Gadiyar

My date of birth is 13/07/1958 at 1930 hrs at Bellary, India. How is my future professional life going to be?

I dont think you can solve your husband's alcohol problem on this forum. It looks like he has alcohol dependence rather than full blown alcoholism. I am sure he will consume alcohol after the intensive religious ceremony you have planned. Perhaps, your best bet will be sit with him and discuss the problem with him and allow him to verbalise his concerns and problems. Having once acknowledged the problem, the next step will be for him and you to work on a solution. Once you both solve that problem, then you can consider doing the religious ceremony.

You are truly blessed. I think, if you have time read the Devi Mahatmyam every day. If not at least once a week. She is telling you that she will look after you.

In Devadatta Kali's excellent interpretation of Devi Mahatmyam, Madhu and Kaithaba are Anger and Brute Force. Mahishasura is Delusion protecting the ego ruled by attachment, aversion and fear. Chiksura is petty/small mindedness. Chamara is thick skinned. Dhumralochana is clouded vision. Chanda and Munda are Lust and greed. Rakthabheeja is Desire due to a restless mind. Nishumba is Attachment to materialistic things while Shumba is Send of I-ness. Sugriva the messenger is Deceit.

You are absolutely right that the asuras signify the different negative aspects of ourselves which we need to remove systematically. The order in which they go, is not necessarily like that prescribed in the Devi Mahatmyam.

Statue of a Temple Dancer?

How would it make any difference whether or not she has had any previous relationships? If you love her truly, this should not matter at all. Think of the present and future. Forget the past. Move forward, not backward. Pray to Lord Krishna to show you the light. Think of this problem when you are towards end of meditating on Krishna and in the divine light that flows through you, the dilemma you face will vanish.

Gadiyar

Let us just say Brahman is the supreme god - Satchitanand - with Maya [Maha kali] as the creative force. Vishnu, Siva and Bhrama are sub-Gods and then come the various little ones. That way, everybody is happy.

Sorry but according to vedas, there is no chance of lord vishnu appearing on earth in physical forms in kali yuga.Hence he is called as triyugaavatari, there is also one thing that people should not. Kalki avatar is not in kali yuga , it is at the time of pralaya as per vedas, and there are certain rules for a man to be considered as a avatara of any devata let alone sri krsna. According to vedas, there are 32 physical qualities in an avatara purusha.

It is called some shastra but I don't remember that name.

According to vedas praying to a false man claiming to be a god is also a sinful act.

Any intelligent person can understand the characteristics of an avatara by understanding two features - the principal feature, called personality, and the marginal features. In the scriptures there are descriptions of the characteristics of the body and the activities of an incarnation, and the description of the body is the principal feature by which an incarnation can be identified. The activities of the incarnation are the marginal features.This is confirmed in the beginning of Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.1.1) where the features of an avatara are nicely described. These words reveal Krsna's principal feature. The other marginal features indicate that He taught Vedic knowledge to Brahma and incarnated as the purusa-avatara to create the cosmic manifestation. These are occasional features manifest for some special purposes. One should be able to understand and distinguish the principal and marginal features of an avatara. No one can declare himself an incarnation without referring to these two features. An intelligent man will not accept anyone as an avatara without studying the principal and marginal features.

 

But there is also an interesting thing, according to some mantriks god will appear in an physical form to a devotee who does tapasya for 5 years and chants his beej mantra 13 crore times.

 

 

Can you please give us these 32 characteristics. It will save a lot of time.

Swaminarayan is not Lord Krishna, Swami told to worship Lord Krishna, he himself was worshipping Shiv and Vishnu. His "kuldev" was Lord Hanuman.

 

Swaminarayan temple devotees are going to a wrong path i say, but soon they all will realize, its not far. There are only 3 main gods and that is Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh and 3 main goddess Maa Parvati, Maa Lakshmi and Maa Saraswati. Above all there is Maa Gayatri who is the Ved mata.

 

Before worshipping any god or goddess most of the people worship Lord Ganesha, i recently invited some of my Swaminarayan devotees to come to Celebrate Ganesh Chaturhi but they never replied to my invitation nor even made a courtesy call to me...

 

There are very few on this earth who knows why there are 3 spikes in a "Trishul", does any one here ?

 

Jai Shri Krishna

I believe the three spikes in the Trishul represent the past, present and future. When the trishul strikes the ego is cleansed of its karma in the past, present and future and the soul attains salvation. That is the explanation which I have gathered from a reading and meditating of Devi Mahatmyam especially chapter 4, where the devas led by Indira praise the Devi for killing the asuras. While the asuras are destroyed their souls are given a place near her.

Gadiyar

I hope you are not suffering with Acute Paranoid Schizophrenia a condition with symptoms just like yours.

I had a dream two nights ago, when a large black panther with a serene large face is directly in front of me in the house. While I am admiring the shiny black coat the panther looks towards the Pooja section of our house and gives out a snarl twice, partially showing its fangs. And then the dream vanishes. I regularly pray to Kali. I often [about once every two or three days] read the Devi Mahatmayam. I am unable find any definite association between Kali and a black panther on the net.

Please tell me the significance of this.

There is a very bad negative review by someone on Amazon.co.uk re: the book you have advocated. It appears that the author is not aware of the fact that Devi is in fact a Vedic God. She is first mentioned in the Vak Suktam of the Rig veda and I believe he claims that Siva is also not a vedic God. Reviewer recommends the Satyananda's book.

