Hindu Deities

"In the Balinese dance Kebyar, Rama helps Sugriva get his lover, Dewi Tara, back from his brother, SuVali. In both the Nrisimha Purana and the Mahanataka, Tara is actually Sugriva’s wife whom Vali forcibly took away."

"Tara and Mandodari are parallels. Both offer sound advice to their husbands who recklessly reject it and suffer the ultimately responsible for the deaths of their husbands. Thereby, they are able to keep their kingdoms strong and prosperous as allies of Ayodhya, and they are able to continue to have a say in governance. Tara and Mandodari can never be described as shadows of such strong personalities as Vali and Ravana."

"The Telegu Ranganatha Ramayana has an even more interesting account of Tara’s origins that aligns her more closely with Ahalya, by also depicting her as not born of woman. In this account, Tara is said to have emerged along with the other apsaras during the churning of the ocean for amrita, the nectar of immortality. Tara was then gifted to Vali and Sugriva for the help they had given the gods. Subsequently, Sugriva married Sushena’s daughter Ruma."

"The earliest bearer of the name Tara is the wife of Brihaspati who runs away with his disciple Chandra, causing the Tarakamaya war between the devas and their stepbrothers, the asuras. The name Tara, therefore, carries an aura of internecine strife. Tara, like Helen with Paris, let herself be ruled by her preferences, ignoring social conventions in choosing to leave her ascetic husband for the young and irresistibly handsome Chandra. Even after the war, when the devas and the asuras fight again over possession of her son, it is she who has the last word. As this second war is inconclusive, Brahma himself requests Tara to declare who is the father of her son. Once again, Tara chooses to announce the truth instead of hiding behind the safety of conventions and declares that Chandra, not Brihaspati, is the father. That is how she becomes the ancestress of the Lunar dynasty, the Chandra Vamsa, whose fortunes are the stuff of Vyasa’s epic."

"Tara is the name of the second of the Ten Mahavidyas (the ten Transcendental Wisdoms). Erich Neumann, while discussing the highest form of the feminine archetype, the Goddess of Spiritual Transformation, views Tara as the highest evolution of this universal aspect of consciousness. Her name signifies both ‘star’ and ‘the pupil of the eye’, conveying the idea of a focal point, which suggests that Tara is in some manner a very concentrated essence. We can also interpret her name as coming from the causative form of the verb t.’r, meaning ‘to cross’, ‘to traverse’ or ‘to escape’. Like Draupadi, as we shall see later, Tara is ‘she who ferries across’, ‘she who saves’. Indeed, by her intrepidactions Tara, the wife of Vali, saves the kingdom and her son from ruin."

"Brahmananda Purana, has declared in twelve thousand two hundred verses, the magnificence of the egg of Brahma, and in which an account of the future Kalpa is contained, as was revealed by Brahma. It is usually considered to be in much the same predicament as Skanda, no longer procurable in a collective body, but represented by a variety of Khandas and Mahatmyas, professing to be derived from it."

"Magnifying and applying come I, Outbidding at the start the old cautious hucksters, Taking myself the exact dimensions of Jehovah, Lithographing Kronos, Zeus his son, and Hercules his grandson, Buying drafts of Osiris, Isis, Belus, Brahma, Buddha, In my portfolio placing Manito loose,Allah on a leaf, the crucifix engraved, With Odin and the hideous-faced Mexitli and every idol and image, Taking them all for what they are worth and not a cent more, Admitting they were alive and did the work of their days, (They bore mites as for unfledg'd birds who have now to rise and fly and sing for themselves)."

"Brahma Purana is the whole of which was formerly repeated by Brahma to Marichi and contains ten thousands stanzas. In all the lists of Puranas, Brahma Purana is placed at the head of the series, and is thence sometimes also entitled to Adi or ‘First’ Purana. It is also designated as Saura, as it is in great part appropriated to the worship of Surya, the ‘sun’. There is a supplementary or concluding section called the Brahmottara Khanda, which contains about three thousand more; but there is every reason to conclude that this a distinct and unconnected work...The immediate narrator of the Brahma Purana is Lomaharshana, who communicates it to the Rishis or sages assembled at Naimisharanya, as it was originally revealed by Brahma, not to Marichi as the Matsya affirms, but to Daksha, another of the patriarchs: hence the denomination of the Brahma Purana."

"In every third world age (Dvapara), Vishnu, in the person of Vyasa, in order to promote the good of mankind, divides the Veda, which is properly but one, into many portions. Observing the limited perseverance, energy, and application of mortals, he makes the Veda fourfold, to adapt it to their capacities; and the bodily form which he assumes, in order to effect that classification, is known by the name of Veda-vyasa. Of the different Vyasas in the present Manvantara and the branches which they have taught, you shall have an account. Twenty-eight times have the Vedas been arranged by the great Rishis in the Vaivasvata Manvantara... and consequently eight and twenty Vyasas have passed away; by whom, in the respective periods, the Veda has been divided into four. The first... distribution was made by Svayambhu (Brahma) himself; in the second, the arranger of the Veda (Vyasa) was Prajapati... (and so on up to twenty-eight)."

