punishments for sin.

In Srimad Bhagavatam, Suka tells Pareekshit about different kinds of sins, said P.T. Seshadri in a discourse. Suka talks about different kinds of narakas (hells) that await sinners, who are punished according to the nature of their sins.

A person who grabs someone’s property is taken by Yama’s men to a hell called taamisra. Here he is given no food or water, and is beaten by Yama’s men. He who hoards all his wealth and never gives to the poor will go to rowrava. People he had turned away take the form of venomous creatures called ruru, and bite him. A person who neglects his parents will go to kaalasutra. He will be made to stand in a vessel of copper, below which a fire will be lit. The Sun beats down on his head, and he will have to endure this heat for thousands of years.

A man who torments someone who is already suffering, will go to andhakupa, and there he will be constantly stung by mosquitoes and bitten by snakes. A bad ruler or even his servant who misuses power, will go to vaitarani. Here he will be pushed into a river of filth, and will be bitten by all kinds of germs. A man who gives false evidence, who promises dana, but goes back on his word, or a man who is dishonest in his business will go to aveechimaan. Here he is rolled down a hill, repeatedly. He doesn’t die, but is in agony. He who is proud of his family, of his lineage, of his wealth or his learning, will go to kshaarakardma.

deeds and results.

The law of karma binds one and all. Every being is born to experience the effects of one’s past deeds, good and bad. None can escape from facing the fruits of one’s actions. This truth clearly flashes in Dasaratha’s mind when, having sent Rama to the forest, he is in the grip of extreme sorrow and also realises that his life is going to end in this fashion, pointed out Swami Paramasukananda in a discourse. He is alone with Kausalya and seeks solace in her presence.

Accepting that he deserves every word of her harsh accusations, which clearly reflect her sorrow, the king pacifies her and very humbly asks her to refrain from committing any further sin of blaming her husband. He sees clearly that people easily commit sins when giving vent to their emotions like anger, desire, etc, unmindful of the terrible and fearful effects that quickly get attached to each one’s individual karma account. The suffering experienced by individuals is not something targeted on them indiscriminately; it is their own earnings from their past deeds. He recalls the act of adharma that he had committed long back in his past life when he was young and unmarried.

He had gone hunting in the forest and did not get any prey on that day. Suddenly, he heard the sound of someone drinking water from a nearby pond and he presumed that it was an elephant. Skilled in aiming the target by sheer focus on the sound, he now sent an arrow that did not miss the target. But soon he heard an anguished cry and rushing to the spot found that he was guilty of killing an innocent man who had the sole responsibility of caring for his aged and blind parents. This crime is now chasing Dasaratha and he knows he has to endure the blind parents’ dying curse of putra soka he had incurred then.

ananda

The most wonderful result of the Lord’s avatars apart from the main purposes, protecting the good, destroying the evil and establishing dharma, is the fact that all including the learned and the unlettered are given a chance to realise the Supreme Brahman. This is exemplified in the soul stirring hymns on deities such as Rama, Krishna, Subramanya, Sharada, Bhavani, etc, of Adi Sankara, pointed out Sri K. Srinivasan in a discourse.

Reputed for his brilliant expositions of the highest Vedantic texts wherein reason and logic are handled by him to establish the Advaita doctrine of the oneness of Brahman, these stotras reveal the fact that worship of one’s favourite deity, the Ishta Deivam is also a form of Brahma Upasana. At the outset of the famous Rama Bhujanga Stotra, the acharya states that this hymn is the essence of the Vedas. It is held that the Vedas descended in this world as Ramayana during Rama avatar. By worshipping Rama one can easily imbibe the essence of dharma and thereby attain the highest, Brahman. So the upasana is by reading this hymn and always thinking about Rama.

