DIVINE INFORMATION2-34 Matsya Purana part 26
Posted by: "DILIP KUMAR RAVINDRAN"[email protected] prdili Tue Oct 5, 2010 10:48 pm (PDT) The dwarf incarnation - Vamana Avtara There was a demonnamed Bali who wasdescended from Hiranyakashipu. Extemely strong, he defeated the gods and drove them out of heaven. The mother of all the gods was Aditi and Aditiwas despondent that her sons shouldsuffer so at the hands of demons. She therefore began to pray to Vishnu so that she might have a powerfulson who would provide a fitting reply to the demons, particularly to Bali. For a thousandyears, Aditi meditated. Vishnu was pleased at these prayers and appeared before Aditi. "Whatboon do you wish for?" he asked."The demons areoppressing my children," replied Aditi. "Please grant me a son who will defeat thedemons." "Do not despair," said Vishnu. "I myself will beborn as your son. I willtake care of the demons."You will remember that Aditi’s husband was the sage Kashyapa. Kashyapa and Aditiaccordingly had a son. This son was a dwarf (vamana). Bali happened to organize a yajnaand the dwarf came to attend the ceremony. On the occasion of the yajna. Bali had decided that hewould not refuse anyone what he askedfor. Shukracharya was the preceptor of the demons and naturally, he was Bali guru as well. Shukracharya sawthrough the trickery that was involved and realized that the dwarf was none other than Vishnu. He tried to putBali on his guard and warned Bali that he should not grant what the dwarf askedfor. But Bali would not listen. "Vishnu is the lord of everything."He said. "I am indeed fortunate if Vishnu has come to grace my ceremony inthe disguise of a dwarf. How can I refuse what he asks for?" Bali welcomed thedwarf with offerings. "What is your desire?" he asked. "I am dutybound to give you what you ask for." "I desire nothing much," replied thedwarf. "I do not want gold or riches or elephants or horses. All that I ask for is as much of land as can be covered in three of myfootsteps." "Granted,"said Bail. No sooner were the words utteredthat the dwarf assumed a gigantic form. His head rose way up into the sky. With each one of his footsteps, Vishnu covered one of the threeworlds. Thus Bali ended up by donating all of the three worlds to Vishnu and there was nowhere for the demons tolive in. But Vishnu was pleased at Bali s generosity. He therefore decreed that, henceforth, thedemons would live in the underworld.As for heaven, it was returned to Indra. This was the story of Vishnu’ s dwarf incarnation. Matsya Purana part 27 Posted by: "DILIP KUMAR RAVINDRAN"[email protected] prdili Thu Oct 7, 2010 6:32 am (PDT) The Boar Incarnation - Varaha Avatara At the end of the lastkalpa, there was a general destruction and the universe was flooded with water.Vishnu alone slept on this water in his form of Narayana. When it was time forcreation to begin, Brahma appeared inside an egg. All the worlds thatwould be there in the universe and allthe beings that would populate these worlds were inside the egg. But before creation could start,the earth had to be created so thatliving beings might have a place to live in. When the earth was first created, it was full of mountainranges and these mountains wereexceedingly heavy. The upshot of this was that the earth could not bear the weight of thesemountains and started to get immersedin the water. She went all the way down to the underworld. The earth started to pray to Vishnu sothat she might be saved. Vishnu adopted the form of a gigantic boar (varaha). Heentered the water and raised the earthup on his tusks. He laid her to rest on the water,having first leveled out the mountains. This was the story of Vishnu’s boar incarnation. (This is an extemely unsatisfactory rendering.Usually, the storyof the boar incarnation is linked to thestory of the demon Hiranyaksha. Hiranyaksha wasHiranyakashipu’s brother. He abducted the earth to the underworld and also stole the Vedas.Vishnu killed Hiranyaksha in his form ofa boar and rescued the earth and the Vedas. The Hiranyaksha story is found inseveral Puranas, such as the Vishnu Purana.) The Churning of the Ocean Thegods and the demons always fought with one another. In the process, many demons and gods were killed. This was noproblem for the demons. Their teacher,Shukracharya, knew the art of mritasanjivani and immediately brought the deaddemons back to life. But the gods who were killed stayed dead. The gods went to Brahma for his advice."Having a temporary truce with the demons," said Brahma. "Unitewith them and churn the ocean. This churning will make you immortal and you will have no reason to fearthe demons." The gods went to meetBali, the king of the demons, with the proposal and Bali agreed to the temporary truce. Preparations were made for the churning of the ocean. Mount Mandarawas used as the rod for churningand the great snake Vasuki agreed to be the churning-rope . The problem howeverwas the Mount Mandara had no base to rest on. And without a base, the peak would move and thechurning could not proceed. The great Vishnu adopted the form of a huge turtle (kurma).The back of the turtle provided thebaseon which Mount Mandara could rest. The churning started. The gods held Vasuki’s tail and the demons the head. The churning went on for a thousandyears of the gods. The first object to emerge as a result of thechurning was the moon. Chandra. (Thereis an apparent contradiction with Chandra earlier being described as the sage Arti s son. But there is a story, not recounted in the Matsya Purana, that Chandrawas cursed that he would be immersed in the ocean. His emergence as a result of the churning was thus akin to are birth.) Shiva acceptedChandra as an adornment for his forehead. Lakshmi, thegoddess of wealth and prosperity, emerged next and was united with Vishnu. Sura, the goddessof wine and drinking, came out next. She was followed by the divine horse. Uchchaishrava. This wasappropriated by Indra. (Other accounts of the churning, such as in theMahabharata, mention an lephant named Airavata, also appropriated byIndra.) A beautiful jewelnamed koustubha came out next and was accepted by Vishnu as his adornment. After these wondrous objects had come out, smoke started to billowout and clouded the atmosphere.The cloud was followed by tongues of fire which threatened to burn up the gods and the demons. From the firethere came out all sorts of poisonous snakes andvenomous insects. This was followed by aterrible poison known as kalakuta. No one knew what to do with the poison, it would have killed themall. The gods and thedemons began to pray to Shiva fordeliverance. Shiva appeared and swallowed up the poison. It suck in his throat and madehis throat blue in colour. Since nila means blue and kantha means throat, Shivacame to be known as Nilakantha. With the dangerremoved, the churning continued and Dhanvantari came out of the ocean. He was the physician of thegods and the originator of medicine(ayurveda). Dhanvantari held the pot of amrita in his hands. The demonsimmediately started to fight over the possession of the amrita. But Vishnu adopted the form of abeautiful woman (known as mohini). This woman was sopretty that all the demons fell in love with her and gladly handed over the pot of amrita to her.But they continued to fight with thegods. While thefighting went on, Vishnu secretly fed the gods the amrita. The gods becameimmortal. The demons receivedno amrita, not a single drop. Did I say that the demons received no share of the amrita? Thatwas not quite true. Therewas a demon named Rahu. He adopted the form of a god and managed toget a little bit of the amrita. ButSurya and Chandra spotted the deception and pointed it out to Vishnu. Vishnu promptly severed Rahu’s head with his chakra. Theamrita never percolated down beyond Rahu’s throat. But the demon’ s head had had its share of the amritaand became immortal. Rahu never forgaveSurya and Chandra for telling on him.Rahu’ s head tries to swallow up the sun and the moon, given a chance. You can see this happening at thetime of the solar and lunar eclipses.This was the story of Vishnu’Ssturtle incarnation. I will continue in next posting. Posted to google groups byR. Gopalakrishnan on 6-12-2021 -- 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/374574278.1016709.1638767329504%40mail.yahoo.com.
