sand, children are playing. Another group is mining sand (illegally, most likely) for building materials.

The sewage treatment plant—like several that I visited along the Ganges reporting my book—is an impressive place, if small. (Despite asking, I was not permitted access to the city’s largest plant, in Dinapur, during my time there.) Still, I couldn’t help but feel that its minuscule size was woefully inadequate for the task in hand.

Size is not the only issue. The rosy image of the Namami Gange campaign, painted by the city’s civil servants, does not always match the reality on the ground. While almost everyone I spoke to in Varanasi was positive about the effect of the campaign on the river and the city, it’s clear that despite the rapid pace of building, the Ganges is still far from clean.

One afternoon in Varanasi, my fellow reporter Rahul Singh and I walked over to the banks of the Assi River (or “Assi nullah [sewer]” as many people still colloquially refer to it). Despite the Namami Gange project’s efforts, the banks of the Assi were buried ankle-deep in plastic waste: microsachets, bottles, packets, pots. I met one of the city’s waste pickers collecting PET bottles, which he can sell for 10 rupees (less than 10p) per kilogram. A little further upstream, floating barriers have been installed in the water to help catch the garbage; so much trash has built up on them that it has created reef-like islands midstream.

When the Assi reaches the Ganges, it passes through a pumping plant, designed to filter out solid rubbish before transferring the wastewater downstream to a sewage treatment plant. But when I visited, the pumping station was barely manned and operating at a fraction of its capacity. One of the metal screens for trapping garbage was broken; inside the facility, plastic and other waste trickled slowly off a conveyor belt and into sacks to be carted away for recycling or incineration. One of the staff (who I agreed could remain nameless) told me the plant extracts a ton of plastic waste per day.

The creaking reality of some of the infrastructure goes against the government’s line on the Namami Gange campaign, which it tends to portray in rapturous, nationalistic tones. The reality is that nearly 10 years after Modi first unveiled the project, the Ganges in Varanasi, and along much of its stretch, remains polluted.

According to the government-run Pollution Control Board’s own figures, in 2020, samples of the river water collected in Varanasi far exceeded India’s own recommended limits for fecal coliform and fecal streptococci bacteria—the latter exceeding the limit by more than 20-fold. The same was true when I visited the industrial city of Kanpur, known for its chromium and heavy metals pollution. It’s not just the Ganges, either: The Yamuna, in Delhi, registered fecal streptococci readings at 10,800 times the recommended limit. All across India, there are reports of rivers foaming with toxic waste or lakes catching fire.

This is the reality of a country like India, that is growing at such an astonishing rate: The risk for India’s civic planners is that by the time new infrastructure—sewage plants, waste facilities, roads—are built, the population is already greater than their capacity. (It is also, it should be said, not solely an Indian problem. Every major industrial country—from China in the last two decades, to the US and other Western countries several decades ago—has faced river pollution crises.) But the continued failure of the government’s schemes to clean the Ganges is a wedge issue for religious campaigners, to whom the issue of cleaning the Ganges is more than practical or political. It’s moral.

One evening in Varanasi, I head back to the ghats, to meet with one of the Namami Gange project’s most outspoken critics. Vishwambhar Nath Mishra is an intense man in his fifties, with white hair and a thick mustache. Mishra is a professor of electronics engineering at Banaras Hindu University, and also mahant (high priest) of Varanasi’s Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple, a position he inherited from his late father, Veer Bhadra Mishra. Mishra’s father was a lifelong campaigner for the Ganges, and back in the 1980s he set up the Sankat Mochan Foundation, an NGO focused on protecting the river; when we meet, in a room near the foundation, there is a picture of the elder Mishra on the wall, smiling happily. When Mishra Sr. died in 2013, Vishwambhar inherited the foundation, along with his religious duties.

For Mishra, that combination—of engineering, campaigning, and religion—gives him a unique perspective on the requirements of cleaning the Ganges. “The use of this river is entirely different from other river systems,” Mishra says. “People come from distant places and worship Ganga like their mother. A few [of those] people come and gently touch Ganga water and put it on their forehead. A few people come and take a religious bathe in the river. And a few take sips of Ganga water.” This sip is a sacred ritual part of the daily bath in the river taken by many devout Indians.

“Now, if people are sipping on the water, that means the quality has to be potable water quality; there has to be no compromise,” Mishra says. For him, it’s personal. As a religious leader, one person expected to sip Ganges water during their daily bath is Mishra himself.

Mishra’s weapon in the fight for the Ganges is a simple one: data. In 1993, the Sankat Mochan Foundation established one of the few independent labs to analyze the quality of the Ganges’ water in Varanasi. “That’s why they [the government] are scared,” Mishra says. “We have a database that speaks the reality of how healthy the river is.” Ever since, the foundation has been keeping track of the water—bacteria levels, oxygen demand—and has seen the river’s health decline with India’s growth.

According to Mishra and his fellow activists, the government’s own figures when it comes to sewage in Varanasi don’t add up. The largest sewage treatment plant, at Dinapur, has a stated processing capacity of 140 million liters a day (MLD). “Now as a matter of fact, I know that in [the Dinapur plant], they are able to carry only 60 MLD of sewage,” Mishra says, growing more animated as he talks. “At Goitha, where the capacity is 120 MLD, a few months back when I asked those people, they are able to transport only 10 to20 MLD of sewage. That’s all. So as a scientific man, you can just calculate the efficiency.” Similarly, Mishra claims that the government’s assertions that drains are no longer discharging into the river is not true. “Five years ago we found 33 locations discharging [sewage] … That has reduced to 15 or 16,” he says. (The Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board did not respond to requests for comment.)

Whereas India’s religious and environmental campaigners like Mishra hope to make the Ganges drinkable again, the Indian government has to date only declared an intent to make the Ganges in Varanasi a Class B river—fit for bathing only. Even by that standard, Mishra says, the project is failing. “We have scientific parameters that if Ganga is a Class B River, then total fecal coliform count should be less than 500 per 100 ml,” Mishra says. (Fecal coliform bacteria are a strong indicator of other pathogens being present.) Mishra shows me a ream of paper, upon which he has printed charts of the lab’s water quality data at numerous locations, going back months. “Right now [in March 2022], where we are sitting at Tulshi ghat, the figure is 41,400 per 100 ml. At the end of [Varanasi], where a big channel is discharging, it is 51 million.”

(While I could not independently confirm these numbers, even the Indian government’s data shows that pathogen levels in the Ganges at Varanasi are many multiples higher than its safety targets.)

Back in 2014, before the launch of the Namami Gange program, Mishra sat with Modi to discuss his hopes to clean the Ganges. Mishra’s foundation has since presented its own proposals for treatment projects, but has been ignored. The Pollution Control Board and state government dispute the foundation’s data; Mishra, meanwhile, says that the government’s figures, which are averages of samples taken from across the width of the river, do not reflect the reality experienced by bathers on the ghats, where sewers discharge into the Ganges and the water is slower. “They will never recognize our laboratory because they know that it will be a big trouble for them. But we have all the data since 1993.”

Mishra also claims that commercial interests are preventing the government from taking even more decisive action to cut pollution. “Ganga happens to be a very fertile cow. So, everybody’s milking in the name of Ganga,” he says. (Allegations of corruption have plagued India’s many Ganges cleanup campaigns, although Mishra didn’t share any specific evidence of corruption. India’s Ministry of Jal Shakti, or water ministry, did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment.)

Most politicians and engineers in India, when asked, will tell you that a totally pure Ganges, of the sort that Mishra is aiming for, is almost certainly impossible. (“Religious people don’t follow logic,” SK Barman, a project manager for the state water company’s Ganga Pollution Prevention Unit, told me. “We have to achieve salvation somehow. Moksha, moksha, moksha.”) But in driving the conversation, it’s also clear that without Mishra and the countless other environmental activists across India campaigning for the Ganges restoration, the issue would be worse.

