The Magical Leaves

Life is a precious gift to us and everyone who live along with us. It may be in Men, Women, Animal or insect the value of life is always worthless. When such worthy single life has a chance to survive against the death and pain will someone ignore in knowing about it .? Answer is NO.

As I always state,” What’s not there in our Vedic Land, India.” A Survival against death also do exist. It’s known by almost everyone who read our mythology but I can say many of them ignored the truth lied in our Ayurvedam. Some stories say that, Nectar (Amrutha) gives a forever life to whoever drinks it. There is no such Nectar as of me, but it may be about the purest form of water which has the purity to resolve any problem in body. Sanjeevani (A healing and life giving herbal plant) have the capacity of giving life back after death, However it is not forever.

I don’t want to give a conclusion in my mind at the start of my article. But want to put before such story of those Magical leaves- SANJEEVANI and also some science involved.

SANJEEVANI is a Sanskrit word and can be translated as “immortal” or ”Life Giving”. It’s hidden in Indian Ayurvedic Science. Only few saints are aware of these herbs and they shared their knowledge to very less numbers who are disciples to them.

Let us start with a story from Tretayuga, Ramayana—Yuddha Kanda.

Base story: Sita devi the consort of Lord Shri Ram is taken away by the demon Ravana to Lanka Dweep (Currently Sri Lanka). Lord Shriram moves towards the Indian Ocean in searching and on way he meets the Veeranjaneya( Hanuma), Sugreeva, Jambavantha etc., at Kishkinda. Lord makes Sugreeva as king after killing his brother Vaali and they all together start searching for Sita. Hanuma flies across the ocean and finds sita in Lanka. All the army of Kishkinda start building the bridge between India and Sri Lanka which is the current RamaSethu. This bridge is built with rocks on which the name of Lord shriram is written as the lord of ocean grants a boon that rock will float with his name. War begins, many great warriors of Lanka falls before the army of apes.

Story at YuddhaKanda

Demon Ravana now orders his son, Indrajit also called as Meghanath to get rid of these apes and humans. Indrajit is a powerful demon who is expert in Black Magic. He alone can stand and defeat any one with his skills. Such demon is faced by Lord Shri Ram’s Brother, Lakshmana. To be more concise and clear, Lord Rama is Shri Maha Vishnu, Lakshmana his serpentine, Bharatha and Shatrugna are his Sudarshana Chakra and Sankha.

Lakshmana is also a powerful warrior than Indrajit. Indrajit knowing the fact decides to fight only with his magical powers. Lakshmana was not able to assess Indrajit’s caliber in right time. Indrajit takes the opportunity to deliver the most powerful weapon –Sammohanastra on Lakshmana. As a result Lakshmana fells down. Lord Shriram losing his brother doesn’t stop shedding tears. Hanuma flies to the Lanka and brings the royal physician Sushena. Sushena advises to bring the “ Life Giving – SANJEEVANI” from Dronagiri Hills in Himalayas before sunrise. He explains him that they have the capacity to glow with their power.

Lord Hanuma starts flying towards Himalayas. He reaches and fells in a confusion of identifying the herb. He decides to uplift the complete mountain and bring to battle field. He is objected by the Mountain King Drona and Hanuma tells him that he is doing so for his lord Shri ram’s brother. Mountain Drona accepts with pride and Hanuma carries the mountain to battle field. Sushena himself finds the herb and makes Lakshmana live again.

This time in war Indrajit is killed by Lakshmana.

Scientific Approach:

Selaginella bryopteris is commonly known as Sanjeevani. It grows on hills of tropical areas, particularly the Arawali mountain terrains from east to west in India. This has the power to relief from heart stroke, dysuria, irregular mensturation and jaundice.

The sanjeevani we are talking about exist before 300 million years and come under a group of plants which were the first vascular plants on earth. In Sanskrit it is called as Sanjeevani booti and is found in Himalayas. It is believed that it has a unique feature which is bioluminescence. There are different types of Sanjeevani:

Mrutha Sanjeevani – Resurrects the Dead.

Sandhanakarani – Restorer of skin and joints.

Savarnyakarani – Restorer of color and skin.

Vishalyakarani – Remover of Arrows.

