Kishkindha After Ramayana

                Apes are the strongest of all animals. They were chosen by Lord Shri Ram himself to stand and fight on his side. During the Epic Ramayana, Goddess Sita gets separated from the Lord due to the demon king Ravana. Lord Rama enters “Kishkinda” -the apes kingdom, seeking help. Hanuma, Sugreeva, Jambavantha, Angadha, etc., ape Heroes of the Hindu mythology helps lord in finding his wife Sita by fighting Ravana after building a bridge to LANKA.

                Lord becomes king after the demon Ravana was killed by the fierce army of apes. Later to that, Hanuma having blessed to live forever decides to be with the Lord and both in Kishkinda. The rest of the ape heroes travel back to their place. The most powerful team of Kishkindha which plucked Lanka army is never mentioned later to that.

I am unfolding the story after the knowledge of story known.

After the ruling of kingdom Ayodhya for many successful years, one day when Lord Shriram  (the incarnation of Shri Maha Vishnu) was alone sitting in his palace. At that time Lord YamaDharmaRaj ( the lord of death) approaches Shri Rama and reminds him that the purpose of his incarnation is now served completely and the time to end his incarnation has come.

He also tells the lord that now the people of the worlds have many morals to learn from his life. He is the role model for any human being who wish to live as a good person with ethics. Whoever reads about Lord Rama life will understand the journey of learning and living from his life.

Lord Understanding the Kind words of Yama Dharma, decides to end his incarnation and hence he separates the kingdom equally and crowns his sons LAVA and KUSHA as the next kings. He also made the sons of his brothers as next kings on equal partitioning. Lord Shriram has 3 brothers and their children are as below:

Name	Incarnation	Wife name	Son Name	Kingdom Ruled after Rama Incarnation
Lord Shri Rama	Lord Vishnu	Sita (Incarnation of Shri Maha Lakshmi)	LAVA	“Shravasti”
			KUSHA	“Kushavati” Near the Vindhya Mountain
Lakshmana	Lord Vishnu’s --Sesha	Urmila	Angada	“karupath” also known as “Angadiya”—Presently Odisha.
			Chandraketu	A part of “Malla Kingdom” –Pesently Odisha
Bharata	Lord Vishnu’s weapon-- SudarshanChakra	Maandavi	Taksh	“Takshshila”- Presently in pakisthan
			Pushkal	“pushkalavat”- Part of Gaandhaar kingdom—presently Afghanisthan
Shatrugna	Lord Vishnu’s weapon—Shankha	Shrutkirti	Subahu	“Madhurapuri” Presently “Mathura”
			Shatrughati	“Vidisha city” presently in Madhya Pradesh

Lord Shriram declares the end of his incarnation to be at the river “Sarayu”. All the gods, kings of the heavens, Sages and the Kishkinda kingdom attends to the Sarayu River. The King of Kishkinda is Sugreeva, he crowns Angadha (His Brothers Son) as the next king and starts to Sarayu River along with his warrior friends.

The kingdoms were so blessed that no one is fighting for power or money or for anything in the Lord Shriram’s era. Sugreeva along with his kishkinda warriors approach Lord Shri Rama and coveys that in his absence, DHARMA (The rules of world will be broken and people shall start fighting for everything which allures them).

As a reply, Lord Shriram says that his life will be enchanted forever till worlds exist for best living. To protect DHARMA in all YUGAS, he appoints Anjaneya( hanuma), jambavantha, Dvividha, Mindhava. Lord also says that as long as his name lives on the earth, Hanuma will also receive prayers from the people of earth.

Then the King Sugreeva conveys lord that the rest of the Warriors wish to end their life for Moksha in his absence. On Lords acceptance they all ends their life in the river Sarayu first. Later to that RAMA, LAKSHMANA,BHARATHA and SHATRUGNA merges into the river sarayu ending their respective Incarnations.

Lord Shri Maha Vishnu arises from the bed of river Sarayu with his Sesha ( Snake), Sudarshanachakra(The mighty weapon) and Shankha in his hands to bless the people around and leaves the earth for VAIKUNTAM.

Later to that according to our puranas it is understood that the Anjaneya( hanuma), jambavantha, Dvividha, Mindhava, Neela and Nalalu were living forever in this world. In Dwaparayuga, the next incarnation of Shri Maha Vishnu is Shri Krishna. Lord Krishna fights JambaVantha as per his wish in earlier incarnation of Rama. There are lots of stories about Hanuma across Shrimad Maha Bhagavatham in tretayuga.

