चन्द्रमा को श्राप

 राजा दक्ष ने अपनी 27 पुत्रियों का विवाह चंद्रमा से किया  ।  लेकिन चन्द्रमा उन 27 पत्नियो में से केवल रोहिणी नाम की पत्नी को ही अत्यधिक स्नेह करते थे। इस बात से बाकी की 26 पत्नियाँ अपनी उपेक्षा होते देख उन्होंने ने अपनी सारी व्यथा अपने पिता राजा दक्ष को बताई। राजा दक्ष ने पहले तो चन्द्रमा को समझाया पर दक्ष के बार-बार समझाने पर भी चंद्रमा ने अपना व्यवहार नहीं सुधारा तो दक्ष ने चँद्रमा को  क्षयरोग होने का श्राप दे दिया।इस श्राप के कारण चन्द्रमा धीरे धीरे क्षीण होने लगा और मृत्यु  की और अग्रसर होने लगा। पूरे संसार माँ संतुलन बिगड़ने लगा।  । चन्द्रमा ने ब्रह्मा जी से इस श्राप से मुक्ति का उपाय पूछा तब इस श्राप के निवारण के लिए ब्रह्मा जी ने प्रभास क्षेत्र में तपस्या करने को कहा  . चन्द्रमा के पास मृत्यु टालने का अब कोई विकल्प नहीं बचा था।  चन्द्रमा ने महादेव की कठिन उपासना करि।  कालांतर में उनकी तपस्या से प्रसन्न हो कर महादेव ने दर्शन दिए।  चन्द्रमा ने महादेव से दक्ष के श्राप से मुक्ति मांगी  ।  महादेव ने बताय की दक्ष का श्राप पूरी तरह निरस्त नहीं  किया जा सकता परन्तु उसका प्रभाव काम अवश्य किया जा सकता है तब महादेव ने  वर दिया कि चंद्रमा की कला 15 दिन बढेगी और  15 दिन क्षीण हुआ करेगी। उनकी दृढ़ भक्ति को देखकर महादेव साकार स्वरुप  ज्योतिर्लिंग के रूप में प्रभास क्षेत्र में  स्थापित हुए। चंद्रमाँ का एक नाम सोम है अतः सोम से पूजित भगवान् शिव वहां सोमनाथ के नाम से प्रसिद्ध हुए। सोमनाथ ज्योतिर्लिंग ही सर्वप्रथम ज्योतिर्लिंग है। इस प्रकार भगवान् शिव ने चन्द्रमा के श्राप का निवारण किया जिसमे कृष्ण पक्ष में चन्द्रमा का क्षय होता है और अमावस्या के दिन चँद्रमा अपनी कलाओ से विहीन हो जाता है और शुक्ल पक्ष में चँद्रमा की कालाय बढ़ती जाती है और पूर्णिमा के दिन वो अपनी पूरी कलाओ के साथ उदित होता है।

The story of Saturn

श्लोक: मंदाय मंदचेष्टाय महनीयगुणात्मने। मर्त्यपावनपादाय महेशाय नमो नमः॥

According to the Hindu belief our life is governed by the planets. Each human being is influenced by the planets in his/her charts. Each planet is said to have its own plus points and drawbacks according to its placement.
As stated in the scriptures Shani or Saturn  is said to be the most slow moving planet of all. To cross one sign Saturn takes about 2.5 years. There is a very interesting story about as why Saturn moves slowly. The scriptures state that the reason behind the slow planatery movement of  Saturn is the fact that it limps and therefore takes more time than the other planets.There is a very interesting story about the same.
It is believed that Sun ( Suryadev)had a wife called Sangya ( Chhaya)  Devi. Sangya had children with sun and Saturn was one of them. Sangya Devi could not take the heat of Sun and she could not convey the same to her husband as well. Unable to take it anymore, she created a shadow exactly like her and named her “ Swarna”. She asked her to take her place and also take care of her kids too. Sangya Devi then left her for her father’s house. Swarna in the meantime did her duties so well that even Sun could not suspect that she was not his real wife Sangya but a shadow created by her. As the time passed Swarna gave birth to 5 sons and 2 daughters. Having her own kids she now gave less importance to the kids of her creator Sangya. One day when Saturn ( Son of Sangya) asked for food from her step mother, She retorted saying that “ first the food will be offered to God and then the younger siblings and then only he will get the food.” This made Satrun see red with anger. He lifted his foot to kick the food. Seeing this his step mother gave him a curse that since he insulted the food the same leg will break in pieces. Saturn froze as his heard his mother’s curse. He then went to his father Sun and told him about the curse. Sun Immediately understood that Swarna is an imposter, as no mother can be so harsh with her kids to give such a curse. He immediately summoned Swarna, who revealed the truth. Sun them said to Saturn that though Swarna is not your real mother, but she still is your mother so I cannot remove the curse but I can reduce its severity. He told that his leg would not be severed but it will be fractured. This is the reason as to why the Saturn limps and therefore walks slowly.

