Legends of Maha Shiva Raatri

Every month in Krishna paksha chathurdhasi (fourteenth moonday) is called masa Shiva rathri. The one that comes in the month of "Masi" (mid February to mid March) is called Maha Shiva rathri. This is considered as the most important vrata by the devotees.

There are many incidents like this told in our Puraanas. If we do the vrata with pure devotion and love there can be no doubt about getting the Grace of the Almighty.

Once Lord Vishnu and Lord Bramha argued over each other’s prowess. However, Lord Shiva challenged both of them. He appeared as a flaming Linga and challenged the duo to measure the gigantic Linga (phallic symbol of Lord Shiva). Lord Bramha, who took the form of a swan, and Lord Vishnu who became a boar and went to Netherland, were both unable to measure the Shivlinga. Then Lord Shiva came out of the Linga and declared himself the most powerful. Maha Shivratri therefore means the grand night of Shiva. The devotees of Shiva fast during this day and pray to the lord throughout the night. This legend goes to prove the supremacy of Mahadev over other Hindu Gods.


King Daksha, opposed Sati's marriage with Shiva. At a yagnya (holy sacrifice) the king ignored Shiva’s presence and thereby insulted the latter publicly. Sati was so angered by this that she jumped into the sacrificial fire and ended her life. Lord Shiva unleashed his fury at the death of his wife by performing the violent dance, Taandav. He wiped out Daksha’s kingdom, undertook rigorous penance and retired to the Himalayas. The Gods, who feared that the severity of Shiva’s penance might bring an end to the world, revived Sati in the new avatar of Parvati. Shiva-Parvati married and this reunion is celebrated on Maha Shivratri.

There are many incidents told about the greatness of this day. Once a hunter in a jungle after searching throughout the jungle, was quite tired and could not get any animal. In the nightfall a tiger started chasing him. to escape from that he climbed a tree. That was a Bilva tree. The tiger sat under the tree waiting for him to come down. The hunter who sat on a branch of the tree was quite tense and didn't want to sleep. He was plucking the leaves and putting down as he was not able to be idle. Below the tree there was a Shiva lingam. The whole night went on like this. God was pleased with the Upavasa (hunger) and the Pooja the hunter and the tiger did even without knowledge. He is the peak of the grace. He gave the hunter and the tiger "Moksha".
In a Shiva temple on a Maha Shiva rathri day the lamp kept in the altar was very dim. That time a mouse which came take its prey touched the flame. Due to the heat it moved its head immediately. In the process it kindled the lamp and the altar was illuminated well. Lord Shiva, pleased by this deed made the mouse Mahabali, the renowned asura king.

Books

Good book is like a good friend
'Good book is like a good friend' is a quatable quote. Long time ago I read a lesson during my junior school about owning a book, 'sonta pustakam', it was an essay in which the authour brags about his little book collection and jelously guards his treasure from prying neighbours and friendswho want to "borrow" them only never to return. The author is emotionally attached to his books that he finds the thoughtof someone borrowing his books and writing in them as defiling them. 'Never borrow a book when you can buy it' he says for a good book is more like a friend, it keeps us company even in dire of circumstances,keeps us informed, and whenever you read it you will always find something fascinating and new.It appelead to me and my brother in different ways he was always very guarded, his books were preciouseven when I wanted to borrow his books he was always cautious, he had rules which included amoung other things, not to open the book completely so that I would not crease the spine of the book. It was funny really how I acknowledged to his every rule because he used to have so many books that I want to read them all. As long as I kept to his rules he had no problem lending me his books, but I never really understood his precautious behaviour until I got my own set of books. When my cousin started borrowing them and always either "forgot" to return or "misplaced" them. I was so irritated by his behaviour that I started to have a set of rules of my own. No borrrowing indefinately, all books should be returned exactly within a limited period, sounds like what you read in the rules section of the library right? It was something like that. I think those who like their books as much as I did would definately agree to my rule. It is a compulsory precaution to save your books from such reckless readers. I love my books,well that was melodramatic. May be not 'love' my books but I really like them so much they have always been there for me.




I have a little collection of my own as I have mentioned earlier.Now let me brag about my own collection,which is not much but I love them none the less. I love fantasy, and supernatural books, they seem to appel to the child in me.I love imagining those magical worlds around me so its no wonder that I have Tolkin's 'Lord of the Rings'and the whole set of Harry Potter in my collection. Mystery is always interesting the first books I ever read and encouraged me into reading are the Sherlock Holmes adventures. I do have the whole collection. I found out that none of the big budgeted movies have ever owned up to the books. It highly impossible for them to capture every element of the book.When I grew up my brother bought a book called 'Why men don't listen, and why women can't read maps' I should say it helped me a lot in understanding my spouse. Its not a self help book, it was quiet funny and entertaining and quiet educational actually, something everyone should read and understand. And I have read Dan Brown's collection too.And then when the Twilight series came I was all into it. Recently I read 'P.S I love you' and found it too boring for my taste, but the movie made me cry. Then I have this collection of 'Mahabharatam', 'Ramayanam', 'Bhagavatgeeta','Bhaagavatam' and 'Vishnu Puraanam' I like to read as a research into our culture. In my school days I read as manyNancy Drew and Hardyboys books as I could get my hands on. I find Biographys boring and Selfhelp books Irritating.I would like to own Jane Austins 'Pride and Prejudice' someday and 'Emma' too I have watched so many adaptations of these books that I wanted to read them once.

