#saiva

[herpsandbirds]

Spotted Lanternbug (Saiva cardinalis), family Fulgoridae, Doi Inthanon, Chiang Mai, Thailand

photograph by Alvin Francis Lok

[nofatclips-home]

Strofer ur ett fjärran skogsland by Saiva

[soniyatv]

hidden truths

Ancient indians - but not brahmins who coopted others' beliefs - were compelled to code/hide their teachings. this is seen from down south in Tamil Nadu to as far as Tibetan "termas"

[lydiardbell]

An evil person is dying? Wow, hold my Monster Energy while I appropriate dharmic religions about it (I vote Dem/Lab so it's okay for me to do this)

[onenicebugperday]

Lantern bug, Saiva bullata, Fulgoridae

Photographed in Thailand by Nicky Bay // Website // Facebook

Shared with permission; do not remove credit or re-post!

[kateammann]

a fancy little bug with a funny little nose 🪲💓

lantern bug (saiva transversolineata)

[whencyclopedia]

Khajuraho

Khajuraho was an ancient city in the Madhya Pradesh region of northern India. From the 10th to 12th century CE it was the capital of the Chandella kings who ruled Bundelkhand. Despite Khajuraho's once great reputation as an important cultural centre there are no surviving non-religious buildings, but the presence of 35 Hindu and Jain temples make it one of the most significant historical sites in India today and worthy of its name given by the 11th century CE Muslim historian Abu Rihan Alberuni as 'the City of the Gods'. Khajuraho is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Architectural Highlights

Most of the temples at Khajuraho were built using sandstone but four also used granite in their construction. In the latter group is the Chaunsat Yogini (64 tantric goddesses), built c. 875-900 CE, which has 64 shrine rooms arranged around a rectangular courtyard. Next in the site's development came the Lalguan Mahadeva, Brahma, and Matangesvara temples which are all quite plain in design and decoration compared to the later temples.

The majority of temples at Khajuraho were constructed between 950 and 1050 CE and are either Hindu (Saiva or Vaisnava) or Jain. The most famous is the Kandariya Mahadeo built in the early 11th century CE and dedicated to Shiva. The more or less contemporary Laksmana temple was built in 954 CE by King Dhanga (r. 950-999 CE) to celebrate independence from the Gurjara-Pratihara rulers and has a similar layout and exterior to the Kandariya Mahadeo. So too does the Visvanatha temple (c. 1002 CE) which was designed by Sutradhara Chhichchha. Both temples have shrines at each corner of their terrace platforms. The Laksmana was dedicated to Vishnu and its terrace is of particular note as it carries a narrative frieze running around all four sides: Elephants, warriors, hunters, and musicians form a procession watched by a ruler and his female attendants.

Other notable temples at the site include the single-towered Caturbhuja and Vamana, the squat Matulunga, and the rectangular, more austere Parshvanatha Jain temple with its unique shrine added to the rear of the building (c. 950-970 CE). Probably the latest temple at Khajuraho is the Duladeo which was built on a star-plan.

Continue reading...

[tamblr]

Intro to Tantric Shaivism: II - Kashmiri Shaivism

In my previous write-ups I explained what Tantra is and gave a brief introduction to Tantric Shaivism. In this write-up I’ll continue my exploration of Tantric Shaivism by introducing one of the most sophisticated traditions of Tantric Shaivism: Kashmiri Shaivism. I won’t talk about the sages who inspired these schools as I think that will make the essay way too long but instead focus on the main philosophy of each school within Kashmiri Shaivism. The three main active schools of thought within Tantric Shaivism today are Kashmiri Shaivism, Saiva siddhanta and Aghori. 

Kashmiri Shaivism is also known as the Trika system. It is a monistic tradition but cannot be defined as one school of thought but rather a collective of different schools that originated in Kashmir, namely: Pratyabhijna, Kula, Spanda, and Krama schools. 

