Jaya, Vijaya and four Kumaras

Vishnu with Garuda

Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana, and Sanatkumara were the Kumaras, the four beings born from the mind of Brahma at the origin of the creation.

One day the Kumara decided to go to pay homage to Vishnu and presented themselves to the gate of Vaikuntha, the kingdom of God.

The Kumaras, thanks to their meditation and a gift given to them by Brahma, they always look like children, kumara in Sanskrit means in fact child.

When Jaya and Vijaya, who were guarding the gates of Vaikuntha, saw these four children, they blocked their passage, saying that Vishnu was resting and could not be bothered.

The Kumaras replied that Vishnu always had time for his own devotees and that no one could stop them. But Jaya and Vijay were adamant.

The Kumaras then decided to teach a lesson to those two guards and threw them a curse would be reborn on earth as mortal beings.

The two realized their mistake too late, then they went to Vishnu to be loose from the curse.

"You know that no one can be dissolved by a curse when it was launched - said Vishnu - so you have to be born as mortals. I give you, however, two alternatives: you can be born seven times as my devotees or you can be born as my enemies, but only three times."

Jaya and Vijaya much thought to the two alternatives. Finally, they decided to be born just three times as enemies of Vishnu, because they could not think of being separated from God for seven long earthly lives.

The first time Jaya and Vijaya were born as Hiraneyaksha and Hiraneyakashyipu in Satya Yuga. Hiranyaksha was a asura, a demon who was killed by Vishnu came to earth as Varaha, the boar lifted the earth from the cosmic ocean floor. While Hiranyakasipuvenne killed by Narasimha, also avatar of Vishnu.

Jaya and Vijaya were born then as Ravana and Kumbhakarna in Treta yuga and were killed by Vishnu in his avatar of Rama and Lakshmana.

Jaya and Vijaya finally finally born in Dwapara Yuga as Sisupala and Dantavakra and were killed by Balarama and Krishna, avatar of the god Vishnu.

Jaya and Vijaya then had three times as enemies of Vishnu and three times they were killed by avatars of the great God. 

At the end of their third life, they obtained the liberation and came back to the doors of Vaikhunta.

Diwali

On the left you can see the view of India from satellite in a regular night, in the right hand is India during Diwali, the Festival of lights, the most important event on the Hindu calendar, the festival marks the victory of good over evil and the start of the New Year. 

How you can read in this interesting article by Asia News, celebrations last five days but the third, which this year fell on November 13, is the most important because it is dedicated to Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity and good fortune. On this day, families clean their homes and keep clay lamps or 'diyas' lit overnight to welcome the divinity. 

According to tradition, Diwali marks the return of Lord Ram to Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) after vanquishing the demon king Ravana and rescuing his wife Sita. Together, husband and wife enter the city welcomed by thousands of glowing lamps.

For Hindus, Rama represents the seventh manifestation (avatar) of the god Vishnu, and Sita is the incarnation of his wife Lakshmi. The prince's adventures are told in the Ramayana, one of Hinduism's most important poetic epics.

The Ganges

Ganges - Varanasi

The Ganges is a wonderful river. In the life of the Indians has a very important role. It’s the holiest of all rivers. It’s the water that purifies, the water that quenches thirst, the water that feeds. Ganges is the mother of all waters, there wouldn’t be water in the ocean, in seas, in lakes and in the world without the Ganges. The Ganges, like all Indian rivers, is a goddess, Ganga, and it has heads among the glaciers of the Himalayas, where Shiva has his abode, rushing down from there in his valley to get to his immense delta. Along the way millions of Indians revere him, they are immersed themselves, they founded the city on its banks, along its gath they live. The cities wetted by holy river are famous: Varanasi, Allahabad, Kolkata. A river so couldn’t not find in a legend its born.
The goddess Ganga, sister of Parvati and daughter of the god of the mountain Himavan, was beautiful, too beautiful, so the gods would not share her with the men and kept her in heaven, where she is the bright Milky Way.

How and why the Milky Way, the goddess Ganga fell from heaven?
Second a tradition, Vamana, the dwarf avatar of Vishnu, with one of his three gigantic steps by which the gods regained the universe, made a hole in the sky and from that the Milky Way came down to earth to form the Ganges.
Another tradition tells us instead that the king Bhagirath wanted to cancel the serious crimes of his ancestors. These faults were so serious that they could be washed by the waters of the Ganges.
Bhagirath then endured a thousand years of austerity and deprivation, remains in meditation with their arms up in the middle of a circle of five fires burning (panchatapas, the ardor of the five fires).



Mammalapuram



 Touched by the asceticism of king, the god Brahma asked Bhagirathi what he wanted and he asked God to come down to earth the cosmic waters of the goddess Ganga.
Brahma consented, but Bhagirath invited to turn to Shiva, because if the Ganges descended to earth with all its wildness, it would have completely destroyed it.

Bhagirath then went on meditation and austerity, eating only leaves first and then only with air and water, remaining permanently standing on one foot with his hands raised to heaven.

Moved with compassion, Shiva agreed that the waters of the Ganges down to earth through his hair ruffled to mitigate river’s violence. And so it was. From heaven the goddess had drained her splendor from the Milky Way on earth through the hair of Shiva who was in his home on Mount Kailasa. And from there, from the Himalayas, the Ganges starts his earthly journey to its delta.
For this reason, as explained in another post, the representation of the god Shiva shows him with a jet of water on her hair.

In a wonderfull hundred feet bas-rilief in Mamallapuram near Chennai this legend is told.

Avatars of Vishnu

Kurma avatar and churning of the ocean

Vishnu, one of the main gods of the hinduism, has assumed several times the forms of being living in the saeveral ages of the world. I'm talking about the avatars of Vishnu. Descents of God from heaven to earth (avatar in Sanskrit is "to cross over" joined with the prefix ava, off, away, down in english). Every descent has a purpose, there is always a reason, a emercency for which Vishnu must be manifested on the earth: the protection of the good and the destruction of evil.

The avatars of Vishnu are multiple and the traditions attribute very much of those, but the main ones are the Dashavatars, those are the ten avatars of Vishnu told in Puranas and just:

Matsya Avatar, the Fish, saved Manu (Satyavrata) from the Deluge and get him the Vedas.

Kurma Avatar, the Tortoise, shell of tortoise was fulcrum of Mandara when the Devas and Asuras were churning the ocean in order to get amrita, devine nectar.

Varaha Avatar, the Boar defeated Hiranyaksha, a demon, and get back the Earth from ocean.

Narasimha Avatar, the Man-Lion killed wicked and powerful king of demons Hiranyakashipu.

Vamana Avatar, the Dwarf by three steps was able to reconquest earth and sky and drove king Bali back.

Parashurama Avatar, Rama with axe restored social order killing every kshatryia (worriors class) in favour of brahmins (priestly class).

Rama, the Prince of Ayodhya, the god of virtues, the hero of Ramayana, defeated demon king of Lanka, Ravana, for capturing his life Sita.

Krishna, avatar of love destroyed evil. He is a complete avatar of Vishnu. In Mahabharata he is the Arjuna's charioteer and protagonist of Bhagavad Gita.

Buddha, avatar of Kali Yuga, was advanced to create misunderstanding amongst people.

Kalki, the last avatar. This avatar will appear at the end of world, to restart the new creation and to restore purity of conduct in people's lives.