Gods and Goddesses of Nainital

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 ...

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 th...

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