My take on the story: The Saturn is said to be the most feared and therefore the most misunderstood planet. The story gives us a little insight into his life. To me it is the perfect example of those appearances can be deceptive. One must never be judgmental about the others without knowing the real background of the person. Knowing the story can make you see a person or a situation in a better light and picture. Stories in the scriptures often have more than single motive. If read properly it gives a multi dimensional message

Edited and compiled by
 Mrs  Shruti Chabra

True devotee

 एक बार अर्जुन को अहंकार हो गया कि वही भगवान के सबसे बड़े भक्त हैं। उनकी इस भावना को श्रीकृष्ण ने समझ लिया। एक दिन वह अर्जुन के साथ भ्रमण पर निकले । रास्ते में उनकी मुलाकात एक गरीब ब्राह्मण
से हुई। उसका व्यवहार थोड़ा विचित्र था। वह  रुखा सुखा भोजन  खा रहा था और उसकी कमर से तलवार लटक रही थी। अर्जुन ने उससे पूछा, ‘आप तो अहिंसा के पुजारी हैं। लेकिन फिर हिंसा का यह उपकरण तलवार क्यों आपके साथ है?’ ब्राह्मण ने जवाब दिया, ‘मैं कुछ लोगों को दंडित करना चाहता हूं।’‘ आपके शत्रु कौन हैं?’ अर्जुन ने जिज्ञासा जाहिर की। ब्राह्मण ने कहा, ‘मैं चार लोगों को खोज रहा हूं,ताकि उनसे अपना हिसाब चुकता कर सकूं। सबसे पहले तो मुझे नारद की तलाश है। नारद मेरे प्रभु को आराम नहीं करने देते,सदा भजन-कीर्तन कर उन्हें जागृत रखते हैं। फिर मैं द्रौपदी पर भी बहुतक्रोधित हूं। उसने मेरे प्रभु को ठीक उसी समय पुकारा, जब वह भोजन करने बैठे थे। उन्हें तत्काल खाना छोड़ पांडवों को दुर्वासा ऋषि के श्राप सेबचाने जाना पड़ा।‘आपका तीसरा शत्रु कौन है?’अर्जुन ने पूछा।‘ वह है हृदयहीन प्रह्लाद। उसनिर्दयी ने मेरे प्रभु को गरम तेल के कड़ाहे में प्रविष्ट कराया, हाथी के पैरों तले कुचलवाया और अंत में खंभे से प्रकट होने के लिए विवश किया।और चौथा शत्रु है अर्जुन। उसकी दुष्टता देखिए। उसने मेरेभगवान को अपना सारथी बना डाला।उसे भगवान की असुविधा का तनिक भी ध्यान नहीं रहा। कितना कष्टहुआ होगा मेरे प्रभु को।’ यह कहते ही ब्राह्मण की आंखों में आंसू आ गए। यह देख अर्जुन का घमंड चूर-चूर हो गया। उसने श्रीकृष्ण से क्षमा मांगते हुए कहा, ‘मान
गया प्रभु, इस संसार में न जाने आपके कितने तरह के भक्त हैं। मैं तो कुछ भी नहीं हूं।’















source#internet

Curse to Agni Dev

From the spiritual union of Lord Shiva and Parvati, a divine energy was produced which was necessary for the birth of their son. Even the gods were eagerly waiting for thier son to be born so that he could kill the demon. Tarkasur. But as the news of the birth of energy reached Tarkasur, he attacked the gods and wanted to destroy the energy to prevent the birth of son of Lord Shiva and Parvati. Indra, the chief of gods,sends Agni dev to protect the energy. Agnidev stole that energy without the knowledge of Lord Shiva and Parvati and escaped so that it could be protected from the demons. Agnidev fails to bear the heat produced by the energy and runs towards the forest to save his life. When goddess Parvati came to know about the loss of energy , she became furious with gods as they had intruded in her matters of motherhood and she cursed the deities that their wives will not be able to conceive.She also  cursed Agnidev that he would be shunned by good things and he would become black   due to the impurities when he is offered food and  not only this she further increased the punishment by saying that whoever touches him will be burnt to ashes.Goddess Parvati  was deeply hurt and said that whoever had taken her son away from her will be destroyed.The curse soon started to show its effect.as the trees of forests started to get burnt due to Agni dev. He prayed Lord Shiva for the help. Lord Shiva appeared and said that even after activation of Parvati's curse he would remain pure and who ever gets burnt to ashes by him will also become pure.From that day due to purity of fire he get his new name "Pawak" from Lord Shiva.
  

