Tag: Lord Vishnu

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Story of Ghatotkach : Demon Son of Bheem

story of ghatothkach

Pandavs had lost the gamble which they played with Kauravs. According to the conditions of the gamble, they had to stay in forest for 12 years.
During their stay in the forest Bheem, one of the the Pandav brothers, fell in love with a demon named Hidimba. He married her with permission of his mother Kunti. Ghatotkach was born out of their marriage. As Ghatotkach was born half demon he had extraordinary powers.


There is also a story of Karn connected with Ghatotkach. Indra had cheated Karn and had taken his heavenly armor and earrings as donation. In return he had given an arrow called Shakti to Karn. Karn could kill anybody with that Shakti.
Lord Krishna invited Ghatotkach to fight in the Mahabharat war. Ghatotkach kept killing thousands of Kaurav soldiers everyday. Ultimately he started killing so many soldiers that Duryodhan requested Karn to use the Shakti on Ghatotkach. Though Karn had saved the Shakti to kill Arjun, he had to use the Shakti to kill Ghatotkach on the insistence of Duryodhan. When Ghatotkach died he increased his body with his demonic powers and killed thousands of Kaurav soldiers when he fell down.
Thus Ghatotkach saved the life of Arjun and brought a lot of destruction on the Kauravs army.

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Stories Stories from Hindu Religion

The Story Of King Ambarish and Rishi Durvasa

The Story Of Ambarish and Rishi Durvasa
The Story Of Ambarish and Rishi Durvasa

King Ambarish was a very devout king. He was the son of King Mandhata. King Ambarish was a great devotee of lord Vishnu. His story comes in Shreemad Bhagavad Puran.

It is said that once King Ambarish performed the ‘Dwadashi fast’ which required that the king must start the fast on Ekadashi and break the fast at the start of Dwadashi and also feed all the people. When the time of breaking the fast came near, Rishi Durvasa suddenly came to meet king Ambarish. King Ambarish asked rishi Durvasa to be his guest. Rishi Durvasa went to take a bath in the river Yamuna and it so happened that he did not return at the time of breaking the fast. The brahmins advised king Ambarish to break his fast in the absence of rishi Durvasa.

When rishi Durvasa returned and saw that king Ambarish had broken the fast, he became very angry. In his anger, he produced a ferocious demon to kill Ambarish. But as Ambarish was a great devotee of lord Vishnu, the Sudarshan chakra of Vishnu intervened and killed the demon. The chakra then started following Durvasa to kill him. In great fear, Durvasa went to Brahmaji and Lord Shiva to save him from sudarshan chakra. But they expressed their inability. Then Durvasa went to Lord Vishnu and asked him to stop his chakra. Lord Vishnu told Durvasa that the chakra could only be stopped by Ambarish and advised Durvasa to go to Ambarish and request him to stop the chakra.

Rishi Durvasa then approached king Ambarish and asked him for his forgiveness. King Ambarish requested the chakra to stop and not kill rishi Durvasa.

This story from Shreemad Bhagavad Puran teaches us that lord protects his devotee under any circumstances. If we keep our faith in God and if we are devoted to God, we will be protected at all times.

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Ramayana Stories

The Story of King Trishanku

The Story of King Trishanku
The Story of King Trishanku

King Trishanku was born in ‘Sun Linage’. Lord Rama was also incarnated in the same lineage.

King Trishanku was in great love with his body and was obsessed about the thought that he would go to heaven in his own body only. He requested rishi Vashisht to send him to heaven in his own body but rishi Vashisht refused saying that nobody could go to heaven in the earthly body made of 5 elements. Trishanku then approached the sons of rishi Vashisht but they also refused. Then Trishanku got angry and started uttering disrespectful words. Hearing them the sons of rishi Vashisht got angry and they cursed Trishanku to appear like a beggar and emit an awful smell.

King Trishanku left his kingdom and started wandering around. One day he met rishi Vishwamitra who recognized him. When Vishwamitra asked about what happened, Trishanku told him the whole story. Rishi Vishwamitra promised Trishanku that he would send him to heaven in his own body itself. When Trishanku started reaching the heaven, lord Indra threw him down. Then a tussle started between rishi Vishwamitra and lord Indra. One wanted to send Trishanku to the heaven whereas other wanted to throw Trishanku back to the Earth. After sometime rishi Vishwamitra and lord Indra both decided to leave king Trishanku hanging in the space. This space is also called Trishanku’s heaven.

This story teaches us that we should not get obsessed with our body, and not try to go against laws of the nature. To know more about this story, please read Valmiki Ramayan.

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Rishi Kashyap And Lord Parshurama

Rishi Kashyap And Lord Parshurama
Rishi Kashyap And Lord Parshurama

This story is about how Rishi Kashyapa saved the earth from the anger of Parshurama.

Once when Parshurama came to visit his parents, he saw that his father had been killed. He asked his mother about who had killed his father? His mother replied that king Kartaviryarjuna and his sons had killed his father because his father refused to give them the holy cow, Kamadhenu.

Hearing this, Parshurama was filled with rage. He thought the kings were getting greedy day by day, so he vowed to kill all the kings on the earth. First, he killed king Kartaviryarjuna and his sons and then went on to kill all the kings on the earth. He traveled the earth thrice and killed all the kings. But in his anger, he also killed the good kings

Rishi Kashyapa feared that the earth would not be at peace because Parshurama had killed 20 generations of kings. He decided to stop Parshurama at once, and so he asked Parshurama to perform Ashwamedha Yagya as he had sinned by killing and that Yagya would cleanse him. Though he agreed to perform the Yagya, Parshurama didn’t know what he would donate in the Yagya since he owned nothing. To this, Rishi Kashyapa replied that since he had killed all the kings on earth, he had conquered the whole earth and that he could donate the entire earth.