It is reiterated that Rama in human form is also simultaneously the eternal Brahman of the very Sat-chit-ananda essence. This ananda swaroopa is not a quality but is His very essence. There is no God greater than Rama. To seek Him should be one’s purpose in life. He alone is enough to help us through our life in this world and also guide us to salvation. But all this is attainable only through His grace. Human effort is only as far as sincere meditation is practised. It is every individual’s good samskaras that prompt one to be aware of the higher truths and He enables this to happen. From this awareness one is led to pursue them in earnest.

gPP

Guru Parampara offers obeisance to the lineage of preceptors who have handed down the spiritual tradition to posterity from the hoary past. It is held that Lord Narayana instructed the Vedas to Brahma and is the primordial guru. The Vedas are ‘apaurusheya,’ meaning that they are not the work of any human being.

Adi Sankara is believed to be an avatar of Siva and Vyasa of Vishnu and the heritage has been propagated and fostered by the line of sterling disciples who have been instructed and inspired by them. To impress the importance of scriptural study under the guidance of a preceptor, Adi Sankara is held to have sought Govindapada as his acharya. Likewise, during their avatars, Rama and Krishna also underwent Gurukula vasa to foster this tradition. That the Guru is on a par with God and has the power to confer enlightenment on a deserving disciple is exemplified in the life of Adi Sankara, pointed out Sri Krishnamurthy Sastrigal in a discourse. The circumstances leading to the composition of Totaka Ashtakam by one of Adi Sankara’s disciples named Giri who was considered dull by others establishes the subtle benefits of the acharya’s grace.

Giri was very devoted to his guru. Once, when Adi Sankara was about to begin his class Giri was late as he was washing clothes. The others became restless when they were asked to wait for Giri. Sensing their pride in their proficiency of sastra knowledge and to humble them, Adi Sankara instantly blessed Giri. Giri came from the river banks singing the wonderful Totaka Ashtakam in verses replete with poetic excellences that capture the various facets of Guru Bhakti Bhava in the disciple who seeks the feet of the guru. Giri became Totakacharya and the others were rid of their pride.

taraka

Adi Sankara’s Stotra granthas are capable of making a powerful impact on one who learns them with interest. While these hymns are noted for their extraordinary devotional quality, they are also packed with the profound Upanishad truths on Brahma Jnana. The devotee thus is inspired into a spiritual experience where bhakti and jnana get merged in a seamless manner.

For instance, in the Rama Bhujanga Stotra, the acharya while extolling the greatness of Rama avatar also indicates that Rama as the very Absolute Brahman is the ultimate end and goal, said Sri K. Srinivasan in a discourse. Even at the outset, he salutes Rama and addresses Him as the eternal form of Taraka Brahma when he draws from the purana beliefs in the power of Rama Nama. In the puranas such as the Skanda and Padma, it is stated that regardless of one’s spiritual attainment or one’s karma bondage, if one happens to die in Kasi, he gets liberated because Siva chants the Rama Taraka Mantra in his ears. A verse in this hymn alludes to Siva’s chanting the Rama Nama thrice to liberate the souls in Kasi to show the special value of the Rama Nama in helping people cross the ocean of samsara. It is also held that when Siva first revealed the efficacy of the Rama Taraka Mantra to Goddess Parvati, He mentioned that chanting the Rama Nama is equal to chanting the Sahasranama of the Lord. In the famous verse ‘Sri Rama Rama Ramethi Rame Rame Manorame,’ Rama Nama is repeated thrice. The acharya reinforces the truth that Rama is the manifestation of the Absolute Brahman. Hence, meditation on the form and qualities of Rama also leads to the realisation of Brahman. Rama has taught by example the way to lead a life of virtue, dharma, viveka and vairagya and thereby to strive for liberation.

MM

Why did they send Meenakshi’s pendant to Queen Victoria of England?
Why did Madurai temple pillars go to the Philadelphia Museum in USA?
Why did an English collector present gold shoes to Goddess Meenakshi?
Why did Victoria and Albert Museum in London hang a Meenakshi curtain?
Why does the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford have Madurai pillar replicas?
Why does the India office Library keep pictures of Madurai Temple?
How did the Houston (USA) Meenakshi temple receive a Madurai idol even after the plane crashed?

Madurai Meenakshi Temple is an architectural wonder. 

