Laghu Rudra Pooja
Today, my mother is doing Laghu Rudra Pooja. Ignorant as I am with significance of Hindu philosophy and its rituals, I decided to read about this and stumbled upon the website of http://www.celextel.org/ . Here is excerpt from this site
Introduction
Vedas are believed to be birth less and the term originates from the word “vid” meaning knowledge. Initially, the Vedas were not written down and the composers simply taught them to their disciples along with pronunciation. This was necessary because the language in which it was composed relied upon compound words, which, if pronounced or split differently gave rise to different meanings.
Among the oldest books ever composed by Man are the Vedas-the sacred books of Hindus. The word Hindu is the modern term coined by those from foreign land, to denote the followers of Vedas, who preferred to term themselves as those following Sanathana Dharma (literally the birth less and deathless perennial thought process).
The great Veda Vyasa is supposed to have edited this storehouse of inherited knowledge, which was composed by very many rishis in various poetic styles and in prose. He divided it in to four books viz., Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. Each Veda is further sub divided in to Samhithas and Brahmanas. The appendices to Brahmanas are Aranyakas and the appendices to Aranyakas are Upanishads. Each of these has several sookthas (loosely translated verses but many of them were written in prose). The Yajur Veda was rewritten once more and there are two Yajur Vedas - Krishna Yajur Veda and Shukla Yajur Veda. Samhitaas are mainly poems written about various Gods, Brahmanas are mainly information about fire sacrifices with stories interspersed. There are about one hundred thousand verses in the four Vedas.
Rig Veda mentions Vishnu and Rudra. The Sri Rudram occurs in Krishna Yajur Veda in the Samhitha . This mellifluous prayer to Rudra has two parts-the Namakam (verses ending with Nama) and the Chamakam (Verses ending with Cha May). While Namakam is a prayer to Rudra to forget about his avenging fierce, fearful and horrendous form and turn himself into a peaceful form and do good to us, Chamakam on the other hand lists out the blessings to be got from a prayer to Rudra and prays Him to regulate and bless our life for a moment forgetting his anger.
“There are Several meanings to the word Rudra.
He destroys the sorrows of the world i.e. (Rudra).
In the form of Speech, brings out the importance of the meaning of words i.e. (Rudra).
In the name of OM, he makes one to realize him.
In the form truth he enters humans.
He is granter of praana (life).
He is even capable of driving away hat Shakti (energy).”*
There are also several stories about the birth of Rudra. Some of them are given below.
1.Brahma created first four rishis called Sanandha, Sanaka, Sanathana and Sanal Kumara with a view to initiate the activities of creation. But all the four preferred to be ascetics and never bothered to reproduce. Then Brahma got so angry that the anger was sufficient to burn all the three worlds. This anger escaped from his eyebrows and took the form of Rudra. Rudra’s form was half woman and half man. Brahma commanded him to divide and disappeared. Rudra divided himself into Rudra the male part as well as Rudhrani the female part. This male part further got divided in to eleven parts. They were Ajan, Ekaath, Ahirbudhnyan, Twashta, Rudra, Hara, Sambhu, Tryambaka, Aparajitha, Easana and Tribhuvana. The female aspect was called Rudrani and she also divided herself into eleven parts and became consort to the eleven Rudras.
2.From Brahma’s anger was born the Rudra, from his lap Narada, from his right Thumb Daksha, from his mind the Sanaka and from his left thumb one daughter called Veeraani.
3.When Brahma was deep in prayer requesting for a son similar to him, a baby deep blue in colour came on to his lap. That son started crying and Brahma told him not to cry-“Maa Ruda”The child wanted a name. Since he was crying (rudha) , he was called Rudra. The child cried another seven times asking for names and another seven Rudras were formed.
“Foremost among the mantras contained in Rudram is the Panchakshari Mantra;
“Om namah Shivaya” possibly the manthra most often chanted by Shaivites,
The great mrutyunjaya mantra;
“Tryambakam yajamahe
Sugandhim pushtivardhanam
Urvarurkamiva bhandhanam
Mrityor mukshiya ma -mrtat.”
We salute and respect,
Him who is naturally scented,
Him who looks after his devotees with mercy,
And him who has three eyes.
