WHY DO WE HAVE BELLS IN TEMPLES?

Everything that is used during a Hindu Puja Ritual plays a vital role in healing the body, mind and soul. Today I will tell you about the significance of the temple bells. Did you ever wonder why do we have bells in temples and why are they rung?

Hindu Scripture of Agama Shastra states;
"आगमारथम्तु देवानाम
गमनार्थम्तु राक्षसाम
कुर्वे घन्टारवम तत्रा
देवत: वाहना लक्षणम "
Which translates to,'I ring this bell invoking the Gods &Goddesses,so that noble&virtuous forces enter my house&the evil forces that lay within depart'.

The body of the bell illustrates infinity meaning 'Ananth' in Sanskrit, while the tongue of the Ghanti represents Goddess Saraswati. The bell's handle represents Hanuman, Garuda,Nandi or Chakra and is considered to be the essential life force known as 'Prana Shakti'.

Bell(Ghanta) is indispensable for the Hindu Poojas. A well designed 'Ghanta' that is made as per the procedures mentioned in Agama Shastra when rung produces the Divine sound'OM'which produces positive frequencies and vibrations around the place.

The Temple bell's soothing sound effect is such that the Divine enters u &all demonic forces within ur soul departs. Bells r rung before commencing the Puja, during Aarti,during chanting mantras&verses from the holy scriptures,while waving oil lamps &offering ablation to Deities.

Do you Know?

The first ever commercial space hotel, Voyager Station, aims to open by 2027. Accommodating 280 guests and 112 crew members, the project is being planned by Orbital Assembly Corporation, a construction company run by John Blincow.

The station will be OAC's first major project, and the first commercial space station with artificial gravity.
Construction of the 50,000-square-meter Voyager facility will start in 2026, and OAC aims to welcome the first passengers to the hotel in 2027.

The team explains that the project is made possible by opening up low Earth orbit and beyond to construction, resource harvesting, development, and infrastructure.
OAC is planning to serve up traditional ‘space food’ like freeze dried ice cream,..

...while they also aim to have recreational spaces for activities like basketball, taking advantage of weightlessness in space. No room rates have been announced, but the team hopes to one day make the cost similar to a cruise ticket.

The first element of the rotating hotel to be built will be a central un-pressurized ring structure that will contain the docking hub. An outer ring truss will connect to the central ring by a network of spokes, and from there it will have 24 habitation modules.

🌺आचमन क्या है और इसे तीन बार ही क्यों किया जाता है ?🌺

पूजा, यज्ञ आदि आरंभ करने से पूर्व शुद्धि के लिए मंत्र पढ़ते हुए जल पीना ही आचमन कहलाता है। इससे मन और हृदय की शुद्धि होती है।

धर्मग्रंथों में तीन बार आचमन करने के संबंध में कहा गया है।

प्रथमं यत् पिवति तेन ऋग्वेद प्रीणाति। यद् द्वितीयं तेन यजुर्वेदं प्रीणाति यद् तृतीयं तेन सामवेदं प्रीणाति॥

अर्थात् तीन बार आचमन करने से तीनों वेद यानी-ऋग्वेद,यजुर्वेद,सामवेद प्रसन्न होकर सभी मनोकामनाएं पूर्ण करते हैं।
मनु महाराज के मतानुसार
त्रिराचामेदपः पूर्वम्।
-मनुस्मृति2/60

अर्थात् सबसे पहले तीन बार आचमन करना चाहिए। इससे कंठशोषण दूर होकर, कफ़ निवृत्ति के कारण श्वसन क्रिया में व मंत्रोच्चारण में शुद्धता आती है। इसीलिए प्रत्येक धार्मिक कृत्य के शुरू में और संध्योपासन के मध्य बीच-बीच में अनेक बार तीन की संख्या में आचमन का विधान बनाया गया है।

इसके अलावा यह भी माना जाता है कि इससे कायिक, मानसिक और वाचिक तीनों प्रकार के पापों की निवृत्ति होकर न दिखने वाले फल की प्राप्ति होती है।

अंगूठे के मूल में ब्रह्मतीर्थ, कनिष्ठा के मूल प्रजापत्यतीर्थ, अंगुलियों के अग्रभाग में देवतीर्थ, तर्जनी और अंगूठे के बीच पितृतीर्थ और

हाथ के मध्य भाग में सौम्यतीर्थ होता है, जो देवकर्म में प्रशस्त माना गया है। आचमन हमेशा ब्रह्मतीर्थ से करना चाहिए। आचमन करने से पहले अंगुलियां मिलाकर एकाग्रचित्त यानी एकसाथ करके पवित्र जल से बिना शब्द किए 3 बार आचमन करने से महान फल मिलता है। आचमन हमेशा 3 बार करना चाहिए।

Do you know?

