Gods and Goddesses of Nainital

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 s...

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...