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the-hem · 9 months ago

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"The Faces of God." From the Rudraksha Jabala Upanishad, the Exploration of the Mysteries of the Metronome.

The topic of Hindu gods must eventually be discussed if one is going to delve into the Upanishads. Contrary to popular superstition and ridicule, the gods are not worshipped, they are instructors. God alone, called Shiva, "kindness" is worshipped.

Over the ages, the great teachers of the Indus Valley married aspects of the Literature and wisdom to three dimensional forms to help the mind focus, become serene and detach from other forms. The gods are intermediaries between the distractions and profane aspects of life and delusions in the mind and the Absolute Supremacy of the Holy Spirit.

Christians, the biggest critics of religious statuary and images fill their churches with consecrated objects of their own, so it is safe to say the practice is widespread. Without churches and temples and works of art that explain the presence of the sacred, we would all stay home and talk about the Thing, and that wouldn't quite do the trick. Si religious artifacts are Ay-Okay.

Gods are Shaivite, "after Shiva", Vaishnavite, "after Vishnu" or are related to the Devi, the Goddess. Male forms create, female forms energize. Vishnu, "all pervasive" is paired with Sri, "Light" which illuminates the Grace of God in all directions. Vishnu and Sri produce "the right place" whether that is in the mind, the temple or the household or creation itself.

Shiva is the Destroyer of Ignorance. He is often paired with Uma, "the Mountain" where sages go to meditate. If one meditates and subdues the ego, selfish stupid things in the mind go away and the Grace of God becomes apparent. All the great masters came to kneel at the feet of the Brahman through meditation upon the Lord Shiva.

The Upanishad explains how the beads in the rosary are numbered and how these create the concepts of the gods. The literature in the Hindu canon and within the Upanishads are filled with stories of the gods but any Hindu will tell you, the end point resolution of the study of the gods is always none other than Shiva. They are taught this from birth onward.

Rudrakshas, remember are seeds and they represent the days of the year of the soul:

Then again Bhusunda “the pistol” asked Lord Kalagnirudra “the fire at the end of time” [a name used by Lord Shiva]: What are the different forms and effects of Rudraksha beads? Please tell me about the secret of these blessed ones including their various faces, which is the means of getting rid of all evil.

Lord Kalagnirudra said:

The bead with one face is of the form of the Supreme Truth. A disciplined one (controlling his senses) mingles himself with the one Eternal Truth, after wearing these Rudrakshas.

The bead with two faces is of the form of Ardhanarisvara and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of Ardhanarisvara (Siva united with Sakti).

Hindus acknowledge rights and dignities of persons who experience gender dysphoria and respect gender diversity within the human race.

The bead with three faces is of the form of the three fires and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of Agni.

The Three Fires are the Creation, the Path, and the Destination.

The bead with four faces is of the form of the four-faced Brahma and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of Brahma.

The Four Heads of Brahma the Creator represent the knowledge in the Four Vedas. Without knowing how we understand, we do not understand anything, anywhere in any direction.

The bead with five faces is of the form of Panchabrahman (the five-faced Siva) and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of Panchabrahman and drives away the sin of homicide.

The five faced Shiva represents the eradication of delusion at the point of entry in the five senses.

The bead with six faces is of the form of the six-faced Kartikeya or Ganesha and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of wealth and health, clear intellect and wisdom, and purification.

The six faced god is called Kartikeya, the Splitter of Mountains the god of war who binds the five senses to duty, justice, fairness, equality, and secular law.

He manifested as Krishna to rid the world of an asshole that stole a federal election.

The bead with seven faces is of the form of the seven Matras (Mother Goddesses) and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of wealth and health, right perception, and purity of mind.

The bead with eight faces is of the form of the eight-fold Nature (five elements, mind, ego, and matter) or the eight Vasus and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of these Devatas and becomes truthful.

The bead with nine faces is of the form of the Nava-Saktis and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of the nine Powers, the Nine Principal Upanishads.

The bead with ten faces is of the form of the ten Yamas means used by Yogins and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of achieving peace of the mind.

The Ten Yamas (restraints) are:

1. Non-injury, ahiṁsā: Not harming others by thought, word, or deed.

2. Truthfulness, satya: Refraining from lying and betraying promises.

3. Non-stealing, asteya: Neither stealing, nor coveting nor entering into debt.

4. Divine conduct, brahmacharya: Controlling lust by remaining celibate when single, leading to faithfulness in marriage.

5. Patience, Kṣamā: Restraining intolerance with people and impatience with circumstances.

6. Steadfastness, dhṛiti: Overcoming non-perseverance, fear, indecision and changeableness.

7. Compassion, dayā: Conquering callous, cruel and insensitive feelings toward all beings.

8. Honesty, straightforwardness, ārjava: Renouncing deception and wrongdoing.

9. Moderate appetite, mitāhāra: Neither eating too much nor consuming meat, fish, fowl or eggs.

10. Purity, śaucha: Avoiding impurity in body, mind and speech.

The 10 Niyamas, Observances For Spiritual Life from the Vedas: (click the name for a separate article)

1. Remorse, Hrī: being modest and showing shame for misdeeds.

2. Contentment, santosha: Seeking joy and serenity in life.

3. Giving, dāna: tithing and giving generously without thought of reward.

4. Faith, āstikya: believing firmly in God, Gods, guru and the path to enlightenment.

5. Worship of the Lord, Īśvarapūjana: The cultivation of devotion through daily worship and meditation.

6. Scriptural listening, siddhānta śravaṇa: Studying the Teachings and listening to the wise of one’s lineage.

7. Cognition, mati: Developing a spiritual will and intellect with the guru’s guidance.

8. Sacred vows, vrata: Fulfilling religious vows, rules and observances faithfully.

9. Recitation, japa: Chanting mantras daily.

10. Austerity, tapas: Performing sādhana, penance, tapas and sacrifice.

The bead with eleven faces is of the form of the eleven Rudras and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of increase well-being and wealth.

The bead with twelve faces is of the form of Mahavishnu or the twelve Adityas and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of Moksha.

