Right now 17.41h
November 1

0% full After this the new moon will come…

Happy Diwali

Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights extends over five days and celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance, although the actual legends that go with the festival are different in different parts of India.

Tomorrow November 1. will be the third day of the festival. On this day people worship Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, and express their gratitude for previous favors.
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Off course these days are auspicious dates for meditation.

Last year we saw the preparations for Durga Puja in Varanasi but during the festival we were already back home.
The nine-day period from the new moon day to the ninth day of Ashvina is considered the most auspicious time of the Hindu Calendar and is hence the most celebrated time of the year known as Durga Puja (4-11 October). The festival celebrates the triumph of good over evil.
Goddess Durga represents a united front of all Divine forces against the negative forces of evil and wickedness. The gods in heaven decided to create an all-powerful being to kill the demon king Mahishasur who was ready to attack them. At that very moment a stream of lightning dazzled forth from the mouths of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh and it turned into a beautiful, magnificent woman with ten hands. Then all the gods furnished her with their special weapons. The image of Durga, the Eternal Mother destroying the demon, Mahishasur is symbolic of the final confrontation of the spiritual urge of man with his baser passions.

Durga, in Sanskrit means “She who is incomprehensible or difficult to reach.” Goddess Durga is a form of Shakti worshipped for her gracious as well as terrifying aspect. The Goddess Durga is Mother of the Universe, she represents the infinite power of the universe and is a symbol of a female dynamism. [LINK]

Originally uploaded by
Jennifer Esperanza.

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Some frequent yoga blogging going on here.
Look at this very sensual marked tree.
“The yoni marking on the Manasa Devi tree reveals that it is the natural manifested residence of the Goddess (Kali). Such places are considered ideal for Tantric meditation and worship.”

Seen at Kali Mandir

This is a WordPress 1.5 test. I upgraded my blog software and so far everything seems to be working fine. Some missing images and a lot of validation errors. But this blogpage has no problems if you browse with Mozilla. I don’t like Internet Explorer anyway; you should discard it.

Young Sculptors
Originally uploaded by Me!.

I took this picture in India last September. Varanasi is sprawled with Shiva Lingams. In meditation we call it the “seat of the mind”.

“The non anthropomorphic Lingam form of Shiva is what is held in reverence in temples all over the Indian sub continent. The Lingam is a symbol. It is a symbol of that which is invisible yet omnipresent. It is hence a a visible symbol of the Ultimate Reality which is present in us (and in all objects of creation ).” text from Templenet.