The Lonar Lake also known as Lonar Crater is the world's third largest Mateorite lake located in Buldhana district of Maharashtra.

Around this Crater there are almost 12 Mandir of Mahadev.

हर हर महादेव...🙏🌺🙏

Approximately 52,000 years ago, a 60m wide meteorite weighing 2 megatons made an impact which formed a circular crater 1800 meters in diameter and 150 meters deep in Buldhana district of Maharashtra.  This crater is the only hypervelocity meteoritic impact crater on basalt...

...rock and the lake that formed on it is both saline and alkaline in nature.  It is also the third largest Crater Lake in the world. 

Known as the Lonar Lake, the crater has been described in many ancient texts such as RigVeda, Ramayana, Puranas etc.

The Skanda Purana states that a demon named Lonasur used to reside here with his sisters and harassed the people in the area who appealed to Lord Vishnu to destroy him.  Lord Vishnu took the form of his avatar named Daityasudan and slayed the demon.

It is believed that the water of Lonar Lake gets its colour from the mixing of his blood &the salts through his flesh.

The Lonar area has been a part of various kingdoms ruled by Ashoka,Satavahana, Chalukya,Rashtrakuta, Mughals,Yadavas,Nizams, Marathas &the British respectively.

🌺Do you know the great King of Bahraich named Suheldev?
Here's his story.🌺

The Ghznavid invasions had crippled India like no other invasion ever before. Mahmud of Ghzni was perhaps one of the first invaders to actually dent the strong Indian defences after alexander the great.

But ultimately he couldn’t follow up with the empire as his kingdom stopped at the north western region of India.

His nephew, Salar Masud would go on to continue his dream of raiding and plundering India every single year.

As a young upstart, Salar showed ferocity just like his uncle while his martial fervour eclipsed even that of his warrior ancestors.

At a young age of 16 he led his army to capture various parts of northern India including Ajmer and Delhi by the help of the Ghaznavid Army.

His eastward expansion continued till he reached the region of Bahraich.

Throughout his journey, the bardic tales states that he plundered temples and monasteries, showing to the populace how weak their local rulers were.

But this king of Shravastavi was different.

Suheldev was the valiant son of Mordhwaj and a very just ruler.

He was the one who united all the northern kingdoms under one rule to oppose the oncoming assault.

Govardhan Pooja is also called Annakut (meaning a heap of grain) and is celebrated as the day Sri Krishn defeated Indradev by lifting the Govardhan Parbat. It is the fourth day of Deepawali, the Hindu festival of lights.

Happy Govardhan 🙏🌺

According to the legends, Bhagwan Krishn taught people to worship the Supreme Controller of nature, God, specifically Govardhan, as Govardhan is a manifestation of Sri Krishn himself, and to stop worshiping the God of Rains, Indradev.

For Annakut, a mountain of food, is decorated symbolizing Govardhan Parbat said to be lifted by Sri Krishn to save the people from the wrath of Indradev, the God in charge of rain and thunder.

In Haryana, there is a tradition of building cow dung hillocks, which symbolize the Govardhan Parbat, the mountain which was once lifted by Bhagwan Krishn. After making such hillocks people decorate them with flowers and then worship them.

They move in a circle all round the cow dung hillocks and offer prayers to Govardhan.
Govardhan pooja forms an important part of the Deepawali celebration. In Maharashtra,it is celebrated as Padva or Bali Pratipada.The day commemorates King Bali.

As the name suggests, MINIATURE PAINTINGS are colorful handmade paintings very small in size. One of the outstanding features of these paintings is the intricate brushwork which contributes to their unique identity.

The colors used in the paintings are derived from various natural sources like vegetables, indigo, precious stones, gold and silver. While artists all around the world convey their respective theme through their paintings, the most common theme used in the miniature..

..paintings of India comprises of the Ragas or a pattern of musical notes, and religious and mythological stories. Miniature paintings are made on a very small scale especially for books or albums. These are executed on materials, such as paper and cloth.