Birth of Atharva Veda

The four sages Sanak,Sanandan,Sanatan,Sanat were learned brahmins. They were the sons of Lord Brahma. They were very proud of their father, Brahma because he was the creator of the holy books , Vedas. They were aware of three Vedas,- Rigved,Yajurved, and Samveda and considered that the whole knowledge is complete in three books.On the other hand Sage Atharva approached Lord Shiva to get approval of his knowledge which he gathered from the universe using his divine powers. Lord Shiva, impressed by his creation and blessed Sage Atharva that his book of knowledge would constitute the list of Vedas and will be called as ‘Atharvaveda’. When this news reached the sons of Lord Brahma, they protested as according to them the other three Vedas was a complete set of knowledge and there was no need of fourth Veda. They argued Lord Shiva and challenged his authority to certify fourth veda.  . Finally it was decided that whether to certify fourth Veda or not depends upon the result of debate. Goddess Saraswati was appointed as judge. The four Sages fired too much and too complicated questions to Lord Shiva and there were very confident of their victory as they underestimated Lord Shiva. But Shiva, who is the Lord of all the supreme knowledge, answered each and every question . The Sages accept their defeat gracefully and asked for forgiveness. Since then Artharva Ved was added to the list of Vedas , making the total four.  The Sages went to their brother Prajapati Daksha who was bitter rival of Lord Shiva. On listening about the defeat of his four brothers, he cursed them to be small child. After that the four sages turned into small children. Since the sages were very learned , so they thanked their brother for the curse because after becoming kids their urge for learning more would be greater.

Previous Birth of Ravana

Lord Brahma created 4 sons from the power of his mind. They were called as "Sankadi". Once they decided to met Lord Vishnu at his abode. The abode of Lord Vishnu had 7 gates. The successfully cleared the six gates, but when the came across the last 7th gate, they were stopped by the two gate keepers, Jaya and Vijaya. They did not allowed them to enter the abode of Lord Vishnu. After a long debate the ,four saints, Sankadis were upset and cursed Jaya and Vijaya for their arrogance that the two would be reborn as demon on earth for hundred births. Jaya and Vijaya prayed Lord Vishnu for intervention to have mercy. But it was too late . On seeing Lord Vishnu, the 4 saints agreed to mitigate the curse. So instead of 100 births, they reduced the curse for three births. In the first birth Jaya and Vijaya were born as Hiranyaksha and Hirankshyapa. In the second birth they born as Ravana and Kumbhakarana and in the final birth as Dantavakra and Shishupal. In all the births they were liberated by Lord Vishnu.

Curse of Sage Bhrigu

During the fight between gods and demons, at one stage gods overpowered demons. Sensing the massive defeat ,the demons reached the ashram of Sage Bhrigu who was not present at that time. His wife greeted the demons as they were came for the help and she promised to provide shelter to demons. On the other hand, Indra who was chief of gods came to know about the hideout of demons. Indra reached the ashram and threatened demons to surrender before him. But wife of Sage Bhrigu stood in between them and drove Indra away. Indra rushed to Lord Vishnu for the help. To assist Indra he went to ashram where the demons were hidden. Again, the wife of Sage Bhrigu came to rescue demons. Finally, Lord Vishnu killed her with his Sudarshan Chakra in order to ensure win for gods. At this point Sage Bhrigu returned to ashram and shocked to see the dead body of his wife. When he came to know that it was Lord Vishnu who was responsible for the death of his wife, he cursed Lord Vishnu that he too would have to suffer the pain of separation from his wife on earth like him . Lord Vishnu accepted the curse with dignity. Due to curse he was born as Lord Rama(an incarnation of Lord Vishnu) and had to suffer the grief of separation from his wife Sita.

Curse of Yudhishtir

In Mahabharat's war, it was on 17th day when the battle between Karna and Arjun broke. The intensity and importance of the fight could be judged from the fact that even Gods witnessed it from the heaven. Eventually, Karna was killed by the Arjun and a wave of grief spread in Kauravas camp after this shocking news. After this important victory Pandavas found that their mother, Kunti was very upset despite her son Arjun scored victory over Karna. She expressed her desire to her sons to perform the last rites of Karna. But their sons,Pandavas declined. Then Kunti revealed the secret that actually Karna was her son which was born before her marriage.Surya blessed her a son when she was unmarried. On hearing this, Yudhishtir, perhaps lost his patience for the first time in his life. He cursed the women race that they would never able to keep a secret.

