Article1: Whom we worship and pray - By K.R. Jagannathaiah Setty, Mysore India.

People who believe in the existence of God will usually have some spiritual practices everyday. The practice may be in the form of prayer or paarayana or worship or Japa or meditation or combination of some of these rituals. (A practice done daily becomes a ritual). Paaraayana is the reading from holy books like Bhagavad-Gita, Bhagavatha, Mahabharatha or Ramayana. Reciting Purusha Sooktha, Sri Sooktha, Suprabhatham and chanting of Sahasra Naama of a deity etc also come under this category. The duration of practice depends upon the time at their disposal. Most people pray or worship their family deity or favorite God for the fulfillment of their desires. A few do it for their enlightenment. A person may think for a while as to which God he should pray or worship so that his desires are fulfilled and his prayers are granted quickly. Doubt in any spiritual practice will not lead to any progress. A strong belief is necessary in his deity. My object of writing this article is to bring home the idea that there is only one God as described in Scriptures and the different names and forms are the different aspects of the same absolute reality. So a person can pray to any God whom he likes, but it reaches the same absolute power as we can see below.

The universe is created by the Almighty. But the creation goes to what extent and what are its limits is something beyond comprehension. The word universe includes the Sun, Moon, planets, satellites revolving round the planets, stars and the innumerable clusters of stars scattered over a vast space. The Sun of our solar system belongs to a group of stars (galaxy) called Milky way. Sun is millions of times bigger than the earth, but compared to other stars in the milky way, the Sun is a small star. Millions of such stars form a galaxy. The length and breadth of a galaxy cannot be estimated in terms of millions or trillions of miles. It is too small a scale to measure the size of a galaxy. So a bigger scale called "Light year" is chosen. One light year is the distance traveled by light in 1 year, when it travels with a speed of 186 thousand miles per second. The dimensions of a galaxy are a few hundred light years. Some galaxies are millions of light years away from us. There is countless number of galaxies in the universe. Each galaxy with its myriads of stars is in continuous motion. All the galaxies are moving away from us and the universe appears to be expanding. For this motion of stars and galaxies to be kept up for ever, plenty of energy is needed. Who can supply such huge amounts of energy? The agency responsible for the creation of the universe is the creator and he must have supplied this abundant energy. So the creator must be an Almighty power. This Almighty power which we call God is termed as BRAHMAN in Upanishads. The word Brahman is derived from BRIHAT which means BIG. Then the question arises "Big in what? " It is big in its ability, big in size and big in consciousness. The ability means the ability to create, the ability to maintain creation and the ability to destroy. Coming to the size, we can say that it is bigger than the biggest and smaller than the smallest because it is said in Sanskrit that Brahman is "Anoraneeyaan and Mahatho maheeyaan". Coming to consciousness, it is supreme consciousness or super consciousness or pure consciousness

To maintain creation, certain laws are laid down by the creator according to which the whole creation goes on without its equilibrium being upset. Countless number of cosmic objects in the universe which are in eternal motion is governed by these laws. The planets go around the Sun in definite orbits with a definite speed. Satellites revolve round the planets in fixed paths with predetermined speeds. But one Satellite does not collide with another satellite or a planet. So there is order in the motion. One galaxy does not collide with another galaxy. There is perfect order in this motion. To maintain the orderly motion of billions of cosmic objects, a lot of awareness and alertness or PRAGNA is needed. The creator must be the source of Pragna too. So he is "Pragnanam Brahma". He is also said to be "Pragnana Ghana"

The creator is the ultimate source of energy and there is no any other source. As he is the primordial source of energy, he is called "Adishakthi". The meaning of the word "Adi" is "Moola" or "origin" and "Shakthi" means energy. It is said that Adishakthi created this universe out of her own self and she has all the love for the objects of its creation. It has given us the body, mind, intellect and has created a beautiful world around us for our comfort, joy and happiness. Such a love can be only from a mother. We find more of motherly qualities in Adishakthi. Hence, she is called DEVI or divine mother and we are her children. The relationship between the mother and the child is one of love. This is a selfless love and it is pure. For a child, its mother is the most virtuous lady in the whole world and she is the most beautiful lady in the entire creation. May be, because of this reason, Adishankara calls her "Maha Tripura Sundari" which means "The great beautiful lady in the 3 worlds". The love of the child for the divine mother is devotion or Bhakthi. Shankaracharya describes the greatness ( mahima ) of divine mother in one of his writings namely Ananda Lahari. In Soundarya lahari, he describes the enchanting beauty of the beloved mother. He has all praise, admiration and adoration for her.

The different aspects of Maha Tripura Sundari are the different Gods and Goddesses whom we adore as Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara, Saraswathi, Lakshmi and Parvathi. When the divine mother is engaged in the work of creation or "shrusti", she is called Brahma. When she is busy in maintaining life on earth or " sthithi ", she is Vishnu. When she brings an end to life or causes "Laya", she is Maheshwara. If she is engaged in giving knowledge to humanity, she is Saraswathi. If she bestows wealth on people, she is Lakshmi. If she destroys the evil & the wicked ones and strengthens virtuous people, she is Parvathi. This is similar to the role of a dignified, venerable mother in a family. We know mother is the angel of the house. When she feeds the children, she is the mother. If she goes to her clinic and treats her patients, she is a doctor. If she goes to a college and teaches, she is a teacher. So feeding, treating and teaching are the different aspects of the same lady. She is daughter to her parents and daughter in law to some body. She is sister to some one, sister in law to some body else and so on. What she is in a family depends upon the role she plays in the house or outside. These are the different aspects of the same smart, worthy lady of the house. In the same manner, the different Gods and Goddesses are nothing but the different aspects of the same supreme divine mother.

The different forms of Maha Tripura Sundari are Kali, Durga, Chandi, Chamundi, Gayathri, Savithri, Raja Rajeswari, Annapoorneswari, Meenakshi, Kamakshi, Vishalakshi, Nimishamba, Bhramaramba, Mukambika, Santoshima and so on. The historical background of a place and the mythological events that occurred at a place are also responsible for giving different names to Gods and Goddesses. So we have Ganesha, Hanuman, Subramanya, Vekateswara (Balaji), Ranganatha, Venugopala, Sathyanarayana, Varadaraja, Mallikarjuna and so on. One may wonder why there are so many names and forms of Gods and Goddesses. Our ancients say that a particular name and form may be liked by a person and some other form by another person. One person may like Ganesha and another person may like Hanuman. Yet another may like Durga. Hence the different names and forms exist. The tradition of worshipping different Gods & Goddesses has come from several ages.

Those who worship Shakthi Devis like Kali or Durga or Chamundi etc are called SHAAKTAS. Those who worship Vishnu are called VAISHNAVITES and those who worship Shiva are SHAIVITES. But no one sect should claim superiority over the other. The goal of all the sects is to have the grace and blessings of their favorite God. It is said: "Sarva Deva namaskaram Keshavam prathigachathi". Whichever God we pray, the prayers of all of us reach the same Supreme Power which we call the divine mother. We know the saying "Nadeenam Saagaro gathihi". All the rivers ultimately reach the ocean. So an individual can worship any God or Goddess, but what is needed is sincerity and devotion. Scriptures are written by Sages and realized souls. Scriptures declare that there is only one God.