Lord Ganesha

One day Goddess Parvati on the mountain kailash was preparing for a bath. And she did not want to be disturbed by any one, she asked Nandi, who is her husband Shiva's Bull, to guard the door and not to let any one in. Nandi aggred parvati order and took his post. But,later when Shiva came to home and naturally he wished to come inside, Nandi had no option but to let him pass in, as he being loyal first to lord Shiva. Parvati was angry as nandi didn't oney her orders, she taught of making another person to gaurd her door. So, she took the turmeric paste (for bathing) from her body and gave life into it, she created Ganesha, declared him to be her own son.

The next time when Parvati wished to take bathe, she asked Ganesha to guard at the door and asked not to allow anyone inside. later after some time Shiva came to home, then the boy didn't allow shiva in to his own house,later Shiva got angry and ordered his army to remove the boy from his house entrance, but everyone of them failed!

As he was the son of parvati he had all the powers to defend himself.later lord shiva was surprised on seeing this. Then he taught he was no ordinary boy, and decided to fight him, and in the fight with shiva Ganesh lost his head when lord shiva used his trishul, killing him on the place where he was. later Parvati came to know the news of his son ganesh's death, she was angry that she taught of destroying the entire universe! then Lord Brahma, being the Creator,taught of solving the solution, and wished her not to become angry as he would give a solution to bring back his son to life.She agreed and gave a condition that he should be brought back to life and also all the gods should forever worship lord ganesha.

Later lord shiva realised his mistake of unknowingly killing his own son, agreed to Parvati's conditions. He asked lord Brahma to bring a head of the first creature that he crosses which is laying with its head facing North. Brahma soon came with the head of a strong and powerful baby elephant, Then later Shiva placed the elephant's head onto Ganesha's body. And gave life to it, he declared Ganesha as his own son, and he will be worshipped by all the gods.

Goddess Laxmi

Goddess Lakshmi is one of the Hindu Goddess, popularly known as Goddess of wealth,Love,fortune and beauty. She is the consort of Lord Vishnu.When Lord Vishnu took various incarnations, then Goddess Lakshmi also took various incarnations to be his consort.Like for Lord Rama(She came as Sita),Lord Venkateshwara(She came as alamelu),Lord Krishna(she came as Rukmini).And also along with Rukmini, she was also believed to have incarnated as Radha.

Story Of Goddess Lakshmi's appearance:

In an ancient story there was a sage named Durvasa who is very short tempered.Once he presented Lord Indra(the king of gods) with a flower garland which will never dry.Then Indra gave this garland to his elephant(Airavata).Then the sage Durvasa saw the elephant crushing the divine garland and then seeing that he cursed lord Indra as he had shown his disrespect to the sage.Then the sage cursed Indra that he along with other gods would lose their power.As soon as the curse was applied the demons came and conquered the heaven as the gods have no power to defend them.

Then later the gods went to lord Brahma and asked him for help, seeing them lord Brahma advised the gods to churn the ocean of milk(ksheersagar) so as to obtain the nectar of immortality.Then later the gods went to Lord vishnu and asked his assistance.Accepting to help the gods lord vishnu took the Avatar of kurma(Tortoise) and gave support to the Manthara parvata(Mountain) which acted as a churning Rod.Vasuki the king of serpents acted as a churning rope.The Gods and demons came to a deal under the leadership of king Bali chakravarti and pious to help each other to churn the ocean of milk.

While churning the ocean first of among the divine gifts Goddess Lakshmi appeared from the ocean and later choosed lord vishnu as her consort.As he only can control the illusion.As a reason lakshmi is called as the daughter of sea.

Some times she is also seen in two forms Bhudevi and sridevi.Bhudevi who is also called as mother earth and sridevi is also called the goddess of wealth and knowledge.

Names of Goddess Lakshmi:

Goddess laxmi has many names, some of the names are

Padma: Known as lotus dweller

Kamala: Known as lotus dweller

Padmapriya: one who likes lotuses

Prayers of Goddess Lakshmi:

Lakshmi stotram or Mahalakshmi stotram is one of the power full mantras of goddess lakshmi, chanting this mantra one can gain wealth and prosperity.

"Om sri Maha Lakshmi Namaha"

Goddess Parvati

Goddess parvati is the consort of lord shiva,who is also know to be the controller of the universe.Goddess parvati was married to lord shiva after the death of sati,who took reincarnation as parvati.

