SHIVASHAKTIPURAANAM
A complete compilation of events as extracted from
ShivaPuraanam, VishnuPuraanam, and Devi Bhagavatam
by
Narayanalakshmi
VOLUME ONE
CONTENTS:
1. A brief description the God world.
2. Sage Naarada learns a lesson.
3. Description of the Forms arising out of the Formless.
4. Creation of the Trinities.
5. The Greatness of Devi.
6. A brief account of Mahabharata events where Shakti is disrespected and the consequences thereof.
INTRODUCTION
DEVA LOKA - THE WORLD OF GODS!
MARTYA LOKA-THE WORLD OF MORTALS!
The mortal world of humans is ruled by the immortal world of Gods!
We- the mortals, have no direct access to the world of Gods as we are limited by our cellular bodies made up of five elements. Gods don’t have such physical limitations. They are eternal!
Who are these Gods who seem to control our lives? Why are we created by them? Why do we exist as mortals and why are they immortal?
So many questions like these have no answers.
We can have a glimpse of the God world only through the words of the Sages who had the visions of the ‘God world’ in their contemplative states and have translated them in a language intelligible to us.
With neither hunger nor cellular bodies, how would the Gods live? We wonder!
What sort of rules prevail in the God world, where a single wrong thought can push one down to the lowest states of existences?
We the mortals are imprisoned here by these bodies caught in the evolutionary cycle and have to survive somehow just to reproduce and die whether we want it or not. We have no access to the ‘nectar of immortality’! Apart from the fact that these Gods have
‘Non-decaying physical attires’ that do not undergo change; there is not much difference between them and us. Though in principle mortals and immortals can be termed as the manifestations of the same Para Brahman; yet in the ‘Vyavahaarika sense’ [the regular perceptions of life stories], Gods are all different individuals with different personalities and different aspirations. Not all have the same powers; not all are well versed in all
Learning; not all are perfect in character; not all are realized souls. Like us they also are moved by emotions. There is a fight for supremacy in their world also! The virus of ego and selfishness causes untold damages there also.
SURYA DEVA CHANDRA BRIHASPATI LORD YAMA INDRA
The only difference between us and them is the structure of the physical bodies. Our bodies are made up of five elements; their bodies are made up of ‘light like’ substance.
[The word – ‘DEVA’ arises from the root letter –‘DIV’ which means ‘Light’]
These Gods are said to survive on ‘Sacrifices’-‘Yajnas’! So the ancient royal personages performed many ‘Sacrifices’ and offered the ‘results or fruits of the Yajnas’ to these Gods and pleased them. The Gods in turn bestowed on them boons and whatever other favors the mortal souls desired in return.
The Trinities which rule the three worlds of mortals and immortals and nether worlds, survive on their own powers and excel other Gods by their superior Knowledge and uniqueness. Their spouses – the embodied ‘power-forms’ - empower their spouses with the unique powers so they can retain their supremacy. The ‘God world’ exists in another dimension, where we can not enter with our space-ships but maybe with different physical attires, which of course is permissible only by the whims and fancies of Gods.
They alone have the power to take any mortal to their worlds. We already know of the story of King Trishanku, who tried to enter the heavens with his mortal attire and was thrown out by Gods. And Sage Visvaamitra the compassionate Sage created a new ‘upside down heaven’ for the King who had acquired a ‘Chaandaala [low-caste]’ body by a curse!
The Sages with the ‘power of penance’ are in a level higher than the Gods because of their acquisition of ‘Higher Knowledge’ and ‘Higher Powers’ through rigorous penance.
Since we can’t perform such rigorous penance in these ages of weak physical structures, the only way left for us is to please these Gods with hymns and get what we want. Whether we like it or not the Gods are our rulers.
Whether the Gods can know in an instant all that happens everywhere in our world, may be a question for doubt. Actually they need not bother much about any mortal being in this Universe. As the mortals are action-bound, their very actions decide their fate and a God may just ignore this world and its inhabitants. May be by telepathically invoking them, our thoughts may disturb their minds and they may help us. Maybe if we love them like our fathers and mothers they may respond to us with compassion. But surely by just holding on to the stone statues and performing meaningless rituals and self-tortures, there is no chance of catching their attention. If mortals just eke out ‘animal like existences’ without even an iota of ‘Knowledge’, these Gods may ignore their existence as we ignore the happenings of an ‘ant-world’ in the ant-hill!
Do Gods really exist? If I and you can exist, why can’t they exist too!
In these days, when Science is capable of seeing beyond space and time, we cannot expect a God-world to float in the clouds above our heads. However Science discoveries admit the existence of higher dimensions which we have no means of accessing with our present technology. Our God-world might be one such existing in another dimension. Maybe these so-called Gods already have mastered the ‘Truths of Science’ of which we have started to get a glimpse only for the past 200 years in the ‘million year evolutionary existence’! If Gods are indeed great Scientists and Devaloka and Martayaloka etc are all just their ‘virtual game-worlds’, we do not have the means of finding out. We are part of their game! We are the virtual characters of their video game! We have a chance of escaping from our mortal existence only by pleasing these Gods or acquiring Knowledge equal to them or more than them. Knowledge is a treasure that is not unattainable to any level of existence.