They are:

Yama: the god of the death of impure desires

Aryaman: the god of friendliness

Indra: the god of the intellect

Ravi: god of praise

Varuṇa; god of water

Dhātṛ: the god of the full moon (enlightenment)

Bhaga: the god of fate

Savitr: the "rouser"

Sūrya or Arka: the god of the sun

Aṃśa: the god of moderation

Mitra: loyalty

Dakṣa: the god of righteousness

The bead with thirteen faces is of the form of the Kama (Cupid or the god of Love) and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of Cupid in gratifying all desires.

The bead with fourteen faces is of the form of Rudra being generated out of his eyes and the devotee wearing it attains the grace of destruction of all diseases.

After one establishes oneself in meditation, one performs the Rudrakshas and replaced the sinful tendencies in the mind with those of the virtues found in the gods named by the seeds of God's Graces.

He who pays homage to the names and forms contained in the Rudrakshas and memorizes their properties verily comes to enter into life without any residual tendencies to sin.

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preeti505 · 1 year ago

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#GodnightThursday

Kaya Devi Durga apne sadhak ko moksh pradan kar sakti hai?

Es navratri pr gud rahshaya ko janne ke liye jarur padhe pavitra pustak Gyan Ganga.

Contact 7496801825

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sruthi997 · 1 year ago

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srinivasa mangapuram temple history

srinivasa mangapuram temple history At a distance of 12 km from Tirupati, 3 km from Chandragiri & 29 km from Tirumala Tirupati Temple of Lord Venkateswara, Srinivasa Mangapuram is famous for Sri Kalyana Venkateswara Swami Temple. This is one of the important temples near Tirupati town and is located towards Chandragiri town. It is one of the must visit Tirupati Temples

The ancient temple at this site was discovered by some devotees in 1540 CE. The present form of the temple came into existence by the relentless efforts of Chinna Thirumalaiyya, the grandson of Annamacharya. According to legend, Lord Venkateswara stayed here after his marriage with Sri Padmavati Devi. Once the marriage ceremony got over, Venkateswara paid a visit to the holy ashram of sage Agasthya located near the banks of the river Swarnamukhi in Chandragiri Hills. It is believed that sage Agasthya requested them to stay in his ashram for six months. Later, the location where the Lord stayed with his bride became a holy shrine and acquired the name, Sri Kalyana Venkateswara Swamy Temple.

This ancient temple which is under the control of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is maintained by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams since 1967 and utsavams and rituals in this temple are being performed since 1981. Today, Sri Kalyana Venkateswara Swamy temple is considered as of the sacred temples of Venkateswara. Those who are unable to make it to Tirumala can have darshan of Lord Sri Kalyana Venkateswara Swamy to fulfill their wish. Sri Rama Temple, Sri Ranganayaka Temple, Sri Padmavathi and Sri Andal Temple are other shrines in this complex. Devotees can also find small shrines including Sri Sakti Vinayaka Swami, Sri Veerabhadra Swami, Sri Avanakshamma, Sri Parasareswara Swami and Sri Agastheeswara Swami.

This temple carries significance for newlywed couples who offer prayers first in this temple just after their wedding. It is also said that individuals having trouble getting into wedlock can pray here and get rid of troubles. Kalyanotsavam to the Lord is performed here every day. Devotees get rid of their troubles by attending this ritual.

Office Address

Lakshmi Puram Circle, Near Bliss Hotel,Tirupati Postal Code: 517502

Phone Number

+91-9985-9984-80 +91-9985-3245-73

[email protected]

https://twitter.com/tirupati_helps

https://in.linkedin.com/comapny/tirupatihelps

#tirupati #travel #SRINIVASA MANGAPURAM

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shridharblog · 2 years ago

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Suwarna Subhodhayam 🙏 With #goddess #gnana #saraswathi #temple #basara On The Banks Of #river #godavari #nirmal DT, #telangana #gopuradarshanam 🕉️🕉️🥥🥥🙏🙏 ......... #shrisaivastu ........ #saraswati #godesssaraswati #saraswatitemple #devi #durga #durgamaa #maadurga #amman #ambal #omshanti #omsakthi #sakti #godess #goddessenergy #goddessvibes #instagod #telanganatourism #andhrapradesh #telugu (at Telangana,INDIA) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoY8i7Fv7sO/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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hotmonkeelove · 7 years ago

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Shiva and Parvati by mmmmmr

The artist’s caption for this, “Since the first day I saw you....” is perfect! I am in love with this piece!

#lord shiva #parvati #shiva #shakti #mahadev #devi #sakti #hinduism #hindu art #divine couple #love #union of opposites #devotion #my heart!

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whencyclopedia · 3 years ago

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Devi

Devi, also known as Mahadevi or 'Great Goddess', is an all-embracing Mother Goddess first worshipped in India in Prehistoric times. In the Vedic period, she was assimilated into the Hindu pantheon and so came to represent the female energy or Sakti (Power) of her husband Shiva. Both Devi (meaning...

#Devi #hinduism #Kali

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blrowanducks-blog · 2 years ago

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Preceding with Sakti

The philosophical underpinnings of Sakti, the All-pervading Energy.

NOTHING can exist unless there is some ground for its existence, some substratum from which it may rise. There must also be some possibility and some reason for existence. We have seen that the universal substatum was called the Immensity (brahman) and that the mechanical potentiality of manifestation lay in the form of opposing tendencies represented as cohesion (Vişnu) and disintegration (Śiva), their balance, the space-time creating principle, being known as the Immense-Being (Brahmā).