The Palas of Bengal are considered the pioneers of miniature painting in India. The tradition of miniature paintings was further taken forward by the artists of various Rajasthani schools of painting, including the Kishangarh, Bundi Jaipur, Mewar and Marwar.

Natural stone colours are used in a paper-based “wasli” for the creation of these paintings. The miniature paintings have developed into several distinct schools of miniature like Mughal, Rajasthan, Deccan, Kangra, Malwa, Pahadi, etc.

🌺Vastu Shastra: The ancient Science of Home and Prosperity building.🌺

Vastu Shastra, the ancient system of building construction incorporates traditional Hindu beliefs. The designs of Vastu Shastra aims to integrate architecture with the environment, the relative functions...

...of various parts of the buildings and antique theories operating symmetrical patterns (yantra) and maneuvering placements.

Basically,Vastu Shastra is the literal part of Vastu Vidya–the wider knowledge about building construction & design scheme models from earliest history.

It is not something that deals with permanent procedures and plans but instead defines a theory of various designs, the pool of thoughts and perceptions, with different types of layout, figures, and sketches.

These ideas are mostly the collections of the internal decor,building outlook, gardening, and house plan.
The term Vastu is composed of two Sanskrit words ‘Vastu’ and ‘Shastra’where Vastu means house, habitation, building on land or ground and Shastra means teaching or doctrine.

Hence, Vastu Shastra is the doctrine of designing houses.
Vastu Shastra is an old scientific theory that is over 5000 years old. The texts on Vastu Shastra can be found back in 1500-1000 BCE.

Varanasi means the holy land between the Varuna and Assi tributaries of the Ganga. Varuna, still flowing in northern Varanasi, and Assi, today a small stream in the southern part of the city, near Assi Ghat. There are plans to revive the Assi river.

Assi Ghat is one of the most popular ghats in Varanasi, visited regularly by both tourists and locals. It is located in the southern part of the holy city of Varanasi at the confluence of Ganga and Assi rivers.

This ghat finds a mention in various Hindu scriptures like Kurma Purana, Matsya Purana, Padma Purana and Agni Purana.

According to the ancient history, it is said that the Goddess Durga had thrown her sword in Assi River after killing the demon Shumbha-Nishumbha.

That’s why the place has been named as Assi Ghat as it is located at the union of the River Ganga and Assi River.

Assi ghat is described in Kashi Khand as Assi “Saimbeda Tirtha” means the one who gets a dip here once in his life will get Punya of all the Tirtha's.

Gadisar Lake was built as a reservoir in around 12th-13th AD by the then ruler Raja Rawal Jaisal. He belonged to one of the bluest among the royal blood of Rajasthan and was the first king of the state and city of Jaisalmer.

#DekhoApnaDesh

It can be easily assumed that the lake was dug up to make up for the aridity of the region.

Because of a specific gradient of the land there, the area where the lake stands automatically was able to gather and retain some rainwater, whatever little it was there.

In time, the lake became the life-saving source of water in Jaisalmer, acting as a reservoir and water conservation system. It was successful in fighting the water scarcity to a great extent.

For this reason, many people believe it was a natural oasis in the middle of Indian Thar desert, but it is very much a manmade one.

The pristine lake got its name from its renovator Maharawal Gadsi Singh who revamped the whole area in 1400 AD.

It is said that the additional chhatris and a couple of shrines were his addition to the simple body of water. The lake was later named after him and got called Gadsisar Lake or Gadisar Lake.

In the heat of the day of Farmers Laws getting repealed today, we forgot that today is the day to celebrate all the wonderful men.
No matter, they seem extremely tough and strong in front of you but deep inside they are extremely emotional too.
Happy #InternationalMensDay guys.

It's true that females face and endure a lot of discrimination and problems everyday but life is not very easy and convenient for men as well. They are expected to be tough and strong no matter how odd the situation becomes.

#InternationalMensDay

They have to endure the toxic masculinity that exists in our society. International Men's Day is celebrated to seek gender equality and well being of Men. #InternationalMensDay is observed in many nations acknowledging manhood.

On this day everyone sends warm wishes to all the Men dear to them.Every men deserves to be cherished and supported. Be it the Father, the Husband, the Son or the Brother, they all are trying to be the best. Appreciate their efforts and make them feel special this day.