Tag Archives: Mythology

In My Hands Today…

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The Oath of the Vayuputras (Shiva Trilogy #3) – Amish Tripathi

12820793ONLY A GOD CAN STOP IT.

Shiva is gathering his forces. He reaches the Naga capital, Panchavati, and Evil is finally revealed. The Neelkanth prepares for a holy war against his true enemy, a man whose name instils dread in the fiercest of warriors.

India convulses under the onslaught of a series of brutal battles. It’s a war for the very soul of the nation. Many will die. But Shiva must not fail, no matter what the cost. In his desperation, he reaches out to the ones who have never offered any help to him: the Vayuputras.

Will he succeed? And what will be the real cost of battling Evil? To India? And to Shiva’s soul?

In My Hands Today…

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The Secret of the Nagas (Shiva Trilogy #2) – Amish Tripathi

11827808Today, He is a God.

4000 years ago, He was just a man.

The hunt is on. The sinister Naga warrior has killed his friend Brahaspati and now stalks his wife Sati. Shiva, the Tibetan immigrant who is the prophesied destroyer of evil, will not rest till he finds his demonic adversary. His vengeance and the path to evil will lead him to the door of the Nagas, the serpent people. Of that he is certain.

The evidence of the malevolent rise of evil is everywhere. A kingdom is dying as it is held to ransom for a miracle drug. A crown prince is murdered. The Vasudevs Shivas philosopher guides betray his unquestioning faith as they take the aid of the dark side. Even the perfect empire, Meluha is riddled with a terrible secret in Maika, the city of births. Unknown to Shiva, a master puppeteer is playing a grand game.

In a journey that will take him across the length and breadth of ancient India, Shiva searches for the truth in a land of deadly mysteries only to find that nothing is what it seems.

Fierce battles will be fought. Surprising alliances will be forged. Unbelievable secrets will be revealed in this second book of the Shiva Trilogy, the sequel to the #1 national bestseller, The Immortals of Meluha.

In My Hands Today…

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The Immortals of Meluha (Shiva Trilogy #1) – Amish Tripathi

79133051900 BC. In what modern Indians mistakenly call the Indus Valley Civilisation. The inhabitants of that period called it the land of Meluha a near perfect empire created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest monarchs that ever lived. This once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe perils as its primary river, the revered Saraswati, is slowly drying to extinction. They also face devastating terrorist attacks from the east, the land of the Chandravanshis. To make matters worse, the Chandravanshis appear to have allied with the Nagas, an ostracised and sinister race of deformed humans with astonishing martial skills!

The only hope for the Suryavanshis is an ancient legend: When evil reaches epic proportions, when all seems lost, when it appears that your enemies have triumphed, a hero will emerge.

Is the rough-hewn Tibetan immigrant Shiva, really that hero? And does he want to be that hero at all? Drawn suddenly to his destiny, by duty as well as by love, will Shiva lead the Suryavanshi vengeance and destroy evil?

Stories from Ancient India: How Lord Ganesh got an Elephant’s Head

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One day Goddess Parvati wanted to be alone and have a bath, so she instructed the bull Nandi who was Lord Shiva’s personal guard to ensure that no one could enter the house while she was bathing. Just then Lord Shiva wanted to meet Parvati. Seeing him, the Lord of Mount Kailash, Nandi immediately allowed him into the area where Parvati was bathing. When Parvati came to know about this, she was furious about the fact that the guard she had ordered to do her work was more faithful to her husband than to her.

In retaliation, she took the turmeric paste from her body and with her powers, created a child whom she wanted to be faithful only to herself and no one else. She named the child Ganesha. At this point in time, no one knew about the creation of this child as Shiva was away from Mount Kailash then.

Soon, the child was guarding the Parvati’s room and did not allow anyone to enter the room as ordered by Parvati. Meanwhile, Lord Shiva entered their home and made his way to Parvati’s private chambers. Following orders, Ganesha stopped the great lord with a loud “Stop! You cannot enter my mother’s private chambers”

Shiva was amazed both at the audacity of this child who was stopping him from entering his own home and with the fact that this child, whom he had never seen before was calling his wife Parvati his mother.

“Who are you to stop me from entering my own home? Do you even know who I am?” Shiva roared in anger.

“I don’t know who you are, but I can’t allow you inside since my mother has forbidden me from doing so” replied Ganesha.

Furious, Lord Shiva sent his army or Gana Sena to attack the child. But Ganesha who was no ordinary child was born with immense strength and he soon defeated the army easily. Shiva then looked at other avenues to reason with the child. He used the services of Lord Brahma who came in the form of a peaceful Brahmin and tried reasoning with Ganesha using the religious texts, but Ganesha did not budge. Then Shiva mobilized the army of the gods or Devas, but the child routed them too easily. Enraged beyond reason, Shiva then goes behind Ganesha when he is battling others and cuts off his head.