The tension between the opposites from which motion arises in the substratum is depicted as the first appearance of energy (sakti). It is from manifest energy, and not merely from the opposition from which it springs forth, that existence arises. Energy does not pertain to one or the other of the opposites nor to their opposition. It is something more, something new. Once manifestation has taken place, it appears as the substance of everything, pervading every thing. It can be represented as the power of Siva or that of Visnu or that of Brahma. As the power of their combined form, Isvara, it becomes the Supreme Goddess (Bhagavati), the Resplendent-One (Devi). It can even be conceived as the power which appears in the neutral Immensity, as the maelstrom from which existence and the three basic-tendencies (gunas) themselves appear to arise; it is then called Illusion (Maya). From the point of view of cosmology this power, when manifest, it is called Nature (prakṛti). It is through it that the gods are born and procreate, Energy is pictured as female, being the creative birth giving aspect of divinity, the power through which creation manifests. It is only when the qualityless, shapeless, substratum becomes: "The quality of being divine, appearing in that in which there is most energy." powerful beings, rest upon that of power. The gods are infused through and through by the great Energy. A limitless center from which the universe can be created, maintained, and destroyed. Without energy, Siva, the lord of sleep, is unable to create or destroy, He is as powerless as a corpse. The divinity of divinity rests upon Energy. "She is the power of the Self; she it is who creates appearances." In the Linga-arcana Tantra we read: "Devoid of senses, the eternal lord of sleep is merely the form of the Void. He has no visible form. What can be expected from the worship of nothingness?

"Without the great Daughter-of-the-Mountain (Parvati), ever glorified as his supreme dread energy, the corpse of Rudra is never worshiped. This primordial goddess is known as "the coiled, Kundalini". Her substance is Brahma-Vişnu-Šiva. She envelops Šiva with her three and a half veils. Only because he is united with Energy is the eternal lord of sleep a doer of actions. This is why the Goddess is worshiped as a linga surrounded by a yoni." "The quiescent aspect of Siva is, by definition, inert. Activity is the nature of Nature (prakṛti). For this reason the female form is represented in sexual union as being above (vipartta) the male. When the devi is shown standing above Siva... [this also represents] the liberating aspect of the Mother." (Woodroffe, The Serpent Power, p. 27)

Among the Saktas, who are the worshipers of the Goddess, the source of existence is considered female, becomes the main representation of divinity is God as woman.

Yet power is ever inseparable from him who possesses it. So the all-powerful Energy cannot be really distinct from the substratum from which it arises. The concept of Sakti is necessary to justify the appearance of the perceptible universe out of an inaccessible, motionless substratum.

The word Sakti, meaning "energy," is found in the Vedas, where its equivalent is in fact (divine grace), representing Energy, personified as the consort of Indra, the divine might. The notion of Sakti as the supreme power seems to appear fully only in the Svetasvatara Upanisad, one of the Saivite Upanisads.

In the common Hindu theology, Sakti is but another name for the manifesting power, the creative principle. It takes the place of Brahma, the Cosmic Embryo (Hiranya-garbha). In later mythology the concept of Sakti comes to include both the notions of a concentrating and illuminating the power that is Vişņu and an active space-time principle that is Brahma to form the complement of the male, positive, ultimate knowledge that is Śiva.

Descending from the earliest prehistoric Saivism, the eternal couple Šiva and the all-pervading Energy Sakti is represented in the male and the female emblems, the linga and the yoni, pervades the whole of later Hinduism. The linga embraced by the yoni forms the central object of worship and tends to reduce to a minor position all the other ways of representing divinity.

Energy is the source of everything, the origin of the phenomenal world but also of the conscious plan of its creation, and the principle of knowledge or perception through which its existence, real or apparent, can be known. Thus the Goddess is also represented as Consciousness or as Knowledge. Without her the gods are dead, inactive, unknown, nonexistent. Knowledge (jana) without action (kriya) is dead knowledge, and so is feeling (rasa) without strength (bala).

The Goddess is the source of all, the universal creator. "The gods, approaching the resplendent Goddess, asked her, 'Who are you?' The Goddess replied, 'I am the form of the Immensity; from me the world arises as Nature and Person (prakṛti-purusa)." (Devi Upanisad 1-2 [478])

"She is the form of all that is conscious. The origin, the knowledge, the perception of reality, the instigator of intellect." (Devi Bhagavata Purāņa 1.1. [479])

She is realized in the microcosm as the ultimate goal of Yoga.

"In the principial-aperture (the brahma-randhra, behind the forehead) each man finds me, the lady-of-the-spheres (Bhuvaneśvari), who am the shape of the Principle, beyond the Fourth [unmanifest] stage." (Bhuvanesvart Upanisad. [480])

The Devi Sukta of the Rg Veda describes her as supreme, all-pervading divinity.

The Goddess says:

"I wander with the principles-of-life (Rudras), with the spheres-of-existence (Vasus), the sovereign-principles (Adityas), and the all-pervading-gods (Viśvadevas). I am the support of Might (Indra), of Fire (Agni), of the law-of Asvins). I am the support of the soma wine which flows from the crushing man-and-gods (Mitra-Varuna), of the horse-headed gods-of-agriculture (the stone; I am the support of the Shaper (Tvaştr), of the Nourisher (Paşan), of the Inherited-Share (Bhaga). I am the giver of the fruit of action to the performer of the ritual sacrifice, which nourishes the gods with offerings. "I am the Kingdom, the giver of wealth, the knower of the essence of things. I come first in all rituals. The gods have established me in various abodes. My sphere is wide. I dwell in all things.

"From me comes the food you eat, all that you see, all that has breath (prāna), and all the words you hear. Those who do not acknowledge me are destroyed. Study and hear what I say with respect. I am the pleasure of gods and men".

"I make everyone whatever he wishes to be, feared or great, a man of vision or intellect. I draw the bow of the lord-of-tears (Rudra) to kill the tribes of the enemies of knowledge. I fight for the people. I enter the sky and the earth. I give birth to the father and I am his head. I spring forth from the waters of the ocean. From there I spread into the universe. I touch the sky with my body. I blow like the wind, creating the worlds. My greatness expands beyond the sky and the earth." (Rg Veda 10.125.1-8. [481])

As the source, the plan of the universe, Energy first appears as a consciousness. Knowledge, that is, the perception of the existing universe, is its manifest form. There is a conscious plan for everything and therefore a possibility of knowing, a knowledge related to everything. The knowledge of the universe is the transcendent-knowledge (maha-vidya), whose form is identical to that of the all-powerful Goddess, and fragments of which are expressed in the revealed scripture, the Veda.