Goddess sati was first wife of lord shiva and daughter of Daksha.But Daksha was opposed to their marriage.The marriage made him angry so much that he didn't even gave an invitation to his daughter sati and son in law lord shiva to attend the yagna conducted by him.He had gave invitation to all the other gods to attend the yagna.As a result this deeply made her feel sad,but also choose to attend the yagna uinvited.When she reached the place of yagna,her father ridiculed and insulted her for marrying shiva.

Unable to bear the insult and ridicule of her father she jumped herself into the fire that was kept for religious sacrifice.when shiva came to know the news about the death of his wifehe flew into a rage and destroyed the yagna and killed Daksha.shiva was in so angry that he took his wife body on his shoulders and destroyed what ever came in his path.

Lord vishnu in an attempt to stop lord shiva, used his chakra to cut the dead body of sati in to pieces,than these pieses fell down in various places on the earth and now are called as sakthi peethas.Then later lord shiva went back to his cave for meditation.In his absence the demons took a chance to attack the gods and drove them away from gods kingdoms.Then lord Indra accompanied with othe gods went to goddess shakti to help them defeat the demons and restore their rule in the heaven.

Goddess shakti told the gods that only the son of shiva would be able to defeat the demons,she also informed them that sati will be taking another incarnation of parvati and bring back shiva from his cave.As said by goddess shakti sati took the incarnation of goddess parvati and born as daughter of Himavan and mena who was the king of mountains.From her young age she wanted to marry shiva, she would visit him in the mountains but was unable break his meditation, so she used to clean the cave,but he did not move with her devotion.

Then goddess parvti desided to undertake a penance in a forest so as to win lord shiva.Seenin the penance,lord brahma appeared before her and granted her the wish to marry lord shiva.when she retrned back to the cave shiva saw her and overwhelmed by her beauty and fell in love with her.After this they decided to marry and out of their union was born lord karthikeya who defeated the demons as promised given to the gods.

Lord Ayappa

Once upon a time there was a demon named Mahishasura, he used to do all the evil things like killing innocent people and destroying huts through his powers.As Mahishasura was blessed with a boon that he cannot be killed by any male gods(invulnerability to men) all the gods of the heaven went to goddess Durga to help them from the evil demon.Then Goddess Durga accepted the gods wish and went to fight Mahishasura and killed him.Later on hearing the news of his brother's death Mahishi started performing a Tapasya(Meditation).On seeing the Tapasya lord brahma appeared before Mahishi and granted her the boon of ruling the universe and cannot be killed by any one except a person born in union of male and male.As such a person did not exist she thought she was safe and began plundering and conquring the world.

During the churning of milky ocean to get nectar lord vishnu took the form of mohini,on seeing mohini lord shiva fell in love with her.In their union lord ayyappa was born,as he combines in him the powers of lord vishnu and lord shiva.They left the boy in a forest near the river called pampa.

There was a king named Rajasekara,once he went to hunting in the same forest beside the river pampa.During his hunting he heard a baby crying,when king rajashekara went to the place from where the noice heard,he saw a baby boy who was left by lord shiva and vishnu.On seeing the child the king felt very happy as he did not have any children and took the baby to the kingdom along with him.The king and the queen were very happy as they prayed to lord shiva for a child.He was given a name Manikanta as he was born with a bell around his neck.

In the palace he was taught all vedas and martial arts and the guru was surprised by seeing his brilliance and extraordinary talents.The guru came to know that he was not an ordinary child but a divine power.After completing his education manikanta went to his gurus house and sought his blessings.Then Guru told his sad story as his only son was dumb and speechless.On seeing his son manikanta went to him and placed his hand over his head,immediately his son got the speech to speak.

Meanwhile at the palace the queen gave birth to a male child.Later after few years the king decided to crown his eldest son manikanta as the king.He asked his minister to make arrangements for it.As the Minister was jelous about making manikant the next king, he tried all attempts to kill manikanta,but he failed,then he went to the queen and told her that she had her own son and advised her making manikanta as the king is not correct when her own son was ready for it.Then the minister asked the queen to act as if she was having a sever stomach pain and asked the physician to tell that the king that only tigress milk can cure the stomach pain,as manikanta only can go to forest and will be in danger with the wild animals and the queen's son can become the king.The queen started to act as if she is having a sever stomach pain,later the king asked the minister to bring a physician to treat.As planned the minester brought the physician and made him to tell that only tigress milk can cure her stomach pain.