“Motherrrrr” Ganesha screams and dies on the spot. Hearing the noise, Pravati rushes from her private apartment and sees the carnage before her. Seeing her child, her creation dead in front of her puts her in a great rage and she moves into her destruction mode threatening to destroy the entire universe. Seeing this makes all the Gods assembled there very nervous and scared and Brahma decided to intervene and asked her to reconsider her decision

“I will not destroy this universe only on two conditions – one my child be brought back to life and two Ganesha will be worshipped and propitiated before any other Gods” Parvati put down her conditions.

In order to console his wife and stop the world from being destroyed, Shiva agreed to the conditions and sent for his servants and soldiers.

“Go forth and bring to us the first head of any creature you come across which is sleeping with it’s head pointed in the northern direction” Shiva ordered his soldiers and they soon set out to do their Lord’s bidding. The Ganas spread out to search for a creature with its head to the north and soon find an elephant sleeping with its head to the north.

They then bring the elephant’s head back to Lord Shiva who attaches it to Ganesha’s body and with his divine powers, soon brings him back to life. Ganesha soon gets revived and Lord Shiva proclaims him his own son and also the leader of his army, hence his name as Ganapati (Lord of the Ganas). He further proclaims that Ganesha will be foremost of all Gods and will be the first God to be worshipped as well as before anyone undertakes any new undertaking.

This is how Lord Ganesha came into existence, why we worship him first and why he is also called Ganapati

Stories from Ancient India: Lord Ganesh

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These days BB and GG have been asking me stories from the Indian Mythology. This new obsession for them is due to the number of books they’ve been reading on this subject and hence they want new stories about the various Gods and Goddesses. These stories are not new or original, but have been passed down from parents and grandparents to children for the last thousands of years. These are my versions of the stories my grandmother and mother told me which I am retelling to my children, thus keeping the chain of oral traditions alive.

Lord Ganesh Pulls a Fast one on his Brother

One day Lord Shiva was relaxing in Mount Kailash with his wife Goddess Parvati and sons, Lord Ganesh and Lord Kartikeya. Suddenly the sage Narada Muni appeared before Lord Shiva and prayed his obeisance to him. Now the sage Narada was known to cause mischief wherever he goes and it looked like this was also going to be one of these times. Narada had a golden mango in his hands which he gave to Lord Shiva.

Shiva was surprised and asked Narada, “Why have you come so far to Mount Kailash just to give me this mango?”. “This is no ordinary mango” Narada replied, “This is the golden mango of knowledge and whoever eats this mango will be granted eternal knowledge and wisdom. However, there is a condition to eating this fruit” he warned. Lord Shiva, who was in the process of cutting the fruit into four pieces stopped and muttered, “I should have known. If Narada gives something to someone, it has to come with some conditions and I am sure, there is some mischief also afoot”. “Tell me Narada, what is the condition to eating this fruit” Lord Shiva asked Narada. With a smirk on his face, Narada replied, “This fruit has to be eaten by only one person”

While Narada was explaining to Shiva about the fruit, Parvati, Ganesh and Kartikeya appeared there. When the boys saw the golden mango, each wanted to eat it. Both the boys wanted to prove that they were superior and hence should eat the fruit. Shiva was frustrated as he did not want to be partial to one son over the other and neither did Parvati. So they decided to repay Narada with a tactic of their own. “Boys, Sage Narada will decide who gets the mango” Shiva intoned, passing the buck to the person responsible for all this in the first place. Narada was caught in the trap of his own making and so tried to get out of this by saying, “Boys, the person who covers the world three times first will get this fruit”.

Even before Narada finished saying these words, Kartikeya jumped into his vehicle, a peacock and was soon out of sight. Ganesh remained where he was with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Ganesh, child, aren’t you going to go around the world?” a worried Parvati asked her son. “Wait, Mother, let me think” replied Ganesh.

At this point, Kartikeya zoomed past them shouting, “I’ve finished one round, Ganesh get yourself off the ground and atleast start, I don’t want to win just like that!” Kartikeya was 100% sure he would win. His vehicle was the peacock as against that of the lowly mouse that Ganesh had and he had already completed one round while Ganesh was still sitting in Mount Kailash.

By this time Ganesh had decided what he would do to win this competition. Just as he started to get up and move, Kartikeya zoomed past shouting that this was his second round complete and he just had one more round to win.

Ganesh slowly made his way to his parents and bowed low before them. He then started circling his parents three times. Shiva and Parvati were perplexed and asked Ganesh, “Child, you were supposed to circle the world, so why are you circling us instead?”. The answer they got surprised and impressed them for Ganesh replied, “You, my parents are my universe and my whole world. So if I circle you, it means that I have circled the entire world”. Saying this, he finished his third circle just as Kartikeya reached Mount Kailash after finishing his third trip across the world.

“I won, I won”, yelled Kartikeya. “Ganesh, you are still here, while I have circled the world three times”.

“No my son”, said Lord Shiva, “Ganesh is the winner”.

“But how, he was still  here when I finished all three rounds”, asked Kartikeya with a pout.

Lord Shiva explained what Ganesh did and handed over the fruit to him. Kartikeya was upset that his brother had pulled a fast one over him, but he could do nothing as what Ganesh did was absolutely right and had proved to be much more intelligent than him.