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Creation and Characters – Shiva Puran

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 05:19:00 -0500

Cosmic Creation

After manifesting from Lingam of luminosity and enlightening Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva withdrew into his formless infinity. Lord Brahma sought guidance from Lord Vishnu about creation. After briefing Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu went to live in the outer region of space making it his own domain.

For the purpose of creation, Lord Brahma invoked Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. Then, he threw up a handful of water which transformed into a great egg of cosmic dimension that was a manifestation of 24 elements. But it was inert. He prayed to beget life and consciousness for the cosmic egg. In reply Lord Vishnu materialized there. He transformed into a shape having infinite dimensions, thousand of heads, eyes and feet. In that form he entered into the egg which became alive with that. Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu built there own domains inside.

Meanwhile Lord Brahma began to create. It began with three formats and five elements, multiplied by their compounds. The eight were the primary tools of creative exercise. The ninth format was kumara, which produced men of spiritual wisdom, sages, holy persons and seers. Sanaka and Sananda were its products. Lord Brahma wanted them to assist him in creative exercise, but they made excuses and abandoned him. It hurt Lord Brahma.

Earlier, in the earth chapter of creation, ignorance and negative factors (Tamas) were born followed by solid state living and non-living things like mountains, plants, trees and other immovables. Beasts and birds came later followed by humans at later stage. This part of creation immensely pleases and satisfied Lord Brahma. But the betrayal of his own son-like Kumara products was a great disappointment. To sad Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu advised to seek the grace of Lord Shiva. So, Lord Brahma made penance to propitiate Lord Shiva.

Manifests Rudra

As Prophesied earlier by Lord Shiva, from the central part of the forehead, just above the eyes of Lord Brahma, Lord manifested _Ardhanareeshwara _(half man - half woman figure) accompanied by a host of divine guards and servitors called ganas. In this way the Rudra dimension of Lord Shiva materialized. It was the destroyer aspect of Lord Shiva.

Meanwhile, the creation of Lord Brahma was stagnating. No regeneration was taking place, the creatures were just aging without dying or falling ill. Lord Shiva had manifested in ‘half man - half woman’ form to convey the message that regeneration was possible only through interaction between the two sexes. He explained to Lord Brahma orally as well. Lord Brahma was advised to create creatures in gender format and the species who would be subject to birth, death and other calamities. So advising and duly blessing creator, lord Rudra vanished.

Creation of Characters

Freshly advised and empowered Lord Brahma began to create characters. By mixing subjective elements of meaning, touch, taste, smell and beauty with five objective elements of earth, fire, air and water plus compounds, dimensions, statics, dynamics and calibration of time spans, Lord Brahma shaped characters. Marichi was created from his eyes, heart produced Bhrigu, Angirasa was born of his head, etc.

By the grace of Lord Shiva and inspiration provided by Lord Rudra, Lord Brahma transformed half of his person into female anatomy. The interaction between the gender halves produced a male called Manu and a female in Shataroopa. the two were paired by creator to beget two sons, Priyavrata and Uttanpada, and three daughters Akooti, Devahooti and Prasooti. They were respectively coupled with Ruchi, Kardama and Daksha.

Yajna and Dakshina were born to Akooti. Their pairing produced a dozen sons. Devahooti and Prasooti begot large broods of daughters. Thirteen of them namely Lakshmi, Shraddha, Dhriti, Tushti, Pusti, Medha, Kriya, Buddhi, Lajja, Vasuva, Santhi, Siddhi and Kriti were all married to Dharma. The others; Khyati, Neeti, Sambhuti, Samriti, Preeti, Kshama, Sannuti, Anuroopa, Voorja, Swaha and Suddha were paired with Bhrigu, Dharma, Marichi, Angirasa, Paulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Atri, Vashistha, Agni and Poorvaja respectively. The grooms were all either sages or deities. Those pairs gave birth to great many brilliant characters and brightened up the world.

Sixty daughters Daksha had, out of which he gave thirteen to Kashyapa and one ‘Sati’ to Lord Shiva. Others went to various other legendary characters. Kashyapa’s spouses gave birth to broods that filled the earth world and populated it in form of trees, plants and insects, devas, rakshasas, humans, giants, kinnars, gandharvas, yakshas, men-o-snakes, demons, warriors, sages, peers, holymen, kings, rishis, birds, mountains etc. That is why it is said, the earth is kashyapised world.

Lord Shiva’s consort Sati was manifestation of his latent power (Adi-Shakti) called uma. Sati later reincarnated as Goddess Parvati when her Sati form got immolated. Uma later manifested in several alternate or secondary forms. She became Goddess Laxmi, Saraswati and Parvati to couple with Trinity members and Goddess kaali to assist Lord Rudra.

Her secondary manifestations are : Goddess Durga, Bhagwati, Amba, Chamunda, Jaya, Vijaya, Jayanti, Bhadrakaali, Kameshwari, Kaamada, Mridani and Sarvamangla.

These primary legends remain the same through ages, only adding new episodes, manifestations, villains and sub-legends with the passage of time.

The domain of Lord Shiva dominates all other domains. In his domain Supreme Deity lives with his consort Power Latent (Adi-Shakti). Kailasha is his domain that survives all dooms and remains resplendent as ever.

" HAR HAR MAHADEV"

Copyright (C) Vibhor Mahajan

Sandhya and Kama (God of Love) – Shiva Puran

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 05:12:03 -0500

[![lord-brahma-hindu-god-of-creation](/images/lord-brahma-hindu- god-of-creation.jpg)](https://vibhormahajan.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/lord- brahma-hindu-god-of-creation.jpg)

Birth of Sandhya and Kama

Once Lord Brahma was holding his court when all of a sudden a beauteous female popped out of his heart followed by a young man of incredible handsomeness who had a bow and flower-head arrows in his quiver. The young man asked for some specific duty. The creator, impressed by his beauty told him to romantically charge all the creatures with flower arrows. Lord Brahma proclaimed that none, not even a deity shall escape his arrows. Kama was the name young man got formally but was also called Manmadha , the enchanter, because he bewitched every mind anywhere.

To celebrate his empowerment Kama shot his flower arrows and everyone there in Lord Brahma’s court became infatuated and lustily ogled at the pretty female who had preceded the young enchanter. The deity of righteousness (Dharma) did not like this shameful scene, He prayed to Lord Shiva. Meanwhile, Lord Brahma broke into sweat fearing rebuke from Lord Shiva. The sweat shed by him produced 64 pitriganas (progenitors) who come to be known as ' Agnisthomas’.

The female that preceded Kama was called Sandhya being born of deep concentration of Lord Brahma. In answer to the prayer of Dharma, Lord Shiva materialised there and rebuked Lord Brahma for creating erotic scene in his open court by empowering Kama. As Sandhya had happened to see Lord Shiva, she became knower of Lord Shiva’s mysticism by his grace. Sandhya was recognised as the mother of Progenitors (Pitriganas)

Lord Brahma felt humiliated at being upbraided by Lord Shiva and as Kama had caused that, he put a curse on latter to get burnt to ashes by the third eye of Lord Shiva. It shocked Kama.

Trembling in fear Kama prayed to creator that he had acted at Lord Brahma’s own command. He was merely doing his duty, he claimed. There was some merit in his claim but Lord Brahma reasoned that his empowerment as Kama was not meant to create scenes of eroticism or orgy. Some discipline, moderation and modesty was required. Although Lord Brahma admitted that the sexual urge could blind anyone. Softening up, Lord Brahma said that Lord Shiva himself would find a way to save him. As a divine coincidence, at the very same moment Daksha shed sweat which transformed into a damsel of incredible beauty and grace. Bewitching was she. Rati was her name, and at the very first sight Kama fell in love with her passionately. Their union was solemnised by the express will of Daksha and Lord Brahma.