Barbarika, son of Ghatothgacha

The legend begins with the Mahābhārata. Barbarika also known as Khatushyamji was a grandson of Bhima. He was the son of Ghatotkacha (who in turn was son of Bhima) and Ahilavati. Even in his childhood, Barbarika was a very brave warrior. He learnt the art of warfare from his mother. God Shiva, pleased with him, gave him the three infallible arrows (Teen Baan). Hence, Barbarika came to be known by the appellation Teen Baandhaari, the "Bearer of Three Arrows". Later, Agni (the god of Fire) gave him the bow that would make him victorious in the three worlds.

When Barbarika learnt that battle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas had become inevitable, he wanted to witness what was to be the Mahābhārata War. He promised his mother that if he felt the urge to participate in the battle, he would join the side which would be losing. He rode to the field on his Blue Horse equipped with his three arrows and bow.

Krishna disguised as a Brahmin and stopped Barbarika to examine his strength. He baited Barbarika by mocking him for going to the great battle with only three arrows. On this, Barbarika replied that a single arrow was enough to destroy all his opponents in the war, and it would then return to his quiver. He stated that, the first arrow is used to mark all the things that he wants to destroy. On releasing the third arrow, it would destroy all the things that are marked and will then return to his quiver. If he uses the second arrow, then the second arrow will mark all the things that he wants to save. On using the third arrow, it will destroy all the things that are not marked. In other words, with one arrow he can fix all his targets and with the other he can destroy them.

Krishna then challenges him to tie all the leaves of the peepal tree under which he was standing with these arrows. Barbarika accepts the challenge and starts meditating to release his arrow by closing his eyes. Then, Krishna without the knowledge of Barbarika, plucks one of the leaf of the tree and puts it under his foot. When Barbarik releases his first arrow, it marks all the leaves of the tree and finally starts revolving around the leg of Krishna. For this Krishna asks Barbarika, as why was the arrow revolving around his foot? For this, Barbareek replies that there must be a leaf under his foot and the arrow was targeting his foot to mark the leaf that is hidden under him. The first arrow pricks Krishna's leg and mark the leaf that is hidden under Krishna's foot. This becomes a weak spot of Krishna. (When Krishna revives Abhimanu's son Parkishit, he looses half of his strength making him even more weaker. Later, a hunter by name Jara hits at Krishna's foot mistaking him for a deer leads to the death of Krishna. In other words, this weak spot on Krishna's foot was first created by Barbareek's arrow.)


Of course, the third arrow does collect all the leaves (including the one under Krishna's foot) and ties them together. By this Krishna concludes that the arrows are so infallible, that even if Barbarika is not aware of his targets, the arrows are so powerful that they can still navigate and trace all his intended targets. The moral of this incident is that, in a real battle field, if Krishna wants to isolate some one (for example: the 5 Pandava brothers) and hides them elsewhere in order to avoid them from being Barbarika's victim, then Krishna will not be successful as the arrows can still trace the target and destroy them. So, nobody will be able to escape from these arrows. Thus Krishna gets a deeper insight about Barbarika's phenomenal power.

Krishna then asks the boy whom he would favour in the war. Barbarika reveals that he intends to fight for the side whichever is weak. As Pandavas have only seven Akshouni army, when compared to Kauravas eleven, he considers that Pandavas are weak and hence wants to support them so that Pandavas will become victorious. But Krishna asks him, did he seriously gave a thought about the consequences before giving such a word to his mother (to support the weak side). Barbarika guesses that his support to the weaker side will make them victorious. Then, Krishna reveals the actual consequence of his word to his mother:

Krishna tells that whichever side he supports will only make the other side weak due to his power. Nobody will be able to defeat him. Hence, he is forced to support the other side that has become weaker due to his word to his mother. Thus, in an actual war, he will keep oscillating between the two sides, there by destroying the entire army of both sides and eventually only he remains. Subsequently, none of the side is victorious as he will be the only lone survivor.

