!!! Maha Shivaratri - KALARATRI !!!

February 11, 2010

Namaskara,We always need Manoniyamaka Sri RUDRA devara Aashirwada to progress in our SADHANA toward Lord Sri Hari.

Rudra Prashna is YAJURVEDA mantra and is very powerful also. Sri Rudra Devaru is also called as BHOLE NATH in Hindi which means if one prays to him with total devotion he will surely fulfill their wishes.

Since chanting Rudram is very tough, I suggest all of you to please take help of mp3 if you have any while doing parayana. Since it is VEDA MANTRA ladies are barred from chanting the same.

I happen to read some good articles from some of the very old monthly magazines of " Dwaita Siddhanta Kesari " which my father has a collected for past 40 years. Infact 1 library in Hyderabad has donated all these to my father. Thanks to the librarian who found no readers and takes for the same. As the saying goes in hindi " HIREY KI KIMAT JOHARI HI JAAN SAKTA HAI " / " GADHE KO KYA MALUM JAFRAAN KI KIMAT " . (sorry for giving these kinds of references). Of course this magazine is out of print now and stopped. All credit goes to Late Sri Pt. Ramacharya Balacharya Avadhani of Pune. I found lot of information about our siddhantha which is in my mother tongue Marathi.

Â On Mahashivaratri day we the madhwas should celebrate this very special day as festival the same way we celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi. We should do pooja/archana/abhisheka of Sri Rudra Devaru. Usually Maha Shivaratri falls on Phalguna Krishna Trayodashi. Some people do celebrate this on Chaturdashi also.As mentioned in vedas Sri Rudra devara avatara came into existence on midnight of the very same day. On this day Sri Rudra incarnated through Lord Brahma. Thats the reason Sri Rudra Devaru is believed to be son of Lord Brahma and grandson of Lord Narayana. This happened when Lord Sriman Narayana asked Lord Brahma to create the shrusti/universe and in turn Brahma asked Rudra to do it. When Lord Rudra took birth there was a pralaya and on this very PRADOSHA day. Sri Rudra Devaru started doing Tandava Nritya and he was suppose to destroy the whole world by opening his third eye. Thats the reason this day is also called KALARATRI. But Lord Brahma didnt want to create the universe in this way and his attempt to create the universe failed through Rudra. There is more about this in Varaha Avatara.

Â Lord Shiva was always being surrounded by Preta and Pishacha and he use to be a resident of Smashana and thats the reason he is also called Smashanavasi. His rupa is very peculiar. He is always seen with Smashana Bhasma spread all over his body, a snake in his neck, halahal visha in his kantha (thats why he is neelakantha), ganga in his jata. His rupa is very dangerous (raudra) thats the reason he is called Rudra.

Â For Vaishnavas and specially Madhwas it is nishidha to consume the naivedya / teertha of Sri Rudra Devaru. It is a belief that whoever consumes this naivedya goes to hell. To get rid of this the alternate method to keep shaligrama over the head of Shiva Linga. We should do abhisheka of Sri Rudra devaru by keeping Shaligrama over his head (that is linga). We should always pray Lord Rudra Devaru in the rupa of Lord Sankarshana.

Â A very good song from our own Dasaru.Â

Kailasa vaasa Goureesha Eesha, taila dhareyante manasu kodu hariyalli shambhoooooo.Â

Dasaru prays Kailasavasa Shambhu to give us bhakti towards lord Hari like a stream of oil which is steady and straight with no breakages in between.

Â In Sri Krishnamruta Maharnava Srimad Anandateertha Bhagavatpadacharyaru himself informed us not to do so. Please read Sloka 101 from the grantha which exactly explains the same.

Sloka 101: The flowers, food, fruits and water offered to Lord Rudra must not be touched (consumed). Shivaâ€™s nirmalya must not be crossed. Therefore, all the things offered to Rudra must be put into a well.

So the answer for your question is NO. We are suppose to put the Teertha on our HEAD. Since most of us are not aware of this we partake it. Initially it is very difficult to digest this and believe, but the fact is TRUTH is always bitter to accept.

Infact we are not suppose to consume Teertha / Prasada except Sri Hari sameta Lakshmi Deviyaru [Whose sannidhana is there always in Shaligrama] and Sri Pranadevaru. According to the Dvaita tradition, Lakshmi occupies the first place in the Para Shukla Traya (supreme pure ) group, followed by Brahma and Vayu in one group and Saraswati and Bharati in the other. The members of this group are never affected by the evil influence of Kali and harbour no doubts regarding the supremacy of Vishnu.

Parashukla Trayaru has been beautifully explained by Sri Vadirajaru in his composition SARASA BHARATI VILASA which is based on Shri Madhwacharyaâ€™s Shri Mahabharata tatparya nirnaya (MBTN). To know more about this please click http://www.sriraghavendramutt.org/srsm/?q=content/sarasabharati-vilasa-sri-vadirajaru-introduction

For all others GODS we are not suppose to partake their Teertha/Prasada. As a mark of respect we should put the TEERTHA on our HEAD and smell the Prasada which equals to consuming the same. This is as per my understanding and knowledge which I heard from elders.

Namaka Chamaka link : http://www.4shared.com/dir/30752555/7ac3a210/Rudra_Namaka_Chamaka.html

NOTE : Please ignore the Rudra Namaka Chamaka pdf sent by me yesterday. The Rudra_skt_ascent.pdf in the above link is more beautiful with Swara.

Please find the lyrics for the song at this link : http://dvaitavedanta.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/songs-on-sri-rudra-devaru/

Comments from all learned members are most welcome.

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Kale BalkrishnaMobile : +91-9849042501

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