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Deepavali, Ganga, Cauvery and Advaita -- an article by Mahaswamigal

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Namaste

 

Happy Diwali to you all. This is a repost of what appeared

on this list on 3rd November 2002.

--------------------

One of the chief consequential tenets of advaita philosophy

is that the Absolute para-brahman can and does (appear

to?)manifest itself in any form whatsoever and so the

various ‘Gods’ and ‘Goddesses’ of Hindu mythology are

nothing but different saguna (with attributes)

presentations of the same Absolute Reality. This needs

repeated emphasis, particularly in the context of Hindu

religion, because, both in the case of those who practise

the religion as well as those who just observe the

practitioners, there is always a slip-up in the

understanding, caused by the glamour and paraphernalia of

the religious observances and their rituals. It is with

this background, the following account of the mythological

significance and symbolism of Deepavali festival is

written. All the matter found here goes back to an article

(1966) attributed to the Kanchi Mahaswamigal, but later

published in a Diwali issue (2001) of ‘Gopura Darsanam’, a

Tamil magazine devoted to the promotion of spirituality.

 

The Mahaswami starts with what looks like a conundrum: ‘You

have been traditionally told how the morning bath in hot

water (after an oil massage) on Deepavali day is equivalent

to a dip in the gangA. You also know that Krishna’s

vanquishing of the demon

Narakasura is the stated reason for the celebration of

Deepavali. But do you know that Krishna himself on that day

went all the way south to the kAveri river to purify

himself by a bath in the kAveri?’

 

kAmAkhyA is the name of Goddess parA-Sakti located in the

modern state of Assam. The state itself was known in old

literature as kAmarUpa. When Lord VishNu took the

manifestation of the boar, killed the demon HiranyAksha and

redeemed the Earth from him from deep down somewhere, the

location of the divine boar’s teeth that held the Earth was

exactly this region of mountainous ups and downs of

kAmarUpa. The Goddess of Earth thus had contact with the

Lord and from this was born the demon Narakasura. He

performed a great penance, pleased the Creator Brahma and

got valuable boons of invincibility from Him. He made the

city of ‘prAkjyotisha-puraM’ in kAmarUpa his capital and

ruled the whole world as a dictator. He even went to the

divine world and turned it into hell by his atrocities.

Because he was himself the son of the Lord he was not

complained against by even the king of the divines.

 

Then came the manifestation as Krishna by Lord VishNu. One

of the many great miraculous deeds done by the boy Krishna

was to outwit and humble the creator Brahma himself –-

incidentally, Brahma, the first-born, is also a son of

VishNu, because he blossomed forth from the navel-lotus of

VishNu - by a miracle of parallel creation of the entire

world of cows and cowherds of Gokulam for a whole year.

Seeing this wonder and learning from it the lesson that

Krishna has ‘na me dveShyosti na priyaH’ (gItA 9 – 29),

that is, ‘I bear no enmity to anybody nor the opposite

feeling of friendship’, Indra, the King of the Divines,

made bold to complain against Narakasura, the other son of

VishNu. Actually he made this complaint only when Krishna

had settled in Dwaraka (in modern Gujarat) as a king with

his two Queens, Rukmani (the manifestation of Goddess

Lakshmi, also known as shrIdevi) and Satyabhama (the

manifestation of Goddess bhUmAdevi, Goddess of Earth). So

Krishna went on a war to conquer Narakasura , but this time

he took his second Queen SatyabhAma with him and also

Garuda, the divine Bird-seat of (Himself as) Lord VishNu.

 

Digression 1. (Note: Queen Rukmani was a quiet and peaceful

lady. She was never taken to any war or fight fought by

Krishna. Satyabhama has been mistakenly known as

quarrelsome. Krishna took her to this war for showing to

the world that she had such good qualities of objectives of

world peace even though the obstacle to that peace had come

from her own son, Narakasura. In the Ramayana King

Dasaratha never took along his first wife Kausalya to any

war. But he took his second Queen Kaikeyi. There

she showed to the world how dutiful she could be).

 

After breaking through the mountainous barriers, and the

barriers of Water, Fire and Air, all raised by the mantra

sakti of Narakasura, Krishna Satyabhama and Garuda reached

the armies of the demon, routed them all and finally killed

Narakasura himself. The latter part of the night on which

Narakasura was killed was the 14th day of the dark

fortnight when the Sun was in the constellation Libra. That

is the night prior to the day when we all celebrate

Deepavali. It was bhUmA-devi, who made the request that

this day be a festival day for the entire world

and indicate from the passage from Darkness to Light

(tamaso mA jyotir-gamaya). ‘Let my son be an eye-opener for

this entire world. Let everybody have an oil-bath in hot

water at this time of early morning and let them all who do

so be benefited by all the merits of a bath in gangA’. This

was the prayer of BhumA-devi, sanctioned by the Lord.

 

Digression 2. (Note: Remember advaita. The manifestation on

planet earth by the Lord ‘coexists’ with the original

divine from which it manifested. This is of course a

condescension from the advaita pedestal of non-duality, but

the condescension is of course mAyic, as everything else

is, when you begin to talk with precision in advaita. So it

is that Sankara goes to Kailas and gets lingas from the

divine Lord shiva. Krishna goes to Vishnu’s world and

brings back to this world his six elder brothers –

who were killed by Kamsa as soon as they were born - for

their father Vasudeva to have a look for once. So it is

that BhUmAdevi comes down to request Lord Krishna for a

boon on Narakasura, simultaneously when SatyabhAma, her own

manifestation, is right there with Krishna. ). Digression

over.

