Indra
Every question on the site tagged Indra, each answered from a timestamped source rather than a summary written from memory.
Notes from our sources
Amrita Kalasha from Indra: Madhava revived, a second son Sadhak Ji, the Brahmani made young in the Ganga
The speaker says Virabhadra, though all-capable, in the lila ran to Indra and begged the Amrita Kalasha. Meanwhile cowherds who had seen it told the old Brahmani that her son had burnt himself on the pyre, and she resolved to die too, saying she had feared from the start that so fierce a god could never be worshipped. Virabhadra appeared, promised to revive her son and give her two sons instead of one, and told her to enter the Ganga, where her old age would leave and her eyesight and youth return. She refused at first; after he pleaded repeatedly he made a Sankalpa over the ashes and rained amrita on them. Madhava came back to life, a second son named Sadhak Ji appeared as his brother, and when the Brahmani entered the Ganga she got back her youthful body.
Shakambhari Kavach for the head of a grihastha family: why, and its origin
The speaker says this teaching is for those in Grihastha life who carry the whole family's Yoga Kshema: running the house, earning, feeding the family, and making spiritual progress at the same time. Such a person needs the capacity to provide properly, and for him the Shakambhari Kavach is, in the battle of life, like the Vajra of Indra himself. He says Bhagwan Kartikeya taught this kavach to Devraj Indra, and that its Purashcharana is done with only 1000 recitations (when he later spells out the method, he gives the count as 1008).
Which deities must never be given sindoor?
All the devagana — Indra, Varuna, Yama, Kuber — to all of these the tilak is done with roli. Sindoor is not offered to them. He puts it as a remark of Devraj Indra himself: you are offering sindoor even to me; take it, brother, you have offered me sindoor, what shall I do with sindoor. To them it is not to be offered.
For whom is the Indra-krita Mahalakshmi Ashtak said to be meant?
It has been said, the speaker relates, that it is for those whose wealth and property have been carried off, whose Lakshmi has been taken away, whose Lakshmi ji has left them and gone, that the stuti was made by Bhagavan Indra in the form of an ashtak. He quotes it as: "नमस्तेऽस्तु महामाये श्रीपीठे सुरपूजिते। शङ्खचक्रगदाहस्ते महालक्ष्मि नमोऽस्तु ते॥". These are eight shlokas; that was one shloka, and if the stuti of Bhagavati is done through these eight, the shlokas are filled with divinity.
Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, all the rivers and oceans, Indra, Varuna, Yama and Kuber are held present in the kalash when the dhoop is shown.
After the naivedya the deep is shown, and after the deep the dhoop is shown over the whole kalash. Because all the gods and goddesses come and are present in the kalash, the speaker says — Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, all the rivers, all the oceans, the presence of all of them is there, Indra, Varuna, Yama, Kuber — remembering them, the dhoop is shown in the kalash. There is a mantra for it, he notes, but here it is being done plainly.
Where else are the digpalas and their weapons worshipped?
He says that just as we worship the vajra of Bhagwan Indra in aavaran pujan and the like, and worship Bhagwan Indra himself, and the gada of Kuber ji is worshipped, and Kuber ji himself is worshipped — in the same way, for whichever astra we are placing in whichever direction, if the beej mantras related to the shakti we are employing and to the digpal of that direction are used as samput, it gives a most intense effect.
How much strength is ascribed to Hanuman ji against a jinn?
Answering Jai Singh ji on jinns, he says that if you trust and rely on your ishta-aradhya, then what cannot happen. He cites a Maharaj ji, now Brahmalin, whose video he says he will put up: the strength of a hundred elephants is in one digpal; the strength of a hundred digpalas is in Bhagwan Indra's Airavat; the strength of a thousand Airavats is in Bhagwan Indra; and the strength of thousands of Indras is in one hair of Bhagwan Hanuman ji.
What is the method of rising from the asana after puja?