It is known as the Trika system because they believe that the world contains three energies: 

Para (transcendental) - para 

Parapara (subtle) - sukshma 

Apara (gross) - sthula 

The right hand side of the names: sthula, sukshma and para are the names of these energies in the saiva siddhanta tradition. 

Pratyabhijna 

The word pratyabhijna means “to spontaneously once again recognize and realize your Self.” Here you have only to realize, you do not have to practice. There are no upayas (means) in the Pratyabhijna system. You must simply recognize who you are. This teaching, therefore, is situated chiefly in anupaya, which is that means where there are no means at all. It is the recognition that there was nothing to be done and nowhere to go. Here, there is no practice, no concentration and no meditation.

The purpose of Pratyabhijñā is the recognition of the Śiva nature of the world (and oneself). In order to achieve that, it is necessary to induce a modified state of consciousness through the use of Śakti. Śakti, loosely translated as energy, is the dynamic aspect of Śiva, the link between finite (the human subject) and infinite (Śiva). Thus comes about the fundamental principle: "Without the help of Śakti, pratyabhijñā is impossible”. 

2. Kula 

Abhinavagupta, one of the main Sages of this tradition, tells us that the term Kula is derivable from the root kul, which can mean a grouping together. From this meaning we can derive one of the meanings of Kula, a human grouping, namely a family, or more specifically a spiritual family that extends as far back as Siva himself. This lineage is unified by the sequential transmission of the achieved vision of the ultimate. 

The Kula system teaches you how you can live in caitanya  (universal Consciousness), the real nature of yourself, in the act of ascending and descending. While you rise from the lowest to the highest you realize your nature, and while you descend from the highest to the lowest you also realize your nature.

The difference between the Pratyabhijna system and the Kula system is, that the Pratyabhijna system teaches you how to realize your own nature in one place and exist there, reside there. While the Kula system teaches you how you can rise from the lowest degree to the highest degree, and all the while, experience the nature of your Self on the same level and state. Shiva, which is realized in prithvi tattva (earth element), is the same level, the same reality of Shiva which is realized in Shiva tattva. Here, there is complete realization in every act of the world.

3. Spanda 

The word spanda means “movement.” The Spanda school recognizes that nothing can exist without movement. Where there is movement there is life, and where there is no movement that is lifelessness. Spanda is the vibration or the pulse of consciousness. Every activity in the universe, as well as every perception, notion, sensation or emotion in the microcosm, ebbs and flows as part of the universal rhythm of the one reality, which is Siva ,the one God who is the pure conscious agent and perceiver. 

According to the Doctrine of Vibration, man can realise his true nature to be Siva by experiencing Spanda, the dynamic, recurrent and creative activity of the absolute. It is Spanda, the inscrutable pulse of consciousness, that moves and yet moves not, that changes and yet remains eternally itself, that ensures~that both manifestation and the absolute, its unmanifest source, form part of a single process which passes freely from one to the other in such a way that both poles are the same level and equally real.

The difference between the Pratyabhijna school and Spanda are that the spanda school emphasises on the recognition and experience of the vibration of consciousness while the former emphasises direct experience of Siva as oneself.

4. Krama

Krama system shows the development of Saktha tendencies in Saiva philosophy. Based on the Kālīkula (Kālī worship) branch of Tantric Śaivism, Krama means (‘sequence’) which internalized ritual worship of goddesses as the cyclical phases (krama) of one’s own awareness. The Krama system moves in space and time, but finally leads to Paramaśiva, who is beyond space and time. 

Ritual came to be understood as an inner process of realisation through which the initiate discovered his/her essential identity with Kali, who is the flow (krama) of the power of consciousness through the polarities of subject, object and means of knowledge in consonance with their arising and falling away in each act of perception.

The experience of this process coupled with the arousing of man's spiritual potential (kundalini) and the expansion of consciousness that brings it about is the most esoteric practice of the Krama system of Kashmiri Saivism. 

