Devi Mandir

Temple of Divine Mother

Current Class by Swami Satyananda SaraswatiIn this eclectic collection of video clips, you will find Swamiji at his thoughtful best, providing answers to viewers' questions with the right blend of insight and gentle humor.

There are also stories from the puranas, and Swamiji masterfully weaves the magic, retelling these with his own brand of wisdom.

 

How Indrajit got his name

~~OM~~ >Double Click the Video to Play< Actually, Indrajit was the name of Meghanada. And Indrajit, who defeated Indra, actually he went up into heaven and he defeated all the guards. He captured Indra and was carrying Indra back to Lanka. And Brahma came and said, “Stop! Hey, pride, you can’t take Indra as a […]

Story of Tantrik sadhak

~~OM~~ There was once a sadhak, a tapasyak, a tantrik sadhak. He was doing this tremendous Smashan Shav Kriya, where you sit in the cremation grounds upon a corpse and do recitation of the mantras of the Kali in the midnight. And he had to procure so many articles for his worship. And with great […]

Story of Lomash Muni and Kaka Bhushundi

~~OM~~ Let me tell you a story, if you don’t mind. Lomash Muni was a great devotee of Shiva. And he had one disciple who was so disrespectful, never did any work, always was laying around. The Guru would say, “Disciple, please, don’t act like that.” And the disciple said, “Eh! Who cares for you […]

How Kamadeva became Ananga

~~OM~~ Parvati took birth in Himalaya’s home, and She grew up to be a beautiful young lady, and all She could think about was Shiva. And She started performing tapasya, and meditation on Shiva, and in every way She tried to propitiate Shiva so that He would take her as His bride. Well, Shiva didn’t […]

Story of Bali and Vishnu

~~OM~~ Do you remember when Bali was doing the Yagya by which he would defeat the Devas eternally? He was the king of the asuras, and he wanted to perform the Yagya by which the asuras would occupy heaven for all eternity, and the Gods would have no place to live. And the God’s were […]

Story of How Parvati Was Born

~~OM~~ When Sati Devi left her body, Shiva became an ascetic. He just spent all His time in meditation. And at that time a great asura named Tarakasura, the illuminator of duality, did tremendous austerities and Brahma came to him and said, “What do you want?” He said, “I want to be immortal.” Brahma said, […]

Story of Brahma and Ganga

~~OM~~ And there is a great story about that. And it just happened the other night, it was Kartik Purnima. And Kartik Purnima, there was a rasa leela, and Shiva and Parvati were dancing in Manipur. They had seen the dance of Radha and Krishna, and they were so enamored of Radha and Krishna’s dance […]

Story of Ghantakarna

~~OM~~ And I’d like to tell a story about Ghantakarna. This is a little bit different in illustration, but Ghantakarna loved Vishnu, and he always wanted to worship Vishnu. Vishnu came to him and said, “You know Shiva is my other form, so you can’t really please me without pleasing Shiva. So do Shiva’s puja […]