             Desmotrichum fimbriatum is another plant which is equally standing in race with Selaginella bryopteris. This plant is from Western Ghats, North eastern states having medicinal values of resolving Astma, Bronchitis, fever, burning sensations, biliousness, and diseases of blood.

Scientifically Lakshmana, Brother of Rama may be in Coma when Sanjeevani subjected to him helped in awakening. This is a medication provided by the ancient Ayurvedic doctors.

             However the currently existing herbs doesn’t have the capacity to resurrect from death. But still the search is ever lasting and continuous for it as such important herb is never to be missed out.

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Lord Shri Ram and Sita Marriage

                For everyone marriage is a dream where we need to share our entire life with an unknown. In India, it is more traditional and during every marriage the first thing remembered is the marriage of Lord Shri Ram and Sita. Marriage was celebrated for days in those days.

                Sage Vishwamitra receives the Invitation of King Janaka for blessing his daughter at the Swayamwar of Seeta devi. Sage who is aware of Shri Maha Lakshmi the consort of Lord Vishnu is in the form of Seeta devi walks along with lord Shri Ram to the venue.

Story of Goddess Sita :-

                To know about the story of Devi Sita the consort of Lord Shri Ram. There should be an Introduction of her birth first. Once there lived a son of Brihaspathi, his name is Brahmarshi Kusadhvaja. He is the guru of Devas and have spent his life reading the Vedas. He has a daughter who is very bright and charming, she followed her father in reading these vedas and hence named as Vedavathi. Her father wishes to give her hand to Lord Vishnu. A daitya king sambhu murders her parents for rejecting his marriage proposal. Yet Vedavathi continues her great penance for Lord Vishnu.

                Ravana the Asura King found Vedavathi meditating and gets attracted to her incredible beauty. He proposes her for marrying and she rejects it. Ravana who hates lord Vishnu spoils her penance by touching her hair. Vedavathi sacrifices her by jumping into fire. She rejects to curse him as her penance will go waste. But, tells him that she will take re-birth as his death. Ravana doesn’t want to leave her ashes even. Hence he by collecting the ashes in a box brings to Lanka. The ashes in box started show up in different forms to everyone of them. So, Mandodari wife of Ravana decides to throw that box in deep seas and orders her soliders. The box thus thrown travels in seas and thrown to land in a place Mithila.

                One day Janka the king of Videha was ploughing a field to prepare it for conducting Yagna. Suddenly the plough got stuck and king found a golden box on digging, he found a beautiful little girl in the box. He named the baby girl as Sita and she is also known as Janaki (Daughter of Janaka). She is considered as the daughter of Bhoodevi as found in earth. Days passed and SIta have 1 more sister Urmila and 2 cousin sisters from Janaka brother. Janaka was very happy with his family. Sita grew up as the most charming and beautiful women. On a day she was playing with her friends with a ball and it went under a huge table which is carrying the mighty bow of lord Shiva. This Bow is presented to Janaka through sage vashista which is used during a war between lord Shiva and lord Vishnu. It was very heavy to carry for even 50 best warriors of the country. Devi Sita moves it along with the table using single hand. Looking at the scene king Janaka surprises and decides to give her hand to a person who can really lift the bow and string it.

                Ravana doesn’t get the invite but still he listening to the beauty of sita wish to visit the swayamwar. He tries to lift the mighty bow of lord shiva and fails. Looking at the failure of demon king everyone withdrew themselves from the competition. Lord Shri Ram takes the bless of his guru Vishwamitra and walks ahead to lift the bow. Before he try to lift it, he prays lord Maha shiv and easily succeeds. While trying to string the bow it cracks and thus he wins on the swayamwar announced. Demon King Ravan for the second time notices the strength of Lord Shri Ram.

                In a Superb manner their marriage is conducted and even today it is believed as the best marriage in India. Along with Lord Shri Ram his three brothers also got married to the sisters of Sita.

Thus Lakshmana is married to Urmila, Bharatha is married to Maandavi and Shatrughna to Shrutakeerthi.

 During marriage sage Parashuram arrives.

