A large portion of what we know today and identify as Hinduism actually comes from the legends of the Puranas. Mythologies, sacred rites and rituals, pilgrimages, festivals, and even occasional love stories are all found there in the hindu puranas. Puranas is a massive collection of ancient hindu literature that covers a wide range of subjects, most notably the stories of various gods and deities in Hinduism. Each purana focuses…
Rati is the goddess of love, sensuality, fertility in the pantheon of Hinduism. The word “Rati (रति)” is a Sanskrit term that literally translates to “pleasure, desire, or delight”. Etymologically, it refers to anything that can be enjoyed; but, in the context of hindu mythology, it is always used as connotation to sexual love. According to hindu beliefs, many mantras dedicated to her are said to offer one with the…
Chinnamasta is the sixth avatar of the Dasha Mahavidyas, also known as the ten great pearls of wisdom in hinduism. Tantric practitioners primarily worship this goddess, because they believe that whoever harnesses these powers of dasa mahavidyas can live a life beyond the comfortable standards and can possess certain supernatural abilities. The Iconography Of Goddess Chinnamasta Therefore, Goddess Chinnamasta plays an important role in many esoteric practices of tantrism as…
Adi Shankaracharya composed this Narayana Stotram in praise of Lord Narayana over a thousand years ago. Actually, Narayana is just another name that is given to Lord Vishnu by his devotees. In Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism, Lord Narayana and his other incarnations are regarded as supreme beings, responsible for upholding the cosmic law of Dharma. According to the Vishnu Purana, he is also known as “Shri Hari”. There are many…
Lord Rama is the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the preserver of the entire cosmic universe. All the avatars of Lord Vishnu, including Lord Rama thereby, were born to protect dharma (cosmic law and order) on earth. Rama Ashtakam is a stotram written by Sage Vyas in the praise of Lord Rama and his divine legends. It’s very soothing to listen to, and can make you feel positive almost instantly…
The ancient Vedic literature is largely divided into two sections, one called “Shruti” and the other “Smriti”. Shruti is often considered the original knowledge of self or brahman, making it the ultimate authority in Hinduism, whereas Smriti is the interpretation given to Shruti by great sages of the time. Shruti vs Smriti The entire sacred texts of Hinduism’s core corpus made during vedic era are marked as Shruti literature. The…
The principal god of preservation in Hinduism is Lord Vishnu (aka, Lord Narayana). He is in charge of balancing the positive and negative aspects of cosmic energy. He is the only god among the Trinity of Hinduism (Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva) with the highest number of avatars mentioned in the scriptures, and Lord Narasimha is his fourth avatar. According to legend, Lord Vishnu took the form of a man with…
There are several Hindu scriptures that are well known for the detailed predictions it provides about the yuga cycle of the Hindu calendar, especially how the kali yuga (4th and the last yuga of its cycle) would end in the future. From Bhagavata Purana, Bhavishya Purana, Skanda Purana, Kalki Purana to the actual remarks that Lord Krishna himself gave at the war of Kurukshetra offered a glimpse of the terrible…
If there are any goddesses in Hinduism who are equally depicted as fierce as Mahakali and as kind-hearted as Mahadev (aka, Lord Shiva), it’d be none other than Goddess Chinnamasta. She is an important figure in tantric traditions and sadhanas because she is the sixth manifestation of Dasa Mahavidyas. Her role as a goddess is to halt all negative tivities. The word “Chinnamasta” literally means – she whose head is…
When people think of Tantra, one of the first things that comes to mind is the sensual aspect of it, which the western culture refers to as a technique of bodily pleasure. If you ask any random person what tantra is, they will most certainly refer to its occult erotic practises in some way or another. Everyone appears to enjoy discussing tantra in this manner, which is extremely amusing. Because…
For thousands of years, there are some sects within Hinduism that have been actively involved in esoteric practices. Their core beliefs on ‘mukhsa’ (free from the cycle of endless rebirth) contradict the traditional philosophy and teachings of Hinduism, which is widely recognized as the Vedic religion. In Vedic philosophy, the cycle of rebirth is solely based on one’s karma, but the followers of Tantrism (Yes, we’ve given it a name)…
Indian gods, or more especially, those recorded in various Hindu scriptures, are well-known for having a multitude of heads and arms. Many deities and demigods in Hindu mythology are even depicted with up to ten to twelve arms. In another of my writings, I go into great depth about why some Hindu gods are often represented with numerous heads and arms. You can read it here, but for a quick…
