Chitta Vritti Nirodha

When Sati (an incarnation of Shakti) got married to Shiva, her father, King Daksha, did not approve of their union. So, when Daksha organized a great celebration, he invited everyone except Shiva and Sati. When Sati found out, she begged Shiva to go to the festivities with her, but he refused, saying it was improper to show up uninvited. Despite her husband’s words, Sati decided to visit her father’s celebration.

When she arrived, Daksha humiliated and insulted Sati and her husband in front of all the guests, which led to Sati killing herself. Some traditions say she threw herself into the sacrificial fire. Others say she utilized Pranayama and other yogic exercises to cultivate her inner fire (Agni) until she burst into flames.

Out of grief and devastation over his wife’s death, Shiva tore out one of his dreadlocks and threw it on the ground. From this hair, he created Virabhadra. Shiva instructed the fierce warrior to seek revenge for Sati’s death.

The warrior postures describe what happened as Virabhadra appeared at the festivities:

Virabhadrasana I: Virabhadra appeared, breaking through the ground and clasping a sword in each hand.

Virabhadrasana II: With his enemy Daksha in plain sight, Virabhadra prepared for battle.

Virabhadrasana III: Virabhadra swiftly approached Daksha, killing every guest in his way, and beheaded the king.

When Shiva arrived shortly after, his rage turned into sadness and regret. He went looking for King Daksha and, unable to find his head, replaced it with a goat’s. Suddenly alive, King Daksha recognized Shiva’s compassion and bowed to him.

According to many interpretations of this legend, the warrior Virabhadra represents the destruction of evil and ignorance. By remembering this intention in your Yoga practice, you embody the strength and determination of the warrior.

“Vishnu came to earth as something more
powerful than himself, Krishna.”
– Dustin Horan

Matsya: The Fish Avatar. King Vaivasvata Manu finds a little fish in the palm of his hands when performing the tarpana (water-offering). The fish asks Manu if his riches and power were enough to give the fish a nice home. Manu keeps the fish to give it a home, but the fish keeps expanding, which breaks Manu’s pride in his wealth. Eventually, he releases it into the ocean, realizing it is Lord Vishnu himself. Vishnu informs Manu of the coming destruction of the world using fires and floods and directs Manu to collect “all creatures of the world” and keep them safe on a boat built by the gods. When the deluge (Pralaya) comes, Vishnu appears as a great fish with a horn, to which Manu ties the boat, which leads them to safety.

Kurma: The Giant Tortoise Avatar. When the devas and asuras were churning the Ocean of Milk to get Amrita, the nectar of immortality, the mount Mandara they were using as the churning shaft started to sink, and Vishnu took the form of a tortoise to bear the weight of the mountain.

Varaha: The Giant Boar Avatar. Jaya and his brother Vijaya are cursed by the sage Sanaka when they stop him from seeing Vishnu and will be reborn three times as demons (asura) to be killed by Vishnu. In their first demonic birth, they become Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu. Varaha appeared to defeat Hiranyaksha, who had taken the Earth, or Bhumi and carried it to the bottom of what is described as the cosmic ocean (much like in ether theory) in the story. The battle between Varaha and Hiranyaksha is believed to have lasted for a thousand years, which the former finally won. Varaha carried the Earth out of the ocean between his tusks and restored it to its place in the universe.

Narasimha: The half-man/half-lion Avatar. Hiranyakashipu persecuted everyone for their religious beliefs, including his son, who was a Vishnu follower. The boy was protected by the god and could not be killed, thus being saved by the several attempts of getting harmed. Vishnu descended as an anthropomorphic incarnation, with the body of a man and the head and claws of a lion. He disemboweled Hiranyakashipu and ended the persecution of human beings, including his devotee Prahlada.