The knowledge of the cosmos is called virat-vidya; that of the manifest universe is visva-vidya. The main aspects of existence as perceived from the point of view of man are represented in the ten forms of the Goddess, the ten objects-of-transcendent-knowledge (maha-vidyā, महाविद्या) which are her most commonly worshiped aspects. Mahavidyas are usually named in the following sequence: Kali, Tara, Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshvari, Bhairavi , ChhinNamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamala. Nevertheless the formation of this group encompass divergent and varied religious traditions that include yogini worship, Saivism, Vaishnavism, and Vajrayana Buddhism.

#artists on tumblr #secret place #artists online

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shinymoonbird · 3 years ago

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2021-07-26a Kensington Gardens: Michael James discusses

Śrī Aruṇācala Navamaṇimālai - The Necklace of Nine Gems for Arunachala, Verse 1

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This video begins with Sadhu Om singing verse 1 of ஸ்ரீ அருணாசல நவமணிமாலை (Śrī Aruṇācala Navamaṇimālai), ‘The Necklace of Nine Gems for Arunachala’, and then Michael James explains and discusses the meaning and implications of it:

அசலனே யாயினு மச்சவை தன்னி லசலையா மம்மையெதி ராடு — மசல வுருவிலச் சத்தி யொடுங்கிட வோங்கு மருணா சலமென் றறி.

acalaṉē yāyiṉu maccavai taṉṉi lacalaiyā mammaiyedi rāḍu — macala vuruvilac catti yoḍuṅgiḍa vōṅgu maruṇā calameṉ ḏṟaṟi.

பதச்சேதம்: அசலனே ஆயினும், அச் சவை தன்னில் அசலை ஆம் அம்மை எதிர் ஆடும். அசல உருவில் அச் சத்தி ஒடுங்கிட, ஓங்கும் அருணாசலம் என்று அறி.

Padacchēdam (word-separation): acalaṉē āyiṉum, a-c-savai taṉṉil acalai ām ammai edir āḍum. acala uruvil a-c-satti oḍuṅgiḍa, ōṅgum aruṇācalam eṉḏṟu aṟi.

அன்வயம்: அசலனே ஆயினும், அச் சவை தன்னில் அசலை ஆம் அம்மை எதிர் ஆடும். அசல உருவில் அச் சத்தி ஒடுங்கிட, அருணாசலம் ஓங்கும் என்று அறி.

Anvayam (words rearranged in natural prose order): acalaṉē āyiṉum, a-c-savai taṉṉil acalai ām ammai edir āḍum. acala uruvil a-c-satti oḍuṅgiḍa, aruṇācalam ōṅgum eṉḏṟu aṟi.

English translation:

Though actually one who is motionless, in that assembly hall he dances opposite mother, who is acalā. Know that when that śakti subsides back in the motionless form, Aruṇācalam is exalted.

Explanatory paraphrase:

Though [Lord Siva is] actually acalaṉ [one who is motionless, being the one immutable ground from which and in which everything else appears], in that assembly hall [of Cidambaram] he dances [in the form of Nataraja] opposite [the divine] mother, who is acalā [the consort of acalaṉ]. Know that when that śakti [the divine mother] subsides back in the motionless form [the fundamental form of Lord Siva], Aruṇācalam is exalted [that is, in the motionless form of Aruṇācalam, which rises high above all his other forms, Lord Siva shines exalted in his natural state].

An MP3 audio copy of this video can be listened to or downloaded from Sri Ramana Teachings podcast (https://ramanahou.podbean.com ): https://ramanahou.podbean.com/e/sri-aru%e1%b9%87acala-navama%e1%b9%87imalai-verse-1

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Sri Ramanasramam - The Matrubhuteswara Temple - Lord Siva dances in the form of Nataraja in front of the Mother, Sakti Devi

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sanathanadharmasblog · 4 years ago

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Daily Affirmations

1. My body is a temple. All parts of my body are made by Goddess and are divine. They are seats of all powers: manifest and latent. They are the real Sakti Peethas.

2. Sex is sacred. It is the source of life. Genitals are sacred. I worship them as Siva and Sakti.

3. Sri Chakra is located in all the female genitals at the clitoris. It has been called the Jewel in the Lotus. It is most sacred, and secret, yet known to everyone. I worship the Sri Chakra, a circle of devotees to connect me to the source of cosmos.

4. Whatever whatever sins I committed, I did in a state of ignorance. Then I was in a hypnosis. Now I am awake. This awakened being did not commit those things. I do not feel shame, nor will I punish myself for what I was. Past is past, gone for ever. I forgive myself, as I forgive all others the wrongs they did tome. Now I can laugh at my mistakes, and others ignorance. Is a five year old less than a ten year old? All are evolving. I don’t have to hate ignorance. Darkness cant be where light is.

5. I love myself. I deserve love. I deserve riches. I deserve joy, happiness, health. I have them. I share them. I will see people’s happiness.

6. I will think of Goddess always. In my sadness, in my pleasure. More so in my pleasure, because that is when I tend to forget Her.

7. My mother, father, guru, guests, relatives and friends, and all help me; I express my gratitude for their help every day mentally and through actions. I will serve them with compassion.

8. Even my enemies have life; and life is Devi. So I respect them, forgive them, and try to look at their point of view and make friends. If I can’t do it, I will love them all the same, do not reject them, but maintain a respectful distance. My love does not expect that they should love me in return. It has no conditions attached. I share because I like sharing. That is all.

9. Expressing love through thought word and deed are the sure means for unlimited abundance, health, and pleasure. It is my birth right to enjoy these good things of life.

10. In every outgoing breath, my anxieties and worries are getting out. With every incoming breath, peace is coming in. I am happy here and now. I have plenty of energy flowing through me. I am enjoying bliss, energy, wealth, love and pleasure independent of external circumstances.

Mark those that appeal to you. Repeat them every day and make them your own. You will see your life change in perceptible ways.

