STORY OF DATTATREYA OR DATTA

  Story of Lord Dattatreya or Datta

Sage Atri and Anusuya

Anusuya and three children

Dattatreya or Datta – the Hindu god who is regarded as a combined incarnation of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. According to puranas, Lord Dattatreya was born as the son of Sage Atri and Anasuya. 

Once Sage Narada was describing the pativratyam (devotion to her husband) of Anasuya to Goddess Saraswati, Goddess Laskshmi and Parvati devi. Hearing a lot about Anasuya, the three Goddesses wanted to test her Pativrata Dharma. For this, the Trimurtis appeared as sanyasis (sages) in front of Anusuya and asked her to give food without wearing any clothes. Anasuya falls in dilemma – she cannot come in front of other men in nude, and she cannot refuse to give food to sanyasis. She prayed to her husband and sprinkled some water on the three sanyasis in order to clean their feed. 

All of a sudden, the three sanyasis were transformed into small babies. Anasuya felt a motherly attachment to them and fed the three babies with breast milk. As soon as Sage Atri came back home he realized that the three babies are none other than the Trimurti Gods. Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva woke up in their original form and gave a boon to Anasuya that they will take rebirth as her child in a single form in the name Dattatreya.

Dattatreya Jayanti on 16th December 2013

source : http://www.hindudevotionalblog.com/2013/09/story-of-lord-dattatreya-or-datta.html

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BIRTH OF GANESH STORY

Birth of Ganesh Story

The story of the birth of Ganesha is found in the Puranas in different versions. Lord Shiva married Goddess Parvati. They selected an isolated place on the Kailasa Mountain for one thousand years.

Once, Shiva said to Parvati: Dear, there are many creatures in this world. We live as human beings. How can we experience the life of other creatures? Why not we take the form of other creatures and live for some time? Parvati agreed. They took the form of elephants and lived in the forests enjoying the life of elephant. During their life as elephants Parvati became pregnant. She worried that the progeny would be in the form of elephant. She shared her worry with Siva. He pacified her saying that the child born to her would become world famous and also the entire world would respect him. People would seek his blessings before beginning any deed.

Parvati gave birth to a nice boy. He had a small belly. He was named Ganesa. Devas came from heaven to greet him. Ganesa was growing as a very clever boy. Once, Parvati went to take bath after entrusting Ganesa to guard the gate. He was instructed not to let anyone enter in. While he was thus guarding the gate, there came Shiva to get in. Ganesa obstructed him and said: “mother has entrusted me to guard the gate without letting anyone to go in. Therefore, I cannot let you go in.”

Siva said: “Parvati intended to prevent other people, not me. So let me go in.”

Ganesa did not allow him to go in. Siva got angry. His eyes reddened and he scolded Ganesa.

“Naughty boy, if you are this much greedy in this young age, what will be the case once you grow up? You will not hesitate to threaten and even do away with me. I do not want this kind of a son.”

Siva cut Ganesa into two pieces; the body and the head.

By then, Parvati came back after taking the bath. She cried aloud on seeing her son cut into two pieces. Who did this? - she shouted.

Siva realized his guilt and was unable to utter a single word. Later, he explained to her what happened. Parvati was still weeping. Soon, Shiva sent his ganas and asked them to bring back the head of the first creature that is laying with its head facing North. Soon the ganas bring back the head of a powerful elephant, which Shiva placed onto Ganesha’s body. Ganesa was back alive.

Thus Ganesa or Ganapati became Gajanana or Gajamukha meaning one whose face is that of elephant. Ganesa also means leader of all the ganas.

source : http://www.hindudevotionalblog.com/2013/09/birth-of-ganesh-story.html

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LEGEND OF MORESHWAR TEMPLE

                             Lord Ganesh's Mayureshwar

Legend of Moreshwar temple

It was predicted by Lord Brahma that Lord Ganesha would incarnate as Vinayak in the Kritayug, as Mayureshwar in Treta yug, as Gajanan in the Dwaparyug and as Dhumraketu in the Kalyug. All these incarnations are related to certain legends of Lord Ganesha killing various demons.

In the Gandaki Nagari of Mithila, a king named Chakrapani was ruling. He and his wife Queen Ugra were unhappy, as they did not have a child. The couple worshipped God Surya and the queen with the blessings of the Sun God became pregnant. But soon released the embryo in the sea as she could not bear the brilliance and the radiance of the embryo. From that embryo, brilliant son was born. The sea in the disguise of a Brahmin approached King Chakrapani with the child and gave the child to the King. As the child was born in the sea the king named him sindhu. Sindhu, after growing old and strong became more powerful by worshipping the Sun God as advised by his Guru Shukracharya. Lord Surya, as a boon gave the nectar to Sindhu and said that as long as the nectar remains near his navel he will not die. Sindhu thus received immortality and started attacking Gods like Indra, Vishnu etc. he defeated all of them and kept them in prison in his kingdom. The remaining gods worshipped Lord Ganesh and requested him to rescue them from the demon king sindhu. Ganesha pleased with their prayers, promised to take birth as Devi Parvati's son and kill the demon.

