The above lines mean that God resides wherever women are respected. As I was reading this book a cartoon made its existence felt; The PowerPuff Girls. I don’t know how many of you recall this but it took over my entire childhood and I feel the way I’m right now has something to do with it.
A person creates chemicalized girls by fluke who have superpowers and that man or scientist became their father. Those girls became the saviour of the world. Whenever disaster fell over the people these girls came for the rescue and succeeded every time. This book “The Daughter from a Wishing Tree” by Sudha Murty gave me such vibes. Describing women in Hindu mythology who saved the world from horrid catastrophes.
A single-life starts from a woman’s womb. If she can give birth she can do anything and everything. Though being able to bring life into existence, this including all other endeavours women are undermined the majority of the time. This book highlights the anecdotes which talk about the efforts by women to protect our world.
Here are some facts which I found to be very interesting:
1. Goddess Lakshmi manifests in eight forms known as AshtaLakshmi. Ashta means eight in Sanskrit. The manifestations are Adi Lakshmi (represents compassion, love and affection), Dhaanya Lakshmi (represents grains and in turn represents prosperity in terms of food), Dhairya Lakshmi (represents courage), Gaja Lakshmi (represents good fortune), Santaana Lakshmi (represents the provider of a child for childless couples), Vijaya Lakshmi (represents victory and bravery), Vidya Lakshmi (represents knowledge and education) and the last form Dhana Lakshmi (represents wealth).
2. Well, the concept of cloning was first introduced by a woman called Sanjana who was the wife to God Surya (Sun). She was the daughter of Vishwakarma who was the engineer and architect of the heavens. The Sun God and Sanjana had almost five children. First was Yama (son) who was to protect Dharma or justice and was to rule the Mrityuloka (underworld) waiting to give punishment to all the people who die based on their karma. Then came Yami (daughter) flowing on earth as river Yamuna, around which Lord Vishnu’s avatar Krishna grew up. Bathing in her waters washed people’s sins and women who prayed for the well-being of siblings came true. Then came Shani who was known to hold the hardest responsibility of giving punishments or rewards during people’s lifetime so they could improve. He also was given the position of a planet called Saturn. Then came Ashwini Kumars who are considered the first morning rays from the sun and are considered to be a great source of Vitamin D.
3. There is a place called Chamundi Hills in Mysuru, Karnataka where Goddess Parvati killed an Asura (monster) named Mahishasura (Mahisha means Buffalo in Sanskrit). She fought that Asura for almost 9 days on that hill.
4. Goddess Parvati not only had two sons but she also had a daughter from a wishing tree known as Kalpavriksha. The daughter was named Ashokasundari which meant a beautiful woman who reduced loneliness.
Few stories talk about how love in terms of devotion is more appreciated than love in terms of possession. In the majority of stories, the themes of love, sacrifice, devotion, obedience and making hard decisions are very common.
The writing, as always has been very simple to understand and it’s an advantage as mythology can’t be understood properly with complicated language usage.
Simplify things 