Showing posts with label Vishnu Avatar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vishnu Avatar. Show all posts

Hayagriva 16th Vishnu Avatar

Hayagriva



Once Lord Brahma becoming tired of his creative activities, wanted to rest. The night of the Brahma was approaching. Because of his tiredness Lord Brahma yawned. All the four Vedas came out from his opened mouth. A demon who used to live near him in disguise, abducted the Vedas.




The Lord appeared as the Hayagriva incarnation in a sacrifice performed by Brahma. He is the personified sacrifices, and the hue of His body is golden. He is the personified Vedas as well, and the Supersoul of all demigods. When He breathed, all the sweet sounds of the Vedic hymns came out of His nostrils.












At the end of each kalpa, when the demon Ajana steals the Vedic knowledge, Lord Hayagriva appears and preserves it. Then He delivers it to Lord Brahma

The Lord appeared as Hayagriva, with the head of a horse. He killed two demons known as Madhu and Kaitabha, who were full of the modes of passion and ignorance. For this reason, all the great saints accept his Forms as transcendental, untinged by material qualities. 

Hinduism

In Hinduism, Lord Hayagriva is an avatar of Lord Vishnu. He is worshipped as the god of knowledge and wisdom, with a human body and a horse's head, brilliant white in color, with white garments and seated on a white lotus. Symbolically, the story represents the triumph of pure knowledge, guided by the hand of God, over the demonic forces of passion and darkness.
Origins about the worship of Hayagriva have been researched, some of the early evidences dates back to 2,000 BCE, when Indo-Aryan people worshipped the horse for its speed, strength, intelligence.Hayagriva is one of the prominent deities in Vaishnava tradition. His blessings are sought when beginning study of both sacred and secular subjects. Special worship is conducted on the day of the full moon in August (Śravaṇa-Paurṇamī) (his avatāra-dina) and on Mahanavami, the ninth day of the Navaratri festival. He is also hailed as "Hayasirsa". Hayaśirṣa means haya=Horse, śirṣa=Head.
In IAST
jñānānandamayaṃ devaṃ nirmalasphaṭikākṛtiṃ
ādhāraṃ sarvavidyānāṃ hayagrīvaṃ upāsmahe
In Devanāgarī
ज्ञानानन्दमयं देवं निर्मलस्फटिकाकृतिं
आधारं सर्वविद्यानां हयग्रीवं उपास्महे
This verse is originally from the Pañcarātra Agamas but is now popularly prefixed to the Hayagriva Stotram of the 13th-century poet-philosopher Vedanta Desika. It is very popular among devotees of Hayagrīva.

