Month: December 2021

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How Rishi Markandeya Saw Maya?

How Rishi Markandeya Saw Maya

Rishi Markandeya was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu. Once he prayed to see his Maya. Lord agreed to his request to show him his Maya.


After some days it so happened that he was sitting in his hut and praying. Suddenly he saw that rain started falling. It was incessant and everything was getting flooded. There was water everywhere. The rivers and seas were rising and nothing could be seen except water everywhere.


Rishi Markandeya was afraid and went around to search for safety. He came near a banyan tree and saw that on a leaf a small child of great beauty was lying. The child was radiant and divine. He was sucking the toe of his foot. As Rishi Markandeya went near the child, he was sucked in the mouth of the child.


Inside he saw the whole world and was highly surprised. When he started going around he was thrown out of the mouth of the child. When he came out he saw that there was no water and no flood and he was sitting in his hut. He was amazed at what happened and then realised that it was Lord Vishnu’s Maya. Because of Maya we are not able to realise Brahman and are always entangled in the world which is not real.

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Stories Stories from Hindu Religion

Story of Bhakt Surdas

Bhakta Surdas

Bhakt Surdas was a great saint and devotee of Lord Krishna. He was a 16th-century poet who was blind. The exact date of birth is not known and there are different opinions between scholars.

Bhakt Surdas wrote lot many poems describing the childhood of Lord Krishna. Among his poems, a poem called Main Navin Makhan Khayo is very popular among Hindus.

Surdas was a disciple of Vaishnav Sage Shree Vallabhacharyaji. He spent a lot of time in Srinathji temples constructed by Vallabhachryaji. He died in one such temple on the banks of Yamuna. 

Surdasji wrote many books of devotional poems. Prominent among them is Sur Sagar. His poems are also found in Shri Guru Granth Sahib which is the spiritual guru of Sikhs. As Surdasji wrote in Braj basha, this language also got a lot of attention. Devout Hindus sing the poems written by Surdasji with great love.

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Stories Stories from Hindu Religion

The Sacrifice of Maharshi Dadhichi

Maharishi Dadhichi's Sacrifice _ Gyan Katha

Maharshi Dadhichi was one of the most important sages of India. He willingly gave up his body for the good of the world.

Once an Asura called Vritasur defeated all the gods and became the king of heaven. The gods could not defeat him with any weapon. Vritasur also took all the water on the earth and caused havoc.

Indra approached Lord Vishnu for his help in defeating Vritasur. Lord Vishnu told Indra that only a weapon made of bones of Maharshi Dadhichi could kill Vritasur.

Gods, therefore, went to request Dadhichi for his bones. Dadhichi told them that everyone dies one day so why not die for a good cause? He killed his body with yoga vidya and gods made a weapon called Vajra with the bones.
Indra challenged Vritasur for war and killed him with Vajra. The gods and people on earth were saved by this great sacrifice of Maharshi Dadhichi.

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Stories Stories from Hindu Religion

The Story of Queen Chudala

story of chudala

This story is from the scripture Yoga Vashishta. Queen Chudala was a realized being. She had attained liberalization and was always experiencing the bliss of Brahman. She was the wife of Rishidhwaj, the king of Malwa.


Once it so happened that the king also wanted to experience the nectar of Brahman. He did not know that Chudala had already achieved that state. Therefore he did not ask her for any guidance.

The king thought that by giving up the material things he would achieve the ultimate. He, therefore, stopped using all luxuries of the palace. But he did not achieve any bliss.

He, therefore, decided to go to the forest. In the forest, he used to live with minimum things but the bliss was away from him. He, therefore, decided that the only thing left for him to give up was his body. He, therefore, prepared to cremate himself. Chudala being a brahmagyani knew about what was happening. She appeared in front of the king as a sage and advised the king that by giving up his body he would not attain realization. 

The Brahmin told the King that his ego was the main hindrance. He had to leave the feelings of me and mine. He need not leave his material comfort to attain liberation. By removing all ego he would achieve Brahman. The king thus attained Brahman and went back to his queen and kingdom.

A shining example of such a person is King Janak who was called Videh, meaning one who had no ego of body and mind but was living in great luxury.

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Lord Krishna Stories

Story of Saint Mirabai

story of saint mirabai

Mirabai was a great saint who spent her life singing about Lord Krishna. She was brought up in the kingdom of Merta in Rajasthan. It is said that when Mirabai was a child she saw a marriage procession. She asked her mother about her husband. Her mother gave her an idol of Lord Krishna and said that he was her husband. In her innocence, Mirabai believed that as a fact and started worshiping Lord Krishna as her husband.


She was married to Prince Bhojraj of Mewar, but the prince died soon after the marriage. After the death of her father-in-law, Vikram Singh the ruler of Mewar began the persecution of Mirabai. He sent her a cup of poison calling it nectar. Mirabai drank it but nothing happened to her. Again a snake was sent to her in a basket. The snake changed to flowers. Such attempts were made to kill her but all failed.


After that Mirabai left the palace without any consideration of the norms of the society. She became a wandering monk singing the praise of Lord Krishna as devotional songs. Most of the songs written by her are still very popular. It is said that she merged in the idol of Lord Krishna at Dwarka in Gujarat. 

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Stories Stories from Hindu Religion

Story of The Birth of Urvashi

Story of The Birth of Urvashi

Story of the Birth of Urvashi

Urvashi was the most beautiful apsara in Indra’s palace. Once the incarnations of Lord Vishnu Nar and Narayan were doing intense meditation. The meditation was so so intense that as usual Indra the head of gods got afraid that Nar and Narayan wanted to replace him as the king of gods.


