DIVINEINFORMATION PART 5 Dear friends,
While going through one of my externalmemory device, I came across some good information stored from a website (not available now). I thought of sharing interesting ones fromthem as a series. These are short information. Inpart 5, I am starting with 20th item in this posting. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 14-05-2021 20 THE WEEKLYDEITIES Ravi-var (Sunday) is the day of the Sun. He is red coloured and rides aone-wheeled chariot pulled by seven horses. He is shown with two to four handscarrying two lotus flowers or a wheel and a conch-shell. Sundayis the day to worship Shakti (Female Energy) and a good day to begin a newventure. Red colour should be worn on this day. Tuesday for malevolent activities. A king starting a war on this daywould be victorious. No auspicious activities should be started on thisday and one should wear red for good-luck. Budh-var(Wednesday) istheday of Mercury (Budh). He is the son of Soma (Moon), light yellow incolour with four arms carrying a mace, a swordand a shield and riding a lion. The clothes and garland worn by Budh are also yellow coloured. He is considered wise and always exertsan influence in conjunction with other planets. Feeding the Brahmins on this day is considered good. Brihaspati-var(Thursday) is also called Guruvar. A yellow coloured deity,he normally sits on a lotus or a golden chariot pulled by eight horses. He isfour armed and holds a mace, a rosary and a sphere in his hands. A person under his influence willhave a lot of wealth. A girl coming to motherhood on this day will havemany sons. Brihaspati is the teacher of the Gods. Thursday's colour is yellow. Shukra-var (Friday) is the day of Shukra, the teacher of the demons.He is white coloured and sits on a lotus. He is also shown riding a chariotwith a lot of flags and being pulled by eight flame-coloured horses. He hasfour hands with two holding a rosary and a mace. He is the mostauspicious of the planets. It is good to fast on Fridays. Shani-var (Saturday). Shani (Saturn) is the most malicious ofthe planets. He is a black coloured old man ridinga vulture or an iron chariot. He is shown with four hands holding a bow, atrident and an arrow. Allmisfortunes are traced to him, so much so that periods of misfortune are termedas ‘Shani-dasa’. Dueto a curse given by his wife, Shani has the capacity to cause destruction withhis eyes. Hencehe is always looking down so as not to destroy anything .The planet should be worshipped on Saturdays to reduce his evil influence. 21 COLOUR IN HINDUISM For the Hindu, colours plays veryimportant role in the religion and culture and have a very deep significance,transcending purely decorative values. Hindu artistes use colour on the deities and their dresses signifyingtheir qualities. Proper use of colours create a environment which shouldkeep a person cheerful. Some of the main colours used in religious ceremoniesare red, yellow (turmeric), green from leaves, white from wheat flour etc. Red In Hindu religion redis of utmost significance and the colour most frequently used for auspicious occasions likemarriages, birth of a child, festivals etc. A red mark is put on the foreheadduring ceremonies and important occasions. As a sign of marriage women put red powder on their hairparting. They also wear a red sari duringmarriage. Red powder is usually thrown onstatues of deities and phallic symbols during prayers. It is also the colour of shakti (prowess). A red coloured dress is puton deities who are charitable, brave, protective and who have the capacity to destroy evil. ***Onthe death of a woman, her body is wrapped in a red cloth for the cremation. My note- ***Iam not sure of this custom in south. Normally white khata cloth is used. Saffron Itrepresents fire and as impurities are burnt by fire, this colour symbolizes purity. It alsorepresents religious abstinence. It is the colour of holy men and ascetics whohave renounced the world. Wearingthe colour symbolizes the quest for light. It is the battle colour of the Rajputs, the warrior caste. Green Symbolising peace and happiness, itstabilises the mind. Thecolour is cool to the eyes and represents nature. Yellow This is the colour of knowledge andlearning. It symbolizes happiness, peace, meditation, competence and mentaldevelopment. It is the colour of springand activates the mind. LordVishnu's dress is yellow symbolizing his representation of knowledge. LordKrishna and Ganesha also wear yellow dresses. White It is a mixture of seven differentcolours hence it symbolizes a little bit of the quality of each. It representspurity, cleanliness, peace and knowledge. The goddess of knowledge, Saraswati is alwaysshown as wearing a white dress, sitting on a white lotus. The otherprominent deities would also have a touch of white on their dress. **A Hindu widow would wear a whitedress in mourning. My note- ***It is correct with Tamil Brahminswomen. Nampoothiri Brahmins andother Hindus women in Kerala wear white clothesnormally. Blue The Creator has given the maximum ofblue to nature i.e. the sky, the oceans, the rivers and lakes. The deity whohas the qualities of bravery, manliness, determination, the ability to dealwith difficult situations, of stable mind and depth of character is representedas blue coloured. Lord Rama and Krishna spent their life protectinghumanity and destroying evil, hence they are coloured blue. 22 THE HOLY COW The cow is sacred to the Hindus, afact that puzzles the foreigner who finds