"Since first she lisped the mighty Brahmah’s name!"

"The human soul is on its journey from the law to love, from discipline to liberation, from the moral plane to the spiritual. Buddha preached the discipline of self-restraint and moral life; it is a complete acceptance of law. But this bondage of law cannot be an end by itself; by mastering it thoroughly we acquire the means of getting beyond it. It is going back to Brahma, to the infinite love, which is manifesting itself through the finite forms of law."

"Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Deva Maheshwara. Guru Sakshath Parambrahma, Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha. Guru is the creator Brahma, Guru is the preserver Vishnu, Guru is the destroyer Shiva. Guru is directly the supreme spirit — I offer my salutations to this Guru."

"I am the mote in the sunbeam, and I am the burning sun; “Rest here!” I whisper the atom; I call to the orb, “Roll on!” I am the blush of morning, and I am the evening breeze; I am the leaf’s low murmur, the swell of the terrible seas; I am the net, the fowler, the bird and its frightened cry, The mirror, the form reflected, the sound and its echo, I; The lover’s passionate pleading, the maiden’s whispered fear, The warrior, the blade that smites him, his mother’s heart-wrung tear; I am intoxication, grapes, wine-press, and must and wine, The guest, the host, the tavern, the goblet of crystal fine; I am the breath of the flute, I am the mind of man, Gold’s glitter, the light of the diamond, and the sea-pearl’s lustre wan, The rose, her poet nightingale, the songs from his throat that rise, Flint sparks, the taper, the moth, that about it flies. I am both Good and Evil; the deed and the deed’s intent, Temptation, victim, sinner, crime, pardon and punishment, I am what was, is, will be; creation’s ascent and fall; The link, the chain of existence; beginning and end of all."

"The Hindu religion is the only one of the world's great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang. And there are much longer time scales still."

"Soul means Brahma; and the Brhmajnan flows through soul to the intellect. That is termed Atmajnan. Thus Soul (Atma), Brahma, and Om have same meaning."

"It is not a mere sentiment; it is truth; it is the joy that is at the root of all creation. It is the white light of pure consciousness that emanates from Brahma. So, to be one with this sarvānubhūh [Omnipotent], this all-feeling being who is in the external sky, as well ..."

"I am a sinner and you are a sinner, but someday the sinner will be Brahma again, will someday attain Nirvana, will someday become a Buddha. Now this 'someday' is illusion; it is only a comparison."

"Great Brahma from his mystic heaven groans, And all his priesthood moans,"

"After dissolution of the Universe, Brahma, drifting in the primordial waters that preceded creation, came across Ganesha sitting in a lone banyan tree that remained. Ganesha touched Brahma's head and initiated him into the mantra 'Om'. Brahma prayed before Ganesha who bestowed upon him the knowledge to create the universe, in return for which he gave Ganesha his two wives, representative of prudence and prosperity."

"If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again.Far or forgot to me is near; Shadow and sunlight are the same; The vanish’d gods to me appear; And one to me are shame and fame.They reckon ill who leave me out; When me they fly, I am the wings; I am the doubter and the doubt, And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.The strong gods pine for my abode, And pine in vain the sacred Seven; But thou, meek lover of the good! Find me, and turn thy back on heaven."

"So it is that bird and man, Sun and moon Are born and die in Brahma the Sacred–Where all things become one."

"In the pre-Vedic period the Hindu system of medicine is said to have originated from Lord Brahma, the fountainhead of all learning. Brahma passed on this knowledge of life to Indra through Daksha Prajapati and Ashwins. This story is constant in several texts."

"The knowers of ancient things call this Purana Brahma Vaivarta because in it Brahman (I Khanda [chapter]) and the Universe (II Khanda) are unfolded by Krishna. The actual structure of the Brahma and the Prakriti khandas, is a further corroboration that in the word ‘Brahma-Vivarta’ what is meant is Brahman and not Brahma. It is the Purana of manifested Brahmin, which seems to be comprehensive of all topics of the Purana."

"When Rintrah gave Abstract Philosophy to Brahma in the East."

"According to Brahma, in the moment the male and female beheld one another, desire simply happened. Overwhelmed with the beauty of Sandhya, Brahma looked up to see Kama, fully formed and well armed, with his own beauty, five flower arrows, and a seductive gaze."