Penance of Sandhya

Having sighted Lord Shiva at the very time of her origin, Sandhya was naturally motivated into making an intense penance to earn the grace of power supreme. She was blaming herself for arousing the passions of males including her brother (Kama) and father (Lord Brahma) in the court for that she had taken a vow to burn herself to death.

Meanwhile, Daksha had given all his 27 daughters to Chandradeva in marriage. They were all stars or constellations bearing the corresponding names like Revati, Ashwani, Rohini etc. Chandra loved Rohini more than the others. This discrimination was not liked by 26 others. They complained to Lord Brahma about it. Lord Brahma took them to Sandhya who was engaged in her own penance mission. At last Lord Shiva got propitiated and appeared to her and granted her three boons as spelled out by her -

Humans will become conscious of the sexual desire only after attaining the age of puberty, and not before that, and her husband not be a lecher.
She should be rated as the greatest woman penance maker ever born.
Anyone who casts an amorous or lustful glance at her, except her husband, shall turn into a eunuch.

After gaining the boons, she bowed to Lord Shiva. He advised her to go to the bank of river Chandrabhaga where Sage Medhatidhi was holding a twelve year long yajna to lift the curse put on Chandradeva by Daksha for subjecting his daughters to injustice. In that holy fire Sandhya could offer her sacrifice and redeem her vow. She would gain the husband whoever she thought of before jumping, Lord Shiva revealed. By the grace of deity supreme she could do it remaining invisible. In the holy fire pit of Jyotisthomayajna , Sandhya jumped and out of flames emerged a girl having glowing body. Sage Medhatidhi adopted her as his daughter and gave her the name ’ Arundhati’.

Later, she stayed with Guru Vashistha to gain the spiritual knowledge. She adored him and got his image imprinted on her heart. Arundhati made it known that she would accept only Vashistha as her husband. The sages, seers and Lord Brahma made their union possible. In this way, Arundhati got a saintly husband, she had prayed for to Lord Shiva. And she already was the greatest penance maker and sacrificing woman as she had wished in her boon.

" HAR HAR MAHADEV"

Copyright (C) Vibhor Mahajan

The Holy Tale Of Sati – Shiva Puran (Part-I)

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 05:05:57 -0500

Lord Brahma carried the grudge against Lord Shiva for rebuking him in his own court before others during the Kama episode. He thought - what did prosaic and ascetic like Lord Shiva know the power of passion and the force of romantic feelings? Lord Shiva must experience it and know, he muttered. So, Lord Brahma urged Kama to work his spell on Lord Shiva with the arrows having flower heads blessed by him, the creator. To help Kama he created Vasanta Sena , the spring season of love, romance pollinated air, humming bees, birds crooning mating calls, blooms etc. But they failed to arouse Lord Shiva.

Dismayed was Lord Brahma. Kama told him that Lord Shiva sat with burning eyes totally unresponsive to their passion charges. He was scared of getting burnt to ashes. Lord Brahma sighed unhappily.

The creator sought the help of Lord Vishnu who also wanted Lord Shiva to have normal love life because his ascetic attitude and stern approach was not helpful for sustenance. Lord Vishnu advised that Lord Brahma and Daksha may invoke Lord Shiva’s Maya aspect to seek her help. Accordingly Lord Brahma asked Daksha to pray to Adi-Shakti (Mahamaya) of Lord Shiva to take incarnation as his daughter. In answer to penance of Lord Brahma, Mahamaya manifested before him. Lord Brahma asked her to help them arouse romantic sentiment in Lord Shiva to have him desire for a wife. Mahamaya wondered if it was Lord Shiva’s will expressing itself through Lord Brahma. She promised to try and materialised before Daksha who prayed her to incarnate as his daughter. She granted his prayer.