 

Note that usually after somebody dies, relatives and

well-wishers take a both in cold water in regretful memory

of the deceased. But the bath on Diwali morning is not a

‘regretful’ memory of Narakasura. All ritualistic bathing

is in cold water. But this is neither ritualistic nor

regretful. It is a joyful memory of a great mother who

sublated her mother’s affection for the good of the world.

Since it is a joyful memory, the bath is in hot water and

not in cold water.

 

Buma-devi’s unusual request has deeper implications. An

oil-massage-bath before sunrise is taboo in Hindu regimen.

She thus created an exception for this day, and made it a

memorable exception by requesting that the great merit of a

bath in gangA should accrue to those having this

oil-massage and hot bath. Further she made another request

that in that oil, Lakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity should

reside at that time, thereby giving prosperity to all who

observe this formality. Note that Lakshmi’s manifestation

(Rukmani) is the co-spouse of SatyabhAma

(‘co-spouse’ is Indian English! It means one of the other

spouses of one’s spouse) and this shows that bhUmA-devi as

SatyabhAmA had no ill-will towards the co-spouse. The north

Indian tradition of importance to Lakshmi on this day of

Deepavali is significant in this connection. Another

request of bhUmA-devi, also granted by the Lord, was to

name this festival as ‘naraka-caturdashi’, both after the

name of her son, Naraka and after the fourteenth day of the

lunar month when it happened. But this name

narka-caturdashi is found nowadays only in the almanacs.

 

The significance of gangA. When Vishnu manifested as the

dwarf Vamana his divine feet was washed by the Creator

Brahma. The water that dripped from this washing is the

gangA of Space (AkAsha-gangA). This was what was brought

down to the earth by the gigantic penance-efforts of King

Bhagiratha (A great ancestor of Rama). When gangA poured

down on the earth with great ferocity it was Lord shiva who

received it in the curls of his hair. Thus gangA has its

purification traced back to both Vishnu and shiva. gangA in

that sense is considered to be a consort of shiva.

bhUmA-devi in enunciating this great boon for

the welfare of the world and the celebration of her own

son’s death, thus demonstrated that she had no ill-will

towards either Lakshmi, the other wife of Krishna-Vishnu,

nor towards gangA,the consort of shiva. Also to seek the

benefit of the whole world through the merits of gangA-bath

accruing to them all, she has shown her magnanimity and

concern for the welfare of the whole world. Well, She is

the world, after all!

 

Thus Deepavali is a great joyous festival, born out of a

sad circumstance of the killing of the son whose mother

herself was an accomplice to the killing!. gItA is a great

enjoyable scripture, born out of a circumstance of terror

of the killing of millions of human beings where brothers

killed brothers, disciple killed guru, relatives killed

elders, and so forth. So is not gItA a twin-sister of

Deepavali? gItA is the Queen of all scriptures. Deepavali

is the Queen of all festivals. And gangA is the Queen of

all holy waters.

 

A verse of Bhaja govindam goes as follows:

 

Bhagavad-gItA kimcid-adhItA

gangA-jala-lavakaNikA pItA /

sakR^idapi yena murAri samarcA

kriyate tasya yamena na carcA //

 

meaning, He who does study of a little of gita, drinks a

drop of Ganges water and does once an offering to Vishnu,

need not come under the jurisdiction of Yama the God of

Death! Here the four items mentioned, namely, gItA, gangA,

Vishnu and Yama all have a connection with Deepavali!

Probably Sankara had Deepavali in his mind when he composed

this sloka.

 

Now comes the kAveri, the most holy river of South India.

Emperor Rama killed Ravana, the brahmin and so accrued for

himself the demerit called ‘brahma-hatti’. To purify

himself from this he established the shiva linga in

Ramesvaram and offered puja to Lord shiva. (note the

advaita here). Krishna killed Narakasura, and accrued for

himself the demerit of ‘Vira-hatti’ – the sin accruing from

the killing of a great Warrior. So He (Krishna) goes to

shiva and asks for a method of purification. And the Lord

says, ‘Go to the kAveri and have your bath there

immediately. You will be purified’. So not only

Krishna, but a whole host of divines with him, namely,

shrIdevi (Lakshmi), bhUdevi, and all the other divines went

to the kAveri. Along with them shiva also went there. There

the boon was granted by Lord shiva that the whole month

when the Sun is in Libra, would be holy in the region of

the kAveri. On the particular day of Diwali, before

sunrise, an oil-massage followed by hotwater bath – thus

bringing the merit of a dip in Ganges – and this followed

after sunrise by a bath in cold water, brings to one the

merit of both the Ganges bath and the kAveri bath and

purifies all sins. Of course "Govindeti sadA snAnaM" is a

permanent recipe. So all the time one should be

immersed in the thought of the Lord – that is the

prescription for moksha, release from the cycle of birth

and death.

 

All the above ideas – including the digressions -- are

quotes from the Paramacharya’s article mentioned above.

 

Jaya Jaya shankara, hara hara shankara.

 

 

praNAms to all advaitins

profvk

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