And pray and request,
To move us away from the catch of death,
Like the cucumber separated from its stalk,
And firmly put us in the path of salvation.
Introduction
Vedas are believed to be birth less and the term originates from the word “vid” meaning knowledge. Initially, the Vedas were not written down and the composers simply taught them to their disciples along with pronunciation. This was necessary because the language in which it was composed relied upon compound words, which, if pronounced or split differently gave rise to different meanings.
Among the oldest books ever composed by Man are the Vedas-the sacred books of Hindus. The word Hindu is the modern term coined by those from foreign land, to denote the followers of Vedas, who preferred to term themselves as those following Sanathana Dharma (literally the birth less and deathless perennial thought process).
The great Veda Vyasa is supposed to have edited this storehouse of inherited knowledge, which was composed by very many rishis in various poetic styles and in prose. He divided it in to four books viz., Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. Each Veda is further sub divided in to Samhithas and Brahmanas. The appendices to Brahmanas are Aranyakas and the appendices to Aranyakas are Upanishads. Each of these has several sookthas (loosely translated verses but many of them were written in prose). The Yajur Veda was rewritten once more and there are two Yajur Vedas - Krishna Yajur Veda and Shukla Yajur Veda. Samhitaas are mainly poems written about various Gods, Brahmanas are mainly information about fire sacrifices with stories interspersed. There are about one hundred thousand verses in the four Vedas.
Rig Veda mentions Vishnu and Rudra. The Sri Rudram occurs in Krishna Yajur Veda in the Samhitha . This mellifluous prayer to Rudra has two parts-the Namakam (verses ending with Nama) and the Chamakam (Verses ending with Cha May). While Namakam is a prayer to Rudra to forget about his avenging fierce, fearful and horrendous form and turn himself into a peaceful form and do good to us, Chamakam on the other hand lists out the blessings to be got from a prayer to Rudra and prays Him to regulate and bless our life for a moment forgetting his anger.
“There are Several meanings to the word Rudra.
He destroys the sorrows of the world i.e. (Rudra).
In the form of Speech, brings out the importance of the meaning of words i.e. (Rudra).
In the name of OM, he makes one to realize him.
In the form truth he enters humans.
He is granter of praana (life).
He is even capable of driving away hat Shakti (energy).”*
There are also several stories about the birth of Rudra. Some of them are given below.
1.Brahma created first four rishis called Sanandha, Sanaka, Sanathana and Sanal Kumara with a view to initiate the activities of creation. But all the four preferred to be ascetics and never bothered to reproduce. Then Brahma got so angry that the anger was sufficient to burn all the three worlds. This anger escaped from his eyebrows and took the form of Rudra. Rudra’s form was half woman and half man. Brahma commanded him to divide and disappeared. Rudra divided himself into Rudra the male part as well as Rudhrani the female part. This male part further got divided in to eleven parts. They were Ajan, Ekaath, Ahirbudhnyan, Twashta, Rudra, Hara, Sambhu, Tryambaka, Aparajitha, Easana and Tribhuvana. The female aspect was called Rudrani and she also divided herself into eleven parts and became consort to the eleven Rudras.
2.From Brahma’s anger was born the Rudra, from his lap Narada, from his right Thumb Daksha, from his mind the Sanaka and from his left thumb one daughter called Veeraani.
3.When Brahma was deep in prayer requesting for a son similar to him, a baby deep blue in colour came on to his lap. That son started crying and Brahma told him not to cry-“Maa Ruda”The child wanted a name. Since he was crying (rudha) , he was called Rudra. The child cried another seven times asking for names and another seven Rudras were formed.
“Foremost among the mantras contained in Rudram is the Panchakshari Mantra;
“Om namah Shivaya” possibly the manthra most often chanted by Shaivites,
The great mrutyunjaya mantra;
“Tryambakam yajamahe
Sugandhim pushtivardhanam
Urvarurkamiva bhandhanam
Mrityor mukshiya ma -mrtat.”
We salute and respect,
Him who is naturally scented,
Him who looks after his devotees with mercy,
And him who has three eyes.
And pray and request,
To move us away from the catch of death,
Like the cucumber separated from its stalk,
And firmly put us in the path of salvation.
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