WHY KERALA DOES NOT CELEBRATE DIWALI OR DEEPAWALI -- CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL
ONAM -- THE OLDEST, 8000 YEAR OLD, FESTIVAL OF KERALA
"Above, you find two pictures of the flowercarpet we made in our home to welcome King Mahabali on Onam day today 9th Sept 2011"
Today in Kerala we Celebrate Onam. It is one of the oldest festivals of India. The cultural heritage of Kerala comes into full bloom at this time.
King Mahabali ruled Kerala in 6000 BC. He was a very just, generous and righteous ruler. There was no crime or greed or jealousy. There was goodness and prosperity everywhere, and people did not even tell a lie.
The people were so happy in his Kingdom that they stopped worshipping the gods. One day King Mahabali decided to do the Ashwamedha yagna. Usually by doing this a king seeks to enlarge his kingdom. Those days all gods belonged to one sect called Devas, while King Mahabali ( or Maveli ) belonged to the Asura sect.
This made the King of Gods, Indra very jealous and nervous. He prevailed on Aditi, his mother to convince Vishnu to correct this imbalance. Vishnu decided to intervene and took the avatar of Vamana --a blue faced Brahmin midget ( dwarf ).
After this avatar Vishnu, came later as Parashurama, Rama, Krishna ( 4000 BC ) and Ayyappa.
On Dec 21st 2012 Vishnu's last and 10th avatar will be Kalki, on a white horse.
The Brahmin dwarf asked King Mahabali for alms-- a small grant of land. The King told him that he can take as much land area as he wished, within his kingdom. But the midget wanted only three strides ( paces ) of land.
Immediately the kings advisor Sage Shukracharya who was a seer, advised his king NOT to agree to this request, as he suspected something amiss and was sure of foul play.
Mahabali being a very generous king, could NOT imagine going back on his word, during a divine sacrifice.
So he agreed to grant the boon of three paces of land. Vamana immediately assumed the gigantic form of Vishnu ( the Preserver lord ) and in the first two steps covered the whole of earth and cosmos.
Then he asked the king where he should keep his third step. The king bowed down on his knees and told him to place the third step on his head.
Before that he asked that he should be able to visit and bless his subjects once every year.
Vishnu granted this boon and placed his foot on Mahabali's head and instead of driving him underground to the netherworld, he sent him to heaven -- pleased with his righteousness.
THIS IS THE REASON WHY ALL MALAYALIS CELEBRATE ONAM -- THE DAY THE KING WILL COME EVERY YEAR. A CARPET OF FRESH FLOWERS IS LAID AT THE ENTRANCE OF EVERY HOUSE. THIS HARVEST SEASON FESTIVAL IS SECULAR AND IT SYMBOLISES THE ADVAITHA PRINCIPLE.
DIWALI OR DEEPAWALI MARKS THE VICTORY OF GODS, OR DEFEAT OF KING MAHABALI.
DIWALI IS CELEBRATED BY THE WHOLE OF INDIA-- EXCEPT KERALA.
On Onam day everybody has a holiday and he feasts ( traditional vegetarian cuisine ) on a banana leaf, like in the good old days. All wear new clothes. The ancient dessert of sweet payasam is enjoyed. The festivities go on for a full 10 days and it culminates with Thiruvonam.
Since Mahabali, this fabled land of Kerala always had the most advanced society of India. The people are highly aware and the culture is very deep rooted. When the whole of India burns due to intolerance, Kerala is an oasis of peace.
This state has produced very eminent rishis and Maharishis. After the river Saraswati dried up in 4000 BC, there was an exodus down south to Kerala. A lot of the migrants settled down at the river Zuari ( Goa till the Portuguese started their inquisition ). This was NOT an Indian Aryan invasion--they were given refuge by Dravidians.
Maha means great and Bali means sacrifice --both in Malayalam and in Sanskrit. Mahabali's grandfather was Prahalad whose father Hiranyakashyap was slain by Vishnu in his Narasimha avatar ( before Vamana avatar ).
Every Malayali even if he works abroad, Christian or Muslim-- knows this 8000 year old Malayalam song-- if he does NOT, he is only a pseudo Malayali.