I have bought your recommendation. I hope it is as you say it is. Apparently the author is a recent convert to Hinduism.

My own feeling is that -

1) All these are divine ecstacy which one feels when one is deep in devotion. It is a blessing to feel thus. Many of the so called possessions are essentially this.

2) Maha Kali, has I am sure better things to do than possess someone and answer questions put to her.

The 'possessions' are a trance induced by deep devotion to the goddess. Nothing more to it. I get a trance every time I read the Devi Mahatmye, especially when I am reading the Vak Suktham at the end and more so when I do the 108 Navanthra mantras.

Sarva Mangala mangalye........ is in the 11th chapter of Devi Mahatmye. In the same chapter, there is a reference to how Lakshmi and Alakshmi are invoked by the Goddess in times of prosperity and bad times. The latter two are transient manifestations of the Goddess Kali. In fact the entire Devi mahatmye is a prayer to Kali or Chande or whatever. Mahakali emerges from Vishnu to enable him to kill Madhu and Kaithaba. Bhadrakali is the one who kills Mahishasura. In the fifth chapter, when the Devas pray to Devi, Parvathi [Kosa] leaves her body as Kausiketi and Kali in her dark form stays back. Kali then assumes Kalika form [beautiful form] to entice Chanda and Munda. Dhoomralochana is killed by Kalika. Chanda and Munda are kiled by Kali in her frightening form. Raktabheeja is essentially killed by Kali although it was really a team effort of various shaktis. Shumba is killed by Chandika. Nishumba by Durga [the single form of all the devis]. There is no question of Lakshmi or Saraswathi engaging in the warlike activities. Kali is the one who we worship with recitation of Devi Mahatmye.

Irrespective of who you worship, it is well known that divine ecstacy is confused for possession. Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to exhibit bizarre behaviour when he was in divine ecstacy. i am surprised that in the 21st Century, there are people who still believe in spirits and Devi possessing humans. I am sure my beloved devi has far better things to do. There is a book called 'The Divine madness of saints' by June McDaniel. The author has thoroughly researched this. Lot of the symptoms that the original post describe comes in this category of Divine madness.

One who killed Madhu and Kaithaba was Vishnu facilitated by the exit of Mahakali from the body of Vishnu, thereby waking him up. Mahishasura was killed by Bhadrakali created from the tejas of the trinity and the various devas and sages. In Chapter 5 of Devi Mahatmye, the devas go to the himalayas to invoke Parvathi [Kosa]. Koushiki arose from the body of Parvathi leaving behind Kali. Kali assumes a beautiful Kalika form to entice Chanda and Munda to go and report her presence in the Himalayas. Dhoomralochana gets burnt by Kalika, when she says Hummm. Chanda and Munda are killed by the terrifying form of Kali. Kali carries the heads of Chanda and Munda to show Koushiki [also called Chandika]. Rakthabeeja is killed by the joint effort of various shaktis and kali [Chandika says 'Chamunde, vishteernam vadanam kuru']. Shumba is killed by Chandika while Nishumba is killed by the merged form of all the shaktis which is Parvathi. In Chapter 12, it is clearly mentioned that in times of prosperity, the goddess appears as Lakshmi and in bad times as Alakshmi. It is clearly Kali who is talking in Chapter 12 and not Lakshmi or Saraswathi.

The entire Devi Mahatmye is to do with Kali in various forms. It is Kali that I worship when I read the Devi Mahatmye. To my mind, Lakshmi, Alakshmi and Saraswathi are transient manifestations of Goddess kali at times of prosperity or otherwise.

Sarva mangala mangalye........... is in praise of Kali who is the supreme goddess representing Mahamaya, Mahamoha, Mahamedha and Mahasmrithi. She is Prakriti and whose worship dispels avidya.

I too had questions such as you have. To answer all your questions, would mean writing an entire treatise on Advaita philosophy. I have read advaita, vishista advaita, dwaita-advaita and dwaita. To me Adi Sankara's philosophy and interpretation of the scriptures seemed to answer all my doubts. If you have already read it then my apologies for suggesting it again. Tatbodha by Adishankara is excellent introductory book for anyone wanting to know about advaita. I supplemented it with a more detailed reading of Advaita philosophy in Indian Philosophy by Radhakrishnan. In fact Radhakrishnan's book [in two volumes; but the relevant bits are in Vol 1] gave me the best insight. It also tells you about the advent of Advaita with Gaudapada and then how Sankara made it all complete. I am an ardent Devi worshipper along with my wife and the concept of Brahman and Maya makes perfect sense.

I believe that this entire life and the world around us is the dream of the Lord. Maya makes it look realistic. Because we are in the lord's dream, we think everything around us is real. If we dispel the maya the world and even our body vanishes and we are the Lord. The purpose of our mundane life is to dispel this maya. Many of us, will take umpteen rebirths to do this.

Interesting query from the person who started this thread. The answer is not easy, except to say that you cannot go finding a guru. The guru will find you if you have reached a certain level in your spiritual practice that the universe will find one for you if required. In my case I dont need a human guru, because for me Goddess Kali is my guru. You can actually feel her presence towards the end of Devi Mahatmye recitation, done with devotion. The other way is to take up Kriya Yoga and then go deep into it which would take a few years, and hope you meet Babaji in one of the Himalayan trips to his cave.