Daksha joined his wife Veerni and copulated. In due course of time Mahamaya arrived as their female child. They named her Sati. From the very birth she worshipped Lord Shiva, sang prayers and odes to him. When she grew up into her teens, Lord Brahma went to her and reminded her of her mission of life and the purpose of incarnation. Daksha also kept encouraging her in her endeavour to win Lord Shiva.

Sati kept all fasts prescribed for Lord Shiva faithful’s. She would perform all Lord Shiva rites and obeyed the regimes of his worship. Nandivrata was one of them. Then, she engaged herself in intense penance to propitiate her idol, Lord Shiva.

Meanwhile, Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma went to Kailasha to pray to Lord Shiva to urge him to become a family man to inspire continuation of creation process. Lord Shiva said as a divine Yogi, he always remained withdrawn into deep meditation delinked from outside world. If he took a wife she must be like a yogini who must only get into heat whenever rarely he felt amorous. The visiting divinities gradually mentioned about the daughter of Daksha who had all the qualities he was desiring and her undivided devotion to him.

Lord Shiva knew about the penance of Sati because he was feeling the heat of her devotion. He materialised before her in his glorious masculine resplendence. He revealed to her that he was ready to accept her as his wife. He knew if it came to granting her a boon she would ask him to be her husband.

Sati demanded that there union be properly solemnised in the presence of her parents and all others with due traditions.

Lords Shiva and sati became husband wife in the grand marriage celebration and rites performed on the 13th day of the ascending moon phase of Chaitra month under Uttara Phalguni star. It was attended by all the deities, celestials, holy men and all kinds of weird characters of the spirit world.

[![sati_and_shiva_indian-mythology](/images /sati_and_shiva_indian- mythology.jpg)](https://vibhormahajan.files.wordpress.com/2012/07 /sati_and_shiva_indian-mythology.jpg)

During the ceremony Lord Brahma committed yet another outrage. As Lord Shiva and Sati were going around the holy fire for seven rounds (Saptapadi) Lord Brahma caught the sight of incredible pretty feet of Sati. Out of curiosity he cast a glance at the face of the owner of those feet. The facial beauty of Sati so sexually titillated Lord Brahma that his male organ could not help shedding four drops of semen. Lord Shiva stared at the red face of Lord Brahma sensing what he had done. He raised his trident to punish Lord Brahma.

At this sudden development all those present at the ceremony got struck with fear and shock. Most of them were baffled. Daksha and some sages rushed to Lord Shiva to calm him down who looked in raging fury. Lord Vishnu also ran to deity supreme. The sight of him appeared to cool down the temper of Lord Shiva. Meanwhile, Lord Brahma prayed for mercy.

Lord Shiva made Lord Brahma touch his forehead and there appeared a tattoo of Nandi Bull borne face of Lord Shiva. Lord Brahma was asked to make long penance. Whenever anyone questioned him about the tattoo, Lord Brahma was to recount true episode behind it and his own shameful role in it. Every ridicule would lessen the burden of his sin, Lord Shiva proclaimed.

When the ceremonies were over Lord Shiva felt sorry for Lord Brahma. To assuage his feelings he asked Lord Brahma to seek a boon. Lord Brahma asked for that very venue to be made a holy and sacred spot as ’ Kalyana Mandap’. Lord Shiva obliged and said any faithful visiting that spot on the holy wedding day to worship each year shall earn his blessings and get freed of all mundane wishes.

“This episode is known as Dakshayani - Kalyana, the marriage of daughter of Daksha. Bringing this episode to mind of anyone would gain the grace of deity supreme and a wife as blessing. A faithful woman hearing the recital of this Katha will beget a son.”