Indra thought of an idea to break their meditation. He send his most beautiful apsaras such as Rambha and others to the place where Nar and Narayan were meditating. He also sent the lord of love Kamdev with the apsaras. They all tried in many ways to break up their meditation. 


Nar and Narayan were incarnations of Lord Vishnu and they knew everything about what was happening. To break Indra’s pride Narayan slapped his thigh. That slap produced Urvashi who was more beautiful than all the apsaras sent by Indra.


The celestial beings sent by Indra were highly ashamed looking at the unparalleled beauty of Urvashi. Even Indra was very ashamed looking at the power of Narayan. In his great mercy, Narayan sent Urvashi to Indra in heaven. There are many stories connected with Urvashi that we will watch in other.

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Stories Stories from Hindu Religion

The Story of King Bharathari

The Story of King Bharathari

King Bharathari was the ruler of Ujjain. He was the elder brother of Samrat Vikramaditya. Pingla was the favorite queen of Bharatahari. He was in deep love with her.


Once a poor Brahmin couple received the fruit of youth from a sage. They thought that as their King was a very good King they should give the fruit to him so that he could govern for a long time as a young man. They went to the palace and gifted the fruit of youth to the King.


King as we have said was in great love with his queen Pingala and therefore gave the fruit to her thinking that if she remained young for a long time he could enjoy life with her. Pingala was in love with the army chief and gifted the fruit to him. In turn, the army chief who was in love with a prostitute gave the fruit to her.


The prostitute thought that the King was more worthy of eating the fruit and therefore gave the fruit to King. King was surprised to see the fruit and found out the trail of how the fruit had traveled through different hands.


His love for Pingala disappeared and looking at the behavior of everyone he got disgusted with everything. He handed over the kingdom to his younger brother Vikramaditya and went to the forest to search for the only truth that is god.


This story teaches us that the world is unreal and unreliable. The only worthwhile object in life is to achieve our true self that is god.

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Ramayana Stories Stories from Hindu Religion

How Did King Dashratha Die?

How did King Dasharatha die_ _Gyan Katha

How Did King Dashratha Die?


King Dashratha was king of Kosala and his capital was Ayodhya. Dashratha had three main queens- Kaushalya, Kaikeyi, and Sumitra. King had no children and therefore he went to his Guru Sage Vashisth to request children. 
Sage Vashisth arranged for a yagya which was conducted by Sage Shringi. At the end of the yagya, fire god appeared and gave a bowl full of kheer.The kheer was shared by all the queens and over time they gave birth to sons.

Kaushalya gave birth to Lord Rama, Kaikeyi to Bharata and Sumitra to Laxman and Shatrughan. King Dashratha had given a promise of two boons to Kaikeyi because she saved his life during a war with demons. When Rama grew up Dashratha decided to make him the king.
But provoked by her servant Manthra, Kaikeyi asked the two boons. One to give kingdom to Bharata and second to send Rama to forest for fourteen years. This event gave so much pain to Dashratha that he die.

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Why is Bhishma Called Gangaputra?

Why is Bhishma called Ganga Putra_
Why is Bhishma called Ganga Putra_

Why is Bhishma called Gangaputra?

Bhishma was a Vasu in his earlier birth. There are eight Vasus in total. It is said that once the Vasus came across the cow Nandini who belonged to Rishi Vashishth. A Vasu named Prabhas stole the cow at the request of his wife. 


When Vashishth came to know of the theft, he cursed all the Vasus to take birth on the earth as human beings. The Vasus were devastated on hearing this. They requested Vashishth to reduce the curse.

Vashishth said that the seven Vasus would be killed immediately after taking birth, but Prabhas would have to live much longer on earth.
Bhishma was the Vasu Prabhas. After hearing the curse, the Vasus requested river Ganga to be their mother and kill the seven of them as soon as they were born. Ganga agreed. 


Once King Shantanu was roaming around the Ganga river when he saw an enchanting woman. He asked her to marry him. But the woman who was Ganga had a condition. She said she would stay with Shantanu till he never asked her any questions. 


Ganga started to kill her children as soon as they were born. King Shantanu kept quiet till the seven children were killed, but stopped Ganga when she wanted to kill the eighth child. On this, Ganga said that Shantanu had broken the condition of their marriage and she left. Before leaving she revealed to Shantanu the real story. 
Ganga brought up Devavrata and brought him back to Shantanu when he grew up. This is the reason why Bhishma is also called Gangaputra.

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The Story Behind The Name of Bhishma

The Story behind the name of Bhishma
The Story behind the name of Bhishma

It is a story of how Bhishma got his name

Bhishma was the son of King Shantanu. His real name was Devarata. He got the name Bhishma after he vowed not to sit on the throne of Hastinapur.


Once King Shantanu was traveling in his kingdom, he saw Satyavati, a fisherman’s daughter. King Shantanu asked the fisherman to let him marry Satyavati. But the fisherman said that he had a condition. He wanted that only the sons of Satyavati would become the kings of Hastinapur. King Shantanu was depressed hearing this. He returned to Hastinapur in a heartbroken state. When Devarata saw his father in this mood, he made inquiries and found out about the fisherman’s condition.


He went to the fisherman and vowed that he would not sit on the throne of Hastinapur. Hearing this, the fisherman asked what would happen if Devvrata’s sons claimed the kingdom? Hearing this, Devvrata vowed that he would never marry. 
Hearing such vows, the gods praised him and named him Bhishma.

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