The ordinary way, the speaker says, is that one has to rise from the asana behind, and on rising one must not move away entirely — that is, the asana is not to be abandoned. Lift the asana just a little, pour water, and then, saying Indraya Namah, apply water to the forehead three times, and only then lift the asana away.
Are Indra and Vishnu counted among the twelve Adityas?
You will be astonished to learn, the speaker says, that according to kalpa-bheda there are two forms held to be forms of an Aditya: one is Indra and the other is Vishnu. Both of these devatas have been held to be the form of one of the twelve Adityas — one Aditya form each, according to kalpa-bheda. In every kalpa the names are different, and in one kalpa Vishnu and Indra come within it.
Whose grace comes together when Surya Narayan is worshipped?
So when we are doing upasana of Narayan, of Surya Narayan, the speaker says, the grace of Prajapati is obtained here too, the grace of Indra is obtained, and along with that the grace of Bhagavan Vishnu is obtained by us. The word Narayan is attached in any case, and directly he is the father-in-law of Bhagavan Shri Krishna, so his grace will certainly come.
What full vidhan does apsara sadhana proper require?
Besides this, the speaker says, the upasana of Bhagavan Indra and the upasana of Bhagavati Sachi becomes necessary — not just upasana but their complete sadhana and puja with full vidhi vidhan, digpal pujan, the balidan of the digpals; only after all these things are done does that sadhana come at the end.
The Vritrasura story: what one wrong matra does to a mantra
For his second point — how wrong uccharan brings harm — the speaker says Bhagavan has left proofs through his leelas, and tells the Vritrasura account. After Indra insulted and lost Brihaspati, the devas took Vishvarupa, son of the rishi Tvashta, as guru; when Indra later saw Vishvarupa secretly offering ahuti for the asuras too, he killed his own guru. The enraged Tvashta performed a yajna for a son who would slay Indra — but because of a single wrong matra, "indra-shatru vardhasva" (may the slayer of Indra grow) was uttered as "indraḥ shatru vardhasva" (may the one to be slain by Indra grow), and so Vritrasura, later killed by Indra with the vajra made from Dadhichi's bones, was born.
What does the episode teach about attaining a high post?
They have heard earlier in the Shiv Mahapuran that one can attain even the post of Brahma, Vishnu or Mahesh. Look again at those not attaining moksha: Brahma is a pad. Even after going to that pad, if you make abhiman, you cannot be saved — whether you are Indra, Varun, Yama, Kuber, one of the ten dikpals, or Brahma himself.
The claim made for the Krodhraj mantras: drawing and binding any deity, invoking the Upadevatas, stunning even Indra
That by the capacity of his mantras any kind of deity can be drawn and bound; that without his sadhana the powers of the Upadevata category cannot be invoked at all; and that by the effect of his mantras even Indra and the other Devas can be rendered unconscious.
Shiva laughed at his own wounded Ganas as they came in slowly, and told Brahma of the boy's might
Meanwhile Narad arrived with Vishnu, Indra and all the Devas, who asked Shiva which Lila he had begun. Seeing the wounded Ganas coming in slowly, Shankar laughed and told Brahma of the mighty boy at his door who had felled his attendants and defeated his Ganas by force.
Indra, Kartikeya the commander of the Devas, and Shiva's chief Ganas were ordered into the battle next
Shiva, greatly angered, ordered in the fierce Indra — held in the Rudrashtadhyayi's third chapter to be a form of Shiva himself — with Kartikeya, the commander of all the Devas, and all of Shiva's principal Ganas, the Bhuts, Prets and Pishachs, to surround the boy from every direction.
One Shakti, her mouth spread like a black cave, devoured every weapon thrown until only Ganesh's Parigha remained in sight
The one whose mouth was spread like a black cave ate every weapon the Devas threw, until not one Deva's weapon could be seen in that place and only Ganesh's Parigha was visible. As Mandarachal churned the ocean of milk, so this one boy churned the whole unassailable army of the Devas.
Why did Shiva sever his son Ganesh's head?
