Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Sri Pratyangira Devi

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The Pratyangira aspect of the Divine has been a bit of a secret for most of these past ages. Many believed that direct experience with this energy was reserved for Saints and Rishis. Seeing Pratyangira in any form was considered an enormous blessing, and an indication that you were in similar company.


Pratyangira comes from a deep, deep place within the Divine Mother; an area simply known as the Void. In the Void there are no thoughts of fear, or pain, or loss, or want, or time, or even space… just the warmth of the Mother’s love.


As Pratyangira energy manifests, it’s often a very swift and sometimes ferocious current. Many of the Saints who’ve seen it’s energetic expression have described it as half lion and half human. The lion head is that of a male and the body is that of a female, representing the union of Shiva and Shakti. In her full form, she is humongous, with 1008 heads (symbolically representing the 1008-petalled Sahasrara Chakra, the universal chakra of the cosmic energy) and 2016 hands, riding majestically on a chariot pulled by 4 lions (representing the 4 Vedas), carrying many swords for removing obstacles. The jaws of so many lions makes it very powerful for destroying negative karmas, and a great blessing for anyone on a spiritual path. However, such a current can be understandably rough, so it’s wise to approach with respect and some consideration of what our heart is asking for.


Two Rishis in the ancient times, Pratyangira and Angiras, in their deep meditation, discovered this goddess through her Moola Mantra in the ethereal waves of the sound current. And though this Mother is nameless, she honored these Rishis by giving the blessings to be named after them. She has hence been known as Sri Maha Pratyangira Devi. The beejaksharam (seed letter) of her Mantra is ksham (bliss).


Sri Maha Pratyangira Devi is all powerful and secretly protects devotees and others. She is always by the side of Her devotees. She is within each and every being in all planes of existence, and there to be awakened within.


An awareness of Sri Maha Pratyangira Devi has been only quietly known, until recently. Although the Siddha Masters and great Maha Rishis like Sri Dhurvasha Munivar and Puli Paani Siddhar have been devotees of this mother.


It is in that line of great devotion that Amma and Swami are servants to this Mother.


Sri Maha Pratyangira Devi is a powerful Devi who is said to have destroyed Sarabheswara's arrogance. Sarabheswara is a ugra avatar of Siva. She is also known as Narasimhika [in Kalisahasranama Stotram]. She who is the Ferocious Half Human Half Lion of Courage. It is said that when Narashimhika shake her Lion's Mane, she throws the stars into disarray. She is enveloped as bliss in the letter "Ksham".


Sri Pratyangira Devi is also associated with Sri Chakra. She is considered to be a powerful repellent of the influences generated by witch-craft. In Sri Chakra worship, she protects the devotees against all odds and guides him/her along the right path.


In some image she is shown as dark complexion, terrible in aspect, having a lion's face with reddened eyes and riding a lion, entirely nude or wearing black garments, she wears garland of human skulls; her hair strands on end, and she holds a trident, a serpent in the form of a noose, a hand-drum and a skull in her four hands. She is also associates with Bhairava, and she has a variant form viz Atharvana-Bhadra-Kali.


Mother Pratyangira a.k.a AdharvanaBadhrakali is associated with Mother's Narashimi form (female form, Shakthi of Lord Narashima)


DEVI PRATYANGIRA MANTRA


Om Aparajeethayeh Vithmahey

Pratyangirayeh Teemahey

Thano Ugra Prajothayaath...

Om Pratayangirayeh Vithmahey

Sathrunisoothiniyeh Teemahey

Thano Devi Prajothayaath...


OM SHAKTHI

Thursday, September 2, 2010

The Myth of the Aryan Invasion Theory

LORD MACAULAY'S ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT, 2 FEBRUARY, 1835

The Myth of the Aryan Invasion Theory
By. Shyam Narayan Shukla, Ph.D.


Before mid-nineteenth century no one had heard of Aryans coming to India from out side. One had also not heard that foreign people of “Aryan race” invaded India, conquered the indigenous people of “Dravidian race” and pushed them to southern part of India. However, now all this is part of the Indian history written by the British rulers of India.


Europeans were exposed to Sanskrit and the Hindu scriptures sometime in the seventeenth century. They discovered that Sanskrit and the European languages had many common words. Thus the western scholars arrived at a conclusion that the “Indo-European” languages must have had a common origin. Their hypothesis was that from Central Asia a section of Sanskrit speaking Aryans came to India and another section of the same people migrated to Europe.


It was Professor Frederich Max Muller of Oxford University who was responsible for advancing this imaginary “Aryan Invasion Theory”. He called “Arya” (or Aryan) a race even though the Vedas mention nowhere that “Arya” is a race. It actually means one who is well educated and well cultured.


The Rigveda says: “Krinvanto vishvamaryam” (Let us make the entire world “Arya”). It does not mean that people of Mongolian and African races be converted to Aryan race. Only many years later Muller realized his mistake and tried to emphasize that “Arya” does not denote a race but people who speak “Indo-European” languages. But the damage had already been done and his hypothesis of Aryan Invasion Theory had become a historical “fact”.


In the 1830s Lord Thomas Macaulay was appointed Governor General of the Indian provinces won by the East India Company. Macaulay was the son of a Presbyterian minister and his great ambition was to convert India to a Christian country. However, he realized that the Vedas were considered very sacred by all Hindus. Also the Brahmans, who preserved the Vedas, commanded a great respect. Yet he pioneered the English system of education in India with a hope that the effect of his new education system would be “prodigious” (his term).


He wrote to his father, “It is my firm belief that, if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolater among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence.”


In 1854, nearly fifteen years after he returned back to England, he used his influence to get some fund from the East India Company for research on the Vedas. He then contacted Horace Wilson, a Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University. Wilson told him that he was retiring the following year and so a younger colleague of his, of German nationality, F. Max Muller would be a better candidate to conduct the research. Muller himself was a staunch Christian.


In 1868 he wrote to Duke of Argyle, Under Secretary of State for India, “The ancient religion of India is doomed – and if Christianity does not step in, whose fault will it be?”


Macaulay wanted Muller to write about the Vedas in such a way that they would be considered nothing more than collections of some crude rhymes written by illiterate nomadic Aryan invaders, who came from Central Asia to India on horse backs. Macaulay thought that the attestation of an academician would look more authentic and unquestionable. Max Muller, being a devout Christian, while assigning date of the oldest Veda, the Rigveda, could not give an earlier date than the origin of the world, which according to the Bible is 4004 years before Christ. Later the scientists estimated that the earth is about 6 billion years old. Muller arbitrarily wrote that Aryans came to India in 1500 B.C. and the Rigveda was written in 1200 B.C.


According to Hindu traditions,Kaliyuga started on the day Shri Krishna breathed his last on this earth. When this happened there was a conjunction of seven planets - Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, sun and moon. It is astronomically estimated that this occurred on Februay 18, 3102 B.C. The Vedas definitely existed much before this period (the Mahabharata period).


In around 1914, when the ancient cities of Harappa and Mohenjodaro in the Indus Valley were excavated, the archeologists found by carbon-dating that they were at least 5,000 years old. They were beautifully planned cities with wide streets, magnificent buildings and good drainage system. The British historians were at a loss because that was going to crumble their Aryan Invasion Theory.




By that time the Aryan invasion and the Aryan-Dravidian conflict had already become part of Indian history and which had happened in 1500 B.C. Then the British archeologist John Marshal and Mortimer Wheeler ‘interpreted’ that the ancient cities excavated were the ruins of Dravidian culture destroyed by the Aryan invaders.


Eventhough Government of India has acknoledged the Aryan Myth as fake an a concoction of British Colonisation, it fails to remove the topic from the education system of the country. The Aryan Theory is still taught in everyday classes throughout India as history and fact despite the overwhelming proves against it. It also a well known fact that Max Muller had confessed of his doing during his later days.

Macaulay's Letter and the Origin of F. Max Muller's Aryan Theory


LORD MACAULAY'S ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT, 2 FEBRUARY, 1835


The Myth of the Aryan Invasion Theory
By. Shyam Narayan Shukla, Ph.D.

Before mid-nineteenth century no one had heard of Aryans coming to India from out side. One had also not heard that foreign people of “Aryan race” invaded India, conquered the indigenous people of “Dravidian race” and pushed them to southern part of India. However, now all this is part of the Indian history written by the British rulers of India.

Europeans were exposed to Sanskrit and the Hindu scriptures sometime in the seventeenth century. They discovered that Sanskrit and the European languages had many common words. Thus the western scholars arrived at a conclusion that the “Indo-European” languages must have had a common origin. Their hypothesis was that from Central Asia a section of Sanskrit speaking Aryans came to India and another section of the same people migrated to Europe.

It was Professor Frederich Max Muller of Oxford University who was responsible for advancing this imaginary “Aryan Invasion Theory”. He called “Arya” (or Aryan) a race even though the Vedas mention nowhere that “Arya” is a race. It actually means one who is well educated and well cultured.

The Rigveda says: “Krinvanto vishvamaryam” (Let us make the entire world “Arya”). It does not mean that people of Mongolian and African races be converted to Aryan race. Only many years later Muller realized his mistake and tried to emphasize that “Arya” does not denote a race but people who speak “Indo-European” languages. But the damage had already been done and his hypothesis of Aryan Invasion Theory had become a historical “fact”.

In the 1830s Lord Thomas Macaulay was appointed Governor General of the Indian provinces won by the East India Company. Macaulay was the son of a Presbyterian minister and his great ambition was to convert India to a Christian country. However, he realized that the Vedas were considered very sacred by all Hindus. Also the Brahmans, who preserved the Vedas, commanded a great respect. Yet he pioneered the English system of education in India with a hope that the effect of his new education system would be “prodigious” (his term).

He wrote to his father, “It is my firm belief that, if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolater among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence.”

In 1854, nearly fifteen years after he returned back to England, he used his influence to get some fund from the East India Company for research on the Vedas. He then contacted Horace Wilson, a Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University. Wilson told him that he was retiring the following year and so a younger colleague of his, of German nationality, F. Max Muller would be a better candidate to conduct the research. Muller himself was a staunch Christian.

In 1868 he wrote to Duke of Argyle, Under Secretary of State for India, “The ancient religion of India is doomed – and if Christianity does not step in, whose fault will it be?”

Macaulay wanted Muller to write about the Vedas in such a way that they would be considered nothing more than collections of some crude rhymes written by illiterate nomadic Aryan invaders, who came from Central Asia to India on horse backs. Macaulay thought that the attestation of an academician would look more authentic and unquestionable. Max Muller, being a devout Christian, while assigning date of the oldest Veda, the Rigveda, could not give an earlier date than the origin of the world, which according to the Bible is 4004 years before Christ. Later the scientists estimated that the earth is about 6 billion years old. Muller arbitrarily wrote that Aryans came to India in 1500 B.C. and the Rigveda was written in 1200 B.C.

According to Hindu traditions,Kaliyuga started on the day Shri Krishna breathed his last on this earth. When this happened there was a conjunction of seven planets - Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, sun and moon. It is astronomically estimated that this occurred on Februay 18, 3102 B.C. The Vedas definitely existed much before this period (the Mahabharata period).

In around 1914, when the ancient cities of Harappa and Mohenjodaro in the Indus Valley were excavated, the archeologists found by carbon-dating that they were at least 5,000 years old. They were beautifully planned cities with wide streets, magnificent buildings and good drainage system. The British historians were at a loss because that was going to crumble their Aryan Invasion Theory.

By that time the Aryan invasion and the Aryan- Dravidian conflict had already become part of Indian history and which had happened in 1500 B.C. Then the British archeologist John Marshal and Mortimer Wheeler ‘interpreted’ that the ancient cities excavated were the ruins of Dravidian culture destroyed by the Aryan invaders.

Eventhough Government of India has acknoledged the Aryan Myth as fake an a concoction of British Colonisation, it fails to remove the topic from the education system of the country. The Aryan Theory is still taught in everyday classes throughout India as history and fact despite the overwhelming proves against it. It also a well known fact that Max Muller had confessed during his later days

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