Dabur

Hindu Symbolism

LORD VISHNU The name Vishnu means he who possesses the habit of Vyapana (to pervade). Lord Vishnu is the central and the major deity of the holy trinity i.e. Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. The two most common representations of Vishnu show him either sleeping over the waves of the ocean on the coils of the serpent-deity called Shesh Nag. The other most common one is standing on water with four hands- each holding one of his four chief attributes.

Lord Vishnu’s four main features are:-

In the Upper right hand, he holds cakra or discus shining like an infant Sun, symbol of the mind, which represents the revolving or creative tendency.

The Discus or wheel (Charka) of Vishnu named Sudershan. It has six spokes and symbolizes six-patella lotus. It represents the limitless controlling all the six seasons and is the fearful weapon that cuts off the heads of all demons.

In the left upper hand, he holds the conch or lotus, symbol of the casual power of illusion, from which the universe rises, which is the symbol of the five elements.

The lotus of Vishnu is named Padma. It is the symbol of purity and represents the unfolding of creations. It is the truth (Sathva). The elements from, which emerge the rules of, conduct (Dharma) and knowledge (Janna).

The Conch (Shankh) named Panchjanya is the fountain that evolves the five elements i.e., water, fire, air, earth and sky or space. In the lower left hand, which represents the notion of individual existence, is the mace, symbol of all knowledge.

The Mace (Gada) of Vishnu is named Kaumodaki. It represents the elemental force, form which all physical and mental powers are derived.

While Vishnu, who has the power to spread his control over everything. From his navel a lotus- stalk grows up, and on the top of the stalk, in the lotus flower, Brahma is born. Brahma does prayers and worship before Vishnu. Mahavishnu gives the Brahma the boon of creations of the subjects. Vishnu’s main attribute is Sattva (goodness-purity) while the Bhrama’s whose main attribute is of rajas (activity-passions).

From the middle of the brows of Brahma, Shiva is born whose main attribute is Tamas (inertia darkness).

The worshippers of Vishnu, known as Vaishavas, recognizes in him the Supreme Being, out of whom emerges the Brahma, the active creator, Vishnu himself the preserver, and Shiva or Rudra, the destroyer.

Vishnu appeared in the world either to correct some great evil or to effect some good on the earth. His incarnations are nine in number or innumerable.

1. The first of these is Matsya (fish) incarnation. According to the Hindus before the latest creation of the present universe, the four Vedas (the holy books remained in the mouth of the Supreme-Deity) drowned in the waters. These books were necessary to get hold of in order to instruct Brahma about the work of creation. Vishnu appeared in the form of the Matsya and descended into the water and brought –up the sacred books.

2. The second is Kachyup or Kurma (tortoise) incarnation. In this Vishnu appears in the form of tortoise and took the newly created earth upon his back in order to break the trembling globe to stability. The belief is the earth is supported on the back of this tortoise.

3. The third is of the Varah (Boar). In periodical creation of the earth, once the earth sunk into the deep waters. Vishnu, the great preserver, took the form of a boar and descended into the waters and drew up the earth with the help of his tusks.

4. The fourth incarnation is that of Narsigh (half-lion and half-man). This special form was taken by Vishnu to kill a demoniac ruler, named Hiranyakashyapu, who had pleased the god Brahma by doing hard religious sacrifices. Lord Brahma gave him a boon that no animal or man born in the natural process could kill him, nor he could killed in the day or night, on the earth or in heavens, either by fire, by water or by any weapon. Lord Vishnu had to assume the form of Narsingh, which was neither man nor animal. Lord Vishnu got hold of demon-king by its teeth, put him up on his thighs and tore him up in the middle by his claws. It was evening time- neither day nor night.

5. The fifth incarnation is that of Vaman (the dwarf). A demon named Bali, through his devotion and penance’s defeated Indira, who was humbled by other gods and extended his authority over the three worlds. All the gods appealed to Vishnu for protection of other Gods he manifests in the form of Dwarf Avatar of Vaman for the purpose of restraining Bali. Lord Vishnu appeared before Bali when he was doing a religious sacrifice accompanied by other Brahmins.

Bali was pleased to see the company of holy people and in particular the dwarf young man, that he promised to give him whatever he desired. Lord Vishnu asked only for as much land he could measure by three steps. Bali agreed to grant the boon of three steps. Lord Vishnu who had assumed the form of dwarf stepped over heaven in first stride and then on the earth in his second stride. Then out of respect to Bali’s kindness and his grandfather (Prahlad’s) Great virtues; Vishnu stopped short and left to him Patal, the subterranean region.

