Saturday, January 9, 2016

Jambavan King of Bears Ramayana

Jambavan King of Bears Ramayana

Jambavan is a very prominent character in the Hindu epic Ramayana. In the epic tradition and several other sources, he has been mentioned as the King of the Bears. However, in certain other sources he has also been mentioned as the chief of the Vanaras (monkeys). He was created by Lord Brahma to assist Rama during his war against Ravana. Jambavan is said to be immortal. The churning the ocean episode sees Jambavan and he has also said to have who circled Vamana (the avatar of Vishnu) three times, when he was acquiring three worlds from Mahabali.

Historic references and contributions 

Jambavan’s sole purpose of birth was to serve Lord Rama and help him wage a war against Ravana. It is said that in his previous birth, he was the King of the Himalayas. His devotion and loyalty towards Rama, earned him a blessing from him to have a very long life and to have the strength of ten million lions. Jambavan was of extreme help to Rama in finding his wife Sita. He was the one who motivated Hanumana to realize his complete potentials and fly above the oceans to search for Sita in Lanka. Jambavan also lived in Krishna’s era and had killed Prasena to acquire the Syamantaka diamond when he returned to Krishna after a struggle with him. The reason why Jambavan could not himself jump over the oceans to find Sita was because he had injured his shoulder during the episode of Vishnu taking his Vamana avatar. Vamana shoulder struck Jamnavan and it hit him hard. Thus, he was too injured to fly and had to encourage Hanuman to do the job.

Jambavan King of Bears Ramayana

Jambavan was the one to have knowledge about the Vishyalakarni plant which he gathered during Samudra mantha. When Laxmana was fatally injured during the war, he asked Hanuman to get the herb that grows on a far off mountain, in order to cure Lakshmana.

Anecdotes and city of Jambavanta

Besides Parashurama and Hanumana, Jambavan was the only character to have survived through both the incarnations of Vishnu, namely Rama and Krishna. He is said to have witnessed the Kurma and Vaman avatar too, so probably he was the only one who had seen Vishnu all nine avatars. Jambavan’s ancient city Jambavanta is said to be the modern day Ratlam district in Madhya Pradesh.

source  : http://www.hindudevotionalblog.com/2016/01/jambavan-king-of-bears-ramayana
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Friday, February 13, 2015

STORY OF YATINATHA AVATARA OF LORD SHIVA

STORY OF YATINATHA  AVATARA  OF  LORD  SHIVA


Story of Yatinatha avatar of Shiva. Mahadeva has taken many avatars which have been dealt with in the Puranas especially the Shivapurana. Some of them were to test the devotion of his devotees. The story of Shiva’s Yatinatha avatar is as follows. A person called Ahuka who belonged to the hill-tribe lived near the mountain named Arbuda. His wife was Ahukaa who was a very pious woman. Both Ahuka and Ahukaa were great devotees of Shivasankar. They always performed propitiatory rites in worship of Shiva. Once, Mahadev decided to test the depth of devotion of the couple. Siva disguised as a Yatinatha (great sage) and went to the dwelling of the couple. Ahuka was away in the forest in search of eatables like fruits and roots. He came back soon and on seeing the sage he saluted him and worshipped.

Yatinatha informed him that he sought a place to stay overnight and asked whether he could accommodate him in his hut. Ahuka said that their hut was just enough for himself and his wife and it would be very inconvenient for the sage to stay there. The sage was about to return. Immediately, Ahukaa came out and asked her husband to accommodate the sage overnight, it would be inappropriate to turn down the request of a guest. Ahuka agreed and called back the sage. He also decided to sleep outside to let the guest sleep inside the hut. And so Yatinatha went to sleep inside and Ahuka slept outside. While sleeping, a wild animal came, attacked Ahuka and killed him. Ahukaa was very much worried and she decided to die jumping in to the funeral pyre of her beloved husband. Arrangements were made for the funeral of Ahuka.

The sage was very much sorry for whatever had happened. Ahukaa quietly tried to jump in to the husband’s funeral pyre. Immediately, Yatinatha manifested as Lord Shiva and blessed the couple to become Nala and Damayanti in the next birth. He also made it clear that he himself would take birth as a ‘Hamsa’ (swan) to unite them. In the next birth, Ahuka appeared as Nala, the son of king Virasena in the country of Nishadha. Ahukaa took birth as Damayanti the daughter of king Bhima in the country of Vidarbha. Lord Shiva took birth as a swan. It was the swan who worked as the mediator for initiating love between Nala and Damayanti. One of the five Sanskrit Mahakavyas (epic poems) named Naishadha Charita written by Harsha deals with the story of Nala and Damayanti.

source : http://www.hindudevotionalblog.com

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