STOP WORRY AND START LIVING

Every person in the world knows about worry whether or not able to define it or know its causes. In Hindi language it is called ‘Chinta’. It is as old as the Human race. I don’t know whether animals worry or not but human has this ability to worry since he departed from Chimpazee or just after that. It may be a question of debate but it is certain that it was there much-2 before the civilization.

It is very social evil as the men started living in groups he started getting worried. More the progress more the worries. Worries multiply with the prosperity in geometric ratio.

Worry meaning as per Oxford dictionary is Anxiety, harass importune, uneasy, thing that cause anxiety disturbed state of mind.

Meaning does not explain worry and its reason.

Worry according to me is the fear of unwanted coming or happening. When we expect something unwanted may happen we start worrying and try to avoid that unwanted from happening.

In Hindi literature poets and saints described the worry and stated the means and methods to avoid it.

Chinta  chita saman hai mat koi chinta kar.  Poet expressed the worry as Chita “a heap of wood and grass on which corpse is laid to burn and it turns in to ashes.” He says and expresses worry as chita which is burning you from inside and you will turn in to ashes in a long turn. It is slow process, but much worse than chita.

Even saints suggested the solution. Solution is not in the methods, it is in the process or culture of living or we can say environment. It varies from society to society. It is more a social than an individual. It is also genetic. A long worry may disturb your mental orderliness and also your genetics. Then it will be transferred to your wards.

To avoid worry great Hindu saint Tulsidas says in his Holy book Ramacharitmanas

‘Sunahu Bharat bhavi prabal bilakhi kahahoo muninath,

Hani labh jeevan maran yash upyash vidhi hath’

He is narrating the incidence after the death of Raja Dashrath and Ram vanvas. The above lies were said by guru Vashishtha to Bharat and he is telling to Bharat that Bhavi (luck or Fate) is too strong than the human and loss, profit honour and dishonor are in the hands of God, so you don’t worry. You can’t change anything and so no use of worrying or repenting.

It is also expressed in English as

Men Proposes and God Disposes. Human make the plans and God destroys them. When you can’t do much better than you have done than there is no fun of repenting or worrying.

In srimadbhagwat Geeta Lord Krishana says to Arjuna:- Karam kar aur Phal ki chinta na kar.

Karmanye vadhikaraste ma faleshu kadachan.

You must do your work as you have power to do the work and have no control over its result so don’t worry about its result. You will get result as per your work and yours last accumulated Karmas or fate.

When we can’t stop the happening of inevitable we must not care for that. 90% times we are worrying for the things not in our hand. One interesting fact about worry is that 80% times we worry for the things which happen in our favor. It means 80% time our worry is fake. Worry is a habit and it is to be left.

Story and Names of 51 SHAKTI PEETHS

HINDU PILGRIMS 3 

51 Shakti Peeths are very important and ancient Hindu religious pilgrims. The story of formation of these shakti peeths comes in Purans as

Devi Parvati in her last birth as the daughter of Daksha was married to Lord shiva. Once her father daksha was promoted to head of Prajapati by lord Brahaman ( his father). He got too much pride and hosted a Yagya, in which he didn’t invite his daughter Sati and Lord Shiva as he was having grievences with Lord Shiva. When Sati saw the Planes going in the sky she asked her husband Lord Shiva about the planes. Lord Shiva told her all the story.

She became very happy and sought his permission to attend the yagya. Lord shiva refused and said, “He has not invited us; so we must not go. Although we can go to our parents home with out invitation,yet if some one has rivalery or grievences with us , we must not go there.

Sati was not satisfied with all this and was adamond to go there. Seeing her so much interest Lord Shiva allowed her to go and sent her ganas with her.

When Sati reached there she saw that there is no part of lord shiva in the Yagya and she was greeted by anyone except mother. Her sisters met her very tauntingly laughing. She felt very much insulted not seeing the part of Lord shiva in the Yagya and left her Prana (died by Yoga). The ganas of Lord Shiva started destroying the yagya. The purodha of the yagya Rishi Bhirigu saved the yagya by creating Kritika, and kritika shunted out all the ganas of lord Shiva and they went to lord shiva and told him the whole story.

