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Sri Balabhadra Stavarajam - Garga Samhita Sasnkrit
Dear All,
Greetings and Namaste. Akshaya Trityai is round the corner (24-Apr-2012, Tuesday) and Sri Balarama Jayanthi also falls on the same day. In this connection, I am happy to share a couple of rare Stotras.
Stotras Attached
1. Sri Balabhadra Stotrarajam – Sri Garga Samhita – A short but very rare royal prayer on Lord Balabhadra (Lord Balarama) from Sri Garga Samhita, Balabhadra Khanda.
2. Sri Lakshmi Stotram – Skanda Puranam – this is a short prayer on Goddess Lakshmi by Devas as found in Skanda Purana, Vaishnava Khanda, Venkatachala Mahatmya.
Both the prayers, though short, are said to bestow immense benefits to the chanter that befits the auspicious occasion of Balarama Jayanthi cum Akshaya Trityai.
Lord Balarama
· Though Lord Balarama is an avatar of Lord Vishnu, I have not seen any major prayers/hymns on this Avatar apart from Garga Samhita, which contains a separate Khanda titled Balabhadra Khanda, though short one.
· In this Khanda, the attached hymn is followed two more chapters which contain a rare Balabhadra Kavacham and Balabhadra Sahasranama. I will reserve these two for future sharing.
· There are not many temples on Lord Balarama. I am aware of only 3 temples all located within Orissa in/around Puri (Puri Jagannath Temple which contains both Balarama and Krishna as main deities, Kendrapara Baladevjew Temple, Anantha Vasudev Temple, Bhubaneshwar where both Balarama/Krishna are worshipped together like Puri).
Akshaya Trityai
· This is one of the most auspicious and sacred days in the Hindu year.
· Puranas mention that the efficacy of any good deeds performed on this auspicious day is claimed to get magnified manifold – be it prayers to Lord, genuine help rendered to the needy, service of the Lord at holy places, and the like.
· Thanks but no thanks to the marketing gimmicks of famous jewellers (originally in India but now all over the world!) a false materialistic propaganda has come into vogue – that one who buys gold on this day accumulates more gold! One can’t imagine the kind of frenzy that takes place on this day to buy gold.
· Not sure whether one really gets more gold or not, but definitely one gets more materialistic and greedy!! I recently read a beautiful posting by Shriman V Lakshmanan Swamin of USA about the five places Lord mentions as the places where Kali should live and Gold is one of them!
· This is a classic example of how religion and religious practices with noble purpose are twisted beyond recognition as if the current practices are genuine!! After a while, it is quite likely that the original purpose could be lost and only the mutilated practices will remain as has happened with so many such similar practices!!!
· If you try to explore, we may get questions, “why do you question this practice? We have always been doing this way”. The “We have always been doing this way” syndrome can affect any walk of like – an interesting real-life anecdote from a book on this topic:
· In 18th/19th century, a division of US army engaged a management consulting firm to find out ways of improving the number of shots that can be fired from a mounted canon as all the internal attempts to improve the rate failed. The consultants were totally new to military and they spent some days observing the end-to-end processes of mounting, firing, reloading of canons, etc. They were not quite sure why the person firing the round loads the bullets, jumps up, moves a couple of steps back, and kneels down before firing each round. When they enquired the military officials including the top brass, they got the answer, “it is our procedure and we have always been doing this way!” When they referred to old military manuals they found that canons used to be mounted on horseback long before and they had to move back in order not to get kicked by the horse when a round is fired!! But the canon is mounted on concrete and stable stands but the practice continued with “We have always been doing this way syndrome!”
· The day is best spent on Lord worship so that we accrue “real” wealth.
May The Almighty bless us all,
With best regards/wishes,
K. Muralidharan (Murali)
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