Gods and Goddesses of Nainital

   Last month, one morning I woke up with an intuition that a college friend, Rajat would be visiting Jaipur. He currently lives in America and it had been a long time since I had heard from him. Excitedly, I rushed an email to him that I am in Jaipur currently and I heard that he is coming here, and it would be nice if he came and stayed with me this time instead of a hotel where he usually stays during his many travels around the world.  It would be an opportunity to catch up.  A reply came that he was indeed coming to India in early April but not to Jaipur. Then few days later another excited email arrived from him, Dear Ashok, thank you for wishing me luck. You are not only wise but possess some special powers because of meditating and being a yogi. A good evidence of that is I am coming to Jaipur for a book event on the 6th of April. Initially Jaipur was not on my schedule but magically it is now happening. Love to invite you to the function and...

Those who love God and his angels, the gods and goddesses and engage in their service whenever opportunity permits, do not miss out on anything of their own needs. Like a loving parent, God does not give us all we want but He gives us what we need. These are provided with ease by Him and the gods. From time to time, there are special gifts from them, by the love and grace of the Lord. Every year, during one of the months of monsoons called Savan, village fairs calls melas in local language are held near Siva temples across several towns of northern India. I had described a visit to one in an earlier post. I rarely visit the temple itself on such Mondays because there is long line outside the temple. My own belief is that if you carry the love of the Lord in your heart, one does not have to visit a temple for it. God is everywhere. I just convey my greetings to the Lord from a distance, from a place where just the roof of the temple is visible because of the trees. Goin...

Image courtesy of:   https://pixabay.com/en/india-nainital-lake-hill-station-2714556/ While God is everywhere in the universe, in different parts of it, one sees his power in different names and forms. In Nainital it is as Naini Mata, the lovely goddess of the pristine Himalayan Lake of Nainital, a daughter of the most majestic of lakes on Earth, Mansarovar, higher up in the Himalayas from where she draws her water through underground water channels. It is so believed by many, although not yet verified by modern scientific methods but believers need no such proof. My own work in life has spanned from modern science and technology to the spiritual side of life through social, educational and philosophical work. While in one area of activity, I try not to mix in the other for clarity for just as one does not talk of one’s home affairs in office, one does not talk of office work at home for best life practices. However segregation of activities requires the use...

S ome years ago when I visited Her temple beside the Lake in Nainital, I looked for a book on Her in stores nearby. I found a small one in Hindi by Dr. Kiran Kumari.   There was a need for another one in English describing much more about Her and Her place in the Universe. Therefore I decided to undertake this task. My background is one from Science yet I have had deep interests in the mystic side of life. Therefore when I wrote this book it was from this combined perspective. It must be admitted that the task was a difficult one and although the first attempt resulted in a book, it had shortcomings.. The loving Mother Naini Mata let her child try his hand at this homework on his own without active help. Parts of it were difficult to understand, even confusing. Therefore, recently I began work on new edition again. This new version has now been released at Amazon and other stores around the world in both paperback and electronic formats. It was also an opportunity to im...

Flowers for the Mother Goddess Through a life full of many events and adventures, many a time I foolishly did wrong things as perhaps most of us do or came close to grave danger but all those time a mysterious force, a loving hand saved me from trouble. I recognize that now as the Love of God in his various facets and manifestations, a prominent one among them being Naini Mata, the goddess of Nainital. The Infinite Almighty has no form that can be comprehended but those who love him have tried to do so in various names, forms and symbols. This is perfectly all right as long as one realizes that God is not limited to that name and form but it is just one of his infinite facets. As a female or as the female side of the Lord who is neither male nor female, humans recognize the Almighty as the Mother Goddess. The Mother Goddess too has an infinite number of shapes and forms and a devotee may choose any that he or she becomes familiar with. In the Himalayas the mother god...

A View of the little Naini Mata Temple on the banks of the Naini Lake   O ne thing that has surprised International spiritual philosophers about Hindu practices and beliefs is that while on the one hand it has one of the most ancient and evolved systems of philosophy, on the other hand, it also displays very many poor practices. The answer lies in the fact that Hinduism has never been as organized as some of the other major religions of the world. It permits much freedom of belief and practices. It has a vast landscape of varied cultures into which many immigrants of the old world came and settled with varied customs and beliefs. What is seen as Hinduism now is a collections of beliefs and practices since ancient times, some highly evolved and some not so. Individual Hindus choose the portion of these beliefs that is in agreement with their own faith and inclinations, no doubt influenced by the beliefs and practices of the families and regions to which they belon...

Naini Mata the Mother Goddess A fresh revised edition of the book - Naini Mata Goddess of Nainital has been released recently. it describes not just about the Mother Goddess as worshipped and loved in Nainital but elsewhere around the world too. The book is available at Amazon.com at : http://www.amazon.com/Naini-Mata-Nainital-Ashok-Malhotra/dp/1461159229 The book also is available at Amazon and other outlets all around the world including India in both print and electronic versions. Just search for it on google if you are interested. The new revised edition is much better presented than the earlier one. It describes the history of worship of the Mother Goddess since ancient times as well as explains it from a modern scientific point of view. Naini Mata is how she is addressed as in Naintal town. Higher up in the mountains, she is known with her sister as the goddesses Nanda and Sunanda. Those from Haidakhan call her Haidkandeshwari, others in Tibet as Tara.. She is Ma Du...

There is much more on the Mother goddess in other posts of this blog for example here http://nainitalgoddess.blogspot.in/2012/11/sunanda-goddess.html The post contains a comprehensive view of the Mother Goddess as known in Asia, influenced by the spirituality of the Himalayas, the highest mountains in the world.

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 ...

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 ...