Lord Shiva became very violent and took his Mahakal posture. He destroyed the whole Yagya and slaughtered the head of Daksha. But his anger was not still pacified. He lifted the dead body of Devi Parvati on his shoulder and started Tandav.

The whole of the world became terrified and all the gods went to Lord Vishnu and sought his help. Vishnu went there and he was also not able to pacify Lord Shiva. He then ordered His Chakra and chakra started chopping the parts of the dead body of Sati one by one.

When nothing was left on the shoulder of Lord Shiva he was also pacified. There were 51 parts in total made of the dead body and the places where these parts of body fell are recognized as the Shakti Peeths.

Below is the list of 51 shakti peeths. The Name is in bold letter and the part of the body which fell on the Ground is marked in red.

1.     Mansa Shakti-Peeth, Mount Kailash, Mansarovar, stone rock near Tibet- Right hand- Dakshayani shakti-peeth and Amar.

2.     Biraj, Utkal, Orisa- Naval- Vimla and Jagannath.

3.     Banks of Gandika river, Pokhra, Muktinath temple of Nepal- Head- Gandaki Chandi shakti-peeth and Chakrapani.

4.     Bahula, banks of river Ajay at Ketugram, 8km from Katua, Burdwan, West Bengal- Left hand- Devi Bahula shakti-peeth and Bhiruk.

5.     Ujjaini shakti-peeth , Burdwan from Guskur station, 16km from West Bengal- Right wrist- Mangal Chandika shakti-peeth and Kapilambar. 

6.     Matabhadi mountain peak near Radhakishorpur village, Udaipur, Tripura- Right leg- Tripur Sundari shakti-peeth and Tripuresh. 

7.     Chatral, Chandranath mountan peak near Sita Kund station, Chintagong, Bangladesh- Right arm-Bhawani shakti-peeth and Chandrashekar.

8.     Trisotra, Salbadhi village, Boda Mandal, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal- Left leg- Bhraamari shakti-peeth and Ambar

9.     Kamagiri, kamakhya, Neelanchal mountain near Guwahati, Assam- Genitals- Kamakhya shakti-peeth and Umanand

10.                        Jugaadya, Kheergram, Burdwan, West Bengal- (Right leg) big toe, Jugaadya and Ksheer Khandak shakti-peeth .

11.                        Kali Peeth, Kali Ghat- Right toe- Kalika shakti-peeth and Nakuleshwar

12.                        Jayanti, Kalajor Baurbhag village, Khasi mountain, Jayantiya Pargana, Sylhet, Bangladesh- Left thigh- Jayanti and Kramadishwar

13.                        Kirit, Kiritkon Gram, Lal Bagh court road station, Mushirdabad, 3km from West Bengal- Crown- Vimla and Sanwart.

14.                        Manikanika Ghat, Kashi, Varansi, Uttar Pradesh- Earring- Vishalakshi & Manikarni and Kalbhairav.

15.                        Kanyashram, Bhadrkali temple, Kumari temple, Tamil Nadu- Back - Sarvani and Nimish

16.                        Kurukshetra, Haryana - Ankle bone - Savitri and Sthanu

17.                        Manibandh, Gayatri mountain near Pushkar, Ajmer, Rajhstan - two bracelets- Gayatri and Sarvanand.

18.                        Shri Shail, Jainpur village, 3km north-east of Sylhet town, Bangladesh- Neck- Mahalakshmi and Sambaranand.