JambaVantha Marries her Daughter to Lord Krishna in Tretayuga

BHEEMA the Son Of VAYU tested by his GrandBrother HANUMA in TretaYuga

According to some of the Puranas, the kingdom of Kishkinda collapsed later to King Angadha due to instable kings. Rest of the great warriors in kingdom went to Himalayas for meditation.

My blog has the Lord Rama Life journey in different stories mentioned below:

1. A Living Stone- Ahalya

2. Story of Thataki

3. Sita Ram Marriage

             *********JAI SHRI RAM**********

                

Adoring Vegetarian Crocodile

                Crocodiles are the large aquatic reptiles living throughout the world. The word Crocodile comes from the Ancient Greek language. They are considered as the most dangerous alligators. It is believed that the strength of a crocodile equals 1000 elephants when it is in water. Croc’s can pull anything inside water when it preys on it. There are different types of crocodiles across the world. They are fresh water habitants and also of Salt water. The size of a crocodile will be up to 23feet and weigh 1000kgs above. They have the ability to replace each of their 80 teeth up to 50 times in their life span of 35-75 years. The senses of Croc’s are acute, help it in prey and becoming a strong hunter. Croc’s are cold blooded animals and carnivores, they have a very slow metabolism and hence they can survive long time without food.

BY THIS TIME all of you might have a confusion, that I am not justifying the title of my article.

                 The reason why I told you about a crocodile nature is to get into our real story. In my childhood, I have listened a story of “Gajendra Moksha”. In this story, an elephant which rules the forest reaches out a river for water with its family. Suddenly a crocodile which is inhabitant in that river attacked the elephant, ‘Gajendra’ and caught him by the leg. The Mighty elephant fights for its life to a long time and as per the 8^th Skandha of the Bhagavatha Purana , for a period of over 1000 years. The elephant’s family try to help it and fails before the strength of the giant crocodile.

                When the elephant realized that its death is nearby. Being a devotee of Lord Vishnu, it prays to god for help holding a lotus up in air as offering. Lord appears and in anger decapitated the head of crocodile with his weapon SUDARSHANA CHAKRA. Lord explains both the elephant and crocodile about the previous births of them.

                Elephant was a king Indradyumna, who was cursed by sage Agasthya due to his disrespect towards him, His curse is “an lesson will be taught in your next birth which gives a moral showing despite of strength and good deeds one must surrender themselves to god by not being egoistic” . Crocodile was a Gandharva king, HUHU. Sage devala comes to visit him on a day and when both of them are bathing and giving offering to sun god- gandharva king pulls the leg of sage for fun and hence cursed to be a crocodile. On repentance, the king begs for pardon and sage explains him that he will be liberated by Shri Maha Vishnu.

Whatever may be the moral of story, "to escape from the clutches of a crocodile its difficult and impossible even for an elephant and it never leaves the prey till its dead. Also only god can help you in that case ".

                Again, there is no connection between our title and what I am saying.

                I just wanted to say the crocodile nature, strength in my above lines before we go into the real story. What If such crocodile becomes adorable and vegetarian. This thought itself is not believable to anyone. But, this is true.

                There is a crocodile which is adorable to Lord Vishnu and guarding the famous Ananthapura lake temple in India. This is a VEGETARIAN CROCODILE, only one of its kind. People named it as BABIYA. It is believed by the devotees that people who do have the luck only can see the crocodile swimming there in lake. The temple is surrounded by this lake and all devotees have bath in this lake before they enter into temple. None of the devotees has ever reported of any attack from the living crocodile in lake. BABIYA eats the temple prashad which is made of rice and jaggery, it never harmed anyone including the fish in lake. It is fed daily after the noon worship conducted at the temple. The priests of temple feed it with prashad [the offerings given to god] by putting directly into its mouth.

                It is believed that the crocodile is living in the lake from last 150 years, guarding the temple. There is no trace of another crocodile in the lake when one is guarding. It is also believed that if this crocodile dies another crocodile replaces it. It’s been amazing to accept as there are no lakes, rivers and sea nearby to this temple. The current crocodile BABIYA is living from 60 years in this lake.

