LING PURANA: IMPORTANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS

Reading Ling Purana provides bhog and moksha to the reader and listeners. It is about Shiva's sermon to Brahma when Shiva entered the Agni Ling and preached about Dharma sidhhi through the stories of Agni Kalp.

SHAKTA DHARMA AND THEIR ACHARYAS

Śhākta or Shakti or Devi pooja is not a new upasana. It is being carried out right from the time of Vedic period. Puran's tell us that Rishi Vashishth would worship Tara devi. Parshuram ji worshipped Tripura devi,

Agastya learned the secrets of Shri Vidya from Vishnu ji in Hayagriva avtaar. Bhagwan Ram, Laxman and Krishna too learned the tantrik vidya. Even Rig Ved 7.103.5 Sayan Bhasya also mentions about Śhākta/शाक्त(शाक्तस्येव शक्तिमतः).

Then we find that in the Harrappan excavations many figurines depicting Shakti were found. So in that age too, which was supposedly an urban city shakti was being worshipped. So naturally this tradition would be prevalent in rural areas too.

It is wrong to say that shakti puja originated from Bengal although it was popular there. Matsyendranath received this vidya from Maheshwari herself in Kamrup. We know that Shakti pooja is practised all over India.

Not much is known about the Śhākta saints in other parts of India in the middle ages.

Adi Shankaracharya wrote Pramanech saar named book on tantra and Anand lahri book on Devi strotras. Then there were Acharya Shankar, Bhaskar Rai, Laxman, Deshikendra, Raghav Bhatt, Krishnand,

SHRI GOSWAMI TULSIDAS

It is believed that whenever society is oppressed, depressed and feels helpless, it calls out for help from Parmatma. The cries and pleas, when mixed with true devotion and true feelings are always answered by Parmatma.

Either he comes as avtaar or he sends his Representative to heal the society.

So when Goswami ji appeared the society was facing the same type of crisis. He brought about a calmness through his healing touch expressed through his writings which oozed positivity.

He presented Ishwar as saviour who always stood for his bhakts. His language of writing was the then used dialect understood by all. Anyone could read and find answers and solace in it. Other poets were busy pleasing the wily rulers.

Tulsidas is believed to be avtaar of Valmiki.

He was born in Vikram samvat 1554 in Banda district in a village called Rajapur to Atma ram Dubey and Hulsi. He was born with all his teeth intact and did not cry at birth. He was named Tularam.

Goswami ji himself mentioned his date of birth.

पंद्रह से चौवन बिषै, कालिंदी के तीर।
स्त्रावन शुक्ला सप्तमी, तुलसी धरेउ सरीर।।

He was married to Budhimati in Vikram samvat 1583. He was very attached to his wife.

SHRI NIMBARKACHARYA THREAD

There is a dispute as to the birth date of Nimbarkji. Some of his followers believe him to be born in Dwapar yug as it is believed that Nimbark himself mentioned in his bhashya the names of Narad and sanat Kumars.

They also believe that in Nimbarkacharya's upnayan sanskar it was Narad who preached to him Shri Gopal mantra and taught him Shri Bhu leela and Krishnopasana. Therefore Narad is believed to be his guru and his sect is known as Sankadik sampraday. Some followers believe him

to being born in fifth century. But modern historians fixed his date to eleventh century. But it does not matter which date he was born. Important is to know about Nimarkacharya divinity.

He was born in South near the Godavari banks in Vaiduryapattan in Arunashram

to Arun muni and Jayanti devi.

His sect is also known as DWAITADWAITVAD. This is a very old sect. But due to his talent, behaviour and experiences it was known after him. He is supposed to be reincarnate of Vishnu's weapon Sudarshan Chakra.

He was named Niyamanand.

But why was he known as Nimbark can be explained through this story. Once when he was residing in Mathura on Yamuna banks, a Dandi swami or a jain sadhu came to meet him. Their discussion prolonged for a long time and both realized it was sunset. The sage would have to

#Thread When Mahabali Bali, who drew half the power of the enemy, faced Hanumanji.

