Bhagvan

Bhagvan is a wonderful person, we can worship him in any form based on our beliefs, sentiments and faith. God exist several millions of years before, and for him, there is no beginning or end! God cannot be destroyed by anyone! Creation of various things in the world is the duty imposed on him! Similar to people inventing various products in the world like machinery, food products, invention of new, new technologies, God also creates different living beings in the world by using his enormous powers!

Bhagvan contains very good qualities, he is highly efficient, intelligent and powerful person, but sometimes, mostly in his child form, he used to pretend as if he seems to be very “INNOCENT”. If we see the child pictures of Lord Krishna and Muruga, they appear very awesome. The real nature of god is of very soft, polite and gentle! But due to our own problems, sometimes we used to consider him as a dreaded demon!

The great Shaivite Saint, Sri Sundarar, in one of his songs, describes Lord Shiva as a huge demon! He comments on him like that, since for the eyes of the wrong doers he would appear like that. But for the soft, gentle and polite people, Lord Shiva would appear before their eyes like the handsome Indra Bhagavan! If we worship the great almighty by considering him as one of our body parts, we would never get fear of him! The great Bhagavatha Prahalada, didn’t get fear, even when the beloved deity Lord Vishnu, had appeared before him in the ferocious form as Lord Narasimha.

When the Demon Surapadman was fighting with Lord Muruga, first he considered him only as a child. But when he was about to lose his life on his hands, then only he realized his mistake, and also he was able to see the divine form of Lord Muruga. When the righteous Yudhishtra was planning to wage a war with the Kauravas, he said politely to Lord Krishna, “Hey Krishna, though I want to defeat the Kauravas in the Kurukshetra Battle, but sometimes, I am not interested even to perform war with the Kauravas, since they are my relatives. I am ready to bear their tortures permanently, and I am also ready to forgive them even if they insult me for a hundred times!”

Then, after getting proper advices from Lord Krishna, Yudhishtra has changed his mind, waged the battle with the Kauravas and finally Pandavas were won in that battle.

Most of us are getting angry with Lord Vamana, the famous Vishnu Avatar, for being cunningly sent the Demon King Mahabali to the Sutala Loka. But they are not aware about that how the great Mahabali is prosperously living in the Sutala Loka! In fact his kingdom was guarded by the great Lord Vishnu Bhagavan himself! Who would get such a nice guard like Lord Vishnu! We should always understand that God only is our best protector, and apart from him, we cannot expect anyone else to protect us!

Whenever we land up with any troubles, we can call his names seeking for his help, like, Ananta, Achuta, Kesava, Madhava, Krishna, Vinayaka, Muruga, Jaganmata, Janani, Mookambika, Iswara, Dharma Shasta like that.

Bhagvan is always good only, but sometimes we are unable to realize his good qualities due to our own ignorance!

Our life is in our hands only! We should develop the courage and strength similar to Lord Hanumanji who was able to lift even a big Mountain on his single hand. We cannot blame anybody for our own failures! Both Successes and failures must be taken by us in a positive manner, and we must consider even the failures as a good lesson for us. Even the holy avatars like Rama and Krishna waited for the appropriate time to kill the demons like Ravana and Kamsa, but since they didn’t realise their mistake, their life came to an end!

As per Lord Buddha’s teachings, nobody in the world leads a happy life! Successes and failures are common in human’s life, and they cannot be avoided in our daily life. If one day we taste the sweetness of success, then on any other day, we would have to taste even the bitterness of the failures also. Some people commit suicides, due to frequent failures in their life. But if they patiently wait for some more time, then they would surely taste the sweetness of success in their life!

As per the sayings of our great Saint, Sri Saibaba of Shirdi, patience and faith must be strictly followed by us, in order to get positive results in our life. Impatience and lack of faith would result in failures, and, hence, people must cultivate good habits in their life, like regular prayers, helping others, reading about spiritual matters, visiting temples, exchanging pleasantness among others by sharing some good jokes etc.