100 births old curse

In the epic Mahabharata,Bhism Pitamah was the prominent charater. He was a very desciplined warrior. In the war when he was about to die, he was lying on the bed of arrows. The whole life series was running in his mind at the time of death. He reminded that since many births he hadn't committed a single mistake then why he had suffering at the time of death. He requested Lord Krishna to answer his question. Then Lord Krishna with his divine powers took Bhishma Pitamah 100 births back. In a retrogression journey he found that he was a king 100 births back and committed one sin while he was going to forest for hunting. He found a snake lying in on his way. He tried to save his life and lifted with sword and threw in the bushes. But, the snake lost its life being struck in thorns. Before dying he cursed the king that he too would die like this.

Lord krishna , brought Bhishma Pitamah back to current time frame and further explained that in subsequent births due to his good deeds the curse of snake didnt prevailed but it kept following him since last 100 births and this was his last birth so as per law of karma at the time of death he was lying on the bed of arrows just like the snake lied on thorns 100 births back.

The Curse of Sita

After the death of King Dashrath, Lord Rama decided to perform the shraadh ceremony because it was necessary to gave solace to the departed soul. Lord Rama along with Sita and Lakshman went to Gaya(a place in Bihar). On reaching there Lord Rama and Lakshman went in search for material required to perform the ceremony. Sita was waiting at the bank of Phalgu river. After waiting for long time she noticed that the soul of King Dashrath appeared and asked for the pinda(offering given to souls).As the time was running out , Sita herself decided to perform the ceremony with all the possible means. After the ceremony the soul of King Dashrath blessed her and departed. There were 5 witnesses to this ceremony- the Phalgu river,the Akshay vatam(a sacred tree), a cow ,the Brahmin and the fire. Later when the Lord Rama returned, Sita told the whole incident. But Lord Rama didn’t believe. Then Sita asked the 5 witnesses. Among the 5 only Akshay vatam told the truth. This upset Sita and she cursed the other 4. She cursed Phalgu river that it would be dried on the top. She cursed cow that it would no longer be worshipped from the front and only its backside would be considered as auspicious. She cursed fire that whatever came in contact with it would be destroyed. Then she cursed Brahmins that they would never be satisfied. Lastly She blessed Akshay vatam that it would remain evergreen. Even today the Phalgu river looses its water when it enters Gaya, though the water is still present below the river bed

Narad-The Wanderer

It was the duty of Lord Brahma to create the world. In the initial round he created the many creatures with the help of his mental resolution. That is why they were known as “ Manas Putra”. The word manas means “mind”. King Daksha was one amongst them. Lord Brahma ordered Daksha to create universe by the help of copulation. Daksha Prajapati then married Asikti - the daughter of Veerni. Five thousand sons, were born to them, they were known as “Haryashrav”. But Narad played the trick. He brainwashed the minds of all the sons and directed them to follow the path of salvation rather than path of creating universe. As a result they didn’t took participation in increasing the number of population. After that, Daksha married Panchajani from whom were born thousand of son called as “Shabalashrav”. Again Narad played the same trick. All of them went in search of their brothers and followed the path of salvation and never returned back. Narada had changed their mind. They became wanderers. When Daksha Prajapati came to know he became very furious with Narada and cursed him to become an eternal wanderer. He said- "You will never remain at a place for long because you have misguided my sons to became wanderers" . Also from that day it is believe that it is inauspicious to go in search of a lost person by his brothers

Curse to Moon

Twenty-seven of Daksha’s daughters were married to the moon-god Chandra. One of these wives was named Rohini and Chandra loved Rohini more than he loved the other wives. The other wives felt neglected and they complained to their father. Daksha repeatedly warned his son-in-law to devote himself equally to all twenty-seven wives. But Chandra was in no mood to listen. Daksha thereupon cursed Chandra that he would gradually fade away. Brahma told him that the only recourse was to pray to Shiva. Chandra went to Prabhasa tirtha and made a lingam on the banks of the river Sarasvati. He prayed to Shiva for six months. At the end of the tapasya Shiva appeared before Chandra and offered to grant him a boon. Lord Shiva said ,  "Daksha’s curse cannot be entirely ignored. During krishnapaksha you will wane. And during shuklapaksha (the bright part of the lunar fortnight) you will wax. That should satisfy everybody. "   Chandra was delighted. The lingam to which Chandra prayed is Somantha, the first of the Jyotirlingas.