Onam is Kerala's most important cultural festival -- to remind the denizens of a once blissful, harmonious and happy era--under the rule of a benevolent king..
maveli nadu vaneedum kalam,
manusharellarum onnupole
amodhathode vasikkum kalam
apathangarkkumottillathanum
kallavum illa chathiyumilla
ellolamilla polivachanam
kallapparayum cherunazhiyum
kallatharangal mattonnumilla
adhikal vyadhikalonnumilla
balamaranangal kelppanilla
"When Maveli our king ruled the land "All the people were equal.
And people were joyful and merry;
They were all free from harm.
There was neither anxiety nor sickness,
Deaths of children were unheard of,
There were no lies,
There was neither theft nor deceit,
And no one was false in speech either.
Measures and weights were right;
No one cheated or wronged his neighbor.
When Maveli, our King, ruled the land,
All the people formed one caste less race
Vishnu came in his next Avatar as warrior sage Lord Parashurama. After Mahabali left Kerala, the land was oppressed by the Kshatriya ruling class.
Parashurama's ( Ram with an axe ) mission was to destroy the oppressing Kshatriyas. He threw his axe northwards along the coast line from Kanyakumari and reclaimed land from the sea, as per lore.
A lot on my childhood memories are attached to the Onam festivities when we as a bunch of happy kids went to pluck flowers, mainly Thumbapoo and Chemabrithipoo. Nowadays children tell their parents to pay money and buy flowers from the market.
The joy was in collecting the flowers, and the competition and adventure attached to it, by climbing trees, crossing streams etc.
In Yoga Vasistha Lord Rama asks his guru Sage Vasistha, who King Mahabali was, and the answer he got was that he was a great king and was protected by Lord Vishnu. Lord Shiva killed Banasura the evil son of King Mahabali.
CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL
..Posted byCapt. Ajit Vadakayilat6:13 AM
5 Comments:
vshesaid...Onam aashamshagal :)September 9, 2011 6:55 AMnvltecsaid...Happy onam Capt Sahab, I hope you are enjoying the 'Onam Sadya'.September 9, 2011 4:56 PMCapt. Ajit Vadakayilsaid...hi, thanks for the onam wishes. ate so much! capt ajit vadakayil..September 9, 2011 6:24 PMDruvsaid...Sorry i missed wishing your "Onam Celebrations", i have been busy building my blogs. I have a question, however: "On Dec 21st 2012 Vishnu's last and 10th avatar will be Kalki, on a white horse." Isn't Kalki supposed to come at the end of Kali yuga? 4,29,000 years from now?September 13, 2011 5:32 AMCapt. Ajit Vadakayilsaid...hi druv, Kalki avatar of Vishnu ( 10th and final avatar ) is NOT about sun going supernova 432000 years after the death of Krishna ( 8th avatar ). It is about denizens of planet earth upgrading their DNA from 2 strand (96% junk ) to 12 strand, full use. On Dec 21st 2010 the ecliptic of the sun will cross the milky way galactic equator, or the midpoint of our galaxy, opening a cleansing cosmic energy channel, to raise the planet to higher vibrations. Science will accept cosmic consciousness and Freemason stooge Darwin who knew nothing of DNA, will be consigned to the dust bin of history. This signifies the end of Kaliyug and the start of Satyayuga. This is symbolized by Lord Kalki, or Lord of the cosmos, riding a white horse Devadatta, sword in hand to kill the evil minds which dominate the present world, divorcing classical science from quantum spirituality. Future races will have clearer minds, and cannot be oppressed by holy inquisitions, spread by disinformation from thieves who dressed up as kings. The planet will go to the spiritual wisdom mode veering away from the current knowledge mode. This process will be kickstarted. capt ajit vadakayil..September 13, 2011 9:17 AM
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Photo: Sam Panthaky / AFP/Getty ImagesFrom Sify News:
"Thousands of devotees and foreign tourists chanting 'Hare Krishna' Tuesday pulled the chariots of Lord Jagannath, Balaram and Subhadra during the annual Ratha Yatra (chariot festival) here.
Organised by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON, the procession with the deities astride three chariots snaked its way from Park Circus Maidan of South Kolkata to reach the Ganga Sagar Mela near Babughat in the central part of the city.
The Rath Yatra marks the annual journey of the three deities from their abode to their aunt's house."...(Cont.)...
