SHIVA - THE COSMIC DANCER

IMPORTANCE OF VISHNU SAHASRANAMAM  In the famous Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple in Srirangam, Tamil Nadu, a long line of devotees would patiently wait for the delicious Prasadam, even a few centuries ago. A poor Vaishnavite used to be the first one in the line and was notorious for demanding prasadam not only for himself, but for his entire family consisting of sixteen children! Everyday he would fight with the temple authorities for a huge amount of Prasadam, even as the devotees standing behind him had to make do with a tiny quantity. Exasperated, the authorities resorted to pushing him out of the temple. He would wail, “ My sixteen children would starve if they do not get this Prasadam, please have pity on me!”. One day, he decided to bring all his malnourished children to stand in the line. As usual, the fight with the temple authorities started on that day also. Sri Ramanuja, who happened to be at the temple at that time, asked the authorities what the commotion was all about. They

  Why Tirupati Srinivasa Perumal is called GOVINDA? This happened when Lord Vishnu came to Bhuloka in search of Mahalaxmi …..when he entered Bhuloka as usual, he got human qualities like thirst and hunger. Lord Srinivasa once went to the hermitage of Sage Agastya and said "Munindra, I have come to Bhu Loka (Earth) on a particular mission and going to stay here till the end of the Kali Yuga.... I'm very fond of Cow milk and need one for my daily needs. I know you have a large Gosaala with many Cows. Can you offer me one Cow for my needs?” Sage Agastya smiled and said, “Swamy, I know very well that you are Lord Sri Maha Vishnu in the human form of Srinivasa. I'm so happy that the creator and the ruler of this universe has come to my hermitage and seeking a favor from me. But, I also know your maya Swamy and know that you have come all the way to test my devotion.” “So Swamy, please allow me to follow the rules. The holy Cow should only be gifted to a man who comes and seeks

WHY IS MAHAVISHNU CALLED KESHAVA? KESHAVA - KIRTI LEGEND Kamsa the evil King of Mathura and the maternal uncle of Shri Krishna, wanted to kill krishna, because the prophecy had predicted that Shri Krishna is destined to kill Kamsa. In order to avoid his own death, Kamsa had sent demons like Putana the Rakshasi,Vyoma, Arishtha the bull, etc to Gokul to kill Sri Krishna. After Shri Krishna kills the Bull-demon Arishtha, Sage Narada informs Kamsa that, the girl child he killed was the daughter of Yashoda and it is infact Krishna who is the son of Devaki. Infuriated, with this knowledge Kamsa orders the Horse-demon Keshi to kill Krishna and Balarama. The Bhagavat Purana, Vishnu Purana and Harivamsa tells the tale of killing Keshi the evil Horse-demon. Keshi is derived from the word Kesin meaning long haired. Keshi the horse-demon was a powerful Asura. He creates havoc in all the three worlds with his hoofs and long mane. His neighing disturbs the prapancham with its inauspicious s

  WHY IS MAHAVISHNU CALLED NARAYANA? NARAYANA - KANTI LEGEND There are two Avatar's of Varaha, out of which our current Kalpa is Known as Shweta Varaha Kalpa. The name of the Kalpa before 5 kalpas of the present Kalpa was known as Varaha Kalpa. In the current Kalpa, the Varaha Avatar came out of the nostrils of Brahma and was white complexioned or Shweta against the Blue complexion of Vishnu, hence this Kalpa is called the SHWETA VARAHA KALPA. Before beginning of this Kalpa, the LINGOTHBHAVAR incident happened. In the dual for supremacy between Vishnu & Brahma, Shiva manifested himself as a fiery lingam or Agni-Sthambha. Brahma assumed the form of a swan and flew upwards and Vishnu took the form of a white complexioned boar ( Shwetha= White, Varaha= Boar) to find the start and end of the Agni-Sthambha. Both of them failed, however Brahma lied that he has seen the Shikhar of the Lingam (and took the falling Ketaki flower from heavens as his witness) and hence is cursed by

  WHY IS MAHAVISHNU CALLED MADHAVA? MADHAVA - TUSHTI LEGEND Rishi Durvasa acquired a garland of flowers from a nymph, and gave it to Indra who he thought as the most deserving. Indra placed the garland on the head of his mount Airavata the four tusked white elephant 🐘. The Ambrosia in the flowers attracted bees, which disturbed Airavata who picked the garland,threw it on the ground and trampled on it. Durvasa enraged by the audacity of Indra to defile his gift, cursed Indra that, he will loose his zenith as Lakshmi will leave him. The plight of the gods became worst as Lakshmi had left them. On the suggestion of Mahavishnu, the Devas and Asura's took the herculean task to churn Sagara with the help of Mount Mandara as an axle and Vasuki, the king of snakes 🐍 as the rope. Apart from Nectar(Amrit), lots of things like Kalpavriksha, Kamadhenu, Haalahala (Poison) and MAHALAKSHMI came out of the Ocean. It was MahaLakshmi who chose Mahavishnu as her concert. MADHAVA Adi Shankara