" HAR HAR MAHADEV"

Copyright (C) Vibhor Mahajan

The Holy Tale of Sati – Shiva Puran (Part-II)

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 04:58:58 -0500

[![shiva-parvati](/images/shiva- parvati.jpg)](https://vibhormahajan.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/shiva- parvati.jpg)
Back at Kailasha, in the new marital bliss Lord Shiva once confided to Sati the nine easy ways to propitiate him and gain his grace. Those nine ways of devotion were -

Hearing (Kathas related to him and his Puranic wisdom).
Singing (Prayers, odes and hymns in his praise).
**Remembering ** (His glory, deeds and names).
Serving (The noble causes of others taking them as his forms).
Servitude (Living with the spirit of humility of devotion surrendering all to his grace).
Worship (Him with true devotional spirit confirming to all rites, rituals, customs and regimes).
Obeisance (Making to him in true faith and trust taking him to be the ultimate redeemer and deliverer).
Friendliness (To him as only a true friend proves helpful in need and he as divinely true friend shall get his devotee friend across the sea of mundane woes).
Surrender (The soul to him, all the deeds and consequences to his grace).

He revealed that there was a little difference between the knowledge (Spiritual) and devotion. The latter was more rewarding as it involved direct approach to power supreme instead of going through various channels of regimes. For an enlightened one all the mundane attachments and exercises were meaningless as he mentally withdraws from the physical realities. But a devotee continues to live in mundane world in comfort and participates in its joys and pleasures while spiritually benefitting from the grace of Lord Shiva. Propitiated by direct prayer or worship Lord Shiva blesses his devotee more readily as the emotion of devotion is more humble and pure here. A Jnani , enlightened one is more dedicated to his own exercise, its correctness and achievements. For him his blessing is just a reward or spiritual toil. The Jnani begets some pride in his success. But his devotee is totally dependent on his grace and no wall of pride exists between him and his devotee.

In this sense. enlightenment ( Jnan ) without devotion is worthless. It also loses value when pride or egoism poison it. The sentiment of devotion ( Bhakti ) is the most important. Without it, knowledge and asceticism is as meaningless as honey without its sweetness.

Lord Shiva admitted to Sati that his devotees were his only treasure. For them, he would burn even God of death, Yama to ashes. His devotee was more dear to him even than Sati herself. Lord Shiva blessed Sati with comprehension ( Jnan ) of his mysticism, the most important fact of which was that Lord Shiva and divine power source Uma were indivisible and inseparable. That was basic truth of Lord Shiva, the very spirit of eternal joy unlimited, unfathomable and in exhaustible.

“HAR HAR MAHADEV”

The Holy Tale Of Sati – Shiva Puran (Part-III)

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 04:55:28 -0500

![Lord Shiva](/images/lord- shiva.jpg)

Grudge of Daksha against Lord Shiva

Once in an ancient age many sages and spiritual seers converged at Prayaga and decided to perform a grand Yajna. It was attended by celestial lords, divine sages, gods, deities, prajapati etc., besides earth based holy men. Lord Shiva was also present. Sometime later, Daksha arrived. Everyone there rose up to pay respect to Prajapati Daksha. But Lord Shiva ignored his entry and kept sitting. Daksha took it deliberate affront of him. So, he declared that for the misconduct Lord Shiva shall not be offered any oblations in yajnas and his name won’t be invoked in religious ceremonies in future. Lord Shiva’s carrier Nandi pleaded that Prajapati’s action was improper since a Brahmin (Daksha) could not put a curse of Lord Shiva. It further angered Daksha and he debarred all Shiva Ganas (special guards) from attending functions conducted by divine sages and seers. The ganas were told to parade themselves as weirdos having ash smeared bodies and matted hair like their master.

In retaliation, Nandi shot back a volley of curses at Daksha. He bellowed - “Be Brahmins condemned to poverty, living on charity or begging like mendicants. Karma pedagogues they shall be, never attaining any enlightenment or understanding the basic truth of the religion. So will Daksha also be, no redeemer of soul or inspirer of spiritual upliftment. Merely pedantic he shall be and a goat faced! Become demons many of the Brahmins will.”

Lord Shiva admonished Nandi for crossing the limit and failing to use restraint.

