importance of chooti diwali

On the second day of five day Diwali festival, this chhoti Diwali is celebrated which is also called as the day of 'Naraka Chaturdashi' or small Diwali. It is believed that Lord Krishna defeated the devil Narakasur on this day putting an end to evil. So this day is very important day for Indians and they celebrate the day as chhoti Diwali.  People celebrate this day with burning fewer crackers over the victory of Lord Krishna.

Chhoti Diwali is celebrated differently in south by performing different rituals. People in south wake up early in the morning before sunrise and apply a mixture of Kumkum on their foreheads which is prepared by mixing kumkum in oil which symbolizes blood and break a bitter fruit that represents the head of the demon King Narakasur who was killed by Lord Krishna and take oil bath using sandalwood paste.

In Maharashtra state there is a tradition that people take bath in the early morning on the day of Chhoti Diwali by applying uptan which is made of gram flour and fragrant powders. They do this as a custom, when women folk massaged scented oil on the body of Lord Krishna when he returned after defeating demon Narakasur and gave him a good bath to wash away the filth from his body. So this became a traditional practice in Maharashtra. And later they serve steamed vermicelli with milk and sugar or puffed rice with curd.

Origin of Chhoti Diwali :

Chhoti Diwali is originally came into existence with a story of legend which is named as Bali Pratipada where Pratipada means below the opponent's foot. There was a king named Bali who had an immense powers. And with those powers the king did many mistakes thinking that there is no one who could defeat him. Then Lord Vishnu disguised as a sage of tiny Bhramin and appeared in front of King Bali. The king offered sage to ask any wish, the sage asked Bali that he wants the land that could cover in 3 paces. King Bali immediately agreed to the wish. Then the sage assumed a gigantic form and claimed the world

of Mrityuloka and Swargloka in two paces. Then sage asked king to put his foot down the 3rd time on Bali’s head, the king has to agree to keep up his promise, then the king was thrown into pathalok. Thus  how the reign of Bali was overthrown.

Narakasur's mother Bhudevi declared that his death should not be a day of mourning but the day has to be celebrated with joy.

So the day before Diwali is celebrated on a smaller scale, with fewer lights lit and fewer crackers burst. Women at the early morning after Chhoti Diwali, make beautiful, colored rangoli in the doorway and courtyard with tiny footprints made out of rice paste are a special feature of the rangolis made for Diwali. Chhoti Diwali celebrations perform ritual pooja to Goddess Laxmi and also to Lord Rama in the evening.

how to overcome fear in life

Fear is a factor that limits one’s health and wealth. Having fear is reasonable and helpful to some extent if the fear is healthy for things like fire, knife etc. but if the fear goes beyond extreme then the problem arises causing unhealthy life with fear always.

Fear stops success. Everyone in life has their fears such as spiders, snakes, darkness but these fears are just caused by people's imagination, or are harmless.

Fear is an anxious feeling of anxiety, pain in your solar plexus which causes hard to breath and increase in blood pressure. Fear should be used as a gift for those fearful feelings as a flashing red light warning.

Take such fears to find solution to overcome instead if you continue

With fear then you become powerless in your task.

If you get clear understanding of things you fear and what it does for you in life then it becomes easy to eliminate fear from life as fears are just an obstruction that comes your way. Fears sometimes are joyful.

They are easy to overcome by paying attention to fears to come across.

1.To overcome fear first you must analyze the fear whether it harm you in any way or not. And if does not harm you, then there is nothing to be afraid.

2. Recognizing fears when you come across. This would help to overcome fear from all situations.

3. When to get fear by taking immediate action, it reduces the fear and builds confidence and you can accumulate experience and knowledge. It may be difficult for the first time to take action but if you are strong then it is possible to overcome fear. Start off with small steps and build up your confidence until the fear of failure is manageable.

4. Another way to overcome the fear is to reduce the downside. Evade your risk by making plans. Even if your first option fails, you can maintain the status quo with a solid backup plan. Daring to fail doesn’t mean you have to risk losing it all. If you manage risk intelligently, you can capture the benefits of high risk opportunities while leaving yourself a safety net.

5. The subconscious mind is so powerful that when it sends a directive. To get rid of a fear one needs to get rid of that specific fear directive. That may take specialized training from a professional but there are some things you can try first.

6. In order to overcome fear you need to respond to fear which leads to many internal messages. It will take some time and some repetition to shift your patterns so one should have patience and be persistent to succeed.