What is the God-world like?
In the god-world there is no religion, no cult, and no election-madness. Each God is created with an embodied power to perform a particular function. Shiva can never become a Vishnu, and Brahma cannot become an Indra and so on. Each God is a different individual. As in this world, I cannot become ‘you’; ‘you’ cannot become anyone else,
Gods also as different individual beings cannot interchange personalities.
In this world, you can call Hari and Hara as a single Godhead and make a statue of Harihara with two faces and put a break to the senseless cult fights committed here in the names of these Gods.
However in the real world of theirs they are separate individuals!
And we also cannot call ourselves Shiva and Krishna and dress up like them and parade as Gods. Which God is so stupid and mindless to covet this dirty stinking human attire and live here? What value does our puny diamonds and gold mean to these Gods who can create them at will? If we study the original ‘Puranas’, we will know that the Gods usually enter the Earth-existence as a punishment for some wrong act of theirs or come here to perform penance. As per the ‘Time-scale’ in both the worlds, our time is of a very short duration compared to their time. They can perform penance here for thousands of years and return to Devaloka in a fraction of a second of their world time-scale.
Even if a compassionate God like Naaraayana or Kumara want to enter this existence to enlighten us with Knowledge, they will act only as remote controllers of the brain here. They may fully experience the Earth life from birth to death or partially connect to a mortal brain or telepathically guide their devotees from their abodes. But they may not budge out of their comfortable seats even for a second! You can call their descent down to the Earth as descent to a brain here. The Gods who descend down here usually attain self-realization by the time they cross their childhood and live on Earth without identifying with the mortal structures like we do. Even if they realize their own true identities of Godhood, they never reveal the secret of their original identities to any one. They live like us, suffer like us and in the end leave us with the hope that we can rise higher in life whatever our life-circumstances are! They enact an ideal drama of mortal existence for our sake to inspire us. A descended God does not exhibit cheap magic tricks, nor does he aspire for the fame and wealth of this world. Mostly he will live like a recluse unattached to any person or object of this world. He will never in the least bother about any sensuous pleasures of this world.
Think! With countless ‘apsaras’ waiting to serve at the command of a simple glance, and a unique ‘bliss giving spouse’ waiting for him to wake up within a few seconds of his divine dream, why would he waste his time in this ‘mortal manifestation’ for acquiring cheap pleasures and wealth when he knows the illusory nature of objects here? He will only try his best to enlighten as many humans as possible in very few years of his Earth life and return home quickly after the duty is over. He never proclaims that ‘he is a God’ and collect crowds to worship him! Why should He care for the acclaims of the mortal world, like a human desiring the applause of chimpanzees!
An educated man who may enter the colonies of tribal people to teach them some lessons on civilization does not proclaim to them that ‘he is God’ and try to accumulate their type of wealth which may be just some worthless animal bones or weird shaped stones! As long as one is after name and fame and wealth here, he indeed a worst mortal even if he can do enough magic tricks and advertises them as miracles and gets worshipped as a God. Actually Science has more magic in its lab than we can ever imagine. But these sincere truth seekers accused as the villains of religion do not proclaim themselves to be Gods. They already are on to the vague truth that this world might be a virtual world created by some super-scientists. Maybe these scientists on Earth may one day find a way to cross over to higher dimensions and meet our Gods and have an intelligent discussion with them as to how this world was created! Maybe they will join hands with Gods to create better worlds! But as of now, we still are groping in darkness. Our creators are very elusive!
The only records we have now of ‘God world events’ are from the words of Sage Vyaasa! Whatever he narrated to his disciples was in a verbal form. Those narratives
have changed hands many a times and have reached us in a highly deteriorated form. Many portions have been deleted, many new things have been added, and we do not actually have perfect records of the true events of Devaloka.
What compilation is given here in this book is from a research conducted by browsing through many ancient dilapidated buried old records here and there.
The visions of these God worlds were at first given to Sage Vyaasa by ‘Baala-Shiva’ or a ‘Child-Shiva’! This child was actually an unknown character mentioned in a very minute corner of Shiva Purana.
When Shiva was performing penance in the terrible mountain forests after the disappearance of ‘His spouse Daakshayini’, he once suffered acute pain of passion and sweat drops formed on his forehead. As the drops fell on the ground a child came into existence. Shiva walked away disgusted by the screams of the unwanted child. The ‘Earth Mother’ –‘Bhooma Devi’ appeared there and with Shiva’s permission fed milk to the child and took care of him. He was named ‘Bhouma’ being the adopted son of ‘Bhooma Devi’! He became an ardent adorer of his Creator and wandered in those forests attired as Shiva himself. By serving Shiva in those forests, he pleased Shiva and Shiva blessed him with the ‘Highest Knowledge’ even unattainable to any Great Gods like Naaraayana or Brahma! He came to know all that his father knew. He even had the vision of all the events of Devaloka. This ‘vision of God-world-events’, by the command of Shiva, he transferred to Sage Vyaasa. Later Bhouma performed penance under the guidance of his Father and attained higher worlds!
The printed texts of Puranas are only half the story of what happened in Devaloka! Like our lives go on event after event, their life also continues with diverse events in their eternal life. Like Earth life is our world, Devaloka is their world. The emotions and sufferings and joys are as true for them as for us. They are also duty bound like us.
They also have dreams, desires and aspirations. They also are moved by emotions like us. The only difference is that their world is more sophisticated, more glamorous, more controlled than ours. They do not have surviving problems. They are not beset by hunger or disease. Their bodies are not made of lever, heart and kidneys. They need not worry about diabetes and cancer. They have eternal time and eternal pleasures at hand. Their sexual pleasures are no away equal to ours. As we cannot compare ‘human-mating’ to ‘animal-sex’, we the mortal ones cannot fathom the sex-pleasures of the immortals. The female bodies of God-world are made not of cells and blood but with blissful atoms. The females there are created for enjoyments only. The higher the status of God - he gets the higher type of bliss-spouse and his bliss rate is higher! Actually there are not strict ethical rules there for men and women. In God-world - ‘Maituna’- or ‘Coupling’ is done for pleasure and not for reproduction. There is no gene transformation. The Creation of a new being is possible only by the power inherent in any God. Not all are capable of creating new beings. Brahma can create lower beings like us; that too he manages only to give embodiment to the already existing Vaasanaas. Shiva can create any type of being out of anything. Naaraayana does not bother to create anything; but he is supposed to have created the divine damsel Urvashi from the thigh-portion of his. Kubera can create any ordinary divine damsel for the denizens of heaven and has accumulated a lot of wealth from his talent of creating apsaras made as per specifications. Rishis have the power to fill their spouses with unique bliss qualities and keep them as their own treasured properties. Lower Gods who do not have creative powers try to get access to these spouses of Sages and become victims of the wrath of the Sages. Except the Trinities - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva - all other Gods are just various posts for functioning in Devaloka. Any mortal from any world can get these posts by the command of a Trinity or by performing the appropriate penance. That is why you find Indra and other Gods fearing the mortals who perform penance.
Apsaras, the ordinary female inhabitants of the heaven are usually unsurpassed in beauty and they excel in all forms of arts like dance or music. They usually are in the service of higher Gods and cater to their needs. They never can attain the status of devoted wives; unless they follow the example of Menakaa who performed enough penance to become the loyal wife of Sage Visvaamitra and was later raised to the status of a Sage-wife! The reason that they easily fall in love with royal personages of this mortal world is because of the love and affection of a loyal husband they get here in this world unlike Devaloka where they are used just as enjoyment props! Though they cannot experience the same exotic pleasure as they get in Devaloka, they revel in the pleasure of the honest love experienced here by mortals.
Devaloka events are important to us, of course not for any merit or miraculous benefit we may gain thereof, but because the mortal world of ours reflects the emotions and events of Devaloka like a mirror. The happenings in Devaloka affect our lives like a shadow cast upon us. If Goddess Sarasvati is in a subdued position there, our Knowledge acquirement suffers here. If the mother sentiment of Uma Devi is on the ascent there, here the same emotion reigns. If fights and wars become the regular events in Devaloka, we will do the same here too. Since their five minutes almost equal to many hundred years of this Earth time, our events continue for generations to balance their one event. If love-failures occur there, we get the same results in our life stories for quite a long time. In that way, the Devaloka events are important to us. If Gods smile, there is a hope that we will smile too!
This work is an offering at the feet of Tripura Devi, the Highest Principle above all Gods and humans. Except for borrowing the simple words of the English language as a tool to express the events of Deva Loka, there is nothing written here out of sheer imagination and there is no attempt to infiltrate any personal opinion or idea.
The events depicted here are based on Sage Vyaasa’s works and are factual to the utmost. It is an honest attempt to build a bridge to link up the Earth to the heavens. Hither to unknown episodes of Puranas have been painstakingly obtained from the bowels of
Himalayas and are in no way works of imagination. Many years have been spent in giving a chronological arrangement to all the scattered versions of the God world events.
The events of Devaloka are as true as our world life-stories. If our life stories are just Creations of our own minds, then of course the God World events are also Creations of their own minds. Both worlds are illusory from the level of Para Brahman; but yet true!
As Adi Shanka
ra explains in his works -the events of the world are true in the ‘Vyavahaarika’ sense! What we perceive is our world. We have to live accordingly as long as we are bound by forms and names.
An absorption into the God-story is said to be one particular method of contemplation on a personal God.
It is sincerely hoped that the rendering of the divine incidents mentioned here lead the readers to a higher state of existence and make them the receptacles of the blessings of the Trinities – Brahma Vishnu and Maheshwara and their beloved spouses!
OM OM OM SALUTATIONS!
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