Story of Sage Bhargava Ram or Parashu-Ram:

Sage Bhargava is the sixth Incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He is the son of Renuka and Saptarishi Jamadagni. One among the seven immortals of Hinduism. The story of him can be said so simple and straight. He is a warrior but sage. He commenced deep penance to lord shiva and was given with indestructible axe (Parashu) as weapon. He is a very angry sage. It is believed that he wounded Lord shiv with his axe on an fierce fight when he was being tested by lord. Lord shiva preserved this wound as an ornament and is hence also known as Khanda-Parashu.

His Mother Renuka is known for her devotion towards her husband. With her faith, she was able to fetch water in a pot built with unbaked clay. One day her thoughts get filled with desire for a moment when a group of Gandharvas are passed in sky through chariot and at that time the clay pot gets dissolved in water. Jamadagni knowing this with his yogic powers orders his sons to kill renuka. All of them refuses and angry father turns them to stone. But, Bhargava beheaded his mother and makes his father happy. He gets two boons for fulfilling his wish. The boy uses them for bringing his mother back to life and turning his brothers normal.

A king named Kartavirya visits the hermitage of Jamadagni once and gets feasted well. He comes to know that it happened with the help of Kamadhenu he having. He requests for it and the king steals it from him. Jamadagni orders his son to visit piligrim places for purifying the stains of blood. Sons of kartavirya discovering that their father is killed by Parashuram. They decapitated his body and took head with them. In rage parashuram killed all the Kshatriyas(kings) for over 21 times and conducts the cremation of his father.

Story at Shri Ram’s Marriage continues…

He arrived at the marriage ceremony and gets angry for breaking the bow of Lord Shiva. He asks Lord Shri Ram to handle the mightiest Bow of Bhargava and prove himself. Lord Shri Ram rejects him saying that as he is wearing the ring of marriage and as a reason he should not handle anything related to war. Sage considers him as coward and challenges him many times though Kings Dasharath and Janaka plead him. As no choice is left Lord Shri Ram decides to fulfill his wish. He handles the bow of Bhargava Ram very easily and then only the sage realizes that his Incarnation is now completed. 

Lord Shri Ram is recognized with his true form of Shri Maha Vishnu by Bhargava Ram and he leaves to Mount Mahendra.

                             **** JAI SHRI RAAM****

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A Bird without Wings@ LEPAKSHI

           I have started my journey towards the India’s most famous monument Lepakshi, in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. I always had a thought that it was just a monument constructed in some golden era of Indian kings. But this has more good history than what I expected. My Journey started from 

Bangalore à Hindupur àLepakshi.

         I came to know that there are more temples in the way of road, so preferred going by road. It’s just a distance of 120Km from Bangalore. I have taken the beautiful pics taken in the trip and though I didn’t provide the detail of newly constructed temples, you can see images here. Let’s Start on ride.

         It’s a beautiful road around. On the way just nearer to Hindupur a newly constructed temple of lord shiva exists. It has a huge statue of Lord Shiva , many Lingas and all together an good premises. We have rested here for a while and this temple served us with the real purpose of constructing. Yes temples are infact designed in those days for the people who come to visit a new place on any purpose. This is sacred place and hence they just used to concentrate only on which work they came.

          Started our way to Hindupur and reached in just 15mins. It’s a small town and very near we have Dharmavaram. Dharmavaram is famous for Silk Sarees. From here a U-turn to Lepakshi is taken. Another 20mins we reached Lepakshi which is one among the 108 sacred places of Lord shiva. Sage Agastya stayed here in a cave on the kurmashila hill while visiting the sacred places in south of Vindhya Mountain. It is located very near to Siddapura, Jatinga Rameshvar, Brahmagiri, yerragudi  which are connected to emperor Ashoka.

         Firstly we visited the famous Veerabhadra temple. This temple is constructed in Vijayanagara architectural style by brothers Viranna and Virupanna in 14^th century. This temple is fully with Stone carved pillars and mural paintings from the Vijayanagar Kings period. It is Significant with three shrines dedicated to Lord Shiva, Vishnu and Virabhadra.

There are two different stories with the village name Lepakshi. One has a Link with the Ramayana and other about Virupanna the constructor.

Le-Pakshi:

#Story1:

I am starting with the story which I believed.