19.                        Hingula or Hinglaj, karachi, 125km from Pakistan in north-east - Bramharandhra (Part of the head)- Kottari and Bhimlochan

20.                        Shakr rare, Krachi, Sukkar station near Pakistan,also,Nanina Devi temple, Bilaspur -Eyes- Mahishmardini and krodhish

21.                        Sugandha, Shikarpur in Bangladesh, 20km from Batisal, on the banks of Sonda river - Nose- Sugandha and Trayambak

22.                        Amarnath, Pahalgam, Kashmir - Throat- Mahamaya and Trisandhyeshwar

23.                        Jawala Ji, Kangda, himachal Pradesh - Tongue-Siddhida (Ambika) and Unmatta Bhairav

24.                        Jalandar, Devi lake near Chavani station in Punjab- Left breast- Tripurmalini shakti-peeth and Bhisan

25.                        Baidyanath Dham, Devoghar, Jharkand- Heart- Jayadurga and Baidyanath

26.                        Gujyeshwari temple, Nepal, near Pashupatinath temple - Both knees- Mahashira and Kapali

27.                        Prayag, Sangam, Allahbad, Uttar Pradesh- Fingers of hand- Lalita and Bhav

28.                        Kanchi, on banks of Kopai river, 4km in north-east, Bolapur station, Birbhum, West Bengal- Bone- Devgarbha and Ruru.

29.                        Kamlaghav, cave near banks of Sone river, Amarkantak, madhya Pradesh - Left buttock- Kali and Asitang.

30.                        Shondesh, Amarkantak, at the origin of Narmada, Madhya Pradesh- Right buttock- Narmada and Bhadrasen.

31.                        Ramagiri, Chitrakut, Jhasi-Manikpur railway line, Uttar Pradesh- Right breast- Shivani and Chanda

32.                        Vrindavan, Bhuteshwar Mahadev temple, near Mathura, Uttar Pradesh- Ringlets of hair- Uma and Bhutesh

33.                        Shuchi, Shuchitirtham Shiva temple, 11km Kanyakumari- Tiruvanatpuram path, Tamil Nadu -Upper teeth- Narayani and Sanhar.

34.                        Panchsagar, exact place not known - Bottom teeth- Varahi and Maharudra.

35.                        Kartoyatt, Bhawanipur village, 28km from Sherpur to Bagura station, Bangladesh -Left anklet - Arpana and Vaman

36.                        Shri Parvat, Ladak, Kashmir,also, Shri Shailam, Kurnul, Andra Pradesh - Right anklet- Shrisundari and Sundaranand

37.                        Vibhash, Tamluk, eastern Modinipur, West Bengal- Left ankle- Kapalini(Bhimarupa and Sarvanand

38.                        Prabhas, 4km Veraval station, near Somnath temple, Junagad, Gurajat- Stomach-Chandrabhaga and Vakratund

39.                        Bhairavapravta at Bhairav hills, banks of Shipra river, Ujjaini, Madhya pradesh- Upper lip- Avanti and Lambkarna.

40.                        Jansthan, Godivari river Ghati, Nasik, Maharashtra- Chin- Bhramari and Vikritaksh

41.                        Sarvshail/Godivaritir, Kotilingeshwar temple, Godivari river banks, Rajamudri, Andra Pradesh -Cheeks-Rakini or Vishwehwari and (Vatsnabh or Dandpani)

42.                        Birat, near Bharatpur, Rajasthan- Left toes- (Ambika) and (Amriteshwar)

43.                        Ratnawali, banks or river Ratnakr, Khanakul-Krishna Nagar, Hugli, West Bengal- Right Shoulder- Kumari and Shiva

44.                        Mithila, near Janakpur railway station, Indian and Nepal border- Left Shoulder- Uma and Mahodar)

45.                        Nahati, near Nalhati station, Birbhum, West Bengal -Bone of leg- Kalika Devi and Yogesh

46.                        Karnat, exact place is unknown- Ears- Jayadurga and Abhiru

47.                        Vakreshwar, banks of river Paphar, 7km Dubrajpur Station, Birbhum, West Bengal-Portion between the eyebrows- Mahismardinia and Vakranath