A year since I was last in Varanasi, it’s clear that India’s sanitation drive is still far from where the government’s narrative would have the public believe. According to a public information request by the Indian news organization Down to Earth, in 2023, 71 percent of the Ganges’ river monitoring stations were reporting “alarmingly high” levels of fecal coliform bacteria. Over 66 percent of drains in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where Varanasi sits, still empty into the Ganges and its tributaries.

There is no doubt that the Namami Gange project has made progress, and not just in the number of toilets installed and treatment plants made operational. Nearly every member of the public I spoke to in India—in Varanasi, Kanpur, and in New Delhi—confirmed that anecdotally, pollution issues are improving. It wasn’t that long ago that dead bodies would be regularly found in the river, and sewage in the rainy season flowed up onto the ghats. Today, there are increased sightings of aquatic life, such as the Ganges river dolphin.

And at 2022’s state elections, Modi’s BJP party remained in power—a significant sign ahead of 2024’s presidential election. In March 2023, Modi’s government confirmed Namami Gange Mission II, an additional $2.56 billion of expenditure on expanding the program and continuing to complete already commissioned infrastructure.

As for Mishra and the other activists advocating for a clean holy river, their campaign continues, no matter how unpopular it makes him with the government and Modi-leaning press. “I have heard, ‘Why? Why don’t you say the Ganga is clean?’ Mishra says. “I cannot say that. We are totally committed to the Ganga, and we cannot mislead people. For me, the Ganga is the medium of my life.”

It’s a holy mission, I say.

“It’s a holy mission, and it’s a scientific mission.”

[bhagvadgita]

Verse 12.20 - Bhakti Yoga

ये तु धर्म्यामृतमिदं यथोक्तं पर्युपासते । श्रद्दधाना मत्परमा भक्तास्तेऽतीव मे प्रियाः ॥

Those who honor this nectar of wisdom declared here, have faith in Me, and are devoted and intent on Me as the Supreme Goal, they are exceedingly dear to Me.

This verse is the concluding statement of the twelfth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, which deals with the topic of bhakti or devotion to the Supreme Lord. It summarizes the essence of the teachings given by Lord Krishna to Arjuna on how to attain the highest state of Bliss and Realization through loving service to Him.

The phrase "this nectar of wisdom" refers to the entire Bhagavad Gita, which is considered to be the essence of the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of Hinduism. The Bhagavad Gita reveals the nature of the Self, the world, and the Supreme Lord, and instructs the seeker on how to perform one's duties in accordance with one's nature and the will of God, without being attached to the results. It also describes the various paths of yoga, such as karma, jnana, and bhakti, and shows how they ultimately lead to the same goal of union with the Lord.

The phrase "have faith in Me" means to have complete trust and confidence in the Lord as the source, sustainer, and controller of everything, and as the ultimate benefactor and well-wisher of all living beings. It also means to accept His words as the highest authority and guidance for one's life, and to follow His instructions with sincerity and devotion.

The phrase "are devoted and intent on Me as the Supreme Goal" means to have an exclusive and unflinching love for the Lord, and to make Him the sole object of one's thoughts, words, and deeds. It also means to dedicate one's entire life and energy to His service, and to seek His pleasure and satisfaction in everything. It also means to renounce all other desires and attachments, and to consider nothing else as more important or valuable than Him.

The phrase "they are exceedingly dear to Me" means that the Lord is very pleased and delighted with such devotees, and that He reciprocates their love and devotion by bestowing His Grace and Blessings upon them. It also means that He considers them as His own, and that He protects them from all dangers and difficulties, and grants them the highest perfection of life, which is to attain His eternal abode of bliss and knowledge.

Similar verses from other Vedic texts are:

- Yogavashishta 2.18.35

यस्मिन्श्रुते मते ज्ञाते तपोध्यानजपादिकम् ।

मोक्षप्राप्तौ नरस्येह न किंचिदुपयुज्यते ॥

Having studied, understood and realized its philosophy, one does not stand in need of any other performance (askesis, meditation, mantra chanting etc.) for Realization of God.