           This village have a mythological link to Ramayana. The story is When Lord Ram and Seta along with Lakshmana were in Forests on the wish of his father. They constructed a Parnasala to live. One day Maricha( Know More) who escaped earlier from Shri Ram’s arrow on the wish of his King Ravana takes the form of Golden Deer and attracts Seeta devi. Lord Shriram to gift it for his beloved wife follows it into forest leaving brother Lakshmana behind. Lord Knowing that it was a demon magic aims at the deer and kills it. Maricha while dying takes the voice of shriram and calls for help. Lakshmana asking seta not to cross his line out the house and runs for helping his brother on the wish of Devi seeta.

         Demon Ravana comes in the form of a begger and deceived sita devi. When she crosses the line of Lakshmana he starts taking her to Lanka, his empire in sky. Goddess Sita throws all her jewellery from the sky when a bird(Jatayu), an Ape(Hanuma) finds them. Jatayu is a very powerful Bird of the skies. He knowing that Lord Shriram’s wife is being taken by demon Ravana attacks him and tries to stop though it is difficult to him. Ravana as being more powerful demons of all easily defeats the bird. Cuts the wings of bird and throws it away. He continues his journey and takes away sita to Lanka.

       Lord Ram who came to know that his wife is taken by a demon follows the marks thrown by sita from sky. He reaches first to the place where a bird, Jatayu Laid with his wings cut. Lord says to the bird: Le-Pakshi (means -Raise Bird). Jatayu Raises for him in this village and hence village is named after in this way. Jatayu conveys the detail of Ravana, the demon who has taken sita devi and dies in the hand of Lord SHRIRAM. 

Lord Continues his journey to deep forests and then meets Hanuma later. It’s a different story.

#Story2:

Another story belongs to history.

Virupanna is the treasurer of Vijayanagara king Atchutaraya. He was the In-charge of temple construction at lepakshi. His enemies reported king that he is misusing the funds. In those days, it was customary to pluck the eyes of the keeper of royal treasury if he was found guilty. Virupanna being a loyal servant plucked his own eyes and threw at the wall. Hence two dark stains are visible on the west wall of southern entrance of inner closure. Thus came the name “Lepa Akshi” which means plucked eyes.

Temple Premises:

Natyamandapa is the finest part of the temple. There are about 70 sculptured pillars, 12 pillars in center forming a court. They are carved with sculptures of dancers and musicians. One among is the Hanging pillar constructed in Upside down. As always a British engineer tried to explore our Indian Engineering and hence it is bit dislodged from original position. 

Another antique is the serpentine with seven hoods outside the Natyamandapa.It is a massive Naga with three coils and seven hoods forming a sheltering canopy over a black granite Shivalingam. This is the largest Nagalinga in India. Another exquisite sculpture of Lord Ganesh captures the eye of everybody, particularly once people enter the second interior court. This is hewn in stone and leaning against a rock.

This temple is a testimony of Viswakarma Brahmins who sculpted the temple. It is also believed that Amara Shilpi Jakkanna took half within the coming up design of temple. There are 3 Mandapas inside the temple—Artha, Mukha and another Incomplete but beautiful kalyana mandapa(38 Sculptures).Western part of kalyana Mandapa is known as “Hall of creepers” for its geometrical wonder. The sculptures and mural paintings on the natya and kalyana mandapa are exceptional for artistic beauty. Sculptures portray episodes like ‘Anantasayana’, ‘Dattatreya’, ‘Chathurmukha Brahma’, ‘Tumburu’, ‘Narada’, ‘Rambha’. The ceiling is made with the granite.

There are  several forms of Lord Shiva here – Kanakala Murthi, Dakshinamurthi, Tripuranthaka, Ardhanareeshwara, etc., A shrine of fiery goddess Badhrakali. On the rocks the beautiful carvings of srikalahasti story attracted me a lot. Just completed taking my pictures in temple and started for the real monument of nation. It is a half a mile from the temple.  Nandi is 27 feet in length and 15feet in height, this is India’s 2^nd biggest Monolithic Nandi after Gomatheswara. The big granite bull is positioned in such a way that it faces the shivalinga shielded by serpentine inside the temple.

 Now go ahead and enjoy your ride..

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