As per a famous quote, if we put a single step ahead, then god would help us to lead thousands of steps ahead. Without effort, no support, even cranes are patiently waiting in the pond for hours together, to catch a single fish! Those who have not even completed their 10th standard Exams have successfully shined in film/political/sports field! Those who have completed their engineering degree are still working as Sales Representatives in some small and medium sized companies! But whatever may be, we should never try to destroy our own life by committing suicides, since our life is awarded by our Divine parent, Lord Brahma, and by the way of giving respect to the great Lord, we should lead our life happily, even if we are in a bad shape, by chanting the Mantras of the creator god, Brahma Dev.

Similar to thanking Ma Annapoorna while eating our daily food, we also must thank to Lord Indra and Varuna while drinking water. While Lord Indra is the god of rain, Varuna is the god of oceans, and both of them are related with water. Apart from thanking these celestial deities, we must also perform Homams in the temples in order to please these deities. Similar to food, water is also considered as an essential thing in order to sustain in our life. But most of us forget to worship these deities, by considering them as minor gods.

Lord Indra and Varuna are praised in the Vedas, Puranas and in other Holy Texts of Hinduism, and many hymns are also dedicated to them in the Vedas. While Lord Indra is considered to be the brother of Lord Vamana, the powerful Vishnu Avatar, Lord Varuna is considered to be an aspect of Lord Vishnu itself. But Lord Indra contains more powers than that of Lord Varuna, since Indra is the one who controls the 33 Crores of Devas, including Lord Varuna. Similar to worshipping the major deities like Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, we have to give much importance to these deities also, since without their grace, we couldn’t able to drink even a single drop of water.

During drought times, ancient people used to worship Lord Varuna and Indra by performing special puja to them, and some of them have got the divine vision of those deities also. But now these deities are almost forgotten by the people, and even most of the aged people are not showing their interest to worship these wonderful gods.

Even for Lord Rama, Varuna had shown his divine appearance, only after Rama performed penance on him for a period of three days by lying down in the bed of Darbha Grass. Even the Holy Rivers like Ganges, Yamuna, Narmada and Godavari worships the ocean god Lord Varuna, by considering him as their immediate boss. But without considering all these aspects, simply we are ignoring the ancient Vedic gods. Both Indra and Varuna are capable of granting various boons to us, and if we show our sincere faith and bhakti on them, during our succeeding births, we could get an opportunity to live either in the Indra Loka or in the Varuna Loka in a comfortable manner.

We can enjoy our life with the grace of the god, and we can also choose god as our spiritual advisor. God acts as the best spiritual advisor and he is expressing himself in various forms in order to give proper advices to his devotees. Similar to keeping business advisors, the great almighty itself acts as our own personal advisor by taking different, different forms.

Ma Annapurna asks us to provide food to the poor people, Ma Lakshmi and Kubera asks us to donate our surplus money towards noble cause, Lord Krishna acts as a good spiritual advisor, through his Bhagavat Gita Teachings, and likewise Ma Balatripura Sundari advises the people to understand the significance of female child, since still in some villages, infant females are being killed with the belief that bringing up them would cost more to the family!

Guardian deities like Ayyanar and Sudalaimadan advises the people to express their gratitude to the police, army and security department. Muthu Sattanathar advises the people to give much respect to those who are fighting for justice. Ma Shakti Devi is worshipped in various forms, and she is popularly known as Amman among the south Indian people, and her popular form Durga advises the females to be bold, enthusiastic and energetic in order to face any kind of challenges in their lives, and also advises them to fight for their own rights.

Lord Indra develops more bondage between young couple, and blossoms their lives. Varuna Bhagavan advises us to take bath in the holy rivers like Ganga, Yamuna and Godavari. Vayu Bhagavan asks us to practice Pranayama and Yoga in order to lead a healthier life. Agni Bhagavan asks us to light lamps in our puja room, in order to prosper in our life. Navagrahas asks us to worship them, in order to remove the Navagraha Doshams from our life. Ma Manasa Devi, mother of the Nagas, asks us to worship the snakes present in the earth, and to offer milk and eggs to them in the snake burrows. Lord Yama asks us to keep on chanting the names of the almighty, in order to avoid death related fear.