Most of the participants forgot the incident taking it as mere outburst of frayed tempers that deserved no serious thought. But Daksha would not forget and he carried the grudge against Lord Shiva. Under the spell of Maya he swore to take revenge on Lord Shiva. For that very purpose he organised a great yajna to which all were invited except Lord Shiva, his gana guards and known faithfuls.

The venue was at a place close to Haridwar. Sage Dadheechi discovered that Lord Shiva was not invited to the event. He asked Daksha reason for it because the sage thought without Lord Shiva the yajna would be incomplete and would not bear any fruit. Daksha explained that the absence of a weird one who lived in cremation ground smeared in funeral ash, wore elephant pelt, heap of matted hair on head with cannabis infected mind inside and snakes creeping over, should not matter and no harm would come to yajna. All the celestial and Lord Vishnu had already agreed to attend. “So, why should anyone worry over Lord Shiva no coming?” Daksha asked. Not convinced Dadheechi walked away in a huff.

Meanwhile, when Sati heard about her father’s yajna she expressed her wish to take part in it and use the opportunity to meet her mother and sisters. Lord Shiva advised her that going to the ceremony uninvited was improper. But Sati said she wanted an explanation from her sire for not inviting them. Lord Shiva sighed feeling bad about it.

Death of Sati

Sati went to the yajna, but was not received with any respect. The family ignored her. Her father spoke harsh words to her and made fun of Lord Shiva in the presence of everyone. She noticed at the yajna venue that there was no portion of oblation set aside in the name of Lord Shiva. She wanted to know the reason. Daksha sarcastically remarked that oblations were meant for gods or deities and not for Lord Shiva who was more like an ogre.

Sati flew in a fury and cursed all the impost ring deities present there and the shameless sages who were conducting that yajna of no merit.

She thundered, “What yajna is this where the Deity Supreme is being overlooked?”

Daksha countered her by using more invectives against Lord Shiva.

Engulfed in anguish and anger at Daksha’s blasphemy against her Lord, Sati could take it no more. She took some water in her hand and invoked Maheshwara before jumping into the leaping flame of holy fire pit of yajna to the horror of everyone there. The gods and deities trembled in fear of impending calamity.

[![sati-commits-suicide](/images/sati-commits- suicide.jpg)](https://vibhormahajan.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/sati-commits- suicide.jpg)

The body guards of (Shiva ganas) of Sati went berserk. Many killed themselves in grief. Many of them created mayhem around killing everyone in sight or in their way. Sage Brig performed impromptu Havana and created some divine warriors to take on maddened Shiva guards. The two groups clashed. Surviving ganas fled to Kailasha to tell their Master about the ghastly happening. The gods, deities and sages sought protection of Lord Vishnu but he was himself confused and in fear of the wrath of Lord Shiva.

Then, a divine prophecy was heard which asked Lord Vishnu to leave that place and leave Daksha to his fate, whose face would be burnt and his followers done to death.

Manifestation of Veerbhadra

Meanwhile, Narada had revealed the sequence of events that had taken place at yajna venue. Then, the beaten away ganas arrived there. In furious mood Lord Shiva pulled a plait off his matted hair nest and began to whip the mountain with it. From the mystic rite a terrifying male guard called Veerbhadra and a female avenger named Mahakali emerged. The male guard bowed to his master and asked for a command. Lord Shiva told him to destroy the yajna of Daksha.

Like a raging storm Veerbhadra hit the venue of the yajna of Daksha. He went on a rampage and killing spree there. Lord Vishnu told him that he was there merely to guard the yajna as his divine duty but Lord Shiva’s will overruled everything else. He asked Veerbhadra to provide him with some screen to enable him to get out of that place in a flash to his Vaikuntha domain. Veerbhadra covered him with arrows and Lord Vishnu fled. In his rampage, Veerbhadra beheaded Daksha, who was later given a goat head by Lord Shiva.

After wreaking havoc at yajna venue the guard went back to Kailasha to his Master. As a reward for carrying out his command dutifully, Lord Shiva appointed him as chief of his guards.

" HAR HAR MAHADEV"