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bm-asian-art · 4 years ago

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Durga Slaying the Buffalo Demon, Raktabij, and Kali Lapping up the Demon's Blood, Page from a Markandeya Purana Series, 1800-1825, Brooklyn Museum: Asian Art

The combined episodes of Durga's attack on the demon and Kali's lapping up his blood are here presented in one highly energized composition. A great orange-red monster with a human body, bird's claws, buffalo horns, white tusks, and a ferocious expression, is represented at the right. The multi-armed crowned goddess Durga, astride her tiger vehicle, pierces the demon and attacks with her numerous weapons, while the black goddess Kali extends her long tongue to lap up the blood shed by the demon before it touches the ground and coagulates into new asuras (demons). Some of the blood is transformed into numerous tiny Raktabij demons, emerging from the bloodbath who continue the battle. The violent scenes of bloody battle express the dynamic energy of the Goddess. These two episodes are related in the Devi Mahatmya text of the Markandeya Purana, in which the Goddess destroys various forms of demons, but multiple episodes incorporated in the same miniature is unusual. The Bhayanaka rasa, or the terrible sentiment, is predominant in this scene. Depiction of Devi in her frightening form of Kali, engaged in devouring up the blooddrops and tiny demons emerging from them, successfully conveys the sentiment here. This independent page is not associated with any known Devi Mahatmya manuscript from the hills, but is here attributed to Chamba, which was noted for a predominantly red and yellow palette and produced many illustrated Devi Mahatmya manuscripts. One may compare these stylistic characteristics with the more refined versions of this subject in the Devi Mahatmya in Guler, c. 1740-1781 (Aijazuddin 1977: 48). From Accession Card: Rather large and very coarse miniature painting, of Durga slaying the demon Mahisa (the asura Mahisa) with a flock of arrows, an illustration from the Markandeya Purana, a collection of mythological legends. The asura, a huge orange red monster with a human body, birds claws, an animal's white tusks, and a ferocious expression, is represented as rising from the purple emanation coming from the mouth of a demon. This demon, a gaunt female nude save for a dhoti, and with straight hair flying out behind, sits in one corner exhaling this emanation. The asura has a short dhoti and a white sash (kamarband) with yellow flower ends. Bells hang from the sides of the scarf around the waist. He also has armlets (bhuja-band), necklaces (mala) and bracelets (kankana). Close to the edge of the emanation are quantities of tiny asuras, colored the same as the emanation. The devi, astride a tiger, has eight arms. Two are used in shooting the crescent pointed arrow at the asura. The others hold a mace, a spear (sakti), a feather, a sword, a noose (pasa) and a conch (sankha). She has a full red skirt (ghagara) with a blue edge, a purple sash, a short green coli, a pointed crown (mukuta) and a quiver of arrows. She wears necklaces, earrings, armlets and bracelets and has her finger and toe nails dyed henna (mihamda). The background is yellow, save for a few streaks of green to represent the ground. On this are a white bowl and a white feather like the one the Devi is holding. The painting has a red border and is mounted on a slightly larger sheet of paper. Size: sheet: 11 1/8 x 15 in. (28.3 x 38.1 cm) image: 9 5/8 x 13 1/2 in. (24.5 x 34.3 cm) Medium: Opaque watercolor on paper

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/46208

#brooklynmuseum #museumarchive #asianart

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vedicfeed · 4 years ago

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Before the creation, I, only I, existed; nothing else was existent then. My Real Self is known by the names Chit (consciousness), Sambit (Intelligence), Para Brahman, and others. My Âtman (Soul) is beyond mind, beyond thought, beyond any name or mark, without any parallel, and beyond birth, death, or any other change or transformation.

My Self has one inherent power called Mâyâ. This Mâyâ is not existent, nor non-existent, nor can it be called both. This unspeakable substance Mâyâ always exists till the final emancipation or Moksa.

Mâyâ can be destroyed by Brahma Jñâna (Knowledge of Brahman); so it can not be called existent, again if Mâyâ does not exist, the practical world cannot exist. So it cannot be called non-existent. Of course, it cannot be called both, for it would involve contradictions.

I am Nirguna. And when I am united with my Sakti (Energy), Maya, I become Saguna, the Great Cause of this world. This Maya is divided into two, Vidya and Avidya. Avidya Maya hides Me; whereas Vidya Maya does not. Avidya creates whereas Vidya Maya liberates. - Srimad Devi Bhagavatam - Chapter XXXII (On Self-realization, Spoken by the World Mother)

#navratri #goddessdurga #adishakti #selfrealization

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bk-lostintranslation · 5 years ago

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ESSAY: Kali - Polysemantic Goddess

...Kali is, at her core, the embodiment of opposites. Through her, Hinduism has syncretized a variety of extremes: destruction and creation, death and rebirth, mother-love and sovereign sexuality, primordial violence and self-sacrificial wisdom.

Among the multifaceted pantheon of Hindu deities, the goddess Kali occupies perhaps the most fascinating yet frustratingly misunderstood position. Her iconography – filtered through the lens of parochial presuppositions – often distorts her persona into that of an ogress: bloodthirsty and warlike, with a penchant for destruction. However, this prescribed identity disregards the rich nuances of Kali's origins, reducing her instead to a chimera that arguably embodies the submerged fears of the archetypal, independent feminine. Too often, in text and media, she has been either devalued or demonized, consigned to the same spectrum of mythological would-be villainesses as Lilith, Hecate or Morrigan. New Age depictions of Kali are equally suspect for flattening her into a mere tool for social discourse. Neo-paganists and Western Kali enthusiasts have been accused of appropriating the goddess as a one-dimensional figurehead for Mother Earth, or as a self-serving expression of radical female sexuality, without taking into account her deeper symbolism within Hindu philosophy.

Modern cross-fertilization between the two cultures, thankfully, has allowed academics to defuse these seemingly irreconcilable caricatures. Today, a wealth of literature is devoted to understanding Kali's complex character and role. By navigating the maze between misconception and truth, what emerges is the realization that Kali is, at her core, the embodiment of opposites. Through her, Hinduism has syncretized a variety of extremes: destruction and creation, death and rebirth, mother-love and sovereign sexuality, primordial violence and self-sacrificial wisdom. Kali's incarnations, whether tranquil (saumya) or fearsome (rudra) are simply manifestations of omnipotent cosmic energy (sakti) which is the fuel within and behind every phenomenon of the manifested world. Kali, in short, is the fulcrum around which the cosmos revolves, and she wields her power in both transformative and terrifying ways.