"I am the dweller with the one high God, And God himself dwells here, unseen, with me! He is embodied in the meanest clod, And he exists in every stone and tree.Man thinks he slays me, saying, God is naught: For chance first framed and still creation sways: I am the chance he worships in his thought, And I am all to which he homage pays.“As milk to curd, as water is to ice,” So do I change my ever-changing form; I am fair virtue, I am hideous vice, I am the sunshine and the raging storm.All things to me, how far soe’er they seem, Are near, for I am earth, air, water, fire; The life of man is but a “fitful dream,” And all created things to me aspire.Many may doubt,—’tis I who gave them thought With which they vainly think from me to flee,— Dispel illusions! seek me as you ought! Say “I am Brahma”—in thyself find me.Wouldst thou this riddle read? I am the Soul, Whence both the known and unknown have their start, And I am God, for God is but the whole, Of which all souls form each an equal part."

"The idea of God I an idea of the form of the infinite. As long as the mystery of the Infinite weighs heavily on human though, temples will be erected for the worship of the Infinite, whether God be called 'Brahma,' 'Allah,' 'Jehovah,' or 'Jesus'; and on the pavement of those temples men will be seen kneeling, prostrate, annihilated, in the thought of the Infinite."

"Om means Brahma. Meaning “whole world is in this word”."

"At the muezzin's call for prayer, The kneeling faithful thronged the square, And on Pushkara's lofty height The dark priest chanted Brahma's might. Amid a monastery's weeds An old Franciscan told his beads; While to the synagogue there came A Jew to praise Jehovah's name. The one great God looked down and smiled And counted each His loving child; For Turk and Brahmin, monk and Jew Had reached Him through the gods they knew."

"God creates the world as Brahma, sustains it as Vishnu, and destroys it as Shiva. One day, Shiva started to sing. Vishnu was so moved by the melody that he began to melt. Brahma caught the molten Vishnu in a pot. This was poured on earth. it took the form of the river Ganga. The Ganga nourished the earth. to bathe in the Ganga’s waters is to bathe in God."

"BRAHMA, n. He who created the Hindoos, who are preserved by Vishnu and destroyed by Siva — a rather neater division of labor than is found among the deities of some other nations. The Abracadabranese, for example, are created by Sin, maintained by Theft and destroyed by Folly. The priests of Brahma, like those of Abracadabranese, are holy and learned men who are never naughty."

"...Purusha was personified as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva while Prakriti was personified as Saraswati, Lakshmi and Shakti."

"The individual self is subject to beginningless nescience, which has brought about an accumulation of karma, of the nature of both merit and demerit. The flood of such karma causes his entry into four kinds of bodies — heavenly, human, animal and plant beginning with that of Brahma downwards. This ingression into bodies produces the delusion of identity with those respective bodies (and the consequent attachments and aversions). This delusion inevitably brings about all the fears inherent in the state of worldly existence."

"I danced on the Sabbath And I cured the lame; The holy people Said it was a shame. They whipped and they stripped And they hung me on high, And they left me there On a Cross to die."

"They buried my body And they thought I'd gone, But I am the Dance, And I still go on."

"Dance, then, wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the Dance, said he, And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said he."

"So, as the Council of Trent declared, the Catholic Church, rich with the experiences of ages and clothed with their splendor, has introduced mystic benediction (mantra), incense (dhupa), water (achamana), lights (dipa), bells (ghanta), flowers (w:Pushpanjalipushpa),vestments and all the magnificence of ceremonies in order to excite the spirit of religion to the contemplation of the profound mysteries which they reveal. As are its faithful, the Church is composed of both body (deha) and soul (atma). It renders to the Lord (ishvara) [Shiva] a double worship, external (bahyapuja) and interior (manaspuja), the latter being the prayer (vandana) of the faithful."

"I danced in the morning When the world was begun, And I danced in the moon And the stars and the sun, And I came down from heaven And I danced on the earth, At Bethlehem I had my birth."

"Linga Purana is where Maheshwara [Shiva], present in the Agni Linga, explained {the objects of life) virtue, wealth, pleasure, and final liberation at the end of the Agni Kalpa, and this Purana, consists of eleven thousand stanzas. It is said to have been originally composed by Brahma and the primitive Linga is a pillar of radiance, in which Maheswara is present."

"They cut me down And I leapt up high; I am the life That'll never, never die; I'll live in you If you'll live in me — I am the Lord Of the Dance, said he."

"This is the gist of all worship — to be pure and to do good to others. He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva; and if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He who has served and helped one poor man seeing Shiva in him, without thinking of his caste, or creed, or race, or anything, with him Shiva is more pleased than with the man who sees Him only in temples."