Then manikanta realized that the time has come for him to go to the forest as he was born to kill mahishi althoug the king didn't want him to go to forest.In the forest Manikanta encountered with the demon mahishi and killed her.And lord Indra felt happy and took the form of tigress and came to the palace along with Manikanta.Seeing manikanta coming on the tigress the king felt very happy and came to know it was a plot by the minister and the queen to kill him she acted.Later manikanta sot an arrow that fell at the top of sabarimala and asked the king to construct a temple at sabarimala.

Lord Brahma

Lord Brahma is the first of the hindu trinity,he also known as the creator god.He has a vechile that is peacockor some times swan or goose.One of the popular piimirage site in india where lord Brahma was worshipped is in Pushkar(In Rajasthan).He is also popularly being worshiped in Thailand and Bali.

It is belived that Lord brahma was born from a from a golden egg and he is the one who created good and bad and light and dark.He is the one who made all the living creatures on the earth and has the control over them.His consort is Goddess Saraswathi who is know as the power of knowledge and speech.

Brahma is the one who created women and the death.It is said that " a woman is a power ful fire and is a sharp edge of a razor,she is also described as a poison,a serpant and death that inccludes all of them.The gods had a fear that men may become so strong that it might be danger to themselves,so they asked brahma the option to avoid this danger.In order to solve this problem lord brahma created women.

Brahma is often seen in red with four hand which is the symbol of to the creation of four vedas.Actually Lord brahma had five heads,but in the fight with lord shiva he lost one of his head,when lord shiva opened his third eye to burn one of his head.Brama is often represented with four hands.one of the right hand holds a brahma tandram,a disk in a oval shape along with a beaded rim also known as a sacrificial ladel that is used to mark men's foreheads with their future.one left hand holds a cleansing vase and the other right hand holds a rosary which is made of rudraksham seeds.

He is often seen sitting on a lotus flower which came from lord vishnu's navel.He is also worshipped all over the world in many countries.In cambodian art he is known as prahprohm who is again representd with four heads and also seen riding on a sacred goose which is also known as "hamsa"As a reason it is referred as Hansavahana.In Tibet, is known as Tshangs-pa or white Brahma,who is seen riding on a horse and some times on a white bull carrying a sword in his hands.

Celebrating Goddess Lakshmi puja at home

Diwali is one of my favourite festivals. It is mainly related to the Hindu religion. It is said that lord Rama after killing the demon named Ravanasura at Lanka returned to his kingdom Ayodhya(Now in uttrapradesh). On his return people were happy for their kings return and celebrated the festival Diwali by lightning all the houses with lamps.

Each year the festival Diwali occurs in the month of October or November on the new moon day. On this day most of the Hindu religion people offer their salutations to Goddess Lakshmi by drawing Rangoli designs and performing puja inside their homes, to seek blessings from her for the coming days ahead with wealth and fortune.

Lakshmi is the Goddess of wealth and beauty, she also represents the way to truth,prosperity and harmony. She is also worshipped daily by billions of Hindus around the world. She is also considered as universal Goddess.

During the festival of Diwali children burst crackers and some of them hit pots and pans to scare of Lakshmi's dark sister Alakshmi. Then women draw Rangoli designs, such as Diwali rangoli,flower rangoli designs,free hand rangoli designs etc inside and outside of their homes. Some women light small lamps in front of their doors and windows to offer Goddess Lakshmi, to help her find her way to their homes.

On the day of Diwali Lakshmi is honoured with worship with Abishekam,Homam and puja. On this day people place their account books,money and sweets hoping that their financial year will boost in the coming days of the year. On this day people also visit temples by taking sweets and offering prayers to her.

One of the most powerful mantras of Goddess Lakshmi is

"Om Sri Maha Lakshmi Namaha"

This mantra when spelled Goddess Lakshmi will shower her blessings with wealth and prosperity to her devotees.

• This mantra of Goddess Lakshmi is to be chanted at least once a day.
• It is said that people when chant this mantra, Goddess Lakshmi will be pleased and immediately shower her blessings to her devotees in the form of wealth and fortune.

we can also chant Mahalakshmi stotram, which is one of the most powerful mantras used while performing puja to Goddess Lakshmi.