Hindu iconography

Hayagriva in Khajuraho Lakshamana Temple
Vedanta Desika's dhyāna-śloka (meditative verse) on Hayagrīva typifies this deity's depiction in Hindu iconography:
He has four lotus hands, with one in the mode of bestowing knowledge; another holds books of wisdom, and the other two hold the Conch and Discus. His beauty, like fresh cut crystal, is an auspicious brilliance that never decays. May this Lord of speech who showers such cooling rays of grace on me be forever manifest in my heart!
In the Mahavairocana-sutra [Sūtra of the Great Sun] translated and copied in 1796 by I-hsing it says:
Beneath the buddhas is Hayagriva. His body is the color of the sun at dawn. He wears flaming effulgence and skulls as a garland. His nails are long and sharp; his face shows a pair of bare tiger’s fangs. His hair is that of a burning lion’s mane.He is awesomely powerful and fierce! This is the fierce Vidyaraja of the Lotus section. He is just like a horse-jewel of a Cakravartin that wanders the four continents, nowhere and never does he rest, having all the great and terrible force of all the buddhas’. This is his nature, and therefore he possesses this terrible and all-mighty light. Amidst the greatest obstacles of death and evil he is without the slightest care for his own welfare, his conspicuous and uncommon gallantry, intrepidity, and wrath is legendary among the gods, and therefore he easily and quickly vanquishes all who oppose him! Many others submit to him at first sight! This is because though he is fierce and terrible; his heart is full of compassion (unbiased, dispassionate understanding).”
-- Hayagrīva Stotram, v.32
Later on Hayagriva is referred to as the “Horse necked one”, Defender of faith”, the “Terrible executioner”, the “Excellent Horse”, and the “Aerial horse”.
This said, the Horse Avatar of Lord Vishnu is seen as pulling the sun up to the heavens every day, bringing light to darkness. Hayagriva’s consort is Marichi, the goddess of the rising sun, more accurately the sun’s light which is the life force of all things, and which is seen as the female aspect of Hayagriva. Marichi represents the essence of the power of creation of the cosmos. Whereas Hayagriva represents the other male aspect.
In several other sources he is a white horse who pulls the sun into the sky every morning. In others such as the great epic Taraka-battle where the gods are fallen on and attacked by the Danava’s [demons], Vishnu appears as a great ferocious warrior called Hayagriva when he comes to their aid. It says;
Hayagriva appears in his chariot, drawn by 1,000 powerful steeds, crushing the enemies of the gods beneath him!”
Srimad Andavan and Sri Parakala Jeeyar in front of Sri Laxmi Hayagriva of Parakala Mutt
There are many other references to Hayagriva throughout the Mahabharata. It is said that Vishnu comes from battle as a conqueror in the magnificent mystic form of the great and terrible Hayagriva;
The great Hayagriva having been praised in this way by the different saints and ascetics, assumes a great white horses head. The verda’s [mantras] made up his shape, his body built of all the great gods; in the middle of his head was Shiva, in his heart was Brahmā [god of heaven]; the rays of sun (Marichi) were his mane, the sun and moon his eyes; the Vasus and Sadhyas were his legs, in all his bones were the gods. Agni [Ka-ten; god of fire] was his tongue, the goddess Satya his speech, while his knees were formed by the Maruts and Varuna. Having assumed this form, an awesome wonder to behold to the gods, he vanquished the asura, and cast them down, with eyes that were red with anger.
Invariably, Hayagriva is depicted seated, most often with his right hand either blessing the supplicant or in the vyākhyā mudrā pose of teaching. The right hand also usually holds a akṣa-mālā (rosary), indicating his identification with meditative knowledge. His left holds a book, indicating his role as a teacher. His face is always serene and peaceful, if not smiling. Unlike his Buddhist counterpart, there is no hint of a fearsome side in the Hindu description of this deity. Indeed, the two deities seem to be totally unrelated to one another.
Hayagriva is sometimes worshiped in a solitary pose of meditation, as in temple in Thiruvanthipuram. This form is known as Yoga-Hayagriva. However, he is most commonly worshipped along with his consort Lakshmi and is known as Lakshmi-Hayagriva. Hayagriva in this form is the presiding deity of Mysore's Parakala Mutt, a significant Sri Vaishnavism monastic institution.

In Sakta mythology

Hyagreeva restoring Vedas to Brahma which were taken to Rasatala
A legend has it that during the creation, the demons Madhu-Kaitabha stole the Vedas from Brahma, and Vishnu then took the Hayagriva form to recover them. The two bodies of Madhu and Kaitabha disintegrated into twelve pieces (two heads, two torsos, four arms and four legs). These are considered to represent the twelve seismic plates of the Earth.Yet another legend has it that during the creation, Vishnu compiled the Vedas in the Hayagrīva form.
Some consider Hayagriva to be one of the Dashavataras of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.[citation needed] He along with Śrī Krishna, Shrī Rama and Shri Narasimha is considered to be an important avatar of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Lord Hayagriva is also amongst the deities present at the Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam. Hayagreeva in Srirangam is very famous for children's education. The Sannidhi is very beautiful and all rituals are done according to Vedic principles very strictly.

Hayagrīva Mahatmyam

A great devotee named ŚrīVadirajatirtha of Udupi Śrī Kṛṣṇa Mutt used to offer cooked horse gram (Kollu) to Lord Hayagreeva. He used to recite the Hayagrīva Śloka and keep the offerings on his head. Lord Hayagrīva would come as a beautiful white horse form and would eat the horse gram. As a very staunch devotee, Vadirajatirtha would recite the following sloka -
Na HayagrivAth Param Asthi MangaLam
Na HayagrivAth Param Asthi Paavanam
Na HayagrivAth Param Asthi Dhaivatham
Na Hayagrivam Pranipathya Seedhathi!
There is no auspiciousness greater than Hayagrivan.Nothing is more sacred than Sri Hayagrivan to destroy our accumulated sins. No other God is superior to Hayagrivan. No one grieves after performing Śaraṇagati at the sacred feet of Hayagrivan.
Hayagriva is listed as one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu in Canto 10 (skandh 10), chapter 40 of the Śrīmadbhagavatam, and Akrūra's prayer contains Hayagriva's name when he had a vision while bathing in Yamuna.

