A Summary of the Srimad Bhagavata Mahapuranam ( 04/04/2013. )

27.11.2016 4.The Stories of Siva and Sati, and Rishabhadeva and Bharata-12. Sri Krishna said, “You are a blessed man to have that vision. It was Bhagavan Sankara himself, invisibly moving in the battlefield to help you. Otherwise, even with all your archery, with all your might and mane, with all your knowledge and power, do you believe that you can face people like Bhishma, Drona and Karna? They are all a hundred times stronger than you. Siva, in his compassion, came uninvited to bless you because of your goodness. He did not engage in battle, and did not come to wage war with the Kurus, but his very presence was enough to paralyse the strength of all the Kurus. The odour emanating from his body was enough to cow down everybody and make them lose all their strength. Such is the glory of Siva, the great Sankara Bhagavan; and you had his darshan. Blessed you are, Arjuna! He is Ashutosh—immediately pleased. Ask, and it is given immediately. You did not call him, bu

4.The Stories of Siva and Sati, and Rishabhadeva and Bharata-11. Lord Siva’s name also occurs in the Mahabharata. One day, when Arjuna was seated with Bhagavan Sri Krishna at the close of the day’s battle, Arjuna queried Krishna, “Master, may I ask you a question?” “Yes, ask,” replied Krishna. “When I was engaged in battle with Drona and Karna, I saw some vague being moving about, not touching the ground. It was sometimes visible, sometimes not visible. It had ashes on its body, a serpent around its neck, and a trident in its hand. I could not make out what it was. It was an illusion before me. At the time I could not speak about this because I was engaged in war, but I remember this incident now and want to ask you what it was that I was seeing there,” said Arjuna Swami Krishnananda To be continued ..

4.The Stories of Siva and Sati, and Rishabhadeva and Bharata-10. Then Lord Siva calmed down. But how could the yajna continue when Daksha’s head had gone? So a goat’s head was brought and fixed on Daksha, and he was enlivened to the person that he was. He immediately realised his mistake and prostrated—sashtanga namaskaram—before Lord Siva, and chanted the Rudra mantra, Namakam and Chamakam. Some people humorously say the mantra was made by uttering the sounds cha me, cha me, because goats make that sound. The yajna was completed. Brahma, Vishnu and Siva blessed the yajna, and everything went on well. Here, in the tradition of the pantheon of the gods according to the epics and the Puranas, Lord Siva stands pre-eminent. He is not an ordinary god. It is impossible to describe what kind of person he is. He is a person who wants nothing for himself. Swami Krishnananda To be continued ..

4.The Stories of Siva and Sati, and Rishabhadeva and Bharata-9. All the gods were frightened. They went to Lord Vishnu and said, “Please do something. Everything is in danger. He is not going to leave her body; and what he will do finally, nobody knows.” Then Sri Vishnu—Narayana—released his sudarshana chakra, which sliced Sati’s body into little pieces; and because of the ravaging movement of Siva, the pieces were scattered and fell in seven different places. It is believed that all the spots where parts of Sati’s body fell are shakti sthalas, and even today they are worshipped in various parts of India. Then the gods, including Brahma and Vishnu, went to Siva. Vishnu greeted Siva and said, “Calm down. Please pardon this man Daksha. His behaviour was due to ignorance, and you should not punish an ignorant person. Calm down. Bless him. Let him be allowed to continue his yajna. After all, he is a foolish person, and are you going to be so enraged at the foolishness of this ma