Our great Bhagavathas like Narada, Prahalada and Dhruva advise the people to show more bhakti on the almighty. Even those, who didn’t have bhakti, if they study about the life history of these staunch devotees, then they would get immense bhakti and they would also turn into best Bhaktas. Lord Brahma and Ma Saraswati advise us to study Vedas, Puranas and other holy texts, in order to get good spiritual knowledge. Lord Vinayaka tells about the significance of the “OM” Mantra, and his elephant head itself appears in the form of “OM” Symbol.

Deities like Panchali Amman, Vasuki Amman and Kannagi Amman advises the young women to follow chastity and purity in their lives. Lord Muruga gives more confidence and hope to us, through his blessing posture, and also his divine spear symbolizes the victory sign. Lord Venkateswara blessing posture looks very attractive, and being the protection god, during our urgent call he would arrive before us, and through the Gajendra elephant incident, we could clearly understand about his significance.

Lord Ayyappa and Ma Santhoshi, advises us to observe fasting on certain days and to observe purity and bhakti in our lives. Ma Dharma Devi advises us to do lot of charitable activities in order to increase our good karma. Lord Shaneeswara the justice god, asks us to lead a disciplinary and pious life in order to increase our good karmas.

Female goddesses occupies a major role in Hinduism, and in the present day world, people began to worship most of the female goddesses mentioned in our Holy Puranas, like Ma Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari and Narmada. Ma Shakti Devi, the holy consort of Lord Shiva, is considered to be the chief female goddess, and even Ma Lakshmi and Ma Saraswati are mentioned as the Chief Divine Attendants of Ma Shakti Devi, and they are also to be considered as the aspects of Ma Shakti Devi. Likewise the River goddesses like Ganga, Yamuna and Narmada are considered to be the divine aspects of Ma Shakti Devi, and they are also worshipped by the Hindus by considering them to be the worshipful Holy River Goddesses.

Most of the ancient kings worshipped Ma Shakti Devi along with Lord Shiva, and they have built lot of temples for Ma Shakti Devi during their regime. Lot of Mantras are also dedicated to the holy goddesses, and apart from the Mantras, reciting the NAMAVALI, the names of the deities, is also considered as a popular method of worship, and some of the NAMAVALI are given below for the purpose of reciting it regularly during the time of performance of puja.

God never commit any mistakes similar to ordinary humans, and in fact God acts as the best companion, especially for the lonely people. Some people after losing their parents/consorts remain alone till their death, since the children for most of them would be settled in abroad, and due to that, most of them prefer to stay in Senior Citizen Homes, also popularly called as “Retirement Homes”. Though these homes provides the basic required facilities to the senior citizens, according to their level best, but, however those who live alone, without the presence of their family members, would lose hope, and some of them would be under severe stress.

In order to overcome such kind of difficulties, they can seek the help of the god, since god only acts as our best companion, and he is the one who shows great compassion on us. But we cannot expect god to stay with us in physical form and to talk to us about unnecessary things. In order to maintain the friendship of the god, initially we should start doing meditation on him, and after that, we can talk to him by seeing his pictures. And by the way of doing like that, we could put some of our burden on his shoulders. Some people used to tell to me, with tearful eyes, “I don’t have anyone to look after me”. And for those people, I used to tell, “When you have thirty three Crores of the deities to look after, then why do you worry”.

Lonely people if they keep on thinking that they are alone, then, surely they would always feel they are alone. But instead of that, if they think, that their best friend, god’s (Lord Krishna) presence is there with them, then surely they would get the strength of thousand elephants both on their mind as well on their body, and thereafter there is no need to worry about anything in their life till the time of their death.

The great Parasurama is doing meditation in the holy Mahendragiri Mountain alone, and no one is there with him. Likewise, Lord Hanuman is also still doing meditation at a cave in Himalayas and he only is present in that cave! If these god’s incarnations decides to take someone’s help, then, even they could create millions and millions of helpers for them. But, since they are interested to stay alone, in order to do meditation in a peaceful manner, they didn’t require anyone’s help. Likewise, the lonely people can stay alone bravely, by keeping the spiritual thoughts of the god on their mind.

“OM”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR