Questions and Answers (QnA) on Ramayana, Mahabharata (Hinduism)
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Just before going to “Questions and Answers (QnA) on Ramayana, Mahabharata (Hinduism)“, let us know a brief, basic and very important information.
1. What are the names of Maharshi Kashyapa’s wives?
Maharshi Kashyapa married thirteen (13) of Daksha Prajapati’s daughters. Their names are:
Aditi, Diti, Danu, Arishta, Surasa, Khasa, Surabhi, Vinata, Tamra, Krodhavasha, Ira, Kadru, Muni Aditi’s sons were the twelve gods known as the adityas.
For more information, you can visit this link: Who is Maharshi Kashyap, his wives and their children names
2. What is the correct story of Hanuman not recognizing Sanjivani
Answer: We have heard and seen on TV serials, movies that Hanuman was confused after he saw multiple plants on the Dronagiri mountain. Thus he picks up the whole Dronagiri mountain to reaches Lanka.
But we should note that Hanuman is not an ordinary monkey or human. He will be the next Brahma Deva in the next Kalpa.
So, how can he be confused? I have written the full story about this as per the ‘moola ramayana’ and ‘valmiki ramayana’.
Kindly refer this below link to know the full story about this: What is the correct story of Hanuman not recognizing Sanjivani
3. What are the different avatars of Prahlada Maharaja?
Answer: Prahlada Maharaja totally had 5 avatars. Names are as given below:
a. Shankukarna (Krutayuga / Satyayuga) | b. Prahlada Maharaja (Krutayuga / Satyayuga) | c. Bhalika Maharaja (Dwaparayuga) – He participated in the Mahabharata war. | d. Sri Vyasaraja Teertha Ji (Kaliyuga) | e. Sri Raghavendra Swamy (Kaliyuga)
I have written more details on this. Please visit the below link for more knowledge: What are the different avatars of Prahlada Maharaja (Raghavendra Swamy)
4. What is the story of Narad Maharshi’s previous life?
Left: Sri Bhu Varaha Swamy with his consort Sri Bhudevi. Center: Sri Narada Maharsh. Right: Sri Hari and Sri Bhu Varaha Swamy carrying Sri Bhudevi (Mother Earth).
Answer: This is given the Varaha Purana. I have written a post on this, please click the below link to continue reading: What is the story of Narad Maharshi’s previous life?
5. What is the meaning of Partha and Parthasarathi?
Answer: Partha means son of ‘Pritha Devi’ (original name of Kunti Devi). Arjuna’s another name is Partha, as he is the son of Pritha Devi.
Parthasarathi means, Bhagavan Sri Krishna became the ‘sarathi’ (charioteer) of Partha (Arjuna). Hence Bhagavan Sri Krishna is called as Parthasarathi.
Pritha was born to Yadava chief Shurasena. Pritha was adopted by her childless uncle named Kuntibhoja and she was renamed as Kunti.
During her early teenage years, she did seva (divine serve) to Maharshi Durvasa (an avatar of Lord Shiva) and he blessed Kunti Devi with a divine mantra.
(We should remember that Kunti Devi’s age was about 12 or 13 years when Sage Durvasa blessed Kunti Devi with the divine mantra.)
Out of curiosity, the young girl used the mantra to invoke Lord Surya and was blessed with a son named Karna (an avatar of Lord Surya – In his earlier life, Karna was born as Sugriva during the Ramayana period).
6. Why ‘amma’ or ‘maata’ should be used instead of ‘mummy’?
Answer: In the name amma, there are two main different names, that is, अ / ಅ and म / ಮ. Here, अ / ಅ means Bhagavan Sri Vishnu name ananta and म / ಮ means Sri Maha Lakshmi name.
Both amma and maata is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘amba’. Both Ananta (Bhagavan Sri Vishnu) and Sri Maha Lakshmi Devi both are present in this divine name. Thus ‘amma’ or ‘maata’ should be used, instead of ‘mummy’.
This is the greatness of the Hindu / Sanskrit names. Whereas, mummy means a death person who is buried and believed to come back again to life as per Egyptian belief. Now, it is your choice to use amma or maata, or mummy.
7. What is the meaning of the name Putana?
Left: Rama killing Tataka. Right: Krishna killing Putana.
Answer: pUtana = pUta + na. Here ‘pUta’ means highly ‘pavitra’ (divinely purified) and ‘na’ means no. This means, she was completely ‘apavitra’ (impure).
pUtana was the amalgamation of two ladies, that is, one was Urvashi Devi and another one was ‘Tataka’ (same demoness who was killed by Bhagavan Sri Rama).
Bhagavan Sri Krishna gives punishment to the demoness pUtana (Tataka) and frees Urvashi Devi from her body. Urvashi Devi goes to higher planets, whereas pUtana (Tataka) goes to lower planets (naraka).
8. Why Sri Krishna is known as Bal Gopal?
Answer: In Sanskrit Bal means hair. Sri Krishna was born from a single string of a hair of Sri Hari. Thus, Sri Krishna is known as Bal Krishna / Gopal (Bal doesn’t mean child – but instead it means hair. Even in Hindi we use the same word Bal for hair).
Gopal means, he is the protector of all the Gopikas and Gopalas.
(We should always remember that in our Shastras it is said that there is no difference between Sri Hari’s any body part. His hairs are same as his eyes, his head is same as his legs, his hand is same as his skin etc.)
(This means, there is no difference between Sri Hari, his different names and his different body parts. All are having equal capabilities.)
(If Sri Hari wishes, he can easily create ‘ananta’ (infinite) brahmanda (multiverses). If Sri Hari wishes, he can easily destroy all those brahmanda. This is the greatness of our Sri Hari.)
9. What is the meaning of the name “Bhishma”?
Answer: Bhishma means, someone who has taken a ‘bhayankara’ (terrible) oath. These types of oaths can’t be taken by ordinary men, especially in Kali Yuga.
Here Bhishma = Bhish + ma = bhayankara (terrible) oath + I am taking. This means, ‘I am’ (Devavrata / Bhishma) is taking a bhayankara (terrible) oath.
To know full details of the Great Bhishma, visit this link: What are the Greatness of Bhishma
10. What is the meaning of “To lower the Bhu Bhar (भू भार) by Bhagavan Vishnu / Krishna / Rama on earth”?
Left: Bhagavan Narasimha slaying Hiranyakashipu. Right: Bhagavan Krishna showing his Virat (Vishwa) roopam.
Answer: Here ‘Bhu Bhar (भू भार)’ means not the over weight of the earth. But instead ‘Bhu Bhar (भू भार)’ means to cleanse the earth from the unwanted (like adharmis / rakshasas / demons) people.
Whenever the adharmis / rakshasas / demons start to cause problems to dharmic (people who follow Sanatana Dharma) people, then Mother Earth (Bhoodevi / Prithvi Devi) along with other Devatas (Demigods) pray to Bhagavan Vishnu to come down to earth and cleanse the earth from these adharmis / rakshasas / demons, so that again the Sanatana Dharma can be rebuild.
After hearing the prayer from the Mother Earth and other Devatas (Demigods), Bhagavan Vishnu comes to earth and cleanses the earth from these adharmis / rakshasas / demons.
For thus main reason, Bhagavan Vishnu takes different avatars like Rama, Krishna, Narasimha etc and destroys all the adharmis / rakshasas / demons from this earth and rebuilds the Sanatana Dharma.
Remember the shloka from Bhagavad Gita 4.8:
परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम्।
धर्म संस्थापनार्थाय संभवामि युगे युगे || 4.8 ||
ಪರಿತ್ರಾಣಾಯ ಸಾಧೂನಾಂ ವಿನಾಶಾಯ ಚ ದುಷ್ಕೃತಾಮ್ |
ಧರ್ಮ ಸಂಸ್ಥಾಪನಾರ್ಥಾಯ ಸಂಭವಾಮಿ ಯುಗೇ ಯುಗೇ || 4.8 ||
paritrANAya sADhunAm vinAshAya cha dushkrutAm |
dharma samsThApanArThAya samBhavAmi yugE yugE || 4.8 ||
Meaning of the shloka: Whenever adharma is increased by the adharmic / rakshasas / demons on this earth, I (Vishnu / Rama / Krishna etc) will definitely come to earth and will surely cleanse the earth (destroy / slay all the adharmis / rakshasas / demons).
Also, I will save all the sadhus (dharmic people) from the clutches of these adharmis / rakshasas / demons.
11. Sri Krishna’s which consort’s palace does Sudama goes to meet Sri Krishna?
Answer: Sudama after been told by his wife Susheela “to go and meet Sri Krishna”, he comes to Dwaraka and goes to Mitravinda Devi’s mahal (divine palace) which was made of gold, diamonds, rubies, costly stones etc.
Here Bhagavan Sri Krishna welcomes his very close Gurukula (divine school) friend Sudama with all the honors.
(We must note that Bhagavan Sri Krishna is called as “antaryaami” and is present in everything and everywhere. Thus Bhagavan Sri Krishna was not just present in Mitravinda’s mahal, but instead he was present with all his 16,108 divine consorts.)
More questions will be discussed in this post on regular basis. Please visit after some time.
To know “What is the greatness of Ganga, origin, history, names, festivals, birth, significance, reference” etc, you can visit the below link post: What is the greatness of Ganga, origin, history, names, festivals, birth, significance, reference
This has been continued in the next post because of the space constraints.
Click below link to move to Part 1 : What are the FAQs about Hinduism, Mahabharata, Ramayana – Part 1
Click below link to move to Part 2 : What are the FAQs about Hinduism, Mahabharata, Ramayana – Part 2
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