               

Myths behind:

#$1                         The crocodile which lived before BABIYA was killed by a British soldier who has no belief in temple and the adorable croc. He was killed by a snake bite in the same town at that time. It is believed as he has been cursed to death due to his mistake. Then the crocodile BABIYA replaced the old one and no one knows how it came to lake.

#$2                         Once Sree Vilvamangalathu swamy, devotee of lord Vishnu was doing a deep penance. He was disturbed by Lord Krishna who came in a form of little boy. Being annoyed he was pushed aside by the sage. The boy gets disappeared immediately into a nearby cave and then the sage understands the truth. The place where lord Krishna went and disappeared is believed to be existing in this temple and it’s been guarded by crocodile.

         Whatever may be behind the temple stones, the reality is we can see a living crocodile which is purely vegetarian and can be fed directly into its mouth. It's nothing but god's miracle.

                      $$$$ OM NAMO NARAYANAYA $$$$

               

               

               

Temples of King Duryodhana

                The title of my article is chosen as “Temples of the villain King” But, I felt unjustified when I came to the ending of the article as he was never a villain. He was the great young king of Hasthinapura. Among the stories of old Indian ages, Mahabharatha stands as an epic. The war “Kurukshetra” stood as a reflection to the people of Good and Bad. It is believed that every character in Mahabharatha is measured with great qualities of life and have given a moral with their living styles. Even the god, “Shri Maha Vishnu” takes the incarnation of “Lord Krishna” and stands on the side of Pandava’s who are Good. Makes them to win without wearing a weapon. Lord takes the position of rider to the chariot of ARJUNA and encourages him to fight against evil, bad. Initially ARJUNA gets demotivated, emotional and withdraws from war when he saw all his brothers, relatives and Gurus in-front of him standing as enemies. The way of living and standing in life against any sort of evil was told to ARJUNA in form of BHAGAVADGITA from the lord at that time and war continues.

                In Mahabharatha, Pandavas are shown for standing on the side of DHARMA and Kauravas are shown for standing on the side of ADHARMA. As Lord Krishna, himself stood on the side of Pandavas they won the war and established the empire. But, across India we will never find a temple for such legendary people PANDAVAS.

To be more clear, let’s start from their birth.

Pandavas are 5 members. They have a brother KARNA who stands on the side of KAURAVAS for his friendship with young king, DURYODHANA in the war and died in hands of ARJUNA.

Kunthi when she is unmarried, receives a boon from Sage Durvasa who was very pleased with her service and offerings. The boon is “She can Invoke any god to bear a child for her.” Kunthi in a surprise wishes to test the boon and spells the MANTRA to call Lord SURYA[the sun god],  he blesses with KARNA as her son. Kunthi being unmarried leaves the child in a river and Radha another lady takes him as child.

                     

                        Later, she gets married to PANDU, the KING of HASTHINAPURA. He also marries MADRI later and accepts as second wife. On a day King PANDU gets cursed by Rishi Kindama for killing him and his wife who are making love in form of deer’s in forest. He curses him to death on making love to his wives.

       Kunti, remembers her boon and calls

YAMA DHARMA RAJ who blesses the first son YUDHISTARA.

VAYU who blesses the second son BHIMA

INDRA who blesses the third son ARJUNA

She shared the MANTRA[Spell] to MADRI her sister and she cleverly calls

ASHVINS who blesses her with the fourth and fifth sons as NAKULA and SAHADEVA.

Technically, Logically and Legally, None of the above brothers are really eligible to take up the throne of HASTHINAPURA as they are not born to PANDU RAJA.

Story of the two brothers PANDU And DRUTHARASTRA:

                         AMBIKA and AMBALIKA are the mothers of DRUTHARASTRA and PANDU. Veda Vyasa has fathered the 2 brothers on request of Satyvathi his mother after death of King Vichitravirya. Vyasa is very scary in appearance and hence Queen AMBIKA closes her eyes during their union. As a result DRUTHARASTRA is born blind, But he gets a boon of possessing strength equal to 1000 elephants and can crush iron with his hand from Vyasa.

                                         VEDA VYASA

             AMBALIKA gives birth to PANDU who learns the military arts from Bhishma and kripacharya. Dritharastra being a handicap makes his brother PANDU as king of Hasthinapura. He married Gandhari who on knowing her husband as BLIND ties a cloth to her eyes making the world as dark for herself too.