Perhaps most remarkable is that, in Hinduism, Kali is affectionately referred to as Maa, or Mother. This title of respect, with its intimate subtext, is important not because her devotees attempt to distinguish between the maternal Kali and the sanguinary Kali, but because in Hinduism, destruction and creation are regarded as complementary, rather than diametrical, facets of a single continuum (Kinsley 15). With each rebirth, human beings are free of the negative traits conducive to social and personal downfall: cruelty, greed, egotism, self-interest etc. This blank slate goes hand-in-hand with the opportunity to do good karma. Each birth is a new beginning, a fresh start to awaken one's potential for self-transformation. Death, therefore, is not a stillborn story, but one that begins, instead of ending, with the power to sidestep adharma and tread fully across the true dharma path. To accomplish this, Kali is instrumental. She is the Divine Mother who frees her children from the limitations of the physical realm – in this case the cyclical tedium of samsara. Infinitely patient and benevolent, she nurtures the souls (atman) of human beings until they have perfected their understanding of the Ultimate Reality (Brahman) and achieved liberation (moksha). Her color, the pure black of nothingness, can be viewed as the primordial womb within which the enlightened souls merge (Frawley 133).

Of course, to fully appreciate Kali's extraordinary complexity, it is necessary to delve into her etymology and history. In his book, Devī-māhātmya: The Crystallization of the Goddess Tradition, Thomas B. Coburn remarks that while Kali is simply a feminine play on the adjective Kaalam, or "darkness," the latter can also be linked to the derivative noun Kaala, or time. Kali, then, is meant to symbolize "that which brings all things to an end, the destroyer" (108). Kali's mythology and the beginnings of her worship are difficult to trace. However, the earliest known mention of Kali is observed in the Mundaka Upanishad, where she is the name of one of the seven terrible black tongues of the fire-god, Agni. In the Mahabharata, she makes a token appearance as one of the "mothers" who become companions of Karttikeya as he boldly ventures forth to slay the demon Taraka. But it is not until the Markandeya Purana, within the chapter Devi Mahatmya ("Glorification of the Goddess") that she makes her awe-inspiring debut. Here, Kali is depicted as both the purest manifestation of divine wrath, but also as the delivering heroine who is summoned to salvage a disaster that threatens to tear apart the fabric of the cosmos itself. Her mission is to destroy the demon-lord Rakhtabeeja (blood-seed) who possesses the power to generate clones of himself with every drop of his blood spilled to the ground. In the book, Kali: The Feminine Force, Ajit Mookerjee describes how Kali:

...manifested herself for the annihilation of demonic male power in order to restore peace and equilibrium. For a long time brutal 'asuric' (demonic) forces had been dominating and oppressing the world. Even the powerful gods were helpless and suffered defeat at their hands. They fled pell-mell in utter humiliation, a state hardly fit for the divine. Finally they prayed in desperation to the Daughter of the Himalayas to save gods and men alike. The gods sent forth their energies as streams of fire, and from these energies emerged the Great Goddess Durga. In the great battle to destroy the most arrogant and truculent man-beasts, the goddess Kali sprang forth from the brow of Durga to join in the fierce fighting. As the 'forceful' aspect of Durga, Kali has been dubbed 'horrific' or 'terrible' in masculine-biased commentaries, without understanding of the episode's inner meaning (21-55).

It is certainly true that Kali contradicts the ideological construct of the feminine as subordinate to the masculine. However, while Hindu philosophy binarizes its deities into symbols of male and female energy, it should be noted that there is an implicit androgyny within each depiction. Collectively, the Hindu pantheon represent the various spatial aspects of Brahman. Each god is an alternate component to a singular theistic unity. Gender is not always integral to this classification, although one can argue that within the social framework of Hinduism, which is heavily male-dominated, it carries significant weight. But that is, perhaps, what makes Kali all the more fascinating. Here is a goddess whose depictions are unabashedly female, yet who embodies the integral Hindu tenets of power and nature (sakti/prakriti), while simultaneously defying orthodox constraints of traditional Indian womanhood. In the book, Hindu Goddesses: Beliefs and Practices, Lynn Foulston and Stuart Abbott remark that, by transgressing the limitations of conventional Hindu womanhood, Kali represents the "transcendence of social and worldly values and the freedom this brings... As one of the Mahavidyas (i.e. one of the ten aspects of the Goddess Shakti), Kali can be understood as a liminal symbol, both occupying and traversing the very boundaries of social purity and order, danger and pollution" (118).

The diverse Puranic oeuvre only heightens Kali's uniqueness. Mother, lover, warrior, martyr – her story runs the whole gamut of human experiences. In popular folklore, for example, Kali slays the demonic Daruka and consumes his blood. However, she becomes dangerously intoxicated by the evil flowing through her veins, driven into a rampaging bloodlust. Like an embodied natural disaster, she sweeps across the earth, spreading catastrophe in her wake. Implicit in this tale is the theme of self-sacrifice. While the ferocious Kali is born to vanquish evil, it is clearly at the cost of herself (157).

Other versions present a more empowering outlook. In the book, Questions on Hinduism, John Renard recounts how, in a desperate attempt to cool Kali's wrath, her consort, Shiva, throws himself beneath her feet. This act establishes him as her more passive counterpart, playing on the pun Shava (corpse). More to the point, Kali's story clearly "identifies the female as the energy, the divine spark at the heart of reality, which confers on creation the power of transcendence" (124). Indeed, in traditional as well as contemporary artwork, Kali is often depicted as dancing upon Shiva's supine form. In these portrayals, titled the Dakshinkali, she embodies the unstoppable dance of Nature, while her mate, Shiva, becomes the manifestation of Consciousness. Rather than an active force, Consciousness plays a silent witness to the dynamism of Nature. Shiva, sprawled pale and corpselike beneath Kali's foot, illustrates how all that Consciousness perceives is the force of Nature (Pattanaik 53-67).