48.                        Yashor, Ishwarpuri, Khulna district, Bangladesh-Palms of hands and soles of the feet- Jashoreshwari and Chanda

49.                        Attahas, 2km Labhpur station, Bhirbhum , West Bengal -Lips-Phullara and Vishvesh

50.                        Nadipur,banyan tree in boundari wall, Sainthia railway station, Birbhum district, West Bengal- Neckalce-Nandini and Nandikeshwar

51.                        Lanka, exact place is unknown-Anklet-Indrakshi and Rakshaseshwara

MAIN HINDU PILGRIMS 2

DWADASH JYOTIRLINGA

There are so many Pilgrims in India and no one is less than the other, but Char Dham is undoubtedly is considered by most of the Indians and Hindu holy books as supreme. Next comes the Jyotirlingas, Puries, and Shakti Peeths. Before giving the na mes and details of Dwadash Jyotirlingas here is Strotam  describing all the names of dwadash jyotirlingas in Sanskrit.

Saurashtre Somanaatham Cha Sree Saile Mallikarjunam
Ujjayinyaam Mahaakaalam Omkaare Mamaleswaram
Himalaye to Kedaram Daakinyaam Bhimashankaram
Vaaranaasyaam cha Viswesam Trayambakam Gowtameethate
Paralyaam Vaidyanaatham cha Naagesam Daarukaavane
Setubandhe Ramesham Grushnesam cha Shivaalaye ||
 

These jyotirlingas are immemorial and description comes in Puranas. The southernmost is rameshwaram and the northern most is in the Himalayas at kedarnath. Somnath is considered the most sacred and foremost in dwadash Jyotirlingas which is situated in Prabhas Patan in Saurashtra in Gujarat.

There is a strota in Sanskrit for the Dwadash jyotilingas  as under:-

Dwadash  jyotirlinga strotam                                                                                   Sourashtra dese visadetiramye Jyotirmayam ChandraKalavatamsam .
Bhakti Pradanaya Kripaveteernam tam Somanatham Sharanam prapadye ..1..

Shreeshaila Shringe vibudhaatisange tulaadritungaapi muda vasantam .
Tamararjunam mallikapurvamekam namami sansara samudrasetum ..2..

Avantikayam vihitaavataram muktipradanaya cha sajjananam .
Akala mrityoh paripakshanartha vande mahakalamahesuresham ..3..

Kaaverika narmadayoh pavitre samagame sajjanataranaya .
Sadaiv mandhatripuray vasantam Omkarameesam Shivamekameeday ..4..

Poorvottare prajwalikanidhane sada vasantam Girijasametam .
Sursuraradhitapadamangam Shree Vaidyanatham tamaham namami ..5..

Yaamye sadange nagaratiramye vibhushitangam vividhaischa bhogaih .
Sadbhati muktiprada meesha mekam shree Naganatham sharanam prapad..6..

Mahadriparshwe cha tate ramantam sampoojyamanm satatam muneendreh .
Surasurairyaksha mahoragadhyaih Kedarameesham Shivamekameede ..7..

Sahyadrisheershe vimale vasantam Godavari teera pavitradeshe .
Yadarshanatpatakamaashu nasham praayati tam Tyambakameeshameede ..8..

Sutamraparnijalrashi yoge nibadhya setum vishikhairasankhyaih .
Shree Ramachandrena samarpitam tam Rameshwarakhyam niyatam namami..9..

Yam Dakinee shakineeka samaje nishevyamanam pishitasanaishcha .
Sadaiva Bheemadipadaprasiddham tam Shankaram bhakta hitam namami 10..

Saananda maanandavane vasantamanandakandam hatapapavrindam .
Vaaranaseenathamanatha natham shree Vishwanatham Sharanam prapadye..11..

Elapure ramya vishalakeshmin samullasantamcha jagadvarenyam .
Vande mahodaratara swabhavam Ghrishneshwarakhyam saranam prapadye ..12..