To honour a curse. Mali and Sumali, two Rakshasa devotees of Shiva, had the boon that he would come and protect them; when Sur Narayan fought them, Shiva struck him with the Trishul and he died. His father Kashyap Rishi cursed Shiva that he too would one day kill his own son himself.
Why does Indra go to Brahma, then Vishnu, then Shiva in the kathas?
He asks why, when calamity falls upon Devraj Indra, he goes to Brahma ji, even knowing that it was Brahma ji who gave the boon — why does he not go straight to Vishnu ji or directly to Shiva ji? Because a system has been made there. In every katha: they went to Brahma ji, they went to Vishnu ji, Vishnu ji said this will not happen here, come to Shiva ji, and then they reached there. And many times it has happened that they went to Shiva ji and Shiva ji went to Vishnu ji. Is there a lack of capacity in these three devatas?
How does a devata's shakti distract a sadhak by making other things appealing?
The speaker takes the case of one greatly attached to Bhagwati, saying Durga Durga all day: some shakti will grant you something such that in place of Durga Durga you begin doing something else. It says, brother, leave that, look here — this was obtained from that seva, that was obtained, come this way. The punya says it was Durga's work, but you have gone elsewhere. Like Indra whose throne shakes for fear the seat will be asked of him, so at your level too the attractions of things born of the indriyas are put before you.
How is the strength of a single hair of Hanuman reckoned?
The bal of one hair of Hanuman's body is held to be equal to ten thousand vajras of Indra. That is why, when people speak of a sakshatkar of Hanuman, he never appears with his full tej — never in Kaliyuga.
In war his samarthya equals that of Yamraj, Indra, Vishnu and Kuber
The bal of Bali and of Ravan was very great indeed. And in war, whatever samarthya Yamraj, Indra, Vishnu and Kuber have — Hanuman's samarthya is that much.
The original is destroyed and the alterations pushed into the commentary
That whoever learned from a Ram bhakta received the teaching with the bhakti bhav of that Ram bhakta, but could not pass it on exactly to his own disciple; and when that disciple came to preserve it, the work done was: first destroy the mool grantha, and push as much as possible into the commentary. Into it were pushed such things as would make Indra the greatest culprit and Brahma a culprit, and cast aspersion on Brahma's samarthya.
The third adhyaya of the Rudrashtadhyayi calls on Indra himself
Indra has been made into something always to be reviled, for the sake of so base a work. But when the path of the Shukla Yajurveda is done, when the path of the Rudrashtadhyayi is done — if you have ever had a rudrabhishek performed — listen to what is said to Bhagwan Shiva in the first shloka of the third adhyaya: it calls Indra, saying O Indra, destroy all my enemies, run with the vajra behind all my enemies. Why has that been said?
Indra, Varuna, Yama and Kuber are Vedokta devatas, not story characters
Indra, Varuna, Yama, Kuber — all these are Vedokta devatas. And you drag them, just like that, into stories of one kind and another.
What did Krishna do at Sandipani's ashram, and who are nara and Narayan?
At the ashram of the maharshi he attained as much as his yoga-nishtha and samarthya allowed, the speaker says, and through the sadhana of Bhagavati Tara — Jagadamba Mahamaya Mahavidya Tara — he composed a leela of holding the shakti of the world. In its root he also showed that this is the avatar of nara and Narayan: Krishna is the avatar of Narayan, Arjuna of nara — and nara descends from the amsha of Indra.
Why is Kuber in the north of a Shiva temple and Indra in a Ram temple?
Look in the Shiva mandal, the speaker says, and there is Yaksharaj Kuber ji — because Yaksharaj Kuber ji is a friend of Shiva ji. And besides him there are also very many of his ganas. He directs the listener to the Vishveshvara Samhita passage of the Shiv Mahapuran: hear it once, read it, and there, when a temple of Shiva ji is built, you will find at length which and which of them are installed, and how many of his ganas are installed.
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