Meenakshi temple’s old pictures or objects can be seen in India Office Library, London, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Houston Meenakshi Temple, Texas, USA.

The pillars of one of the Madurai temples, “Madana Gopala Swamy Kovil” are in Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA. A lady from Philadelphia visited Madurai in 1930s and got interested in the temple pillars .They were just lying there without any care. She knew the value of art work in the pillars and shipped them to USA. Now a mandap/hall is reconstructed with those pillars in the museum. The temple was built in the fifteenth century in Madurai.

Queen Victoria wanted to see one of the jewels of Goddess Meenakshi. It was a pendant with ten big sapphire stones. It went to London and came back to Madurai to decorate the goddess.

British collector of Madurai Rose Peter, Shipping merchants Scotch Brothers and East India Company –all donated gold and jewels to goddess Meenakshi.

India Office Library, London has a haunting series of glass plate photographs of Pudu Mandapam opposite the temple taken in the 1850s by Captain Edward Lyons.

Ashmolean Museum at Oxford has the copper copies of some of the pillars of Madurai Pudumandapam.

Victoria and Albert Museum in London has a curtain where in Meenakshi temple’s daily activities are painted.

 The Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple is in the centre of the town Madurai in South India. The streets are arranged in squares within squares- a beautifully planned city keeping the temple at the heart of the city. Ancient Tamil literature compared this plan to a lotus flower.

 Each street carries the name of a Tamil month. That means goddess idol will be taken through that street during that particular month. 

Madurai Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple was built by King Kulasekara Pandya. Kulasekara Pandya was also a poet and he composed a poem on Meenakshi named Ambikai Malai.

The temple is a major pilgrimage destination within the Shaivism tradition, dedicated to Meenakshi Devi and Shiva. However, the temple includes Vishnu in many narratives, sculptures and rituals as he is considered to be Meenakshi's brother. This has made this temple and Madurai as the "southern Mathura", one included in Vaishnava texts.The Meenakshi temple also includes Lakshmi, flute playing Krishna, Rukmini, Brahma, Saraswati, other Vedic and Puranic deities, as well as artwork showing narratives from major Hindu texts. The large temple complex is the most prominent landmark in Madurai and attracts tens of thousands visitors a day. The temple attracts over a million pilgrims and visitors during the annual 10-day Meenakshi Tirukalyanam festival, celebrated with much festivities and a ratha (chariot) procession during the Tamil month of Chittirai (overlaps with April–May in Georgian calendar, Chaitra in North India). The Temple has been adjudged best ‘Swachh Iconic Place’ in India as on October 1, 2017 under Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi's Flagship Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

to be continued.

Kavisurya Baladeva Ratha

was an Odia poet and litterateur. He wrote in both Sanskrit and Odia. His works are known for devotional quotient. He is the credited founder of the Dhumpa Sangita.
He composed poems as a Vaishnava, in devotion to Lord Vishnu. Ratha was a musician and scholar.  He was associated with a group of poets, which included Dinakrushna Dasa and Abhimanyu Samantasinghara. His best-known works include KavisurYya Granthavali, Kabisurya Geetabali and Kisora Chandrananda Chaupadi-Chautisa, which combines the two literary forms of chaupadi (a poem having four stanzas (though the term came to refer to any short song in latter times), and chautisa (a 34-stanza poem where every stanza begins with a new letter of the Odia alphabet). Kishora Chandrananda Champu is noted for its emotional quotient and the role it played in enforcing the riti school of Sanskrit literature. He was also the author of several champus including Ratnakara Champu, Premodaya Champu and Kishora Chandrananda Champu. Kishora Chandrananda Champu has both Odia and Sanskrit compositions and it was the Odia part of the work that has been credited with cementing his literary reputation in the language.
Ratha is thought to have invented the dhumpa, a bamboo percussion instrument, that accompanies the Odia folk art form of dhumpa sangita. The dhumpa accompanies recitations of his poetic satires called dhumpa geeta. Many of his poetic pieces, especially the champu are set to dance in Odiss