Jyotirmaya DwaadasaLingakaanam Shivatmanamproktamidam kramena .
Stotram pathitwa manujotibhaktya phalam tadalokya nijam bhajechcha ..13..

Places of 12 Jyotirlingam

1.     Somnath is in Prabhas Patan in Saurashtra In Gujarat State

2.     Mallikarjunam is also called srishaila which the name of a pillar located on the mountain on the river Krishna, situated near Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh.

3.     Mahakal is situated in Ujjain in M.P. and is believed to be swayambhu which means not crated or carved by human being and came in to existence on its own.

4.     Omkareshwar is situated on an island in the river Narmada in M.P.

5.     Kedarnath is the northernmost Jyotirlinga situated in uttarakhand. It is in the snowy hills of Himalayas and is approachable on foot and that too for six months only. Rest of the year the way is covered with snow.

6.     Bhimashankar is associated with the destruction of tripurasura and is situated in the sahyadri range in maharastra.

7.     Vishwanath is in Varansi in U.P.

8.     Trimbkeshwar associated with the origon of River Godawari is near Nasik In Maharashtra.

9.     Baidyanath (vaidyanath) also called Vaijnath is in deogarh in Jharkhand.

10.                        Nageshwar is in Dwarika In Gujarat.

11.                        Rameshwaram is in Kanyakumari in Tamilnadu.

12.Grishnesswar is in Aurangabad in Maharashtra near the rock temples of ellora.

There is some disputes regarding the jyotirlingas:

Baidyanath: Some people consider Baidyanath is in Parli in Maharashtra and some other consider it in Kangra valley of Himachal. But majority of peoples believe it is either of Himachal or Jharkhand.

Naganath: some people believe it is in Almora Hills of Uttranchal, and some others believe it is in Oundha Maharashtra, but there is not much coincidence.

Bhimashankar: some people consider it is in gauhati in Assam and some believe it is in Kasipur Uttranchal.

Main Hindu Pilgims

Char Dham

India is a very religious country. In Hindu religion there are considered 330 million god and goddesses, although we believe there is one God and all the god and goddesses lie in Him only. If there is one temple for each god and one birth place or a place sanctioned to one god the number of pilgrims comes out to be 330 million. Although it is not like that even though there are numerous pilgrims in India. The number of pilgrims is so high that it is very difficult to list all of them. It will be even bigger than an encyclopedia.

Here we are going to discuss about the main pilgrims which are mentioned in our holy books and are of utmost importance.

In the top of the list are Char Dhams.

Badrinath dham

Dwarika Puri Dham

Jaggannath Puri Dham
Rameshwaram

Adi guru Shankaracharya revived Hindu religion and grouped four sacred places as Char dham related to Lord Visnu avatar (Incarnation). These Char hams make a perfect square as two of them Badrinath and Rameshwaram falls in the same longitude and Puri and Dwarika falls In the same latitude representing farthest north, east, west and south points.

   Figure 1 Badrinath Dham                                             fig 2 Dwarkadheash Temple

Puri Temple

Rameshwaram Temple

                                                                                                                                                  Badrinath Dham is in the uttarakhan state garhwal hills on the bank of Alaknanda River. It is between nar and narayan hills.

Badri means Berri and nath means lord. Here berry is found very abundantly naturally. It is said adi shankracharya found a black stone image of Lord Badri Narayan made of Shaligram stone in Alaknanda river and established in a cave which was later on shifted to present temple by King of Garhwal in the sixteenth century.

Dwarika is in the west in the Gujarat state.dwarika derived its name from the Sanskrit word dvar which means Gate. Here Gomti river enters the gulf of Kuch nearby.

 It is the wetern most state of India. Dwarika is said to be the dwelling place of Lord krishana. It is said that Dwarika was damaged six times by the sea water and the today’s Dwarika is the seventh.

Puri in the east is in the state of Orissa and is one of the oldest city of India. it is situated on the bay of Bengal.

