Stories of Goddess from scriptures - Page 4

B.G. 17.8 says that sattvik food are juicy, fatty, wholesome and pleasing to the heart.

B.G. 17.9 says that rajasik food are bitter, sour, salty, hot, pungent, and dry.
(We know that spicy food are included in hot and pungent food and that onion and garlic are spicy. This means that onion and garlic are rajasik.)

B.G. 17.10 says that tamasik food is stale, tasteless, putrid, rotten and impure.
(If a food is cooked three hours before being eaten, then it is stale and, therefore, tamasik.)

But what do you want to achieve by doing meditation?

I don't meditate, I use methods of meditation to control my mind whilst praying and fasting.

I trie dto mediate but failed 😃

It is OK if you fail initially because it is quite natural that various thoughts will come to mind in the initial stage of meditation. As is written in Bhagavad Gita, even a person like Arjun said to Krishn that it is very difficult to control mind. Arjun had great concentration power(otherwise, he could not take such a good aim). When his mind often wandered, then what to speak about us?
But, with practice, meditation will be easy.

thank you for throwing some light on meditation....your writings are very valuable please continuedoing so....

akhl,
I have read your posts in Ravan forum and it was very informative.I am happy to see you are posting in this forum with some great story from scriptures.Appreciate your effort and keep posting.
Thanks

Nav Durga i.e. nine Durgas are nine manifestations of Goddess Durga. They are worshipped during the nine days of Navratri. The first Durga is worshipped on the first day, the second on the second day and so forth. They are

1. Shailputri
2. Brahmacharini
3. Chandraghanta
4. Kushmanda
5. Skandmata
6. Katyayani
7. Kalratri
8. Mahagauri
9. Siddhidatri

In later posts, I will write about each of them.

Shailputri - Shailputri is worshipped in the first night of Navratri. "Shail" means mountain and "putri" means daughter. She is called by this name because she is the daughter of mountain king Himavan.
She has two hands. She is depicted as having half moon in her forehead, riding on a bull, holding a lotus in left hand and a trident in right hand.
In her previous birth, she was Sati (daughter of Daksh). Her father Daksh was doing a very big yajna (sacrifice). He invited many guests but he did not invite Sati and her husband Lord Shiv. He did it on purpose because he disliked Lord Shiv. When Sati heard about the yajna, then she was very excited to go there. Shiv said that it was not proper for them to go because they had not been invited. But Sati's argument was that she did not need to be invited to go to her father's house. Ultimately, Lord Shiv gave his consent.
When Sati reached Daksh's place, then she found that everybody was insulting her husband Lord Shiv. She could not bear the insult and immolated herself in fire, which she produced with the power of yoga. In next birth, she was born as the daughter of mountain king Himvan. She is more commonly known as Parvati. The word "Parvati" has come from "Parvat", which means mountain. In this birth also, she married Lord Shiv. She once curbed the pride of devatas. In her aspect in which she curbed the pride of gods, she is known as Hemvati.

The mantra to worship her is: -
ya devi sarvbhooteshu prakriti roopena samsthitaa
namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namah

vande vaanchhita laabhaaya chandraardha krita shekharaam
vrishaarudhaam shooladharaam shailputrim yashasvineem

Brahmacharini - Brahmacharini is worshipped on the second night of Navratri. Her name means one who observes penance (tapasya) and good conduct.
This goddess has a rosary in her right hand and a kamandal (a vessel containing holy water) in her left. She is very happy. Goddess Parvati got the name Brahmacharini when she observed penance to get Lord Shiv as her husband.
One day, sage Narad saw her and said, "In previous birth you were Sati. Lord Shiv was your husband. You will again get him as your husband. But you have to perform penance for this."

Parvati observed strict penance. Hence, she was called as Brahmacharini.

In the beginning of penance, she lived only on leaves, that fell from tries in forest. After that, she gave up food and water all-together. Since she gave up eating even leaves, she was called as Aparna. The word "parna" means leaf and the prefix "a" is used for negation. Therefore, "aparna" means "no leaf".

Such a severe penance, she became weak. Her mother Menaka said to her "u ma", which means "you do not". This way, Menaka was asking Parvati not to continue such severe penance. After this, Brahmacharini is also called Uma.

Lord Brahma gave her boon that she would get Lord Shiv as her husband.

Goddess Brahmacharini gives devotees success and will power to come out victorious in adversity. Her worship enriches the faculties of sacrifice, honesty and self-discipline.

The mantra to worship her is: -

ya devi sarvbhuteshu srishti roopena samsthitaa
namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namah

kara padmaabhyaamaksha maalaa kamandalu devi
praseedatu mayi brahmacharinyanuttamaa