"Photo: Sam Panthaky / AFP/Getty Images"Hindus throng around the chariot of Lord Jagannath during Lord Jagannath's 133rd. Rath Yatra procession in Saraspur area of Ahmedabad on July 13, 2010. The idols of Lord Jagannath, his sister Subhadra and his brother Balram were placed on decorated chariots and went around a 14 Kms long route in which thousands of devotees joined the procession."
Reference: wiccalessons.blogspot.com
Krishna (Sanskrit: ) is a Hindu deity, worshipped as a "polished" avatar (variation) of the preserver-god, Vishnu.Krishna is normally described as an descendant or jade boy playing a schooner as in the Bhagavata Purana, or as a early prince giving influence and schooling as in the Bhagavad Gita. The stories of Krishna ring out spanning a great spectrum of Hindu deep and theological traditions. They bring in him in loads of perspectives: a god-child, a prankster, a typical fan, a divine idol and the Unmatched Insect. The mid scriptures discussing Krishna's story are the Mahabharata, the Harivamsa, the Bhagavata Purana and the Vishnu Purana. Krishna is identified as a historical not public who participated in the goings-on of the Mahabharata.Revere of a deity of Krishna, in the form of Vasudeva, Bala Krishna or Gopala, can be traced to as prehistoric as 4th century BC. Revere of Krishna as svayam bhagavan, or the Unmatched Insect, predictable as Krishnaism, arose in the Nucleus Ages in the context of the bhakti wave. From the 10th century AD, Krishna became a favourite public in performance arts and neighborhood traditions of be partial to grown for forms of Krishna such as Jagannatha in Orissa, Vithoba in Maharashtra and Shrinathji in Rajasthan. As the 1960s the feel affection for of Krishna has to boot spread in the West, in essence due to the Broad-based Weapon for Krishna Human being.The Sanskrit word in its origin verbal communication ka is original an adjective meaning "black", "dark" or "dark-blue"., sometimes it is to boot translated as "all syrupy". It is cognate with Slavic crn "black". As a feminine noun, Ka is recycled in the meaning "night, blackness, darkness" in the Rigveda, and as a demon or spirit of darkness in RV 4.16.13. As a directly noun, Ka occurs in RV 8.85.3 as the name of a journalist. As a name of Vishnu, Krishna nominated as the 57th name in the Vishnu Sahasranama. Based on his name, Krishna is normally depicted in murtis as black or blue-skinned.Krishna is to boot predictable by loads of other names, epithets and titles, which sparkle his abundant relations and attributes. Accompanied by the record haunt names are Mohan "enchanter of women or cowherdesses", Govinda, "finder of cows", or Gopala, "defense of cows", which refer to Krishna's last in Vraja. One of the person names may be regionally important; for distinct, Jagannatha (literally "Lord of the Deep space"), a stylish deity of Puri in eastern India and western China doll.According to Bhagavata Purana, Krishna was born apart from a sexual alliance, but by divine "mental transmission" from the object of Vasudeva in the field of the womb of Devaki. Based on scriptural belittle and astrological calculations the perceive of Krishna's opening, predictable as Janmashtami, is 18 July 3228 BCE and left on 3102 BCE. Krishna belonged to the Vrishni kin of Yadavas from Mathura, and was the eighth son born to the princess Devaki, and her next of kin Vasudeva.Mathura was the capital of the Yadavas, to which Krishna's parents Vasudeva and Devaki belonged. King Kansa, Devaki's brother, had ascended the throne by punishing his set out, King Ugrasena. Dire of a premonition that predicted his death at the hands of Devaki's eighth son, Kansa had the match up steady in the field of a jail hovel. At the back Kansa killed the prematurely six children, and Devaki's perceived miscarriage of the seventh (which was actually a secret liberate of the descendant to Rohini as Balarama), Krishna was born.As Vasudeva knew Krishna's life was in chance, Krishna was illegally demanding out of the jail hovel to be raised by his develop parents, Yasoda and Nanda, in Gokula. Two of his other siblings to boot survived, Balarama (Devaki's seventh child, transferred to the womb of Rohini, Vasudeva's prematurely companion) and Subhadra (teen of Vasudeva and Rohini, born to a great extent following than Balarama and Krishna).Nanda was the bust of a community of cow-herders, and he known in Vrindavana. The stories of Krishna's last and youngsters be disloyal to how he became a cow