Bimbette wrote:Omigod!!@Portugese-man.......lol.......Some nonchalance that! Don't get me wrong pal but I think you need a crash-course in the characters from the epics.....
Okay, I can see that a feeble attempt at humor failed - anyway, Lord Rama was born in the Ikshwaku dynasty, the line of the Sun (the other is the line of Chandra, the Moon). His father, King Dasharatha, ruled for 60,000 years (though I can't prove it) without a son, and then did a putrakameshthi yagna, which delivered whopping results - I mean, Lord Vishnu Himself was born to him, which makes him significantly more successful than I am likely to be when I try fatherhood. Lord Rama was born to destroy Ravana, who incidentally was His own doorkeeper, Jaya. I have often asked Lord Vishnu why He couldn't just send a thunderbolt down to kill Ravana and save Himself about 13,000 years of being around here (that's how long Lord Rama ruled), but He's so far preferred to keep to Himself.
To give you some comparative figures, Lord Krishna lived for 130 years on earth - the average life span decreases with yugas, apparently. Lord Rama was known for practising Dharma - He was not too much into preaching. Lord Krishna on the other hand preached, which makes Him the most popular of Lord Vishnu's avatars, nay, of all gods - He is the only god that mixed with the aam junta. Can you think of any other god (in the Hindu pantheon) that mixed with the ordinary people? Okay, maybe The Buddha, but He was too saintly compared to Krishna.
Arjuna and Krishna were, in their previous births, Nara and Narayana, both incarnations of Lord Vishnu Himself. Most ACK readers know only 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu - there are actually many more. One is Kapila Vasudeva, another is King Rishabha (there are more, I forget them). The former was a sage who preached Brahma Vidya for perhaps the first time. Rishabha was a king who was born when several sages did a mega-yagna for a king (I forget the name) with Lord Vishnu as the Yagna Purusha. And at the end of it the Lord Himself appeared, and the king asked for a son just like the Lord. The Lord replied that there can be no one like Him, and so offered to be born Himself to the king. Rishabha also preached the Brahma Vidya.
I know all this is pretty unstructured, but it was my ego
. Some more interesting figures:
1. The kruta yuga has 17,28,000 years.
2. The tretha yuga has 12,96,000 years.
3. The dwapara yuga has 8,64,000 years.
4. The kali yuga has 4,32,000 years.
(The mathematicians will note the relationships between the above figures.)
5. 4 yugas put together (43,20,000 years) form a Manvantara. 14 Manvataras form one day for Lord Brahma. This is the 7th Manvantara in Brahma's current day, and we are some 5000+ years into the Kali yuga.
6. At the end of every Manavatara, the entire universe disappears into Lord Vishnu's womb (including Lord Brahma and, I think, even Lord Shiva - the latter I just culled out from my logic, though it's a little difficult to fathom), and then He goes into a Yoga Nidra. Then it's, well, tomorrow
, and Lord Brahma is again born off the navel of Lord Vishnu. Lord Brahma then does penance for 1,000 years before He starts creation. Lord Shiva is apparently born out of Lord Brahma as part of this.
Doubts I will never get cleared:
1. Why all this
2. So the Ramayana, Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, all other tales in Hindu mythology that we have read, all happened in this Manvantara, in the earlier yugas. So what happened in the previous Manvantara? What happened when it was yesterday for Lord Brahma? Aren't the possibilities simply unimaginable? Was there mankind in the earlier Manvantara? Are we the special attraction just for this Manvantara?
Most of this info is not original (like it can be!
). It's almost all come out of Kamala Subramaniam's Srimad Bhagavatham (Rs. 500, hardbound, most big bookstores, a Bhavan's publication). I think it's a must-read - it puts your perception of yourself in the appropriate perspective, and once you realize how insignificant you and your concept of yourself and all your great thoughts are in some other much much bigger scheme, a lot of things cease to matter, and you get what should be every man's only goal - equanimity of mind.
Srimad Bhagavatham is a must-read. It makes everything else seem so meaningless and immature. Fountainhead and all the issues it raises? Pooh! The answers are all here.
me too, 'Jaan! for some reason i always root for the baddies in any story or film! without them evrything wud be so boring! in Mahabharata i admire Duryodhana (esp. coz of the TV serial), Shakuni (used his intelligence to get wat he wanted), Karna (the original Anti-hero). I also admire Krishna for his machiavellian shrewdness n success with girls (the original Casanova!)...!!!
I heard a Jewish Doctor had removed the good one; That is why he was pissed at the Jewish. 
my avatar is from the movie Fantastic Voyage, which was made from his book with the same name......... 
