Cow-The Universal Symbol of Motherhood.

The cow is considered as - The Universal symbol of Motherhood by Hindus. For Hindus, any day is an auspicious day for Go Pooja (Cow worship).

The scriptures say the following about the cow, “Tvam Mata Sarva Devanam.” – Means you are the mother of all demigods as well (33 crore demigods). The cow nourishes all in this universe and that is why she is called mother. She is the mother of all demigods, sages, humans and all living entities on the face of the earth. The main prana (living force) for all living entities are received from the mother cow. It is a source of nourishment for humans and earth and thereby the crops.

The cow is an ideal animal in Lord Bramha’s creation. As per spiritual science, the four Purushārthas, namely, Dharma, Artha, Kāma, and Moksha can be acquired by serving the cow. While praising the cow, the principal Deities, namely, Bramha, Vishṇu and Shiva have said “O Destroyer of sins! You are the mother of all Deities. You are the reason for yagnya (sacrificial fire), among all Tirthas (Holy places), you are the holiest. I pay my obeisance to you”.

So cow is not a mere animal for Hindus. As I mentioned above they consider cow as the abode of 33 crore Hindu Deities, hence cow is considered as sacred in Hindu Dharma. Cow has been treated as auspicious and also as a symbol of compassion and piousness. Cow is treated as the highest and most pious animal and is given the utmost importance, being at the apex in the Animal world. The belief is that one can attain salvation (Moksha) by worshipping the cow and serving her. Both Lord Krishna and Balram spearheaded the “Cow worship and preservation” culture. The first Jain Tirthankar, Adinath was also named as Vrashbh meaning ‘Oxen Sorub’. Of all beings, the Cow is treated, in India, as the most sacred and sanctified. This sense of the unique sacredness of the Cow is expressed in the works of ancient Indian Rishis… like in the Vedas, Smritis, Srutis and Puranas, etc., as well as in later literature and folklore.

So highly were cows held in esteem by the society that there were days fixed in the yearly calendar for the exclusive worship of the cow and that tradition follows even today. Dhanteras is a day when cows are worshipped along with Dhanwantari the Sage and the deity of medicine. Not only cows, but bulls also, were, and still are, the objects of worship.

The Rigveda says that the cow is like a mother for all those who are bachelors till the age of 25 years, a daughter for those who are 26 years old and a sister for those who are 48 years old.

Attached are some pictures and a video of us feeding cows.

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All about Shree Somnath Jyotirlinga Temple.

"The Somnath temple signifies that the power of reconstruction is always greater than the power of destruction" – Dr. Rajendra Prasad, First President of the Republic of India.

The information in this article is partly from my visit to Somnath temple and mostly from the internet.

The Somnath temple located in Prabhas Patan near Junagadh in Saurashtra on the western coast of Gujarat is believed to be the first among the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva. It is an important pilgrimage and tourist spot in Gujarat. Reconstructed several times in the past after repeated destruction by several Muslim invaders and rulers, the present temple was reconstructed in the Chaulukya style of Hindu temple architecture and completed in May 1951. The reconstruction was started under the orders of the Home Minister of India Sri Vallabhbhai Patel and was completed after his death.

The temple is considered sacred due to the various legends connected to it. Somnath means "Lord of the Soma", an epithet of Lord Shiva.

The Somnath temple is known as "the Shrine Eternal", following a book by K. M. Munshi by this title and his narration of the temple's destruction and reconstruction many times in history.

According to tradition, the Shivalinga in Somnath is the first of the 12 Jyotirlingas in India, where Shiva is believed to have appeared as a fiery column of light. The Jyotirlingas are taken as the supreme, undivided reality out of which Shiva partly appears.

Each of the 12 Jyotirlinga sites takes the name of a different manifestation of Shiva. At all these sites, the primary image is a Lingam representing the beginning-less and endless Stambha (pillar), symbolizing the infinite nature of Shiva. In addition to the one at Somnath in Gujarat, the others are Mallikarjuna in Srisailam-Andhra Pradesh, Mahakaleswar in Ujjain-Madhya Pradesh, Omkareshwar in Khandwa-Madhya Pradesh, Kedarnath in Rudraprayag-Uttarakhand, Bhimashankar in Maharashtra, Vishwanath in Varanasi-Uttar Pradesh, Trimbakeshwar in Nashik-Maharashtra, Baidyanath in Deoghar-Jharkhand, Nageshvara in Dwarka-Gujarat, Ramanathaswamy in Rameshwaram-Tamil Nadu, and Grishneshwar in Aurangabad- Maharashtra.

History:

The site of Somnath has been a pilgrimage site since ancient times on account of being a Triveni Sangam (the confluence of three rivers: Kapila, Hiran and the mythical Sarasvati). Soma, the Moon God, is believed to have lost his lustre due to a curse, and he bathed in the Sarasvati River at this site to regain it. The result is the waxing and waning of the moon, no doubt an allusion to the waxing and waning of the tides at this seashore location. The name of the town Prabhas, meaning lustre, as well as the alternative names Someshvar and Somnath ("The Lord of the Moon" or "The Moon God"), arise from this tradition.

History of the temple:

According to popular tradition documented by J. Gordon Melton, the first Shiva temple at Somnath is believed to have been built at some unknown time in the past. The second temple is said to have been built at the same site by the "Yadava kings" of Vallabhi around 649 CE. In 725 CE, Al-Junayd, the Arab governor of Sindh is said to have destroyed the second temple as part of his invasions of Gujarat and Rajasthan. The Gurjara-Pratihara king Nagabhata II is said to have constructed the third temple in 815 CE, a large structure of red sandstone.

Nagabhata II is known to have visited Tirthas in Saurashtra, including Someshvara (the Lord of the Moon), which may or may not be a reference to a Shiva temple because the town itself was known by that name. The Chalukyas (Solanki) king Mularaja possibly built the first temple at the site sometime before 997 CE, even though some historians believe that he may have renovated a smaller earlier temple.

In 1024, during the reign of Bhima I, the prominent Turkic Muslim ruler Mahmud of Ghazni raided Gujarat, plundering the Somnath temple and breaking its Jyotirlinga. He took away a booty of 20 million dinars. Powerful legends with intricate detail developed in the Turko-Persian literature regarding Mahmud's raid say that this raid "electrified" the Muslim world, according to scholar Meenakshi Jain. They later boasted that Mahmud had killed 50,000 devotees who tried to defend the temple.

The temple at the time of Mahmud's attack appears to have been a wooden structure. Kumarapala (1143–72) rebuilt it in "excellent stone and studded it with jewels," according to an inscription in 1169.

During its 1299 invasion of Gujarat, Alauddin Khalji's army, led by Ulugh Khan, defeated the Vaghela king Karna and destroyed the Somnath temple. Sources state that the idol was taken to Delhi, where it was thrown to be trampled under the feet of Muslims. These sources include the contemporary and near-contemporary texts including Amir Khusrau's Khazainul-Futuh, Ziauddin Barani's Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi and Jinaprabha Suri's Vividha-Tirtha-Kalpa. Jalore ruler Kanhadadeva later recovered the Somnath idol and freed the Hindu prisoners, after an attack on the Delhi army. The temple was rebuilt by Mahipala I, the Chudasama king of Saurashtra in 1308 and the lingam was installed by his son Khengara sometime between 1331 and 1351. As late as the 14th century, Gujarati Muslim pilgrims were noted by Amir Khusrow to stop at that temple to pay their respects before departing for the Hajj pilgrimage. In 1395, the temple was destroyed for the third time by Zafar Khan, the last governor of Gujarat under the Delhi Sultanate and later founder of the Gujarat Sultanate. In 1451, it was desecrated by Mahmud Begada, the Sultan of Gujarat.

By 1665, the temple, one of many, was ordered to be destroyed by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. In 1702, he ordered that if Hindus revived worship there, it should be demolished completely.

Reconstruction during 1950–1951:

Before independence, Veraval was part of the Junagadh State, whose ruler had acceded to Pakistan in 1947. After India refused to accept its decision, the state was made a part of India and Deputy Prime Minister Patel came to Junagadh on 12 November 1947 to direct the stabilization of the state by the Indian Army and at the same time ordered the reconstruction of the Somnath temple.

When Patel, K. M. Munshi and other leaders of the Congress went to Mahatma Gandhi with their proposal to reconstruct the Somnath temple, Gandhi blessed the move but suggested that the funds for the construction should be collected from the public and the temple should not be funded by the state. He expressed that he was proud to associate himself to the project of renovation of the temple. However, soon both Gandhi and Sardar Patel died and the task of reconstruction of the temple continued under Munshi, who was the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Government of India.

The ruins were pulled down in October 1950 and the mosque present at that site was shifted a few kilometres away by using construction vehicles. In May 1951, Rajendra Prasad, the first President of the Republic of India, invited by K M Munshi, performed the installation ceremony for the temple. The President said in his address, "It is my view that the reconstruction of the Somnath Temple will be complete on that day when not only a magnificent edifice will arise on this foundation, but the mansion of India's prosperity will be, really that prosperity of which the ancient temple of Somnath was a symbol." He added: "The Somnath temple signifies that the power of reconstruction is always greater than the power of destruction."

The present temple is built in the Chaulukya style of temple architecture or "Kailash Mahameru Prasad" style and reflects the skill of the Sompura Salats, one of Gujarat's master masons. The temple's śikhara, or main spire, is 15 metres in height, and it has an 8.2-metre tall flag pole at the top.

The temple is situated at such a place that there is no land in a straight line between Somnath seashore and Antarctica, such an inscription in Sanskrit is found on the Bāṇastambha (Arrow pillar) erected on the sea-protection wall. The Bāṇastambha mentions that it stands at a point on the Indian landmass that is the first point on land in the north to the South Pole at that particular longitude.

A Family Cooking Together Matters!

It’s important to make time for family cooking together because there are plenty of benefits for your family! Your family is a team, and reinforcing that bond will only make your family a stronger unit. And children learning to help in the kitchen and thereafter to learn cooking would have learnt the greatest life skill.

Here is an instance of our family enjoying family cooking during Lockdown. I am presenting this cooking illustration in a verse form with photographs and revealing the exotic and delicious dish only towards the end of the article. Photographs above this verse reveal a lot and those after the verse reveal the actual preparation.

Vegetables are picked and peeled by Ranjini,

Some vegetables are chopped on Wonderchef chopper by Atharv,

Rest of the vegetables and herbs chopped by Raghu,

Dough prepared by Lalitha,

Vegetables with herbs and seasoning for stuffing cooked by Lalitha,

Rolling of dough and cutting into round sheets by Srikanth,

Filling of the vegetable mixture into the dough sheets by Lalitha,

Preparation of a hot tomato sauce with Thai red chillies by Raghu,

And finally steam cooking, to produce the best Momos by Raghu,

Call them Momos, Dimsums or Dumplings,

The whole family loved their creation,

Relished and consumed them in minutes.

Though separated by COVID, you continue to delight me.

So relaxing to see you,

Even in this video,

Of me and you!

Though separated,

By COVID,

You continue to delight me.

We are so close,

But we cannot meet,

I truly miss you.

I know plenty like you,

I love you all,

So in good times I come and see you.

You are perennial,

And ever-beautiful,

But truly immobile.

So you cannot come to me,

So I will meet you in my dreams,

And in such videos…

-N. Lalitha Raghu.

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