It is dedicated to Lord Krishana and called Jaggannath. It is the only place in India Where Lord Krishana Is worshiped with her sister Subhadra and elder brother Balbhadra or Lord Balrama. The temple is believed to be 1000 years old and was constructed by Raja Choda Ganga Deva and Raja Tritiya Ananga Bhima Deva

Rameshwaram in the south is in the Indian state of Tamilnadu and is the southern most point of India and is situated on the Gulf of Mannar. It is the place where Lord Rama made bridge Ram Setu to Lanka in the war with Ravana. The Ramanatha Swamy Temple occupies the most area of Rameshwaram and is dedicated to Lord Shiva and is believed to be consecrated by Lord Rama. It is believed that pilgrimage to Banaras is incomplete without the Pilrimage of Rameshwaram.

One thing is common in all the four Dhams that all the four are related to Lord Vishnu. In Rameshwaram although the Place is dedicated to Lord Shiva and temple of Lord Shiva is there. But that place is more famous for Lord Rama And the Shiva Linga Statue of Lord Shiva was consecrated by Lord Rama Himself.

Three of the Dhams are on sea shore and the forth that is Badrinath Dham which is in the North and couldnot have been on the sea shore is on the bank of river Alaknanda a very sacred River in Hindu Religion. A great importance was given to water or god of water which is one of the most important means for life.

Gangotri Temple

Char Dham in the Himalayas or Chota Char Dham these dhams as the name suggests are in the north and situated in Mountains of Himalayas and are:-

Badrinath, Kedarnath, gangotri and Yamunotri.

Hindu Religious Books 3

Upnishads

Next in the series of holy books are Upnishads. Upnishads starts where Vedas ends and so called vedanant. Upnishads means sitting near. When pupils sit near and around the guru to learn and they teach them it was called Upnishad. Veda mantras were chanted in the public where as the Upnishads were discussed in private between the scholars or teacher and pupils.

As great care was taken to maintain the privacy and secrecy of the Upnishads so these were not so public and in long course of time these were lost. They propagated through verbal tradition so no efforts were made to translate them or keep records of them in any form.

It was only Adi Shankracharya who wrote the interpretation of upnishads. He wrote interpretation of 10 upnishiads. These Upnishads are ranked very high in knowledge so there were very few peoples who understood these and only few peoples were willing to understand these.

These are basically about the enlightenment, so Mahavira and Budha also went through them and interpreted these upnishads in their language. These were the experience of the persons who got enlightenment and were not really communicable. They propagated through the verbal system and also called shrutis. There is no writer of these Upnishads. Actually some enlightened persons and saints experienced and there pupils and followers wrot their experiences, so there is some gap and controversies. Also it is the sum up of so many saints so it has some confusion as the way they proceeded to get enlightenment was different.

Lord Budha understood these and got enlightenment. His pupils wrote his experience. As with the spread of Budhism his teachings also spread outside India, majorily in countries ;like China and Japan.

There was no confusion in these countries as there was only one version of Upnishads ie the version given by lord Budha, so they have more faith in these teachings or Upnishads. Where as in India there was still confusion persisting and there were so many schools of philosophy.

Moreover in india secrecy was mentained which was not the case in China and Japan in Budha religion and culture. They developed the art of enlightenment which is still prevailing in these countries and they are ahead of India in the field of enlightenment on account of these teachings of Upnishads or teachings of Lord Budha.

These Upnishads were translated in Persian language by Dara Shikoh eldest son of emperor Shanjahan (mugal emperor)

There are more than 200 Upnishads but there are some main Upnishads as under

Chandogya

Kena

Aitareya

Kaushitaki

Katha

Mundaka

Taitriyaka

Brihadaranyaka

Svetasvatara

Isa

Prasna

Mandukya

Maitri

Of all these Upnishads Brihadarnyaka is the oldest.  It tells, “meditation is the only way of uniting ones soul with the Almighty” and know and realize that almighty and we are not two separate entities. There is only one entity that is Brhamn.