6. The sixth incarnation is that of Parsuram. Parsuram is the name of an axe-like weapon adopted by his incarnation. This Avatar of Vishnu was for the purpose or representing the tyranny of the power-drunk Kshatriya-caste. This sixth Avatar of Vishnu appeared in the world before Ram, the seventh Avatar, but they are both represented to be living at the same time. Vishnu appeared on the earth as a descendant of great sage Bhrigoo, to avenge the murder of his father by the king.

7. The seventh and eight Avatars of Vishnu are those of Ram and Krishna. Ram was the son of Dashrath, king of Ayodhya, who appeared to destroy the arch- demon Ravana. While Krishna, is deemed a most perfect Avatar of Vishnu came to the world to kill evil doers and to establish the rule of righteousness.

8. The ninth Avatar is that of Budha- He came to uplift Humanity .

9. The tenth the last incarnation of Vishnu that is yet to appear in the world at the end of the Kalyug are that of Kalki. This Avatar said to appear as Vishnu seated on a white horse with a drawn sword blazing like a comet. He shall come finally to destroy the wicked, to restart the new creation and to restore the purity of conduct in people’s lives.

All the above incarnations are only the earthly manifestation of Vishnu, who himself is eternal, unchangeable and immutable. He is blue-skinned and in all pictures, and images he is seen in rich ornaments and regal garments. His wife is Lakshmi the goddess of wealth and fortune.

His place of abode is Vaikuntha (heaven) and his vehicle is Garuda, a giant- sized eagle that often is shown as a winged human-shaped figure having a beak-like nose. Lord Vishnu is the infinite ocean from which the world emerges.

Hence his symbol is water (Nara) and he himself is called “Narayan” – the one who dwells upon the water. He is often pictured with the many-headed snake, as mentioned above, and this denotes Anant Nag (the timeless or ageless snake). From his navel grows the lotus out5 of which appears Brahma, the god who created the universe.

During the churning of the ocean when all good things came out the last to appear was Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and beauty. Lord Vishnu took her as his wife. This was how Lakshmi was born and became the consort of Vishnu. Sometimes this goddess is shown as being one with Lord Vishnu, where the icons are known by name of Lakshmi Narayan.

This conjoined deity denotes that in this supreme state Vishnu, with his consort, representing his power and energy

LORD VISHNU VRAT

A Vrat (fast or Vow) taken thinking of Vishnu in mind.

Worship after bathing his image on the first day of the vow of the four days, beginning with the second day of the Poonam of Poush month with mustard; on the next day with gingelly seeds, on the third day with Orris root and on the fourth day with medicinal herbs, such as Manci, Oris root, Costus, Bitumen (stone juice) saffron, Curcuma, bulb of Kaccuri, Flower of Michelia Champaca and bulb of Cyperus grass. After bathing the image as given above, worship him as Krishna, on the second by the name Acyuta, and on the third day by the name of the Ananta and on the fourth day, by the name Hrsikesa.

Offering flowers at the feet on the first day of the lord should perform the worship. On the second day on the navel. On the eyes on the third day. On the fourth day on the head.

The moon should be worship by the names such as Sasi on the first day. Chandra on the second day. Sasanka on the third day. Indu on the fourth day. As mentioned in the Agni Purana. This is the worship of Vishnu vrat should be done by the kings, women and Devas (gods)

Here's some nectar on SRimati Tulasi devi,

"KArttikeya once asked his father, Lord Siva, " My dear father, which tree or plant is capable of giving love of God?"

"Lord Siva replied, ' My dear son, of all trees and plants, Tulasi Devi is the topmost; She is all auspicious, the fulfiller of all desires, completely pure, most dear to Lord Krishna, and the topmost devotee. Long ago, Lord KRishna, for the welfare of all conditioned souls brought Vrinda devi in Her form of a plant, [Tulasi] and planted Her in the material world. Tulasi is the essence of all devotional activities. Without Tulasi leaves, Lord Krishna does not like to accept Flowers, foodstuffs, sandalwood paste; in fact, anything without Tulasi leaves is not looked upon by Lord Krishna. One who worships Lord Krishna daily with Tulasi leaves attains the results of all kinds of austerities, charities and fire sacrifices. in fact, he does not have any other duties to perform, and he has realised the essence of all scriptures. Just as the Ganges River is puriyfing all who bathe in her, so Tulasi DEvi is purifying the three worlds.
It is not possible to describe the full benefit of offering Tulasi Manjaris [flowers] to Lord Krishna. Lord Krsihna, along with all the other demigods, lives wherever there is Tulasi DEvi. For this reason, one should plant Tulasi
Devi in one's home and offer worship daily. One who sits near Tulasi DEvi, and chants or recites prayers will attain the results much faster. "

"Tulasi devi is a pure devotee of Krishna and she should be treated with the same respect given to all Krishna's pure devotees. Simply by worshipping her faithfully, a devotee can get himself free from all material miseries. In the Nectar of Devotion, I have given two verses from the Skanda Purana, one of which is, 'Tulasi is auspicious in all respects. Simply by seeing, simply by touching, simply by remembering, simply by praying, simply by bowing before, simply by hearing about, or simply by sowing the tree, there is always auspiciousness. Anyone who comes in touch with the Tulasi tree in the above mentioned ways lives eternally in the Vaikuntha world.'