Kalki 24th Vishnu Avatar



Kalki Vishnu Avatar



It is believed that He will appear, riding his white horse and drawing a flaming sword, at the end of the Kali Yuga, the dark age through which we are now passing. His task will be to exterminate the evil and restore the Dharma. Thus will begin a new cycle, starting with the new Satya Yuga.

Gautama Buddha 23rd vishnu Avatar

Gautama Buddha






With the departure of Lord Krishna (Krishna Avatar), the Kali yuga set in. In this age, the true devotion to Vedas was replaced by empty rituals. To enlighten the world, Lord Vishnu descended the earth as Buddha, the enlightened one.

He was born as the crown prince of the Kapilavastu to King Suddhodana and Maya. He was named Siddhartha, meaning "All thing fulfilled". But his mother died soon after his birth and was broughtup by Prajapati, the sister of Maya. Buddha was saddened by death of living creatures, and vices like poverty. He wasn't happy with any answers that were provided to him and he decided to find out the meaning and the absolute truth and he left his wife and child to a hermit's life in the forest and became the enlightened one.
His preachings spawned off the religion of Buddhism now popular across the whole world.Buddha advocated the Middle Path, in which he offered a balanced, harmonious way of life, steering between two extremes of self-indulgence and total abstinence. Buddhism rests upon four Noble Truths:

Lord Krishna 22th Vishnu Avatar

Lord Krishna




In KRISHNA Avatar, Lord Vishnu incarnates himself as KRISHNA , the central character in the epic MAHABHARATA. In this biggest epic of Indian mythology a myriad of topics are covered, including war, love, brotherhood, politics etc. It is essentially the story of two warring groups of cousin brothers, the PANDAVAs and the KAURAVAs. As a part of the Mahabahrata, during the war KRISHNA, gives a long discourse to his disciple ARJUNA, collectively termed as Bhagvad-Gita. Krishna, during his child-hood was responsible for the killing of Kansa. Krishna is also considered to be an ultimate playboy who was resonsible for charming all gopikas (cowherdesses) around him. Unlike Ramayana, Mahabharata deals with more down to earth issues like politics, human nature, human weaknesses, and does not attempt to idealise the characters as in RAMAYANA. His death marks the beginning of Kali yuga.


Lord Balarama 21th Vishnu Avatar



Lord Balarama



Balarama was born to Vasudeva and Devaki. Kamsa, the brother of Devaki and an evil king, was intent upon killing all the children of his sister because of a prediction that he would die at the hands of her eighth son. Kaṁsa thus threw his sister Devaki and her husband Vasudeva into prison, and proceeded to kill each of their children as they were born. However, the seventh child was transferred miraculously from Devaki's womb to the womb of Rohini, who had desired a child of her own. Thus Balarama's other name is also Saṃkarṣaṇa which describes the transfer of the child from the womb. The child was formally named Rama, but because of his great strength he was called Balarama (Strong Rama), Baladeva or Balabhadra. Thus, Rohini actually gave birth to Balarama and raised him.

Lord Ram 20th Vishnu Avatar

Lord Ram


It is the most important Avatar of Vishnu. Rama represents the peak of the historic incarnations, and by him it is defined the ideal character of Indian people.He is Vishnu descended upon earth to conquer all the Indian peninsula, included Sri Lanka, under the Bharata rule.

Lord Rama is one of the most adored gods in India. He is always holding a bow and arrow indicating his readiness to destroy evils.His story forms the epic Ramayana. He is perfect in every aspect; the perfect man, the perfect husband, the perfect brother, the perfect king, etc. and the obedient son. Commonly he is pictured in a family style, with his wife Sita, and brother Lakshman.