"A rich man had a garden and two gardeners. One of these gardeners was very lazy and did not work; but when the owner came to the garden, the lazy man would get up and fold his arms and say, "How beautiful is the face of my master", and dance before him. The other gardener would not talk much, but would work hard, and produce all sorts of fruits and vegetables which he would carry on his head to his master who lived a long way off. Of these two gardeners, which would be the more beloved of his master? Shiva is that master, and this world is His garden, and there are two sorts of gardeners here; the one who is lazy, hypocritical, and does nothing, only talking about Shiva's beautiful eyes and nose and other features; and the other, who is taking care of Shiva's children, all those that are poor and weak, all animals, and all His creation. Which of these would be the more beloved of Shiva? Certainly he that serves His children. He who wants to serve the father must serve the children first. He who wants to serve Shiva must serve His children — must serve all creatures in this world first. It is said in the Shâstra that those who serve the servants of God are His greatest servants. So you will bear this in mind."

"It is in love that religion exists and not in ceremony, in the pure and sincere love in the heart. Unless a man is pure in body and mind, his coming into a temple and worshipping Shiva is useless. The prayers of those that are pure in mind and body will be answered by Shiva, and those that are impure and yet try to teach religion to others will fail in the end. External worship is only a symbol of internal worship; but internal worship and purity are the real things. Without them, external worship would be of no avail. Therefore you must all try to remember this. People have become so degraded in this Kali Yuga that they think they can do anything, and then they can go to a holy place, and their sins will be forgiven. If a man goes with an impure mind into a temple, he adds to the sins that he had already, and goes home a worse man than when he left it."

"The optimistic lines "I danced in the morning when the world begun and I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun" also contain a hint of paganism which, mixed with Christianity, makes it attractive to those of ambiguous religious beliefs or none at all. Carter himself genially admitted that he had been partly inspired by the statue of Shiva which sat on his desk; and, whenever he was asked to resolve the contradiction, he would declare that he had never tried to do so. However, he admitted to being as astonished as anyone by its success. "I did not think the churches would like it at all. I thought many people would find it pretty far flown, probably heretical and anyway dubiously Christian. But in fact people did sing it and, unknown to me, it touched a chord."

"The most elegant and sublime of these is a representation of the creation of the universe at the beginning of each cosmic cycle, a motif known as the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva. The god, called in this manifestation Nataraja, the Dance King. In the upper right hand is a drum whose sound is the sound of creation. In the upper left hand is a tongue of flame, a reminder that the universe, now newly created, with billions of years from now will be utterly destroyed."

"One should know all things of the phenomenal world as of a fivefold character, for the reason that the eternal verity of Śiva is of the character of the five-fold Brahman."

"Perform Vishnu smaranam in Shiva temples and Shiva smaranam in Vishnu temples. Without fail, all those who have gathered here today remember these. The world is full of troubles."

"Let me tell you again that you must be pure and help any one who comes to you, as much as lies in your power. And this is good Karma. By the power of this, the heart becomes pure (Chitta-shuddhi), and then Shiva who is residing in every one will become manifest. He is always in the heart of every one. If there is dirt and dust on a mirror, we cannot see our image. So ignorance and wickedness are the dirt and dust that are on the mirror of our hearts. Selfishness is the chief sin, thinking of ourselves first. He who thinks, "I will eat first, I will have more money than others, and I will possess everything", he who thinks, "I will get to heaven before others I will get Mukti before others" is the selfish man. The unselfish man says, "I will be last, I do not care to go to heaven, I will even go to hell if by doing so I can help my brothers." This unselfishness is the test of religion. He who has more of this unselfishness is more spiritual and nearer to Shiva. Whether he is learned or ignorant, he is nearer to Shiva than anybody else, whether he knows it or not. And if a man is selfish, even though he has visited all the temples, seen all the places of pilgrimage, and painted himself like a leopard, he is still further off from Shiva."

"According to the deep yogic experience of the sages of this philosophy, there is no difference between Shiva tattva and Shakti tattva. They are both actually one with Paramasiva. They are considered to be two tattvas only for the convenience of philosophical thinking and as a way of clarifying the two aspects of the one absolute reality, Paramasiva. These two aspects are Shiva, the transcendental unity, and Shakti, the universal diversity. The changeless, absolute and pure consciousness is Shiva, while the natural tendency of Shiva towards the outward manifestation of the five divine activities is Shakti. So, even though Shiva is Shakti, and Shakti is Shiva, and even though both are merely aspects of the same reality called Paramasiva, still, these concepts of Shiva-hood and Shakti-hood are counted as the first two tattvas. These two tattvas are at the plane of absolute purity and perfect unity."

"There is a deeper symbolism. The black image of Kali is standing on the white image of Lord Shiva. Shiva is Brahman and Kali is Brahman’s energy, Shakti. Brahman is passive while Shakti – Kali –is active. The images so stand that Shiva looks at Kali and Kali at Shiva. This symbolizes the fact that every action, big or small, of destruction or creation, performed by Kali at the instance of Shiva. Kali, as it were, is the working organ of Shiva. Shiva and Kali, Brahman and Shakti, the source and energy, are essential one."