The guised Krishna then sought charity from Babarika. Barbarika promised him anything he wished. Krishna asked him to give his head in charity. Barbarika was shocked. Perceiving that all was not as it appeared, he requested the Brahmin to disclose his real identity. Krishna showed Barbarika a vision of His Divine Form and Barbarika was thus graced. Krishna then explained to him that before a battle, the head of the bravest Kshatriya needs to be sacrificed, in order to worship/sanctify the battlefield. Krishna said that he considered Barbarika to be the bravest among Kshatriyas, and was hence asking for his head in charity. In fulfilment of his promise, and in compliance with the Krishna's command, Barbarika gave his head to him in charity.

Barbareek requested that he wanted to see the battle till its end, and his wish was granted. Thus on the 12th day of Shukla Paksha of Falgun month, he gave his head to Lord Krishna (SHISH DAAN). The head was placed atop a hill near the battlefield from where, Barbareek could watch the whole battle.

When the battle was over and Pandavas having won, they argued amongst themselves as who was responsible for victory. At this, Lord Krishna suggested that Barbareek's head had watched the whole battle, and who else would be a better judge. Barbareek's head suggested that it was Lord Krishna who was responsible for the victory, his advice, his presence, his gameplan had been crucial. He could see only the Sudarshan Chakra revolving around the battlefield which was hacking the Kaurava army to pieces and Draupadi assuming the fearful form of Mahakali Durga was drinking bowl after bowl of blood and was not allowing even one drop of blood to fall on the earth.

Lord Krishna, pleased with Barbareek's great sacrifice, granted him the boon that when Kaliyug descends, he would be worshipped by the name of Shyam in his form. His devotees would be blessed just by pronouncing his name from the bottom of their hearts.

His head was then buried in Khatu. Milk started to flow out of a cow's udder when she reached the spot. Later, the place was dug up, and the head appeared. The head was handed over to a Brahmin who worshipped the head for many days. The King of Khatu had a dream where he was inspired to build a temple and install the head. Subsequently, a temple was built and the head "SHISH" was installed on the 11th day of Shukla Paksha of Kartick month.

Abishek

I was just watching 'Koffee with Karan' season 3 first episode with Aish and Abishek and I realised that if you take Abishek without his family name of Bachan, if we put aside the serious Abishek in 'Guru' and look at Abishek just that tall man you see that he has a unique personality of his own. He is such a fun loving guy and I am glad to see him like that. Why in the world are directors offering him serious roles, just because his father is famous as an angry young man. I think his body language is good for comedies. He is a natural at that why not offer him such roles, hollywood has tons of comedies where the leading man did all the comedy scenes and I think those are the roles which would make a mark. Just take an example of the angry young man Amitabhji himself, his most famous scenes that people still act out are his comedy act of a drunk 'satte pe satta' and his broken english scene from 'Namak Halal'. I would only imagine Abishek in one such scene and it makes me smile. Even the recent angry man Ajay Devagan had great success from 'GolMaal' that he is launching a third movie of it. Sanjay Datt who was famous for action movies is now only referred to as Muunna bhai. I think if Abishek switches to comedies it will do him wonders ... Just saying...

Love and Hate

Love and Hate are synonomous with each other. You cannot hate someone you haven't loved at some point of time. Because hating someone is not easy, it takes lot of energy and lot of knowledge of the other person to not to forgive then for what they have done. Yes to dislike someone, to strongly dislike someone is not even close to hating someone. When you dislike someone it gets easy for us after sometime to forgive them, but if you love someone and they hurt you then it leaves a mark, a hole in your heart that stays forever and that hole reminds us of their betrayal so much that to hate them feels natural. No the opposite of Loving something cannot be hate.

Kit Kat Ad

The Kit kat Ad caught my attention. We really need to take a break in life to admire its beauty and awesomeness. ( have been watching 'How I met you mother' recently). Life may show you something weird and wonderful. So take a break and watch this Kit Kat ad

The A team

Absolutely aWEsome movie. The guys, Hannibal and his boys are insanely good.
The movie starts in mexico where colonal H. Smith a.k.a Hannibal picks up murdock who is a crazy capitan of the sky. The helicopter chase was good...

When Colonal decides he has to recover plates from bad guys in Bagdad who are minting US currency, he goes against his superior and enters Bagdad. Though he recovers them, the plates were stolen by Pike, one of their own, and the A team was sentenced 10 years of prison. But there are no prison walls that could hold them in.

Hannibal and his men escape from their respective prisons, in style, if I might add, and are heading towards Frankfurt. There is this amazing fight sequence, (highlight for the entire movie, must watch, ) that is going to keep you on the edge of your seat. They find out that the man they trusted was the one who set them up. So the plan to expose the truth.

But clearing their name was not that easy. Though they caught the bad guys with 'Distraction, Diversion and Division' and handed the govt. the plates,
they are still wanted by the govt., still at large and if you are in trouble and no one else could help you, and if you could find them, may be you can hire

The A - Team

I give it a 7/10

Hey could be a sequel.