" So from this verse we can understand how pure if the service which Tulasi offers to SRi Krishna. So we should always endeavour after becoming a servant of tulasi devi. Tulasi devi never goes back to Godhead, she is always with Godhead. She is a pure devotee and thus she has appeared on this planet to render service to Krishna by being offered in all Temples throughout the world by being offered up to the lotus feet of Krsna."

So in this way, we can see that the worship of Tulasi devi is actually very purifying and will definitely benefit us on our spiritual path. Even if we are not worshipping Deities, or we are unable to have an altar, the presence of Tulasi devi is good enough...

SUDARSHAN PRAYOG

This energy generated by this ritual acts as an invincible shield against plots and schemes of foes, weapons, ill gaze, unexpected losses and even ailments.

A successful accomplishment means complete transformation of one’s personality and gaining a powerful dynamic appearance capable of subduing even the most formidable of foes. Whether it is a lawsuit, a competition, a debate or war of wits the Sadhak emerges victorious.

The ritual can also be started on a Friday. At night after 11 p.m. have a bath. Wear white spotless clothes and sit on a white mat facing east. Cover a wooden seat with white cloth. On it place a Sudarshan Yantra on a mound of rice grains.

On its right hand side place a Sudarshan Tarang Gutika. Offer Vermilion, white flowers; rice grains, incense and a ghee lamp before the Yantra.

Next with a Vijay Darshini Rosary chant 11 rounds of this Mantra

Aum Sudarshan Chakraay Mam Sarv Kaarya

Vijayam Dehi Dehi Aum Hum Phat

This is an eleven-day ritual during which one should lead a celibate life.

GANESHA IS THE SYMBOL OF KNOWLEDGE

He has an elephant’s physical features, such as the head, the ears, the tusks, and the trunk. But he also has some human physical features, such as hands and legs. His form represents ideas that teach us about god.

HEAD: To hold all the knowledge that is to be known. He has a head as large as that of an elephant.

EARS: Listening to the scriptures and other forms of knowledge is the first step to learning. Hence the large ears like that of an elephant.

Trunk: We use the knowledge we have gained to discriminate between right and wrong, good and bad. The elephant's trunk is used to lift heavy objects or a fine blade of grass. Our intellect should be made so efficient that we can solve great problems in our life and also come to understand and know God.

TUSKS: One tusk is broken and the other is whole. This is to show us that even though we must discriminate between good and evil, we must also outgrow pairs of opposites like heat and cold, respect and insult, honor and dishonor.

MOUSE: THE MOUSE REPRESENTS OUR DESIRE.

Even a desire as small as a mouse can destroy us completely if it is not kept in our control. The mouse does not eat all the food placed before the Lord without His permission. Whenever the Lord decided to go any place to serve His devotees. He uses the mouse as His vehicle. Likewise, we should learn to use our desires for the benefit of others as our service to the community.

GANESHA IS SOMETIMES DEPICTED WITH FOUR HANDS

With one hand he holds a rope and pulls us towards Him. In His second hand He holds an axe which he uses to cut off our harmful desires. In his third hand He holds a modak (sweet rice ball) to reward us when we reach Him. With His fourth hand He blesses His devotees.

Three Representations of a Deity

There are three main symbolic representations of a deity in tantric Puja; the mantra, the mandala and the roop. In Tantrism, the sacred syllables are identified with these root powers. Each deity has a bija mantra (or seed) specifically associated with her or him. This is a single syllable thought to contain the essence of that deity.

Ganesha's seed mantra is Gum. Success can be gauged by the coherence of the different ideas with each other and whatever else is known about the deity.

The final symbol is the roop, or form of the deity. Thinking of a deity as a syllable or geometric pattern is difficult, especially if one is not acquainted with the idea of symbolic representation. Meditating on the rupa is essentially no different to meditating on the mantra or mandala. One allows thoughts to spontaneously enter the mind, without censoring, and follows each imaginative wandering to its conclusion. Like the Yantra and Devanagri characters, the rupa has specific visual components, which have specific meanings.

The Yantra has its squares, circles, triangles and Bindu (or point), the Devanagri characters have shapes with particular mystical and phonemic (sound) associations, and the rupa has magical weapons and a vehicle or banner (a mouse in the case of Ganesha).

These are not meant to be complete lists of the symbolic components - every part of the mantra, mandala or rupa has meaning. Without this individual link, there is no union between the self and the deity, and the experience remains purely intellectual.