This verse implies that the knowledge of the Self and the Reality, as expounded in the Yogavashishta, is sufficient to free one from the bondage of ignorance and suffering, and that no other means or practices are required for attaining the Supreme Goal of God Realization.

- Shvetashvatara Upanishad 6.23

यस्य देवे परा भक्तिः यथा देवे तथा गुरौ ।

तस्यैते कथिता ह्यर्थाः प्रकाशन्ते महात्मनः ॥

To him who has the highest devotion to God, and as to God so to the Guru, to that great soul these truths, here taught, shine forth.

This verse emphasizes the importance of having the highest devotion to both God and the Guru, who is the representative and manifestation of God, and who imparts the knowledge of the Self and the Reality to the disciple. It also states that only such a devotee can comprehend and Realize the truths taught in the Upanishads, which are the essence of the Vedas.

- Vishnu Purana 1.19.84

यस्यानुग्रहतो विष्णुः प्रसन्नो भवति प्रभुः ।

तस्य सर्वाणि कार्याणि सिद्धिं यान्ति न संशयः ॥

When the Lord is pleased and gracious to anyone, all his actions are crowned with success, without a doubt.

This verse declares that the Supreme Lord, who is the source and sustainer of all creation, is the ultimate goal and benefactor of all living beings, and that by pleasing Him with one's devotion and service, one can achieve all one's desires and aspirations, both material and spiritual. It also assures that there is no doubt or uncertainty about the Lord's mercy and favor to His devotees.

[blessed1neha]

What is Adhik Maas?

Purushottam Month, revered in Hinduism, holds tremendous importance according to consecrated Hindu sacred texts. Known as Adhik Maas, it happens every few years, adding an additional month to the lunar schedule.

Referenced in the Puranas, especially the Skanda Purana, it is accepted that Master Vishnu himself dwells in this month, offering gifts and profound benefits to aficionados. The period supports strengthened love, retribution, and upright demonstrations. Noticing ceremonies and fasting during Purushottam Month is accepted to purify sins, advance otherworldly development, and lead to extreme freedom. This holy time welcomes lovers to develop their commitment and look for divine effortlessness.

[drmohitchangani]

Time calculation in The Ling Mahapuran

Old Indian scriptures and literature are little explored. Majority of the people who follow Hinduism barely get in to the depth of it. Apart from religious values, it contains very rich information which help up to get an idea about the advancement of the civilization back then. If you open up any of the book and start reading, at the first glance it would appear a religious text. As you continue…

[ugc-blog]

Literary Sources of Ancient Indian History

Ancient Indian history is a rich and diverse field of study with a wide range of literary sources that provide insights into the civilization, culture, society, and events of ancient India. Some of the prominent literary sources of ancient Indian history include:

Vedas: The Vedas are the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism and provide valuable information about the social, religious, and cultural aspects of ancient Indian society. They are divided into four main texts: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda, and the Atharvaveda.

Ramayana: Ramayana is one of the two major Hindu epics, attributed to the sage Valmiki. It narrates the story of Lord Rama and provides insights into the political, social, and cultural aspects of ancient India.

Mahabharata: Mahabharata is another major Hindu epic, attributed to the sage Vyasa. It is an extensive epic that includes the famous Bhagavad Gita, which contains philosophical teachings on dharma, karma, and society. The Mahabharata also provides valuable insights into ancient Indian society, culture, and history.

Puranas: The Puranas are a collection of Hindu texts that contain myths, legends, and historical accounts of ancient India. They provide information about the genealogy of kings, dynasties, and historical events.

Arthashastra: Arthashastra is an ancient Indian treatise on politics, economics, and governance, written by the scholar Kautilya, also known as Chanakya. It provides insights into the administrative and economic systems of ancient India.

Jataka Tales: Jataka Tales are a collection of stories about the previous lives of Gautama Buddha, which provide insights into the social, cultural, and moral values of ancient Indian society.