Parvati recited the ekakshari ‘OM' mantra to please the Lord and made a clay idol of Ganesha on the Bhadrapada shuddha Chaturthi Day and worshipped. The idol soon turned into a real child. When the child was ten years old, Shiva and Parvati along with their son decided to leave the mountain Meru and on their way to mountain kailash, Lord Ganesha defeated the demon Kamalasura with the help of Siddhi(the personified shakti) and Buddhi(the personified Intelligence). After this incident on their way, lord Ganesha found the Gandaki Nagari of the demon king Sindhu and decided to attack him with all the army of Shiva's attendants. He thus attacked Sindhu and at first killed the two sons of Sindhu. Sindhu was advised to release the Gods and Goddesses in prison and leave the battlefield by his father. But he did not listen to it and continued the battle. Lord Ganesha removed the nectar from his navel with his Parashu and killed him. During this battle, Lord Ganesha was riding a peacock and therefore he got the name ‘Mayureshvar', the one who rides a peacock. Mayureshvar decided to reside at Morgaon, for the sake of his devotees.

Another legend that accounts for Lord Ganesh's Mayureshwar is:

Sage Kashyap had two wives, Kadru and Vinita. Kadru's sons who were the serpents, held Vinita's sons Shayen, Sampati and Jatayu who were the birds, captive. Vinita, their mother was very hurt by this. As a consolation, Sage Kashyap gave Vinita a boon of having one more son also in the form of a bird. When this son was in the egg stage, Lord Ganesh broke the egg, and a peacock emerged from the egg. The newborn peacock and Ganesh battled with each other. Vinita the mother had to intervene to end this battle. Ultimately her peacock son chose to be Ganesha's vehicle and laid down the condition that Ganesh would be known by the peacock's name. Thus Ganesha took the name Mayureshvar. Moreshwar is a local variation of the name.

source : http://ashtavinayaktemples.com/article/id/341/temple/34/legend-of-moreshwar-temple

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GODDESS DURGA MOTHER OF UNIVERSE

Goddess Durga Mother of Universe

Goddess Durga is worshiped as the mother of the universe and her name itself reflects ‘Shakti’ or power. Durga in Sanskrit means a fort or a place that is protected and thus difficult to reach. Durga Maa represents the Supreme Being that preserves moral order and righteousness in the creation.

Goddess Durga Mantra

Om Dum Durgayei Namaha
Om Aing Hring Kling Chamundayei Vichche

Appearance of Goddess Durga

Goddess Durga is usually depicted wearing red clothes. The red color symbolizes action and the red clothes signify that she is always busy destroying evil and protecting mankind from all pain and suffering. She is also seen as demon fighting version of Lord Shiva’s wife, Parvati. She is depicted as having eight or ten hands which represents eight quadrants or ten directions of Hinduism. She appears with three eyes where the left eye represents desire, the right eye represents action and the central eye represents knowledge hence the name ‘Triyambake’. Mother Durga rides over a lion which symbolizes her mastery over the qualities of power, will and determination. She possess different kinds of weapons in her arms like mace, sword, disc, arrow and trident which conveys that one weapon cannot be used to destroy all kinds of enemies, but different kinds of weapons has to be used. She has the sacred conch which emanates the sound of creation ‘AUM’.

Goddess Durga worship during Durga Puja Festival

Durga Puja during the Navaratri festival is the main festival associated with the Goddess. Durga Pooja is the biggest Hindu festival celebrated throughout India. This falls in the month of September - October and the goddess is worshipped in nine forms these days. The goddess is dressed each day as a different devi likeGoddess Saraswati, Goddess Parvati, and Goddess Lakshmi. On first day she is Shailputri, second day Brahmacharini, third day Chandraganta, fourth day Kushmanda, fifth day Skanda Mata, sixth day Katyayani, seventh day Kalratri, eighth day Mahagauri and ninth day Sidhidatri. The eight day of Navratri Festival is known as Durgashtami and weapons of Goddess Durga are worshipped on this day. The day of Durga’s victory is celebrated as Vijayadasami. There is also an elemental ritual of immersing the idol of Goddess Durga into the holy river of Ganga which points to cyclical regeneration.

Power of all Divine Forces 

Goddess Durga is believed to be the power behind the work of creation, preservation and destruction of the world. She is the divine mother who protects mankind from all evils and miseries and also destroys selfishness, jealousy, prejudice, hatred, anger and ego. Thus Goddess Durga represents a united front of all Divine forces against the negative forces of wickedness and evil.

source : http://www.hindudevotionalblog.com/2011/09/goddess-durga-mother-of-universe.html

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BIRTH OF GODDESS DURGA STORY

Birth of Goddess Durga Story

Story of the birth of Goddess Durga Devi. According to the Rig Vedas, Durga Maa is the primeval source of energy. Hindus consider Durga as the mother of the universe. Read the story behind the birth of Goddess Durga below. 

Mahishasura who was the king of Asuras for many years were granted a boon by Lord Brahma that no man or god can kill him. This gave him the power to fight and rule the entire world. He started attacking heaven and urged his battalion of asuras to kill people and take away their wealth. Even gods and goddesses were driven away from heaven and Mahishasura took the throne. The gods did not have any other way out of this terrorism and requested Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva for help. 

To solve this issue the Trimurtis combined their divine energy into a feminine form that illuminated the heaven. From this glow Goddess Durga Devi emerged as a beautiful woman with ten arms riding a lion. Durga was born to kill the demons and so she was completely armed in each of her ten arms with divine weapons of each god and sent against Mahishasura for a fierce battle. When Mahishasura disguised as buffalo Devi beheaded the buffalo and then Mahishasura emerged in his original form. Then Devi Durga pierced his chest and relieved the world from evil power.

source : http://www.hindudevotionalblog.com/2013/09/birth-of-goddess-durga-story.html

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