numerous animals wandering thestreets of the towns and cities, muzzling at fruit and vegetable stalls andsometimes obstructing traffic. The sacredness of the cow is acentral and crucial element in Hindu belief. The cow is supposed to be the living symbol of MotherEarth. For the early migrants the cow was an indispensable member of thefamily. As agriculture was the occupation ofthe migrants, the cow provided them with milk and its by products and alsonecessities of life such as fuel, manure for the farm, etc. Duringthis time the Aryans prayed to their numerous gods through ‘yagna’ (from ‘yaj’,to worship). This wasinitially a simple way of private worship but became public in character andconsisted of invokingthe fire-god, ‘Agni’, by ritually kindling sacred wood on an altar, and keepingthe fire alive by constantly feeding it with melted butter. It was through the instrumentality of ‘Agni’(fire) that the offering of milk-pudding and a drink of milk, curds and honey(madhupeya) was conveyed to one's chosen gods. Thusthe cow supplied the major requirements of the yagna and this association soonmade it sacred. Hindus veered towards vegetarianism dueto the influence of early Jainism and Buddhism, specially on the Brahmins andVaishyas. Gradually the cow came to be known as ‘Gaumata’ (cowthe Mother) and ‘Aditi’ (mother of gods). The rise of Vaishnavism amongst the prosperousmiddle and lower castes (expressed in the figure of the cowherd god Krishna)helped consolidate the importance and the religious glorification of the cow. Some of the other factors whichresulted in its sanctity were; its figurative usage in Vedic literature whichlater was taken literally; prohibitions against killing a Brahmin's (priest's)cow and lastly, the symbol of cow protection as an affirmationof religious solidarity against Muslim invaders. 23 THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE A Hindus life in theancient times was divided into four stages: Brahmacharya (celibacy),Grahasthya (house holder ship) Vanaprastha and Sanyas. This lifestyle, with thecenturies of Muslim and British influence, has more or less died out and notpractised any more. Short notes are given on each stage as they used to bepractised in the ancient times. Brahmacharya(Celibacy). This was the first stage (up to the ageof 25) when the student, after the thread ceremony, left his home and joinedthe ‘gurukula’ (school), normally a simple group of huts set inside a forest ora lonely place away from habitation. Herethe teacher or guru lived with his family and students, who must, irrespectiveof social status, lookafter the guru like one's father and perform all menial chores around theschool. Here they were taught the Gayatri mantra, Yoga, the study of thescriptures, the arts and sciences, and a life of simplicity and spartanself-discipline. The students were exhorted to speak the truth, to work withoutforgetting Dharma, to serve the elders, to regard one's parents, teacher andguest as divine beings. Grahasthyaor Householdership. After finishing his education the studentreturned home to marry and set up a household. Marriage was not contractual and was a sacred step inone's spiritual growth. The wife was ardhangini or the other half of herhusband. Mynote- On this account if father is aliveand mother dead no tharpana/ srardha done. On the thithi of mother’s death, srardha is conducted to her forefathers. The only placewhere srardha is conducted for Mother and offer pindas is Gaya. Gaya srardha is performed only after father’sdeath. On account of this only I writemany times in this forum no further srardha is required after Gaya srardha tohis parents invoking them as pithru since they are liberated. Srardha can be performed to Jnatha Anjatha pithrus. No religious ritual could be performedby a man without his wife's participation therein. The householder was topractice right conduct, earn material wealth, permit himself a life of love andpassion with his life’s partner and attain salvation by following the rules ofconduct. The second stage was considered the most importantof the four. The householder was expected to earn a livingwith integrity and to give away one- tenth of what he earned to charity. Hewas expected to give happiness and joy to his wife by providing her with a goodhome. It was obligatory for him to look afterhis children, educate and marry them. Charity and hospitality were essential.Fulfilling social and spiritual obligations of life with its trials andtribulations and without deviation from Dharma enables a person to evolve intoa superior human being. Vanaprastha. The third stage comes when one'schildren are settled and can look after themselves. It is time for themiddle-aged couple to become vanaprasthas, or those who retire. In modern parlance this meansthat the time has come for one to detach oneself from worldly desires andattachments and retire to the sylvan peace of con- templation, meditation andspiritual pursuits. They may live amongst their family but remainunattached from within, like a lotus which is in water yet out of it. Sanyas. This used to be the fourth stage. One who takes to sanyas, used to give up all wants,have no needs, would not accept money and renounces the world. He used to live on alms and the fruitsof the trees in the forest and spend his time in meditation. He was jivanmuktaor one liberated from ordinary life. I willcontinue in next posting -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/260013557.318961.1620977523838%40mail.yahoo.com.