Rock Edicts and Inscriptions: Several rock edicts and inscriptions from ancient Indian rulers such as Ashoka the Great and Samudragupta provide valuable historical information about the administration, religious policies, and social aspects of ancient India.

Sangam Literature: Sangam Literature is a collection of Tamil texts from ancient South India, dating back to the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE. These texts provide insights into the social, economic, and cultural aspects of ancient South India.

Buddhist and Jain Texts: Ancient Indian history also includes important literary sources from Buddhism and Jainism, such as the Tripitaka (Buddhist scriptures) and the Jain Agamas, which provide insights into the teachings, practices, and history of these religions in ancient India.

These are just some of the prominent literary sources of ancient Indian history. The study of these texts and their interpretation by historians and scholars continues to provide valuable insights into the ancient Indian civilization and its historical development.

[whencyclopedia]

Krishna

Krishna (Krsna or Hari Krishna) is a major god of the Hindu pantheon and considered the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. He is perhaps the most popular of all the heroes of Hindu mythology. Krishna's adventures appear in the Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, Harivamsa, and the sacred texts known as the Puranas where he is described as the Supreme Being and creator of the universe.

The most ancient tales of Krishna in sacred texts involve his adventures with the Pandava princes whilst later, stories accumulated over the centuries which describe his eventful youth, when Krishna used his proficient weapons skills to good effect to defeat a host of fearsome enemies, demons and monsters.

Family & Adventurous Youth

According to tradition Krishna belonged to the Yadava - a pastoral race - and the god's birth is picturesquely described in the Mahabharata. One day Vishnu, the great Hindu god pulled two hairs from his own head, one white and one black. The black hair was planted into the womb of Devaki, a princess of the city of Mathura, and so Krishna was born into the Pandava family, his earthly father being Vasudeva. Unfortunately for Krishna his mother's brother, Kamsa, had been warned that Devaki's eighth child would kill him, and so Kamsa determined to murder the eighth child, a crime he had already carried out seven times before Krishna was born. Fortunately, Vasudeva took the precaution of hiding Krishna in the remote village of Vrindavana where the boy was brought up as a simple cowherd (in this guise he can be referred to as Govinda). There he spent an idyllic childhood and stirred the hearts of many gopis or herd-women with his dark good looks, playful charm, and mastery of music and dance.

Thus the story of Krishna contains a double concealment - Krishna is both a god disguised as a mortal and a prince disguised as a commoner. Accordingly, the myths contain many metaphors of disguise, such as a spark within a pile of ashes or a mighty sword in its scabbard, and these hint at Krishna's dual purpose as the punisher of human deeds but also as a bringer of enlightenment.

Krishna's foster parents at Vrindavana were Nanda and Yashoda, his sister is Subhadra, and his brother Balarama. Krishna's favourite consort was the cowherd woman Radha (or perhaps even his wife if they married in secret, as some sources claim). Tradition has it that the god actually acquired 16,108 wives and fathered 180,000 sons. Queen Rukmini, an earthly form of the goddess Lakshmi, is considered Krishna's second most favoured wife after Radha. With Rukmini, Krishna had a son, Pradyumna, and a daughter, Carumati.

Krishna was involved in many escapades in his adventurous youth. Notable amongst these are his various killings and thrashings of prominent enemies such as the ogress Putana, the giant bull danava, the giant snake Kaliya, and the king of the Hayas (horses). Also swiftly dealt with was the scheming tyrant Kamsa – after whose beheading Krishna established himself as king of Mathura. Krishna slew many demons and demon kings: Muru and his 7,000 sons, Pralamba – who Krishna beat up using only his fists, Naraka – son of the Earth and who had accumulated a harem of 16,000 captured women, and the sea-demon Pancajana who looked like a conch shell and who lost his magic shell to Krishna which the hero carried thereafter and used as a trumpet. Krishna also found time to lift the mountain Govardhana to foil a terrible deluge sent by Indra, to conquer Saubha, the floating city of the Titans (daityas), got the better of the sea-god Varuna, and even managed to steal the divine discus possessed by the fire-god Agni. Against mere mortals Krishna also wreaked havoc amongst the Gandharas, Bhojas, and Kalingas, amongst others.

Continue reading...

[talonabraxas]

Divine Union of Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi

It is said that we reach where our thoughts lead us to. So, if we are surrounded by positive thoughts we will attract positivity and if our thoughts are related to divine energy then positive aura is the ultimate destination.

Let us revive our mind and nurture it with sacred things about god and goddesses who are the real foundation of this universe.

Hindu religion is the richest one loaded with a huge number of gods and goddesses. Among many, the tales of Lord Vishnu and Maa Lakshmi are very popular among Hindu devotees throughout the world.

Lord Vishnu along with her consort Maa Lakshmi is regularly worshipped by people for their eternal blessings in the form of good health, wealth, success, prosperity and harmony in the family.

About Lord Vishnu and Maa Lakshmi

According to the various Hindu texts, puranas, and epics Lord Vishnu is the part of trinity gods who play the role of preserver. The other two gods are Lord Brahma (the creator) and Lord Shiva (the destroyer). Lord Vishnu is the sacred Hindu god also known as Narayana who used to appear on earth to maintain a balance between the good and the evil and to protect humans and other beings from the wicked demons. Lord Vishnu has appeared nine times on earth in the form of different incarnations during the times when bad deeds increased.

Maa Lakshmi also known as ‘Shri’, the Hindu goddess of wealth, health and good fortune who is the wife of Lord Vishnu. It is believed that she also appeared in different forms on earth along with Lord Vishnu as Radha or Rukmini, Sita, Padma and more.

Both Lord Vishnu and Maa Lakshmi possess powers which are capable of transforming the lives of people. When they both are worshipped together miracles happen and the desires of people are fulfilled. They bless their devotees with abundance of health, wealth and prosperity.

Marriage of Vishnu and Lakshmi

The union or the tying of knots between the Lord Vishnu and Maa Lakshmi is an auspicious moment altogether. Lets dive into the esoteric journey of sacred marriage and bring out some best of the gems.

The story goes back to the time when Indra (the King of all Devtas) was traveling on his vehicle Airavata, the elephant. He met sage Durvasa on his way who gave him a magical garland. Indra in his arrogance did not greet the sage properly due to which sage Durvasa cursed him. As a result of which Indra and all the other devtas lost their power, wealth and possessions.

After this, devtas were attacked by Asuras the demons. In the battle they lost Indralok and other powers.

Indra along with other gods went to Brahma who advised them to visit Lord Vishnu in Vaikuntha.

Indra pleaded in front of Lord Vishnu and asked for help. Lord Vishnu advised them to go for churning of the ocean of milk that is 'Samudra Manthan'.

Lord Vishnu told the gods to take help of Mount Mandara for churning and snake god Vasuki as a rope.

Lord Vishnu himself appeared as an incarnation of Kurma avatar in tortoise form. As Kurma avatar, Lord Vishnu went into the ocean below the Mount Mandara and held it on his back providing a firm base.

This was the time when Lord Vishnu and Maa Lakshmi parted.

On the advice of Lord Vishnu, Devtas went to hold the tail of Vasuki and the Asuras were towards the head which was throwing out a deadly poison.

As the churning began, many precious gems and other things came out. Goddess Lakshmi also appeared in a beautiful form all dressed up in red saree and loaded with gold jewelry. All the Devtas and Asuras were awestruck by the beauty of goddess Lakshmi. They eagerly waited for Lakshmi to choose them when Lord Brahma interfered and organized the 'Swayamwar' for the marriage of Lakshmi. This was done to protect the rights and respect of women as in Swayamwar, goddess Lakshmi had the right to choose her husband.

Devtas and Asuras were admiring goddess Lakshmi and wanted her to choose them. Just then Lord Vishnu also appeared and posed as one of the grooms. The moment goddess Lakshmi saw Lord Vishnu, she ran with a garland towards him and chose him as her husband.

This was the moment when goddess Lakshmi tied knots with Lord Vishnu and became his eternal consort. Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi Talon Abraxas