Vamana: The Dwarf Avatar. The grandson of Prahlada, Bali, with devotion and penance, was able to defeat Indra, the god of firmament. This humbled the other deities and extended his authority over the three worlds. The gods appealed to Vishnu for protection, and he descended as a boy Vamana. During a yajna of the king, Vamana approached him, and Bali promised him whatever he asked. Vamana asked for three paces of land. Bali agreed, and the dwarf then changed his size to that of a giant Trivikrama form. With his first stride, he covered the earthly realm. With the second, he covered the heavenly realm, symbolically covering all living beings’ abode. He then took the third stride for the netherworld. Bali realized that Vamana was Vishnu incarnate. In deference, the king offered his head as the third place for Vamana to place his foot. The avatar did so and thus granted Bali immortality and making him ruler of Pathala, the netherworld. Vishnu also granted Bali a boon whereby he could return to earth every year. The harvest festivals of Balipratipada and Onam (mostly celebrated by people of all faiths within Kerala) are celebrated to mark his yearly homecoming. This legend appears in hymn 1.154 of the Rigveda and other Vedic and Puranic texts.

Parashurama: The Warrior Avatar who handled an ax. He is the son of Jamadagni and Renuka and was granted as a boon an ax after a penance to Shiva. He is the first Brahmin-Kshatriya, or warrior-sage, in Hinduism who had to follow the Dharma of both a Brahmin and a Kshatriya. Once, when king Kartavirya Arjuna and his hunting party halted at the ashrama of Jamadagni, the father of Parashurama, the sage was able to feed them all with the aid of the divine cow Kamadhenu. The king demanded the cow, but Jamadagni refused. Enraged, the king took it by force, destroyed the ashram, and left it with the cow. Parashurama then killed the king at his palace and destroyed his army. In revenge, the sons of Kartavirya killed Jamadagni. Parashurama vowed to kill every Kshatriya on earth twenty-one times over and filled five lakes with their blood. Ultimately, his grandfather, Rishi Rucheeka, appeared before him and made him halt. He is a Chiranjeevi (immortal) and is believed to be alive today in penance at Mahendragiri. He is also credited with creating the coastal belt of Karnataka and Kerala by throwing his mighty ax as per Hindu mythology. The place the ax landed in the sea got its water displaced, and the land which emerged thus came to be known as the coast of Karnataka and the whole of Kerala.

Rama: The Avatar of Morality and Rules, The Prince and King of Ayodhya. He is a commonly worshipped avatar in Hinduism and is considered the ideal model of a common prince without superpowers, despite being an incarnation. His story is recounted in one of the most widely read scriptures of Hinduism, the Ramayana. While in exile from his own kingdom with his brother Lakshman and wife Sita, she was abducted by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana. Rama traveled to Lanka, killed the demon king, and saved Sita. Rama and Sita returned home and were crowned. The day of the return of Prince Rama to the kingdom of Ayodhya is celebrated in the festival of Diwali all over India.

Krishna or Balarama:

Krishna was the eighth son of Devaki and Vasudeva and the foster-son of Yashoda and Nanda. A frequently worshipped deity in Hinduism, he is the hero of various legends, particularly the Kansa-vadha and Mahabharata. He embodies qualities such as love, duty, compassion, and playfulness. Krishna’s birthday is celebrated every year by Hindus on Krishna Janmashtami according to the lunisolar Hindu calendar, which falls in late August or early September of the Gregorian calendar. Krishna is usually depicted with a flute in his hand. Krishna is also a central character in Mahabharata, Bhagavata Purana, and the Bhagavad Gita.

Balarama, the elder brother of Krishna, is regarded generally as an avatar of Shesha, an extension of Ananta, a form of Lord Vishnu. Balarama is included as the eighth avatar of Vishnu in the Sri Vaishnava lists, where Buddha is omitted, and Krishna appears as the ninth avatar in this list. He is included in the lists where Krishna is removed and becomes the source of all.

Buddha; sometimes Krishna, Vithoba, or Jagannath.
Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, is commonly included as an avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism. Buddha is sometimes depicted in Hindu scriptures as a preacher who deludes and leads demons and heretics away from the Vedic scriptures, but another view praises him as a compassionate teacher who preached the path of ahimsa (non-violence).