The Ramayana has an interesting episode of the war of Hanuman and Bali. This passage offers many lessons. No matter how strong a person becomes, no matter how rich he should be, he should not boast.

Bali had the boon that whoever comes before him for war, half of his strength will be absorbed in Bali. On the basis of this boon, Bali beat the big warriors to dust.

Bali used to challenge people here and there. One day, he was screaming in the forest that who can beat me.

Hanumanji was doing penance in the same forest and was reciting the name of his adorable Lord Rama. Bali's shouting disrupted his austerity. He said to Bali, Vanar Raj you are very strong, no one can beat you, but why are you screaming like this?

One defining feature of many Christian men today is the effeminate practice of covert and evasive speech.

Even worse is the fact that this manner of speaking is widely seen as the moral, "charitable," and polite manner of speech, to be praised, encouraged, & emulated.
(Thread)

The essence of this effeminate style in the evangelical man is the strategic avoidance of taking personal responsibility for (or "owning") what he has to say.

This goal (the evasion of responsibility) is achieved through various tactics calculated against clarity & precision...

Rather than saying exactly what he means in a clear, and unequivocal, manner, the polite evangelical man will hint at his meaning through innuendo and implication––so as to alway maintain the plausible deniability that he didn't mean the controversial thing he meant...

Or, if he does speak clearly with unambiguous moral authority, he will be sure to leave the object of his criticism unclear. The object of his criticism––whether a person, or an idea––will always remain abstract, theoretical, and disconnected from any specifics or concretes...

By implementing the right degree of unclarity on either the nature of his criticism, or on the object of it, he ensures that the right people in his audience will be emboldened and endeared toward him, but that he will never have to defend or substantiate what he has said...

BRAHMA VAIVARTA PURAN: IMPORTANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS.

This Puran introduces us to way of Vedas. On the request of Narad Muni Bhagwan Saavarni had preached this Puran. It is a summary of Dharma, Arth, Moksha etc.

Listening to this Puran one gets automatically attached to Vishnu and Shiva and realize that there is no difference between them. Vyasji divided this book into four parts. It has eighteen thousand shlokas. This whole book is in the form of dialogue between Suutji and Maharishi's.

The first part Brahmkhand, consists of Shrishti description. Here Shri is known as Para Brahma and description of Gokul is also mentioned, It also narrates the argument between Brahma and Narad in which both were defeated, and then Narad went to Shiva to attain more gyan.

Shivji advised him to go to Bhagwan Saavarni for this. Narad goes to Saavarni ashram to seek Knowledge and is totally amazed by the sorroundings.

Next is Prakriti khand which consists of dialogue between Narad and Saavarni where they discuss the

Importance of Shri Krishna through various stories. Then there is the discussion of Prakriti and its various hues. Listening to this gets you wealth.
Next is Ganesh Khand which describes the Punyak vrat done by Parvati ji. After this it narrates the birth of Kartikeya and Ganesh.

Here is a special thread introducing our series on “The Making of the Islamic World.” It offers 10 episodes about the transformation of Islamicate societies between the 7th and 17th centuries. You can find the series page here: https://t.co/7mL9eWmMmz

This is Chris Gratien posting. I created this series during Fall 2020 for my students as asynchronous material supported by readings and discussion. This is going to be a long thread, but it will be a great shortcut for those looking to make similar use of these materials.

There are two items worth pointing out: 1. This is an overview of the political, social, and cultural history of Islamicate societies. It does not deal with the origins of Islam or many theological questions. It does discuss Islam’s spread and the transformation of Islamic law.

2. This is the first part of a two-part sequence that takes the history of the Islamic world into the present. It emphasizes developments and themes that have particular relevance for later periods.

This is really a multivocal narrative of Islamic history. We feature over 20 scholars from almost as many institutions. Many of those who worked on it, myself included, study the early modern and modern era but have teaching obligations that take us further back in history.