On 12/16/2013 3:34 PM, Share Long wrote:
Richard, what do you mean by Kama-rupa?
Kamarupa is the site of an ancient tantric cult of the Shakti Kamakhya
in located in Assam. It is one of the main Shakti-pithas in the tanric
Shakti cult.
According to tantric legend in a nut shell, Shiva was married to Shakti,
the daughter of Daksha, but Daksha did not like Shiva for some reason,
and Daksha did not invite Shiva or Shakti to a perticular sacrifice.
Because of this, Shiva got really angry because Shakti threw herself on
a fire because she was upset. Shakti was then transformed into the
goddess Tripura Sundari, also called Shodashi. Shiva was grief-stricken
at the loss of his wife Shakti so he put her body on his shoulders and
vowed to keep it there. But, Vishnu sent his discus and cut Shakti's
body into pieces, the various body parts numbering 51, fell at various
places which came to be known a the 18 Maha Shakti-peethas.
The Kamakhya Temple is a Shakti temple situated on top of the Nilachal
Hill in western part of Guwahati city in Assam on the northern banks of
the river Brahmaputra (the son of Brahma), India. It is the main temple
in a complex of individual temples dedicated to different forms of the
mother goddess as the Dasa Mahavidya, including Bhuvaneshvari,
Bagalamukhi, Chinnamasta, Tripura Sundari and Tara. It is an important
pilgrimage destination for general Hindu and Tantric worshipers.
According to legend the body part of Devi that fell here was Her yoni.
The Sharda Temple which by tradition was visited by Shankara in his
travels is located in Kishanganga Valley just across the Line of Control
in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The meaning of it is that Shankara reached
the peak of spirituality. We can get an idea of his greatness from the
fact that a person of just thirty had ascended the throne of all
knowledge. As it is not possible to visit this shakti peetha, one can
visit the famous Saraswathi temple in Basara in Nizamabad district of
Andhra Pradesh. Basara is 200 km from Hyderabad.
According to legend the body part of Devi that fell here was Her right
hand.
So, Sankara proceeded to Kamarup - the present Guwahati-in Assam and
held a controversy with Abhinava Gupta, the Shakta commentator, and won
victory over him. Abhinava felt his defeat very keenly. He made Sankara
suffer from a severe form of piles through black magic. Padmapada
removed the evil effects of the black magic. Sankara became quite
alright. He then went to the Himalayas, and then built a Mutt at Joshi
and a temple at Badri. He then proceeded to Kedarnath higher up in the
Himalayas. He became one with the Shakti in 820 A.D. in his
thirty-second year.
You can read more about the Shakti Pithas here:
http://www.srinithyakalyani.org/index.html
<http://www.srinithyakalyani.org/index.html>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamakhya
