Spirituality Gives Great Vitality To Us

SPIRITUALITY GIVES GREAT VITALITY TO US

INTRODUCTION

Spirituality gives great vitality to us. Spirituality gives good spiritual energy for running our life successfully, peacefully, happily and enthusiastically. Spirituality means adopting various spiritual ways of worshipping the god, like breaking of coconuts in the temples, worshipping the deities in the temples, and performing meditation etc. Whenever, before we begin a new task, coconuts would be broken to the deities in the temples, and especially to Lord Vinayaka. Lord Vinayaka being considered as the first god, it is our main duty to offer our first respect to him, and hence by the way of offering coconuts to him, we are rendering great divine service to the beautiful elephant god Vinayaka.

As per ancient legend, once when Lord Shiva decides to grant boons to his demon devotee, Bhasmasura, he didn’t offer his first prayers to his son, Vinayaka. As a result, after giving the requested boon to Bhasmasura, Shiva had to flee from that place for saving his life. Then he realised his mistake, and sincerely worshipped Lord Vinayaka, in order to get relieved from his troubles. Lord Vinayaka felt pity on his father Shiva, and then he immediately prayed to his uncle Lord Vishnu, to safeguard his father from the clutches of the demon Bhasmasura. Due to the grace of Vinayaka, Vishnu transformed himself into a beautiful woman, attracted the demon, and killed him cleverly and thus saved Lord Shiva.

Coconuts are also having three eyes, and thus it is considered as a form of Lord Shiva. Hence coconuts are considered as a favourite item to Lord Vinayaka, and he likes Mothakams very much, when it is prepared out of coconuts, since the three eyes of the coconuts resemble similar to his father Lord Shiva.

It is also an ancient tradition of breaking coconuts in the temples of Lord Vinayaka, and usually there would be separate place in the temples to break the coconuts, and some temples will not have a separate place for breaking the coconuts. In such cases, we can break the coconuts in the premises of the temples itself without disturbing the passers.

Mostly students would pray to Vinayaka before their exams, and after getting positive results in the exams, they would come to the Vinayaka temples along with their parents, and they would eagerly break the coconuts, one by one, and mostly it would be 108, and some poor people also would take away the broken parts of the coconuts in order to consume it.

God has gifted many things to us, like the human body with proper body parts, good health and wealth, and many more. Hence it is our main duty to thank him by the way of offering our worship to him. And out of the several forms of divine service to the god, like performing pujas, offering Prasad items, singing songs and reciting mantras, breaking of coconuts is also considered as a best divine service which we offer to the god in a most satisfactory manner.

It is also believed that those who suffer from health issues like nervous disorders, lack of memory power, head ache, would get relieved from their ailments, if they keep sincere faith and bhakti on Lord Vinayaka and if they break coconuts on the monthly Sankatahara Chathurthi days, and also during the annual Vinayaka Chathurthi festival day. In ancient puranas, it was mentioned that breaking of coconuts to Lord Vinayaka is also one of the methods of worship to him. The great Vinayaka Devotee Vallalla who belongs to the Treta Yuga, had got the habit of breaking coconuts to Lord Vinayaka, while performing puja to him.

Karthigai Deepam is a festival of lights which is celebrated by the Hindus who belongs to South India. This festival is observed during the Tamil month of Kartigai (November to December). During Karthigai month, oil lamps would be lit mostly on every day, and during this festival, big lamps are lighted in the Shiva temples, and apart from that, Muruga Purana would be read and fasting also would be observed in the nights by the devotees.

As per legend, once, the six celestial stars took care of the six babies, who were the sons of Lord Shiva, in the Saravana tank, and later all the six babies have been formed into one deity, who is our beloved god Muruga. Since Lord Muruga was born on the Tamil month Karthigai, he was hence called as Karthikeya. Lord Shiva created Lord Muruga from the spark of his third eye. Since the stars properly took care of child Muruga, they were blessed by Lord Shiva to attain immortality and still now they are permanently dwelling in the skies. Those who offer worship to the Divine Karthigai Star mothers are considered equivalent to offering prayers to Lord Muruga himself. These star mothers are being worshiped by lighting up Deepam in the evening of the Karthigai Deepam festival day in the homes and also in the outside of the homes. Karthikai Deepam connotes Lord Muruga’s birthday.

The celebration of Karthigai Deepam is also mentioned in our ancient Sangam Literature. Lamps are lighted in order to ward off the evil forces and to celebrate the festival with full of joy. Fire crackers also would be burst out in the streets. Thiruvannamalai Maha Deepam would be lit on the Karthigai Deepam festival at around 6 pm at the top of the holy mountain. The entire Mountain is considered as a Holy Shiva Lingam. Maha Deepam would be lit using several kilos of Ghee, and Lord Shiva would bless the devotees from the Temple at the time of lighting of the Maha Deepam.

This year, Karthigai Deepam is celebrated on 19/11/2021.

Certain places in the earth are mentioned as sacred, only based on the temples situated in those places. Varanasi is considered as a most sacred place, since the temple of Lord Kashi Viswanathar is situated there. Likewise Shirdi and Mantralayam are become very famous, since the temples of Saibaba and Guru Raghavendra Swamy are situated there.

The place Thiruvannamalai has attained a good status, since the holy Temple of Lord Arunachaleswarar is situated there. It is also believed that even the divine devas from the heaven used to visit the sacred temples in the earth like the Kashi Viswanath Temple and Arunachaleswarar Temple during auspicious days, in order to worship the deities present in the temple. Some elderly people used to eagerly tell like this, “During my childhood, I have played in the Guruvayur Krishna Temple and Thrissur Vadakkunnathan Shiva Temple”, like that. Before visiting the temples, we must apply the sacred things on our forehead like the sacred ash, Kumkum and the sandal paste, which is very much liked by Lord Krishna.

Since it is believed that there are no temples in the heaven, for offering the prayers to the god the Divine Devas are coming to the earth. But some of us are not considering the sanctity of those sacred places, and we are not showing our interest to visit those sacred places. In ancient times, there are millions and millions of temples situated in the earth. But due to damage and destruction of the temples, at present we don’t have so many numbers of temples, when compared with ancient period temples.

Temples are to be considered as a part and parcel of our life. It acts as a pillar for the devotees, and once if the temples keep on decreasing, then we would land up with big problems in our lives, since the deities present in the temples are considered as very powerful, and once if we ignore them, and if we didn’t take care of them, then definitely we would get the curse from them. According to me, instead of building more and more temples, first of all, we have to take care of the ancient temples by preserving it properly. Temples are a must to visit places, and we should consider temples as our second homes, and whenever we are out from our homes, apart from visiting shops and other necessary places, our legs must walk to temples only, since temples are not ordinary places, but they are the abode of the deities itself.

Devi Rishi Narada who is well known for his mischievous acts, had once visited Lord Shiva and Ma Parvati at their holy abode Kailash, by keeping a delicious mango on his hand. Narada wants to give the fruit to the divine parents, and hence he gave the fruit to Lord Shiva and Parvati, and asked them to eat it. But since they showered great love and affection on their sons, they decided to give the mango to one of their sons.

As per the suggestion of Narada, the two children must have to travel the entire world for three times and whoever wins, are to be rewarded with the mango. Lord Muruga immediately started riding on his peacock vehicle in order to circumambulate the whole world. But Lord Ganesha circumambulated his parents for three times, since he considered that circumambulating Shiva and Parvati, is equivalent to circumambulating the entire world. After some time, Lord Muruga had arrived to Kailash with his peacock vehicle, and after knowing about the entire incident, he declared that his elder brother Lord Ganesha is the winner, and he happily agreed to consume the mango by his brother Lord Ganesha. Puranic stories teaches us good lesson, and from this interesting story, all of us can understand, that we must give more respect to our parents, and must consider them equivalent to the divine deities.

In our holy Hindu texts, there are lot of stories associated with our Hindu gods and goddesses. Instead of examining whether it is true or not, let us study those excellent stories, in order to get a better understanding about our gods and goddesses, and also we can get more knowledge, wisdom, courage and boldness. In the great epics Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavatham, lot of wonderful stories are included. In the Puranas, like Ganesha Purana, Muruga Purana and Vishnu Purana, the details about some staunch devotees are mentioned. By reading the details about those pious devotees, we could also get more and more bhakti on the almighty.

The entire world lies in our hands only, if we cultivate more and more bhakti on the god. Though we may think it as a joke, but it is true only. Due to the increase in the technology level, the world has become shrunk. Within a few days, we can reach to any part of the world through Air planes. Only if we take one step forward, god would help us to move several steps ahead. Possibility or impossibility lies in our hands only, and we can make the impossible things into possible through our enthusiasm, eagerness and sincerity. If a person is lazy, if didn’t try for a job, and simply sits at home, then who could fill up his belly?

Simply relying on our fate is of no use. Though we cannot change the laid down fate put on our head by the god, but we have to try our level best to succeed in our life, by putting hard work. God is always good only, but without putting any efforts, if we simply curse him, by relying on our fate, then he would never help us in any way in our life. We might have studied in some magazines, that some big entrepreneurs have succeeded in their businesses, only after putting lot of efforts, and some of them were even very poor, at the time of starting of their business, but due to their capability, motivation and confidence, they have reached high in their career ladder.

Opportunity would knocks at our door only once, and immediately we must have to grab it, or otherwise, others would win in the race, and we would be in the last row. For winning in our tasks, we can always seek the help of the god, since prayers would always do lot of wonders in our life. As per the sayings of Lord Krishna in his Bhagavat Gita, “Do your work sincerely, faithfully and actively, and at the same time, don’t forget me also. Remember that, I am the one, who is the wire puller of the entire universe. Without my help, you couldn’t do anything in your life. Hence, offer your prayers to me simultaneously even while doing your work, and I would promise you, to make you to win in all of your tasks”.

We should always be grateful to the god for granting such a good life to us. We should never compare us with others, since each and every one would be having talents in their respective fields. The great Chatrapati Shivaji had defeated hundreds of enemies single-handedly, with the sword given by Ma Bhavani. Till the time of his death, he remained as a brave warrior, and no one could defeat him in the battle field. He has attained it, due to his staunch devotion on his beloved goddess Ma Bhavani, and he himself had expressed about her grace, before others, after winning in the battles.

Some people would be earning lower salaries, and due to that, they may get inferior complex over others. Instead of worrying about their position, they should think about the ways to succeed in their life, and in course of time, they also would get higher salaries similar to others. Hence in order to win in our life, apart from our hard work, bhakti on god is very much needed, since without devotion, we cannot get promotion.

Once, Lord Yama, the death god, instructs his assistants, not to take away the souls of those persons, who worship Lord Ganesha sincerely.

He tells to his attendants in the following manner:

Hey messengers, don’t take away the souls of the people,
and don’t go near to the people, who sincerely worship Lord
Ganesa, who is the lovely son of Ma Parvathi, who is very fond of Mothakams, and who holds powerful weapons on his hands,
who is considered to be a Big bellied god, and he is the affectionate consort of Ma Siddhi and Buddhi.