GANDHARI was not able to give birth first to an child among KUNTHI and herself, who will become the king actually. KUNTHI gives birth with her boon. Hence GANDHARI hits herself on the stomach and the womb gets damaged. Sage Vyasa, takes the responsibility and divided the ball of flesh into 101 equal pieces. He puts them in the ghee pots and seals to bury into earth for 2 years. They were born as Kauravas [100 brothers] and one sister DUSHHALA.

          DRUTHARASTRA again becomes a king once PANDU is cursed and died along with her wife MADRI. Once Kunti is back from forests after her husband death, she takes care of all the 5 children.

           Let’s come to the story of our article. PANDAVAS never had a temple though they ruled HASTHINAPURA kingdom for 36 years. Though they are the sons of the Gods. Though they are the real heroes of war. Though they are the role models. Though they followed DHARMA across their life.

But, DURYODHANA who is considered as VILLIAN of the entire epic have temples in INDIA.

 They are at

1.       Uttarakand State, Near by to Dehradun there is a town named Jakholi. The inhabitants are Saur, they believe DURYODHANA as their ancestor and worships him. The temple is constructed by them in this region.

           There is a river passing by the village, named as Tons. This river is earlier known as TAMAS which means sorrow in Sanskrit Language. It is believed that When the people here heard of the defeat to DURYODHANA in the war, they were crying for many days and hence the river is formed. Due to this belief, the water in river is still not used for drinking. The people here celebrate DURYODHANA YATRA in the time period of ASHADAM and PUSHYAMASAM.

2.       The people of the areas BALAGANGA, BILAGANGA, YAMUNA and BHAGIRADHI also worship KING DURYODHANA as Lord by constructing temples at HARIKIDHUN, OSLA, GANGAR, DATMIR.

         The reason for their worship is explained as below:

Once the king DURYODHANA was doing his kingdom visit and on his way, came to this place. He gets mesmerized to the beauty of nature in this area and stays back for long time in this area. In the morning during his prayers he listens a voice from god to protect the people in this place who are very poor. Since then he has taken of that people in a very good way that they pray him as god. Till now, if there is any unsolved issue the people there invite the soul of DURYODHANA and gets the help in solving it. The Soul which come on to a person is named as MALI.

3. In the southern India, Kerala State, KOLLAM district at PORUVAZHY town the temple of DURYODHANA exists. Temple is well known as PORUVAZHY PERUVIRUTHY MALANADA. You cannot see a deity or GOPURAM in this temple. DURYODHANA here is known as MALAYA KUPPAN.

Once the king visits this place and with a thirst he sat in a place. He requested a woman to water and she gives the ripened milk of coconut to him. King likes the milk much and enquires about the woman. He comes to known that she is from an untouchable community names as KURUVA. Looking at the poor people there he performs puja to Lord SHIVA there and donates 1000’s of acres to the people. Hence the people here still worships him as Lord.

 Here the priests are not Brahmins but they belong to KURUVA community. The ripened milk of coconut and the flesh are given as offerings at the temple.

In March, there are celebrations being done at this temple. They burn a wax house in fire as devotion.

Duryodhana story, shows that being good makes a villain to god.

Vinayaka Chavithi

Lord Vinayaka:

                Lord Vinayaka is said to be the most powerful gods in Hindu Mythology. He is also known as Siddhi Vinayaka, Ganesha.  He is known by 108 names and is Lord of arts, science and wisdom. He is the lovely son of  Mighty Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi. He is the brother of Kumaraswamy/Karthikeya. Lord Ganesha have 2 wife's siddhi and buddhi. Lord's vahana is a mouse. Lord is most identified because of his elephant head.

      He is the remover of Obstacles in any new Beginnings and hence Hindu's before starting any new work make the Puja of Shri Siddhi Vinayaka with an bless to have "Avignamasthu".  This is even before performing any other Puja's too. This is performed with making Vinayaka with some turmeric powder.

Lord Ganesha, has written “ Mahabharatha” when sage ‘vyasa’ asked him to transcribe as he dictated it to him. Lord agreed with a condition that it should be uninterrupted and never be paused till complete. When the lord was writing uninterruptedly his feather pen broke. To write without interruption lord broke his tusk and used it as pen so that the transcription could proceed. Though there is a conflict of the same tusk with another story where Parashurama throws his axe given by Lord Shiva and Lord Ganesha allows it to cut his tusk.

