The Swaroopa Blog

Hello all, Namaste! Happy Diwali! Wishing the 'Festival of lights' to bring happiness, light, and love into all of our life. Many of us are happy to light the lamps and feel very happy celebrating Diwali with the family and friends. Hope all of you celebrated too, last week. But did we anytime think about the underlying significance of the lamp? Let us  discuss today how we can interpret it from a mythological and philosophical sense. Narakasura: The previous day of Diwali is celebrated as 'Naraka Chaturdashi". The mythology is Naraka was born to the earth mother or Bhudevi (Bhu- Earth, Devi-Goddess) and Vishnu or Hiranyaksha (both versions have been narrated in mythology). Anyway mother Bhudevi wanted her son to be very powerful and prayed to Vishnu; Vishnu, in turn, blessed her with that boon. Now Naraka was a very powerful king, learned in all tantras and mantras and ruled over his kingdom very well. But later he became friends with another asura called Bana. ...

Hello all, Namaste! Today we are going to discuss a very deep subject and how we can interpret it. I myself am not fully aware of it to discuss it deeply and extensively. But why not give it a try and see how it goes. If we can find some gems out of this analysis, why not. But again, the subject we are tackling today is very deep and there can be a million ways it can be interpreted. Let us start. Last week, we discussed how Mohini and Shiva became the parents of Ayyappa and how he grew up in Panthalam in Kerala and later had a shrine made for him in the Western Ghats called 'Sabarimala'. Now let us think about Ayyappa. Who were his parents? One parent was Mohini who in other words is Vishnu-Maya, a form of Durga and the other parent was Shiva who was the Yogi incarnate. We all know that Vishnu-Maya or Durga can be considered as the feminine creative energy or the divine feminine and Shiva can be considered the masculine energy or divine masculine. Ayyappa, who is thei...

Hello all, Namaste! Last week we discussed who Goddess Mohini was and how she can get transformed into Maya or the grand illusion.We also tried to investigate how we can capture the Mohini while keeping in mind that if we are not Self-aware, we will be presented with her Maya form. In some mythological stories, this Maya is called Vishnu-Maya, who is sometimes considered as the Goddess Durga . As you can see Mohini was formed as a female avatar of Vishnu. So Vishnu-Maya makes sense because Vishnu is the eternal strategist as we discussed before and one of his strategies is to test our faith and devotion by creating a grand illusion or the Vishnu-Maya.  Today let us discuss another story, which is the birth of Hari-Hara Putra (Son of Vishnu and Shiva, what! A son to two male Gods? J) or Ayyappa. Many may know the story, but there may be many who don't know; so this is for them. All of us know Vishnu, took the avatar of Mohini, the female form and how she took upon herself t...

Hello all, Namaste! Last week we discussed the three Goddesses and how they can be brought into our life. Today let us discuss another Goddess, Mohini who was actually Mahavishnu taken avatar as a lady. (Realize how much importance was given to feminine in Vedic Mythology. I have also read a Vedic saying that Lakshmi or wealth does not stay in a place where females are not treated well. So if you want wealth, treat your lady well).  Once more let us recount the story; after Samudra Mathanam as the Devas and Asuras clashed for the nectar, Mahavishnu was given the task of distributing the nectar. To make matters very interesting and enticing for the Asuras, Mahavishnu took the form of Mohini, the very beautiful yet very seductive Goddess. Now is there anything in this world that a woman that too a very beautiful one cannot do? Wars have been fought over ladies in mythology. For example Sita in Ramayana, Draupadi in Mahabharatha and Cleopatra in Rome. So if Mohini asks Asura...