Krishna; commonly at 8
In Maharashtra and Goa, Vithoba’s image replaces Buddha as the ninth avatar of Vishnu in some temple sculptures and Hindu astrological almanacs.
In certain Odia literary creations from Odisha, Jagannath has been treated as the Ninth avatar by substituting Buddha.

Kalki is the final incarnation of Vishnu, who appears at the end of each Kali Yuga. He will be atop a white horse, and his sword will be drawn, blazing like a comet. He appears when only chaos, evil, and persecution prevails, Dharma has vanished, and he ends the Kali Yuga to restart Satya Yuga and another cycle of existence.

The Mahabharata is an ancient poem and is still the longest epic poem ever written. The story is about the descendants of an ancient emperor called Kurukshetra which means the field of Kuru. The story is still well known and beloved because the story and the characters are always relevant and relatable.

“What is found here may be found elsewhere. What is not found here will not be found elsewhere.” – Mahabharata

The story tells of a dynastic struggle for the throne of Hastinapur, a kingdom ruled by the Kuru clan. The two collateral branches of the family that participate in the struggle are the Kaurava, the elder branch, and the Pandava, the younger branch.

Characters from the Mahabharata and their lineage

The Mahabharata is more than just a story of kings and princes and sages and demons and gods. The main aim of the work is to illicit the four Purusarthas, or goals of life.

• Four Purusarthas
  • Kama (Pleasure)
  • Artha (Wealth)
  • Dharma (Virtue or Duty)
  • Moksha (Liberation)

Pandu and Dhirtrashtra were two brothers who ruled Hastinapura. Pandumarried Kunti and Madri, but he could not sire a son. Kunti had a boon which allowed her to invoke any gods she worshipped to give her a son. Before she married Pandu, she accidentally invoked this boon and gave birth to Karna, who she abandoned for fear of being an unwed mother. She invoked this boon again and bore three sons: Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna. She then shared her boon with Madri, who then gave birth to the twins, Nakula and Sahadeva.

Dhirtrashtra, who was blind, married Gandhari who gave him 100sons, including Duryodhana. After Pandu died, Dhirtrashtra decided to give the empire to Yudhisthira much to the chagrin of Duryodhana, who plotted to kill them in a palace made of wax, but the brothers and Kunti managed to escape and lived incognito in a forest where Bhima met the giantess Hidimbi. He slayed her brother, married her and sired a son named Ghatotkacha.

The brothers and their mother continued their journey the kingdom of Panchala. There, Arjun won a competition to wed the princess of Panchala, Draupadi. Kunti unwittingly asks the brothers to share Draupadi. When they returned to Hastinapura, Dhirtrashtra acknowledged the enmity between the cousins and asked the Pandavas to re-locate to the desert, Khandaprastha, which they accepted and subsequently transformed to a magnificent land with the help of Krishna, and renamed Indraprashta.

Duryodhana was seething with jealousy and humiliation when he visited the palace of the Pandavas. He then invited the five brothers to play dice at Hastinapura, where, through the trickery of his uncle Shakuni, Yudhisthira lost the game, Indraprashta, his brothers, his wealth as well as Draupadi herself. Krishna came to her aid when one of the Duryodhan brothers, Dushashana, publicly disrobed her as no one came to her defense. The Pandavas were then sentenced to 13 years in exile, which would be extended another 12 years if they were discovered during the 13th year.

The 13 years passed by, Arjun also got married to Subhadra, Krishnas younger sister and sired a son, Abhimanyu. Each of the Pandavas had taken on other wives apart from Draupadi, although Draupadi remained as the main wife of all of them. When the Pandavas returned to re-claim Indraprashta, the Kauravas opposed and challenged them to a war in Kurukshetra.