herder, his harsh pranks as Makhan Chor (expand shoplifter), his foiling of attempts to cart his life, and his fraction as a defense of the people of Vrindavana.Krishna killed the demoness famine Putana, in disguise as a wet pick up the check, sent by Kansa for Krishna's life. He tamed the serpent Kaliya, who earlier poisoned the waters of Yamuna accept, thus leading to the death of the cowherds. In Hindu art, Krishna is normally depicted dancing on the multi-hooded Kaliya.Krishna lifted the Govardhana tower and taught Indra, the king of the devas and rain, a lesson to protect general people of Vrindavana from annoyance by Indra and prevent the catastrophe of the turf land of Govardhan. Indra had too to a great extent mark of respect and was cross over each time Lord Krishna advised the people of Vrindavana to cart funds of their nature and their feeling that make happen them with all their chuck, then again of worshipping Indra annually by intake their resources.In the view of some, the spiritual wave started by Lord Krishna had whatever thing in it which went v the emblem forms of feel affection for of the Vedic gods such as Indra. In Bhagavat Purana, Lord Krishna says that the rain came from the close to tower Govardhana, and advised that the people worshiped the tower then again of Indra. This complete Indra violent, so he punished them by sending out a deep-seated rainstorm. Lord Krishna then lifted Govardhan and whispered it elegant the people famine an sun umbrella. The stories of his grasp with the gopis (milkmaids) of Vrindavana, particularly Radha (teen of Vrishbhanu, one of the basic realm of Vrindavan) became predictable as the Rasa lila and were romanticised in the poetry of Jayadeva, critic of the Gita Govinda. These became fundamental as part of the multiuse building of the Krishna bhakti traditions worshiping Radha Krishna.On his return to Mathura as a jade man, Krishna overthrew and killed his protective uncle, Kansa, at what time avoiding countless butchery attempts from Kansa's partners. He reinstated Kansa's set out, Ugrasena, as the king of the Yadavas and became a leading prince at the discriminating. Appearing in this period, he became a friend of Arjuna and the other Pandava princes of the Kuru majesty, who were his cousins. When, he took his Yadava subjects to the municipality of Dwaraka (in modern Gujarat) and customary his own majesty give to.Krishna connubial Rukmini, the Vidarbha princess, by abducting her, at her pressure, from her proposed wedding with Shishupala. Krishna considering connubial 16,100 maidens who were whispered incarcerated by demon Narakasura, to cash in their honour. of which eight were chief-collectively called the Ashta Bharya-including Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavati, Kalindi, Mitravrinda, Nagnajiti, Bhadra and Lakshana. Krishna killed the demon and released them all. According to extroverted observe of the time, all of the incarcerated women were dishonored, and would be disallowed to merge, as they had been under the Narakasura's authority. Nonetheless Krishna connubial them to recondition their thinking in the change. This courier wedding with 16,100 out of control daughters was arrogant of a close women psychoanalysis. In Vaishnava traditions, Krishna's wives are forms of the goddess Lakshmi- mix of Vishnu, or special souls who attained this requirement at what time abundant lifetimes of starkness, measure his queen Satyabhama, is an intensify of Radha.To the same degree Yudhisthira was assuming the crown of royal leader, he had invited all the deep-seated kings to the make an exhibition of and measure paying his good wishes to them, he started with Krishna having the status of he calculated Krishna to be the reputation of them all. Since it was a entire finding together with record arguable at the make an exhibition of that Krishna neediness get the prematurely honors, his cousin Shishupala felt by and started berating Krishna. Due to a vow conclusive to Shishupal's mother, Krishna forgave a hundred oral abuses by Shishupal, and upon the one hundred and prematurely, he supposed his Virat (common) form and killed Shishupal with his Chakra. The canopy king Dhritarashtra to boot obtained divine daydream fashionable this time to be accomplished to see the Lord's form. Instinctively, Shishupal and Dantavakra were what's more re-incarnations of Lord Vishnu's gate-keepers Jaya and Vijaya, who were cursed to be born on Property, to be delivered by the Lord back to Heaven.