Myth Behind the Birth of Lord:

Once there lived a demon king Gajasura (An Asura with elephant characteristics), he performed a deep penance to get boon from the mighty god Shiva. Pleased with the penance of the demon, lord appeared before him and asked his wish. Demon wished that he could generate fire continually from his body so that no one can come near him. Lord gave the boon and fulfilled his wish.

            But, the demon Gajasura didn’t stop performing the penance. When Lord re-appeared to ask his wish one more time. He asked lord shiva to live in his stomach. Lord agreed.

                Goddess Parvathi, wife of lord shiva in a worry approaches lord Vishnu on knowing the grant of this wish. Lord Vishnu, assures her of bringing the Mighty lord back. He initiates a cosmic game by transforming the bull of shiva, Nandi into a dancing bull and himself as a flutist. Together they impress the demon. Demon asks them to make a wish when lord Vishnu asks to liberate Lord shiva from his stomach.

            Demon Gajasura, understanding that the flutist is Lord Vishnu himself asks him for satisfying two of his wished before he die. One among is “Everyone should remember me adoring my head” and the other is “You should wear my skin”.

On accepting the wishes of demon, lord is liberated from his stomach and demon dies.

Birth of Lord Vinayaka:

Knowing about the return of Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvathi wishes to give a warm welcome to her husband. To get ready she was preparing for bath. She didn’t wish to be disturbed by anyone while getting ready. So, she takes the turmeric paste from her body and moulds to a statue. She breathes life into that statue and names him as Ganesha, her loyal son. Doing so goddess went away for bath.

Lord Shiva returns at the same time. Seeing at the new charming face of the kid at his place surprises him. When he wishes to go inside he get interrupted from Ganesha . Lord explains himself as husband of the goddess. Ganesha takes his blessings but still doesn’t allow the mighty lord inside.

Lord Shiva in Anger orders his army to destroy the kid. When the kid defeats the entire army of lord shiva. Being the son of devi herself he remains undefeated.

Lord Shiva stands surprised for his courage and strength. Deciding that Ganesha is no ordinary kid he decided to fight himself. Lord Shiva in his fury of fight cuts the head of Ganesha and kills him.

Goddess Parvathi, knowing the destruction of her husband moves in anger and takes the form of DEVI Kalika. She decides to destroy the entire creation as her son was killed. God Brahma, who is the creator stops her and asks to re-consider.

She wishes two boons to the creator-

1.       Ganesha to be brought back to life.

2.       Ganesha to be worshiped before any other god.

               Her boons were accepted by Lord Brahma and her husband. Lord SHIVA sends his army to bring the head of the first creature which is laying with its head facing north. Shiva’s army bring the head of Gajasura who layed dead as first creature in their way.

               Lord Shiva places the head of Gajasura and Lord Brahma breathes the life into him. Lord shiva declares him as his own son and leader of all ganas ( classes of beings), Ganapati.

 Story of Moon and Vinayaka:

One day, lord Shiva was offered for a feast from Kubera. Lord Shiva asked him to serve Lord Vinayaka instead of him. Kubera served Lord Vinayaka with great devotion and respect. Lord Vinayaka had his appetite more than required and reached mount kailash. Lord Vinayaka was short, with his elephant head and big stomach. He was not able to walk and his stomach broke open. Goddess Parvathi ties his stomach with snakes. when the Moon god looks at him and laughs. Looking at this in anger, lord curses moon,” whoever sees you will be not believed by anyone and unknowingly gets screwed on unknown issues”.

Listening to this moon starts pleading for mercy and remedy near Lord Vinayaka. Pleased Lord, forgives him and withdraws his curse saying,” whoever sees you on my birthday i.e., “Badrapadha sukla chavithi” without performing Vinayaka Chavithi vratham will be applicable for this curse. 

Moon god with a happy heart performs the puja and gets all the benefits.

 In dwapara yuga, Lord Krishna have seen the face of moon in milk and gets blamed for killing the Prasena. Understanding his mistake Lord Krishna performs the Vinayaka Chavithi puja and proves himself innocent. He married Jambavathi while proving his innocence and Satyabhama later to proving his innocence. He is also given with Samanthakamani which is the cause of this blame.

During this festival, lord Vinayaka’s idol made of clay, gold, silver etc., based on our effort needs to be used. He has to be devoted with his favorite Lotus flowers and served with different types of sweets and food items. 

This festival is celebrated for 10 days starting from his birthday. The last day with more celebrations the idol is immersed in a nearby river or sea with all respect.