Main Characters

KUNTI

• Princess of Mathua
• Received a boon to invoke any god to give her a child.
• She bore Karna before her marriage, and abandoned the baby
• The first wife of Pandu
• Mother of the three oldest Pandava brothers: Yudhisthira, Bhima and Arjuna.
• Kunti took on Madri’s children, the twins Nakula and Sahadeva, and raised them along with her own sons.

THE PANDAVAS

• The Sons of Pandu
  • The five Pandavas means “the five sons of Pandu.”
  • They are the sons of Pandu from his wives, Kunti and Madri.
  • Although Pandu is their “official” father, the Pandavas are the sons of gods.
    • Yudhishitira
      • The oldest son
      • Born from Yama, the god of wisdom
      • Symbol of the Dharma (virtue).
      • He represents wisdom.
    • Bhima
      • The second born
      • Son of Vayu, the god of wind.
      • He represents strength.
    • Arjuna
      • The third son
      • The son of Indra, the god of rain.
      • He represents faith.
    • The twins, Nakula and Sahadeva
      • Born from Madri and the Ashvinis
      • The twin gods of healing.
      • Nakula represents love
      • Sahadeva represents intelligence.

DRAUPADI

• Princess of Panchala.
• Born out of a sacrificial fire.
• Common wife of the Pandavas.
• Bore one son out of each of her husbands.

KARNA

• Born from Kunti and the sun god Surya.
• The abandoned child of Kunti.
• Raised by a charioteer and his wife as their own son.
• Although he was raised with love, Karna would forever struggle with his status as the lowly son of a charioteer in a society which still upheld a rigid class distinction.
• Became the King of  Anga due to his friendship with Duryodhana.
• The best friend of Duryodhana, who is the cousin and sworn enemy of the Pandavas.
• Fought against his own brothers (the Pandavas) in the great war in Kurukhsetra

…..To Be Continued

There once lived a beautiful maiden named Shakuntala, the adopted daughter of Sage Kanva, who lived in his forest hermitage. One day, Dushyanta, the king of Hastinapur, was hunting and shot an arrow at Shakuntala’s deer. She found her deer whimpering in pain and tried to comfort it. Her affection towards the animal touched Dushyanta’s heart, and he sought her forgiveness. She forgave him and asked him to stay with her to tend to the wounded deer.

Over time, they fell in love and married each other. Dushyanta gave her a gold wedding ring with his name on it and left for his kingdom, promising to return and take Shakuntala back with him.

A few days later, Sage Durwasa came to Shakuntala’s door. He repeatedly asked for water but was paid no attention as she only thought of Dushyanta. The sage felt insulted and cursed her – the person she was thinking about would forget her.

As soon as she heard this curse, she begged for forgiveness. Hearing her plea, he said he couldn’t take back the curse but could change it. If Dushyanta were shown something of theirs, he would remember them.

With the curse taking hold, Dushyanta forgot Shakuntala. She decided to meet him in the capital, but her gold wedding ring fell into the water on her way to cross the river. A fish swallowed the gold ring. When Shakuntala arrived at the palace, the king did not recognize her.

Ashamed, she started living alone in another part of the forest, where she gave birth to a son called Bharata. Bharata was a brave boy who grew up among the forest animals.

Years went by, and Dushyanta never remembered Shakuntala until one day when a fisherman brought him a gold ring. He told the king that he had found the ring in the stomach of a fish and brought it straight to him. With a single glance of the gold ring and the curse was broken. The king remembered Shakuntala and at once ran to her home but could not find her. In despair, he returned to his palace.

Few more years passed. The king went hunting in the forest and was surprised to see a boy playing with a lion cub. The boy opened the cub’s mouth and said, “Oye king of the jungle! Open your mouth wide, so I can count your teeth.”

This amused Dushyanta, and he asked the boy who was his parents. The little boy replied that he was the son of King Dushyanta and Shakuntala. Immediately he asked the boy to take him to his mother.

The family was united, and Bharata grew up to become a great king.