The following description of Ganesh's magical weaponry is therefore deliberately partial. Its purpose is to allow the practitioner to gain a foothold in the imaginative territory to be explored.

The Weapons There are four magic weapons in the four hands of Ganesha. As with all numbers, there are connections and correspondences which can be made between all sets of 4 (e.g. the 4 Vedas, the 4 mobile elements (spirit, the fifth, is represented by the immobile head), the 4 sacred meters, the four kinds of being etc.). The four weapons carried by Ganesha can be broken down into two pairs.

The Noose and Goad These two images are frequently found together in the rupas of many devas (gods) and devis (goddesses). In the Adinath tradition, it is said that all three Shaktis (will, knowledge and action) must be present for initiation to occur. The goad is an elephant goad, used to produce movement from inertia. Like the Self, the elephant seems too large to control, but the goad makes this movement possible. Obviously, the elephant goad has specific associations with the symbolism of the elephant. The word Natha means "master", and the initiate of the Adinath tradition aims to be an adept or master of her or himself.

The god Indra (after whom India is named) has as his vehicle the king elephant Airavata, who represents ultimate force. Indra's goad is therefore a symbol of his mastery of the universe. Ganesh combines the form of human and elephant - he is his own power. The goad can represent his ability to direct that power. The magical power stems from the divine spark (or True Will) within the self, and that self-knowledge is therefore part of the process of gaining magical power. Ganesh's elephant head, human body and goad show that he exists at the point of spontaneity (Sahaja), where Will and action coincide. The Sanskrit word Gaja (meaning elephant) is comprised of the syllables Ga (meaning goal) and Ja (the origin), which can be interpreted in the same way.

The noose is thought to find a point of awareness within the self from which to observe the inner processes (open our third eyes), even when subjected the greatest degree of intoxication, lust or fear. It is this inner awareness that allows us to discriminate between the real and the unreal.

Ganesha's noose then is to trap illusion. The process of using the physical world as a matrix for learning enables nathas to evolve more quickly then those of our fellow beings who take a more cautious approach. The noose can symbolize execution, the message in that case being quite obvious: get on with it, because you'll be dead very soon.

Vara and Abhaya Mudra These are respectively the mudras (or hand-gestures) denoting the granting of boons and the dispelling of fear. These are the gods, demons and sages. Historically they may have been different competing pantheons of deities, and there is some historical evidence that Ganesh began as a demon (Vighna-asura, or Lord of Obstacles) before becoming incorporated into the Hindu pantheon as Vighneshvara (the remover of obstacles).

On a magical level, the difference between gods and demons is not in the degree of their power but in their attitude to humanity (sages are human or semi-human). The sign of dispelling fear (the open-handed gesture showing no weapons.

Shows that the entity is not hostile, and the gesture of giving or granting boons shows the promise of gifts. The Ganapti of the Ganesha Upanishad is a monad, a single deity alone and beyond time. Fear is a product of attachment to the world, so transcending the physical (moksha, or liberation) moves one beyond fear.

This is why the Ganesha Upanishad quotes the Arthava Veda, "The one who moves towards knowledge of the timeless is never afraid."

The sign of dispelling fear, like the noose and goad, shows that Ganesh is a god of magic, who moves the adept towards knowledge of that which is beyond time and space. The vara mudra shows that Ganesha may grant boons to the human being.

Traditionally, the role of granting boons is the prerogative of Prajapati, the all-father or creator-god, who is identified with Brahma, Vishnu and Siva in different myths (as well as Ganesha his Upanishad). Boons are usually granted to those who show their devotion by performing great feats of yoga.

In reality, it is the yogic practices themselves, which lead to Siddhi, or magical power. Ganesha is a yogi-god, frequently depicted in yoga postures (or asana) and described as "always situated in the muladhara", the lotus at the base of the spine where the kundalini Shakti resides. Ganesha's boons, then, the quality of rupas, which is not shared by mandalas or mantras.

Once having formed a coherent visual image of the deity and gained a good understanding of his symbolism, one may enter into conversation with him, asking him questions relating to the practice of yoga or magic.

This may be done in the form of mental puja (where the deity is visualized and the visualization takes on a spontaneous life of its own), by invocation (where an adept takes on the form of the god and is asked questions by another) or in the lucid Dream State. Whatever the approach, the boon (or ability) is usually granted by the deity only as a result of much hard work and practice. Good luck.

Three Representations of a Deity

Ganesha's seed mantra is Gum. Success can be gauged by the coherence of the different ideas with each other and whatever else is known about the deity.

The following description of Ganesh's magical weaponry is therefore deliberately partial. Its purpose is to allow the practitioner to gain a foothold in the imaginative territory to be explored.

This is why the Ganesha Upanishad quotes the Arthava Veda, "The one who moves towards knowledge of the timeless is never afraid."