Throughout India there are twelve Jyotirlingas, which are very special temples dedicated to Lord Shiva, where he manifested as pillars of light. One of these temples is located at Deoghar in Jharkhand, and is known as the Baidyanath Jyotirlinga.
Once upon a time the Earth became filled with gigantic trees that stretched up to the heavens. Later some of the stumps of these trees became petrified and appeared as mountains. Pieces of giant fallen wood became the coal deposits of the earth, and others decayed into oil deposits.
Recently I saw a nice post by the devotees of Vishakhapatnam where they visited the sacred tirtha of Mahendra Giri where Lord Parashurama lives even till today. This sacred mountain is located in Odisha on the border with Andhra Pradesh, and is mentioned in every Purana and Itihasa.
We came across two street puppies today with severely infected bite wounds. They live a few streets down from us, so their mother knows us and trusts us to take them away for treatment. After cleaning and giving medicine, about 15 minutes later we brought them back to their mother. We will do this each…
The following is from Parvati Mangala of Goswami Tulsidas, and describes Lord Shiva’s marriage procession. Verse 106 lists three types of beings in the procession: Preta, Vetala, and Bhuta. You will find more expanded lists in other places that contain more varieties of ghostly beings. This collection of beings are “pramathas”, or tormentors, and Lord…
I want to make one last post on Kasturi to talk about the possibility of Kasturi having originally been a plant based fragrance. There is a kasturi deer, and there is also a kasturi plant (known as ambrette or musk mallow). This kasturi plant, and its seeds, called as kasturi beeja, have been in use…
Following up on the post where we touched on the topic of Kasturi (musk), one of the five famous fragrances often mentioned in the scriptures, alongside sandalwood (chandana), agarwood (aguru), saffron (kunkuma) and camphor (karpura), here we will demystify the fragrance for those who have never smelt it.
Continuing from the theme of yesterday’s post on Ambergris, let us talk about another fragrant secretion used traditionally in some temples called as “civet oil” (also called as punugu in South India).
Humans will touch filthy things if they think they are valuable. Ambergris passes through the intestines and is expelled as feces, yet people hold it freely with their hands because they think its valuable.
The following story has been a very long journey, over 8 months of struggle and healing, inch by inch, day by day. It began in the most shocking manner, but now that the mother dog has healed and is living happily, we can look back and tell the tale of another animal’s miraculous recovery.
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