Thus Parshurama went ahead to perform the Yagya. When the time came to donate after completing the Yagya, Parshurama asked Rishi Kashyapa to whom he should make the donation? Rishi Kashyapa replied that he should donate all of the earth to Kashyapa himself as Rishi still feared that even after performing the Yagya, Parshurama would not stop the killings. Parshurama donated the earth to Rishi Kashyapa.

Now that the earth was his, Rishi Kashyapa told Parshurama that he could no longer stay on earth. Taken aback, Parshurama asked the reason. Rishi Kashyapa replied that he was a brahmin, and a brahmin was supposed to preach and pray and not kill anyone. Understanding the reason, Parshurama asked Rishi where he would go, as he was given the boon of immortality. To this, Rishi Kashyapa replied that he should go to Mount Mahendra. During the day, he could come to earth, but by night he should go back to the mountain.

Thus Rishi Kashyapa saved the earth from the anger of Parshurama. For more details on Lord Parashuram, please read Srimad Bhagavad Puran.

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Lord Krishna Stories from Hindu Religion

Surrender To God | A Story from Bhagawat Gita

Surrender to God | A Story from Bhagawat Gita
Surrender to God | A Story from Bhagawat Gita

Surrender to God | A Story from Bhagawat Gita

(Shlok)
This shloka number 22nd of the 9th chapter of Bhagwad Gita says that those who totally depend only on me, that is the lord, the lord takes care of them. This is a very important shloka because not all of us believe that if we totally depend on the lord, he will take care of us.

Here is a small story about this shloka of Shreemad Bhagwad Gita.

In a village lived a poor brahmin. He was a great devotee of Lord Shree Krishna and used to read the Bhagwad Gita every day.

One day there was nothing to eat at his home. He was reading Bhagwad Gita sitting under a tree near his home and when he came to this shloka, he started wondering that I am a devotee of lord Shree Krishna and in this shloka, the lord promises that he will fulfill all my needs. But today there is nothing to eat at my home. Thinking this, he made a mark on this shloka in his doubt.

At that time, a small child came to his house with lots of food material. He told brahmin’s wife that brahmin had sent the food to his home. The child had a wound on his head, and it was bleeding. When the brahmin’s wife asked him about the wound, the child answered, “please ask your husband about this wound and the blood.”

After finishing his reading of the Bhagwad Gita, when brahmin returned to his home, he saw that his home was full of all kinds of food. He was very much surprised. He asked his wife as to who gave all this. His wife replied, “You must have forgotten. You only sent this food with a small child.” Brahmin said he had no money, so he could not have sent any food. Brahmin asked his wife to describe the child. His wife replied that the child looked very beautiful but had a wound on his forehead from where blood was coming out. She also told the brahmin that the child had said that the secret of the wound was with the brahmin himself. The brahmin immediately understood that Lord Krishna had himself come with the food, and the red mark was the mark he had made in Bhagwad Gita.

He could not believe that the lord was so merciful. Then, he and his wife both prayed to the lord and asked for forgiveness. Brahmin specially asked forgiveness for disbelieving this shloka of Bhagwad Gita.

This shloka teaches us that if we have complete faith in the lord and surrender ourselves totally to his mercy, he fulfills all our needs.

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Was Kunti right in discarding Karna?

The decision of Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, to discard her newborn son Karna is a complex and controversial issue. According to the Mahabharata, Kunti was an unmarried princess who had obtained a boon that allowed her to summon any god and have a child with them. She tested the boon and gave birth to Karna, but as an unwed mother, she was unable to keep him.

Some argue that Kunti was justified in her decision to abandon Karna, as she was a young and unmarried girl who would have faced immense social stigma for having a child out of wedlock. Additionally, as a member of the royal family, she may have been concerned about the potential impact of Karna’s birth on the stability of the kingdom.

However, others argue that Kunti’s decision to abandon Karna was cruel and unjust, as she was his mother and had a responsibility to care for him. They point out that Kunti could have found a way to raise Karna without revealing the circumstances of his birth, or could have sought the help of trusted advisors to help her care for him

Ultimately, the morality of Kunti’s decision is a matter of interpretation and debate, and it is up to each individual reader to come to their own conclusions about the actions of the characters in the story.

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Stories Stories from Hindu Religion

The Story of Ashtavakra Geeta

The Story of Ashtavakra Geeta

It is a story of Ashtavakra Geeta

Ashtavakra Geeta is considered one of the most important texts of Advaita Vedanta. Ashtavakra was bent at eight places and that’s how he got this name.


When teenager Ashtavakra was told by his friend Svetketu that his father was drowned in a river on orders of King Janaka, he asked why?

Svetketu answered that a learned Brahmin Vandin defeated his father in an argument and, that was the reason why Ashtavakra’s father was drowned. 


Hearing this Ashtavakra went to King Janak’s court and challenged Vandin for an argument to find out who was more knowledgeable? Nobody believed that Ashtavakra could win, but Ashtavakra defeated Vandin convincingly. King Janak then ordered that according to the conditions Vandin should be drowned.


Vandin informed all present that he was the son of Varun, god of water. Vandin also told all present that Varun needed learned Brahmins for a yagya. And, now that the yagya was finished all the Brahmins would return. Ashtavakra’s father also returned. Muni Ashtavakra has written a definitive text about Vedanta called Ashtavakra Geeta.

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Stories

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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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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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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