Kashmir Shaivism shares many parallel points of agreement with the lesser known monistic school of Shaiva Siddhanta as expressed in the Tirumantiram of Tirumular. This is a very brief introduction to the different schools of thought within Kashmiri Shaivism. It is important to recognise that these philosophies draw on each other as inspiration for their practices and contain less hard drawn lines. In the next piece I’ll talk about Saiva siddhanta. 

P.S. As usual if you want the links to the resources I referenced, more than happy to send them your way.

[33-108]

First Verse SpandaKarika

"Yasyonmesanimesabhyaip jagatah pralayodayau/

Tam Sakticakravibhavaprabhavani Sankaraip stumah//

We laud that Sankara by whose mere opening and shutting of the eye-lids there is the appearance and dissolution of the world and who is the source of the glorious powers of the collective whole of the saktis (the divine energy in various forms).

Now the great lord who is the great God of the nature of Light has absolute Freedom (svatantrya), of the nature of Parasakti (the Highest Power) that displays Herself in the two poles of arani (I) and visarga (creation or idam i.e. the objective world) and is always full of the flash of a compact mass of bliss and whose essence consists in Full I-consciousness which is the supreme import of the multitude of letters.

Therefore the Svatantrya Sakti (the Power of Absolute Freedom) of the Lord is called spanda. This power though nondistinct from the Lord goes on presenting the entire cycle of manifestation and withdrawal on its own background like the reflection of a city in a mirror.

This sakti of the lord who is non-moving, being of the nature of consciousness is known as spanda in accordance with the root meaning of the word signifying slight movement. Thus the essential nature of the Lord is perpetual spanda (creative pulsation). He is never without spanda. Some hold that the Highest Reality is without any activity whatsoever. But in such a case the Highest Reality being devoid of activity, all this (i.e. the universe) will be without a lord or Creative Power.

The great teacher has written this sastra (sacred book) in order to explain the fact that our nature is identical with that of Sahkara who is full of spanda sakti, the essence of which consists in quivering light. Thus this sastra has been appropriately named spanda.

Svatantrya—Freedom or Iccha Will i.e. of Siva which brings about both manifestation and absorption. Unmesa and nimesa denote succession. Succession means Time, but Siva is above Time. Therefore, unmesa and nimesa have not to be taken in the order of succession. They are simply two expressions of Iccha sakti of the Divine.

In Spandasandoha, Ksemaraja says that there are many names of this Iccha Sakti (power of will) in this system. Spanda, sphuratta Crmi, Bala, Udyoga, Hrdaya, sara, MalinU Para etc. are synonyms of this Iccha sakti. In Spanda-nir^aya also he says : It is only spanda-sakti which is simultaneously unmesa and nimesa.

Ksemaraja concludes-

"In reality nothing arises, and nothing subsides, only the divine Spanda-sakti which, though free of succession, appears in different aspects as if arising, and as if subsiding."

Ksemaraja has pointed out that nimesa and unmesa refer to another significant concept of Saiva philosophy.

This is a philosophy of Evolution. Evolution has two aspects—the arc of descent or avarohakrama (nimesa) from the Divine upto the empirical individual, from Consciousness upto the matter and the arc of ascent or aroha-krama (unmesa) from the empirical individual upto Siva-pramata and from inconscient matter upto samvid or the divine consciousness.

The purpose of all the scriptures including Spandakarika is to show how the empirical individual can mount to the stage of Siva-pramata. Siva-consciousness is the upeya or the goal, the methods recommended in the book are the means (upayas) for reaching the goal (upeya).

"When there is unmesa or revelation of the essential nature of the Divine, there is the pralaya or disappearance of the world. When there is nimesa or concealment of the essential nature of the Divine, there is the udaya or appearance of the world."

As Ksemaraja puts it beautifully "Kalpitapramatrpada-nimajjanena samavisamah, tatsamavesa eva hi jivanmuktiphala iha prakarana upadesyah."

"We are united with Him by obliterating our state of assumed agency. This treatise is going to teach that identification with Him is the real reward of liberation in life."

