Gods and Goddesses of Nainital

Image from Munnar Munnar Mountains Just as Nainital is an example of the beauty of Mother Earth in North India, it appears that Munnar is an example of how beautiful mother earth can be in Kerala, South India. Both places were highly appreciated by the British when they ruled India and were developed as summer capitals in North and South respectively. Unfortunately we Indians have not yet got around to contributing enough attention and effort towards preserving and enhancing the beauty of our Mother the Earth yet and have permitted unscruplous developments in places like Nainital. Perhaps we have been much too busy with fighting our poverty or our petty caste squabbles or too seeped in human greed to appreciate beauty as it should be. If we do not rectify, Mother earth will just move away elsewhere, like any loving mother who is not given the respect she deserves,  for she has many homes in our endless universe. Beauty is a representation of the divine just as much as Love, t

A Comprehensive view of Mother Goddess as known in South, East and Himalayan Asia Jai Mata Ki (Praise the Mother Goddess) While it is a purpose of every life form to evolve to yet higher states and eventually attain God and become a part of Him, some godly beings, (known as bodhisattvas in Buddhism, and angels in Christianity)  choose to remain as created beings in the universe in service of Universal Consciousness and out of compassion for others, and in order to assist the latter in their evolutionary journeys towards enlightenment. One significant thing that is paradoxical to outsiders is that while Hindu philosophy upholds monotheism and a single Almighty in the Universe, many Hindus (although not all sects) also follow the worship of numerous gods and goddesses. The reality is that since the Almighty is formless and infinite, any finite divine portion of the Almighty may be personified as a facet or personification of the Infinite Lord and that is the reas

Temple of goddesses Tara and tarani in Orissa, India Goddesses manifest the female side of divinity inherent in the universe. Although all goddesses represent the same universal force, they have been worshipped in various avatars and forms by humans. Some of these avatars although bearing different names bear a close relationship to each other whereas there are also some cases where different goddesses bear the same name. One such example is that of the lovely and gentle, yet powerful goddess Sunanda of Kumaon. There is also a goddess by the same name in Bangladesh but that goddess is in fact a modification of the name Sugandha that is an avatar of goddess Parvati, who also takes on the fearful avatars of Kali when the occasion calls for it, rather than goddess Sunanda. The Goddess Parvati and Goddess Nanda are regarded by many as different appearances of Parvati. Hence, the goddess Sunanda of Bangladesh may be regarded as another form of goddess Nanda rather than g

Nanda Devi and Sunanda Devi I t was described in the last post that the goddesses Nanda and Sunanda occur together in mythology and worship. Nanda goddess means the Bliss giving goddess whereas Sunanda means the good bliss giving goddess. One may wonder why the prefix good is added to Sunanda when in fact Nanda is the more active and senior goddess. The reason is perhaps that Nanda Devi also takes on fearful avatars in mythology when she goes about conquering evil demons and at such times adding good is not necessary. Goddess Nanda Devi has been regarded  variously as a human representation of the Great Mother Goddess and even as that of Mother Earth. Goddess Sunanda has appeared in mythology and  history from time to time as the companion goddess or sister of this goddess. In nature the Nanda Devi mountain, one of the highest in the Himalayas is regarded as a sacred and majestic representation of the Great Goddess on Earth. It is a twin peak mountain in which the lower s

S ome of the earliest mentions of divine Nanda and Sunanda are found in ancient Sanskrit texts. It cannot be confirmed if these references have any connection with more recent worship of these goddesses in Kumaon region but they deserve mention for the probable origin of these glorious goddesses. The Bhāgavata Purāna also known as Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, is one of the Puranic texts of Sanskrit literature. It includes  many stories well known in Vedic tradition. The text credits Veda Vyasa, the revered ancient sage, with its authorship. Here is a verse from this text,  “ Also, Srutadeva, Uddhava and others, Nanda, Sunanda and other leaders of liberated souls who are constant companions of the Lord ” Canto 1 Chapter 14 According to this verse, Nanda and Sunanda are close to the eternal lord with the same position as the highest of Angels of the Lord and amongst the leaders of liberated souls that are constantly engaged in serving God. A story in chapter 12 of the same text