In other versions, Shiva does not throw himself beneath Kali's feet, but transforms into a bawling baby. When Kali hears the cries, her fury is subsumed beneath a flood of maternal instinct. Gathering the baby to her breast, she nurses him; her violent potential is thus sublimated into motherly largesse. While this retelling can be criticized as a patriarchal misappropriation – a blatant attempt to tame seemingly-destructive female independence through motherhood – it can also enjoy a kaleidoscope of interpretations. In contemporary Western feminism, it is perhaps not always fashionable to exalt motherhood, which so often conflicts with female self-expression and autonomy. However, the fact that Kali, whose persona is so fearsome, is woken emotionally by a child, and is able to discover opposite yet apposite aspects of her own fiercely protective nature, holds a life-affirming sweetness (Mohanty 55-70).

Other narratives completely dispel the notion that even the all-powerful Kali is inherently submissive to the male form of the divine. In the Tantric version of the Kali's battle, Shiva assumes the guise of a beautiful man and lays himself across Kali's path. Here, as in other adaptations, Kali ceases her rampage after stumbling across Shiva's chest. However, in this case, it is because she is consumed with lust. Flouting the conventions of decency, she straddles Shiva out in the open and begins to make love to him. For many, this combustible blend of violence and sexuality is an empowering motif with a potentially subversive edge. For others, however, it comes as no great shock that Kali, as the purest and most dynamic representation of sakti, is equally unapologetic of her desires (75).

Indeed, Tantric depictions of Kali engaged in coitus with Shiva, which shocked early British settlers as prurient, in fact held intensely ritualistic and symbolic underpinnings. According to Tantric doctrines, the human body symbolizes the microcosm of the universe. As such, Kali's union with Shiva is neither sinful nor shameful, but integral to the process of creation. In the book, Encountering Kali: in the Margins, at the Center, in the West, Rachel Fell McDermott et al. analyze this particular myth, faithfully recreated in ancient and contemporary artwork: "Siva is the inert soul, purusa, whereas Kali is the active, creative prakriti.... Tantra emphasizes the 'erotic' (that is, the simultaneously sexual and religious) symbolism of the image. In defiance of conventional sexual mores, Kali engages intercourse with Siva in the 'reverse position' ....since siva depends on sakti for the ability to orchestrate creation, preservation, destruction" (53-55).

Equating this unadulterated female power with the negative – a proclivity often seen in patriarchal interpretations – would be fallacious here. So too would be the tendency to pedestalize the divine, to fit female deities into tidy, distinct boxes of "maidenly" or "motherly." Kali's very mythology allows these generalizations more breathing space. Her destroyer/creator/mother/warrior/temptress/martyr mystique encompasses every facet of existence, from the beautiful to the horrifying. At the most fundamental level, her mythos serves to provoke a reaction – primeval, visceral – from observers and devotees alike. Rather than reducing her extremes to intellectual abstractions, her stories allow her to feel close and human. One might even argue that Kali's presence extends beyond liturgy and theology. Hers is a tactile and emotional experience; she exists equally in the frailties of human life and in the inevitability of death, in the fierce desire to nurture but also to defend, and in the human capacity for infinite, unceasing transformation.

Iconography, of course, serves to highlight her polysemantic and multifunctional role. Every aspect of her appearance carries a potent philosophical epithet. She is often depicted as a ferocious four-armed woman with either pitch black or dark blue skin, a mane of matted hair, three blazing-red eyes, sharp white teeth and a lolling red tongue. She is typically nude, festooned only in a necklace of skulls and a girdle of severed limbs. In two of her four arms, she wields a scythe (kharag) and a severed male head; the remaining two arms are positioned in hasta mudras that communicate the seemingly-ironic message 'Do not fear.' Despite this frightening visage, she is sacrosanct for well-grounded reasons. Her dark skin is tied to earth and space; to the fertile soil of the physical realm and the infinite darkness of the primordial cosmos. Much like black represents the all-encompassing quality of darkness, so too is Kali's darkness the signifier of her benevolent and accepting nature (Harding 38-52).

Equally powerful is the message behind Kali's nudity. She is described as garbed in space, or sky-clad, and this "absence of clothes denotes the absence of illusion" (Mascetti 47). In that sense, she is Nature at its most sublime, transcending the boundaries of name and form. As the Universal Truth, she has conquered the illusory trappings of maya. Through her, devotees can transform blind consciousness into perception, just as a wash of intense light illuminates dark corners, dissipating the shadows of ignorance. Her unbound hair, too, is charged with symbolic and cosmological significance. In the book, Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahāvidyās, David R. Kinsley suggests that Kali's disheveled mane of hair, such a jarring contrast to the way traditional Hindu women plait their hair in deference to social order, is indicative of Kali's unbridled independence. "Kali is free from convention, wild and uncontrolled in nature, and not bound to and limited by a male consort." In the same vein, Kali's loose curtain of hair is interpreted as the swathe of Space-Time, with its tangled mass suggesting the dissolution of cosmic balance. "Her hair has come apart and flies about every which way... all has returned to chaos. The 'braidedness' of social and cosmic order comes to an end in Kali's wild, unbound, flowing hair" (83-85).

Similar dualistic interpretations are found concerning Kali's tongue – blood-smeared and protruding. According to Puranic lore, Kali's lolling tongue allows her to slurp up the blood of Rakhtabeeja, before it can drip to the ground and spawn clones. In other narratives, Kali's outstretched tongue takes on broader, more psychological connotations. In The Book of Kali, Seema Mohanty states that, "With the outstretched tongue, Kali teases and mocks her devotees. She sees through their social façade and knows the dark desires they try so hard to deny or suppress. She provokes them to delve into their subconscious and confront all those memories and thoughts that they shy away from" (10).

For the colonial West, of course, this aspect of Kali's iconography seemed to fuse sexuality with brutality, social perversion with graphic violence. In the book, Encountering Kali: in the Margins, at the Center, in the West, McDermott et al. remark that Kali's tongue, filtered through the Western lens, became a blatantly phallic symbol, her persona little more than a terrifying figurehead of idolatrous depravity. Indeed, McDermott argues that for the colonial imagination, Kali was the embodiment of India itself, "imbued with debauchery, violence and death. Objectified under the 'colonial gaze'... Kali has always been an ambivalent source of mixed horror and fascination, of simultaneous revulsion and lurid attraction" (170-178). Unfortunately, such depictions, rooted in Eurocentric ambivalence, fail to appreciate Kali's full complexity. As a goddess, Kali explores and symbolizes all the uses and expressions of submerged human desire. It should be noted that in this instance, desire does not refer simply to biological imperatives with their natural rhythms of arousal and satiation. Nor is it linked purely to the erotic desire that is cloaked in visual and textual symbolism. This is desire at the cosmic, primordial level, beyond limits and civility. Taken in that sense, Kali's tongue "denotes the act of tasting or enjoying what society regards as forbidden, foul, or polluted... an indiscriminate enjoyment of all the world's 'flavors.' What we experience as ... polluted ... is grounded in limited human (or cultural) consciousness ... Kali invites her devotees to taste the world in its most disgusting and forbidden manifestations in order to detect its underlying unity or sacrality, which is the Great Goddess herself" (Kinsey 81-83).