Verse 1- (Mark Dyczkowski) Ksemaraja writes:

Thus whenever extroverted being rests in one's

own nature, all outer things are withdrawn and

one is established in the state of inner tranquility.

This is the Fourth State (turiya) which is creation

(persistence and destruction as well as their) union

(melana) (within universal consciousness).

It is the Goddess of Consciousness who vomits forth and withdraws every single thing in the moments of creation and the rest. She is always full (purna)and lean (krsa), both and (yet) neither, pulsingly

radiantly (sphuranti) and free of succession.

When the Supreme Lord Who is consciousness,

out of His own free will submerges the pervasive

(awareness) of unity and assumes the pervasive

(awareness) of diversity, then the powers of His

will, etc., although uncontracted, manifest as contracted.

It is then that this transmigrating soul,

obscured by impurity, comes into being.

Although the fettered soul is obscured by the

impurity of individuality (anavamala) brought

about by the contracted condition of his powers, he is nonetheless the agent of these five

functions, at least in the limited sphere of his

operation.

Ignorant of this, he is deluded by his

own powers; conversely when he realizes this,

consciousness which had, through its own

power of self-limitation, assumed the condition

of the individual mind agitated by its own

thought forms, turns in on itself and so rises to

the level of pure awareness, to resume its original pristine condition.

Cessation (vilapana):- All things forcibly (hathatah) consigned to the fire which burns in the stomach of one's own consciousness, abandon the division of difference and so serve to fuel it by their power. By this process of forced digestion, the duality of things is destroyedand the universe is turned to nectar upon which the deities of consciousness then feed and, satisfied, repose at one with Lord Bhairava, the Sky of Consciousness Who, full and perfect (purna), resides solitary in the Heart."

[herpsandbirds]

Lanternbug (Saiva cardinalis), family Fulgoridae, Chiang Mai, Thailand

photograph by Antonio Giudici 

[soniyatv]

INDU <- shengdu, tianzhu, xiandou

"His travelogue presents India in fascicles separate from those for Central Asia. He, however, does not call it India, but the phonetic equivalent of what previously has been variously interpreted as "Tianzhu" or "Shengdu" or "Xiandou". More recent scholarship suggests the closest pronunciation of the 7th-century term in his travelogues would be "Indu"

..

To Lampaka's southeast is the country of (modern Nangarhar), with many Buddhist monasteries and five Deva temples. The number of monks here, however, are few. 

The stupa are deserted and in a dilapidated condition. The local Buddhists believe that the Buddha taught here while flying in the air, because were he to walk here, it caused many earthquakes. Nagarahara has a 300 feet high stupa built by Ashoka, with marvellous sculptures.

..

Some five hundred li (~200 kilometer in 7th-century) to the southeast is the country of Gandhara – which some historic Chinese texts phonetically transcribed as Qiantuowei. On its east, it is bordered by the Indus river, and its capital is Purusapura. 

This is the land of ancient sages and authors of Indic sastras, and they include Narayanadeva, Asanga, Vasubandhu, Dharmatrata, Monaratha and Parshva.[30][32] To the southeast of Purusapura city is a 400-foot-high stupa built by Emperor Kanishka, one with nearly 2000 feet in diameter and a 25 layer wheel on the top. There is a large monastery near it. Gandhara has numerous holy Buddhist sites, and Xuanzang visited and worshipped all of them.[32] He calls the stupas and the Buddha images in this region as "magnificent" and made with "perfect craftmanship

..

To the northeast of Varsha country, states Xuanzang, there is a lofty mountain with a bluish stone image of Bhimadevi. She is the wife of Mahesvara. It is a great site of pilgrimage, where Indians from very far come with prayers. At the foot of this mountain is another temple for Mahesvara where ceremonies are performed by naked heretics who smear ash on their body

[metagrif]

Saiva, a demon of glass.

[metamatar]

Ambiguous written language was especially part of Buddhist-Saiva Tantric cultivation. In records generated within such epistemological traditions, twilight language was used to refer to three kinds of objects of knowledge – the manifest, the cognitive, and the realized – valued by non-dualist groups. Such languages could only be deciphered by students formally trained by teachers empowered to explain such terminology. When the teachers lost their ability to teach, or the students disappeared, historians of the region failed to recognize the written record.

Furthermore, oral transmission enhanced this possibility. Turko-Mongols of the thirteenth–fifteenth centuries had relied on religious or clerical figures to perform the work of political ambassadors. Such clerical figures were charged with delivering the more important secret and oral message not trusted to a formal letter, while formal letters were produced collaboratively by a largely undifferentiated collective in the chancellery. Cryptic letters from the chancellery of an Assamese heavenly lord (svargadev) to various hegemons in the vicinity similarly name priestly brahmans and scribes as conveyors of the much more important ‘oral communication’ to be delivered in secret. The high status of oral transmission, highlighted in writing itself, suggests the problems of interpretation that would arise in cases where sacred envoys – the ‘brahmans’, the teacher-monks, religious scholars and priests – were killed, persecuted, disappeared in the course of battle. The writing that they carried or created would become inexplicable without oral commentary.

Forgotten Friends: Monks, Marriages and Memories of Northeast India by Indrani Chatterjee

[blessed1neha]

What is the difference between Mahamaya, Yogmaya, and Maya?

Maya is a general term, which is also known as Vishnu Maya, as it is cast by Lord Vishnu alone. It has two features: Yogamaya and Mahamaya.

Vedic scriptures, depending on the context, may employ the term Maya interchangeably, either referring to Mahamaya or Yogamaya. Most of the time, Maya simply refers to Mahamaya, unless the context implies otherwise.

The principal potency is Yogamaya. This refers to the internal or superior potency of the Lord, which is also known as Svarupa Shakti of the Lord. The expansion of this internal potency is Mahamaya, which refers to the external or inferior potency of the Lord. The difference between the two has been clearly explained in Śrī Nārada Pañcarātra, in the conversation between Sruti and Vidya. It is as follows

jānāty ekā parā-kāntaṁ saiva durgā tad-ātmikā | yā parā paramā śaktir mahā-viṣṇu-svarūpiṇī ||

yasyā vijñāna-mātreṇa parāṇāṁ paramātmanaḥ | muhūrtād eva devasya prāptir bhavati nānyathā ||

ekeyaṁ prema-sarvasva-svabhāvā śrī-kuleśvarī | anayā sulabho jñeya ādi devo’khileśvaraḥ ||

asyā āvarikā śaktir mahā-māyākhileśvarī | yayā mugdhaṁ jagat sarvaṁ sarva-dehābhimānataḥ ||

Yoga-māyā is the svarupa sakti of Lord Visnu. She is completely surrendered and unswerving in devotion to the Lord. Her nature is prema and she rules over Gokula like a queen. One immediately attains the Lord by her mercy.

Her āvaraṇikā-śakti is mahamaya, the controller of the material realm. Through her influence, all jivas identify with their bodies and become bewildered. Maha-māyā is also called Durga, Eka or Ekanamsa.

-Śrī Nārada Pañcarātra, quoted in Sarartha Darshini commentary to Srimad Bhagavatam 10.1.25

In this regard, Srila Prabhupada explains

Yogamaya means the mercy of the Supreme Lord which connects a devotee in the transcendental loving service of the Lord (in dāsya-rasa, sakhya-rasa, vātsalya-rasa, or mādhurya-rasa)

Mahamaya means the external potency of the Lord which puts a conditioned soul into the illusion that he will be happy by material adjustment.

-Letter to Aniruddha, Nov. 14, 1968

The Lord’s potency, viṣṇu-māyā, has two features: āvaraṇikā (covering potency that influences non-devotees) and unmukha (potency that influences pure devotees).

When the Lord appeared, His potency came with Him and acted in different ways. She acted as Yoga-māyā with Yaśodā, Devakī and other intimate relations of the Lord, and she acted in a different way (as a Maha-māyā) with Kaṁsa, Śālva and other asuras.

-Purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 10.2.6

Although the original potency or the energy of the Lord is undividedly one, based on their multifarious functions, they are classified differently. This has been beautifully explained by Srila Prabhupada as follows

Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8). In the Vedas, it is said that the potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are called by different names, such as yoga-māyā and mahā-māyā. Ultimately, however, the Lord’s potency is one, exactly as electric potency is one although it can act both to cool and to heat.

The Lord’s potency acts in both the spiritual and material worlds. In the spiritual world, the Lord’s potency works as yoga-māyā, and in the material world, the same potency works as mahā-māyā, exactly as electricity works in both a heater and a cooler.

In the material world, this potency, working as mahā-māyā, acts upon the conditioned souls to deprive them more and more of devotional service. It is said, yayā sammohito jīva ātmānaṁ tri-guṇātmakam. In the material world, the conditioned soul thinks of himself as a product of tri-guṇa, the three modes of material nature. This is the bodily conception of life.

Because of associating with the three guṇas of material potency, everyone identifies himself with his body. Someone is thinking he is a brāhmaṇa, someone a kṣatriya, and someone a vaiśya or śūdra. Actually, however, one is neither a brāhmaṇa, a kṣatriya, a vaiśya nor a śūdra; one is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord (mamaivāṁśaḥ), but because of being covered by the material energy, mahā-māyā, one identifies himself in these different ways.

When the conditioned soul becomes liberated, however, he thinks himself an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. Jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya-kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa.’ When he comes to that position, the same potency, acting as yoga-māyā, increasingly helps him become purified and devote his energy to the service of the Lord.

-Purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 10.1.25

Example of Yoga-māyā

Let us see a couple of examples of Yoga-māyā employed in relation to protecting the devotees, helping devotees relish the taste of Bhakti Rasa through transcendental bewilderment, and revealing and concealing the transcendental form of the Lord. This Yoga-māyā has also been known as ātma-māyā or daivī prakṛti in Bhagavad Gita. It is basically an expression of Krishna’s knowledge potency (chit shakti). Few examples are as follows

bhagavān api viśvātmā viditvā kaṁsajaṁ bhayam yadūnāṁ nija-nāthānāṁ yoga-māyāṁ samādiśat

To protect the Yadus, His personal devotees, from Kaṁsa’s attack, the Personality of Godhead, Viśvātmā, the Supreme Soul of everyone, ordered Yoga-māyā.- Srimad Bhagavatam 10.2.6

bhagavān api tā rātṛīḥ śāradotphulla-mallikāḥ vīkṣya rantuṁ manaś cakre yoga-māyām upāśritaḥ

Śrī Bādarāyaṇi said: Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, full in all opulences, yet upon seeing those autumn nights scented with blossoming jasmine flowers, He turned His mind toward loving affairs (with the gopīs). To fulfil His purposes, He took shelter of His Yoga-māyā potency - Srimad Bhagavatam 10.29.1

ajo ’pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īśvaro ’pi san prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā

Although My form is unborn and indestructible, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, still, I appear through My yoga-māya potency in My original form of eternality, cognizance and bliss.- Bhagavad Gita 4.6

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ bhajanty ananya-manaso jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature (yoga-māya or internal superior potency). They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.- Bhagavad Gita 9.13

nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ mūḍho ’yaṁ nābhijānāti loko mām ajam avyayam

I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them, I am covered by My yoga-māyā (internal potency), and therefore they do not know that I am unborn and infallible.- Bhagavad Gita 7.25

Yogamaya came to the prison when Kṛṣṇa was born, transferred the seventh child from Devaki’s womb, and put Yasoda into a deep sleep to exchange the two children. These are activities of yogamaya, not mahamaya. Mahamaya does not have the power to transfer her master Balarama to another womb.

Yasoda’s sleep is not the work of mahamaya because the scriptures say that beyond the fourth state of consciousness is the fifth state of prema. The dreaming of Kṛṣṇa’s eternal associates occurs in the state of prema. Their sleep and dreaming are not caused by the modes of nature (gunas). Mahamaya cannot exert any influence over the eternal associates of the Lord.

-Sarartha Darshini commentary to Srimad Bhagavatam 10.1.25

Example of Maha-māyā

The form of Devaki’s daughter that Kamsa tried to kill was Mahamaya, not Yogamaya. Yogamaya does not involve herself with such sinful people.

Mahamaya slipped from Kamsa’s hands, rose up in the sky, and then settled in many places with different names (such as Durgā, Bhadrakālī, Vijayā, Vaiṣṇavī, Kumudā, Caṇḍikā, Kṛṣṇā, Mādhavī, Kanyakā, Māyā, Nārāyaṇī, Īśānī, Śāradā and Ambikā)

The bewilderment of the demons is the action of Mahamaya, and the bewilderment of the devotees is the action of Yogamaya.

-Sarartha Darshini commentary to Srimad Bhagavatam 10.1.25

vilajjamānayā yasya sthātum īkṣā-pathe ’muyā vimohitā vikatthante mamāham iti durdhiyaḥ

The external illusory energy (Maha-māyā) of Kṛṣṇa, known as māyā, is always ashamed to stand in front of Kṛṣṇa, just as darkness is ashamed to remain before the sunshine. However, that māyā bewilders unfortunate people who have no intelligence. Thus they simply boast that this material world is theirs and that they are its enjoyers.- Srimad Bhagavatam 2.5.13

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te

This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.- Bhagavad Gita 7.14

Mahamaya, which controls three gunas, has no jurisdiction over the intimate devotees of Lord Krishna, for the devotees are nirguna (beyond the modes). Those bewildered by mahamaya are all opposed to the Lord. Whereas transcendental bewilderment of the gopis, mother Yashoda, etc are the actions of yoga-Maya, which oversees actions on the nirguna platform.

Those who take shelter of mahamaya cannot cross the samsara, for the job of mahamaya is to present unreal things as real. Only by taking the shelter of yogamaya, one can cross the samsara. Whatever is arranged by yogamaya is all real. This fact has been explained by Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita 7.14 (mama māyā duratyayā- Maha-maya binds us in samsara) and Bhagavad Gita 9.13 (mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ- Yoga-maya liberates us from samsara)

Finally, before concluding my answer, let me quote the following statement of Srila Prabhupada

Both yogamaya and mahamaya are equally important to Krishna as much as any government department is equally important for functioning of the government. The police department may be horrible for the criminals, but to the government it is a department as good as university department. Similarly, mahamaya is horrible to the conditioned soul, but to the liberated soul, there is no fear of mahamaya, because he is protected by yogamaya.

-Letter to Madhusudana -- Montreal 29 July, 1968

[tripsdairy]

Tiruvannamalai is a very famous place both spiritually and historically. The temple is very unique as it is one among pancha bhooda stalam and sung by saiva kuravargal and it is known that the place is very powerful for its god lord Shiva.Heritage place one Shouldn't miss. we just visited to participate in giri valam.This is a 14 Km long trip around the Arunachala hill. Autos are available to ferry you around the hill and take you to the important temples on the way. The road is in excellent condition with plenty of tree cover (mostly neem and tamarind) and the nightly LED lighting makes us feel as if it is daytime.A great experience being in that place. Every fact and things about the place will be mesmerizing. The temple is very vast and huge. The view of Arunachal hill from the temple is very awesome.Must Visit place✨

[sindhuskuchen]

Let’s do lunch for today 😊🤌🏻 ”U learn a lot about someone when u share a meal together” 🍽️😊

Lunch plate:

🍚 Rice

🍚 Cabbage kofta curry

🍚 Cabbage kofta

🍚 Veg fish fry /saiva meen varuval

🍚 Banana blossom stir fry/ Vazhaipoo poriyal