Jai Mata Ki. Hail the Great Mother of Universe Every thing that we can perceive in the universe as well as everything that we cannot perceive is a manifestation of God. In fact this may be taken as a definition of God and by this definition everyone believes in God. His consciousness runs through everything in the universe and we as humans share an infinitesimally small part of this consciousness. The female side of it flows as the divine love of every mother, human, animal or gods. We also share an infinitesimally small part of His free will that all living things share in various degrees making them alive as well as responsible for their own individual actions as well as the consequences. Because of His infinity, God cannot have any form that can be imagined by any human mind or any other living mind in the universe. God alone knows God fully. However human and human like forms of the Universal spirit have been worshiped through the ages for simplicity and one of the

This is a beautiful image of Queen Victoria from 1887. She was the Empress of India during her long reign and had special connections to Nainital. She is regarded by some as a reincarnation of a Himalayan goddess and/or Nanda Devi who too during one of her reincarnations was a royal person of the Chand Dynasty. Queen Victoria made it a point to make a gift of a bell to the Shrine of Badrinath during her coronation and a British coin depicts her as a goddess accompanied by a lion ( Uma and the coin Gold). My novel "Nude besides the Lake" available at Amazon discusses this in much detail. Queen Victoria wished to visit India and Nainital and live for a while at the Raj Bhavan that was constructed for a possible visit by her. However due to to the untimely death of her husband Queen Victoria never made the trip. nevertheless she remained fond of all things Indian and even spoke Hindustani. For more on Her Majesty and her secret connection to Nainital see: http://nainitalgo

This photo shows the lake and the hills around the Naini Lake of nainital

The district of Nainital has been in the forefront of spiritual evolution in India. However, the contributions of Nainital are not limited to spirituality. It has also contributed in other significant areas. One of these is technical education. The seeds of technical education in modern India were sown by the Indian Industrial Commission at its Nainital Conference in 1907. It proposed two institutions -- one at Roorkee for engineering and the other at Kanpur. As a result of this conference the first two institutions offering technical education began in India. The one at Kanpur is presently known as the Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (HBTI) and the one at Roorkee evolved from the Thompson College to Roorkee University and eventually the Indian Institute of Technology at Roorkee. However in recent decades Nainital has lagged behind in the area. Until a few years ago, there were only two institutions offering university level degree programs in engineering in Nainital Di

Just this morning I found a nice review of my novel ‘Nude besides the Lake’ at amazon .com. I would like to share it with visitors to this blog. Me (in Jacket) and others beside a lake of Nainital District - Sattal A Satisfying Read July 22, 2012 Nude besides the Lake is a delightful tale of discovery (and rediscovery), friendship, and cooperation and the great things that can be achieved by acts of generosity and respect. There are no bad guys here. It is not a world of conflict and despair. The world that author Ashok Malhotra paints of life in the beautiful mountains & lakes country in northern India is both mesmerizing and alluring. His story introduces details of Indian life, philosophy, spirituality, and culture from the homespun perspective of those who call Nainital home. There is even sensitive tribute to Indian history and British influences. And through it all one can almost smell the dust kicked up by the monsoons and the fragrant roses, magnolias,

Photo shows roof of Naini Mata temple in Nainital A face book friend and cousin - Pardeep - posted something this morning about a Mantra on his wall: Mantra Dhaarnaa Yon Kar, Vidhi Se Le Kar Naam Japiye Nishchaya Achal Se, Shakti-Dhaam Sri Ram These verses in Hindi may be translated as: From right Teacher learn right technique of repetition of right name Then mediate with greatest faith, Upon the Lord’s most vital name I fully agree with my dear cousin that the chanting of Mantras done correctly is a powerful technique, even magical. That is the reason one has magicians chanting spells in fairy tales to perform magic. Recently a college classmate and dear friend got into serious legal difficulties. His name is Rajat Gupta. Until recently he was one of the most senior corporate executives on our planet well known to Prime Ministers and Presidents including Obama and Clinton. He can be found in Wikepedia. However, amongst some of his friends were also some