Kali's ornaments and weaponry, too, carry a reservoir of allegorical and mystic nuance. Her garland of severed heads represent the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. These seedlings (beej) of sound – particularly the eternal syllable, Om – are the source of all creation. Adorned in the essence of reality, Kali is therefore the repository of eternal knowledge. She "decapitates words so that the seeker of truth is liberated from the limitations imposed by language" (Mohanty 13). Similarly, her girdle of severed limbs represents karmic annihilation. Each arm symbolizes the binding effect of deeds – karma – that Kali effortlessly chops down. Thus, she is instrumental in liberating her devotees from the cruel cyclicity of samsara, allowing them to achieve the ultimate spiritual realization (14).

Completing her otherworldly allure, the conjunction of femininity, monstrosity and strength, are Kali's four arms. According Bob Kindler's book, Twenty-Four Aspects of Mother Kali, her arms symbolize the cosmic circle of creation and destruction. The upper and lower right hands confer gracious and protective boons, the hands positioned in the Abhaya and Varada mudra respectively. The former is "a mystic gesture indicating the Divine Mother's serious warning to negative forces that attempt to harm Her precious spiritual children." The latter, meanwhile, signifies "gifts to those who approach Her for refuge" (22). Her left arms, brandishing the bloodied scythe and the severed head, symbolize Kali's power to eradicate ignorance. The head represents false consciousness, or the ego; the scythe is the weapon of knowledge. Thus, by slicing through the obstacles of ignorance, Kali frees her devotees from temporal bindings. Finally, her three eyes speak of her omniscience: they represent the sun, moon, and fire, which she uses as mediums to unlock the three facets of time – past, present and future (Kinsley 86-90). In ancient Greece, the ouroboros – a primeval serpent devouring its own tail – served to symbolize the coincidence of opposites, the infinite oscillation between destruction and creation, death and rebirth. In the same manner, Kali perfectly embodies the circular transience of being, the pivot upon which cosmic equilibrium rests.

Both legends and iconography reiterate her gift for transcending the broad spectrum of dichotomies because it is relevant. At her core, Kali's myth defies humanity's efforts to classify and control the unknown as a way of asserting its standing as a rational, privileged species. She corrects us of the dangerous misconception that human beings are a dominant outside force, rather than fragile stitches within the cosmic fabric itself. By understanding Kali, it is therefore possible to spark a genuine relationship with Nature in its manifold forms, and beyond them, with the all-pervasive life-force – sakti – that flows through the universe in its entirety. Renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell, in his classic work The Hero with a Thousand Faces, states it best:

The goddess is the fire of life; the earth, the solar system, the galaxies of far-extending space, all swell within her womb. For she is the world creatrix, ever mother, ever virgin. She encompasses the encompassing, nourishes the nourishing, and is the life of everything that lives. She is also the death of everything that dies. The whole round of existence is accomplished within her sway, from birth, through adolescence, maturity, and senescence, to the grave. She is the womb and the tomb: the sow that eats her farrow. Thus she unites the "good" and the "bad," exhibiting the two modes of the remembered mother, not as personal only, but as universal (95).

For the curious academic or the passionate devotee, there is no doubting Kali's appeal. But her paradoxical nature is the true crux of her uniqueness: at once a singularity and a multiplicity, she is immeasurable. Conceptually, Kali's presence is not just a part of the cosmos, but the same size as it. On one level, she is an abstract force that flows beyond the nacreous spectrum of time and space. On another level, she is a tangible, living presence swimming through the undercurrents of the real world we inhabit every day. Her voice may not always be audible to us, but the occasions when we do hear it are full of intimacy and truth.

Works Cited

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1973. 95. Print.

Coburn, Thomas B. Devī-māhātmya: The Crystallization of the Goddess Tradition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984. 11-112. Print.

Foulston, Lynn, and Stuart Abbott. Hindu Goddesses: Beliefs and Practices. Brighton: Sussex Academic, 2009. 110-160. Print.

Frawley, David. Inner Tantric Yoga: Working with the Universal Shakti: Secrets of Mantras, Deities and Meditation. Twin Lakes, WI: Lotus, 2008. 130-136. Print.

Harding, Elizabeth U. Kali the Black Goddess of Dakshineswar. Newburyport: Nicolas-Hays, 1993. 38-52. Print.

Kindler, Bob. Twenty-four Aspects of Mother Kali. Portland, OR: SRV Oregon, 1996. 22. Print.

Kinsley, David R. Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahāvidyās. Berkeley: U of California, 1997. 29-90. Print.

Mascetti, Manuela Dunn., Jennifer Woolger, and Roger Woolger. Goddesses: Mythology and Symbols of the Goddess. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1998. 47. Print.

McDermott, Rachel Fell., and Jeffrey J. Kripal. Encountering Kali: in the Margins, at the Center, in the West. Berkeley: U of California, 2003. 21-152. Print.

Mookerjee, Ajit. Kali: The Feminine Force. New York: Destiny, 1988. 21-55. Print.

Mohanty, Seema. The Book of Kali. New Delhi: Penguin India, 2004. 6-100. Print.

Pattanaik, Devdutt. 7 Secrets of the Goddess. Chennai: Wastland, 2014. 53-67. Print.

Renard, John. Questions on Hinduism. Mumbai: Better Yourself, 1999. 124. Print.

#essay #academic writing #kali #kali ma #goddess #hinduism #religion #globalization #philosophy

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