7. One must take the power and advantage out fear by understanding it. By research all the potential outcomes both good and bad gives you good understanding of the risk of fear.

angery management techniques

Anger is an extremely destructive state of mind that serves no useful purpose instead worsens the situation. Anger is not something human disorder; it is completely a normal, healthy, human emotion, but if the anger gets out of control it leads to problems at work, in personal relationships and even in life.

Mostly anger is caused by inevitable problems in our lives. Anger is a normal emotion which is expressed by everyone expresses from time to time. Getting angry for every small things is very bad for health and may lose loved one’s further away from you.

In order to solve the problem of anger one must need to recognize the anger within their sate of mind, recognize how anger harms both you and others. One has to apply practical methods in their daily life to reduce anger and prevent it from getting angry again in life. Everyone can benefit from learning a few angry management techniques.

There are effective Angry Management techniques that can be used

to come out from the anger situation before it occurs.

1. Thinking before you say something when you are in anger is the best angry management technique which helps you to be able to check before the situation gets deviated.

2. Accept that things got out of hand, ask yourself why they got out of hand, and then realize that no matter what, the consequences afterwards will always be worse than the feeling of triumph during a heated conversation, even if it was not your fault to begin with.

3. By recognizing stress one can definitely manage anger. Try to develop understanding things that go around you. Instead of reacting to the anger situations you try to respond to it. Since human beings can choose how to express their anger and therefore can learn new ways to more effectively communicate their needs, feelings or

requests.

4. Counting is the best angry management technique which is not only applicable for children but also elders can go for this technique before reacting to a tense situation. By just taking a few moments to breathe deeply and start counting till 10 which helps you to slow down your anger.

5. Relaxing is more important aspect to manage anger. Because taking time for relaxing and having enough sleep makes you to handle critical situations with ease. But drugs and alcohol things makes anger problems worse.

6. By discussing your feelings with a friend are very much helpful to calm down by their console to come over from the situation and you get solution to the problem.

7. Try to change the conversation by yourself with a self talk technique to manage anger and empowers you to deal with anger in terms of how strongly you feel the anger, how long you hold onto your anger, and how you express your anger.

8. Express your anger when you are calm by responding assertively without getting angry by stating your concerns and needs directly and clearly without hurting others.

9 There are many Anger management classes which are available for those who wants to control anger where you can join and manage your anger.

10. Whenever you are in angry mood you just go for a brisk walk or do some physical activity since it stimulates brain t get relaxed and come out of anger state. Remind yourself that getting angry is not going to stay anything feel better.

Having understood the nature and disadvantages of anger, we then need to make our mind carefully at all times in order to recognize it whenever it begins to arise.

why diwali is celebrated

Indians celebrate each and every festival with great enthusiasm where Diwali is one of the major Hindu festival which is celebrated on the no-moon day i.e. on Amavasya according to Hindus. Diwali festival is celebrated to commemorate the victory of good over the evil.

This festival is celebrated for five days, where the 3^rd day is celebrated as the Festival of lights Diwali in the Hindu month of Ashwin, that comes in October or November of every year.

Diwali festival teaches us the Indian old age culture to defeat ignorance that subdues humanity and to drive away darkness that engulfs the light of knowledge. Even in today’s modern generation Diwali festival is celebrated with rich and glorious past of India.

There are many mythical and historical reasons for why Diwali festival is celebrated not only for Hindus but also for all others to celebrate this great Festival.

Mythological reasons :

1. According to the mythological review Lord Vishnu when he was in 5^th form of Vaman-avtaara rescued Goddess Lakshmi from the prison of King Bali on this auspicious day i.e. on Diwali. So for this reason people worship goddess Larkshmi during Diwali festival.

2. People celebrate Diwali festival for the victory of good over evil where Lord Krishna Killed demon Narakaasur on the preceding day before Diwali festival and rescued 16,000 women from his prison. So this festival is celebrated as victory festival.

3. According to the great epic ‘Mahabharata, Diwali festival is celebrated on the return of pandavas after the 12 years of vanvas- the exile of their defeat in the hands of the Kauravas at the game of dice. On the day of karthilk Amavashya, when pandavas returned to their kingdom, people who loved them celebrated the day by lighting the earthen lamps as Diwali festival.

4. Diwali has another epic of Ramayana  for its celebrations as Lord Rama, his wife Sita and Laxmana returned to Ayodhya on new moon day of Kartik after killing Ravana who took away Sita mata when they were in Vanvas. So people of Ayodhya decorated the entire city with the earthen lamps and celebrated as Diwali with great enthusiasm like never before. And Lord Rama is crowned as the king of Ayodhya.

Historical Reasons:

1. Diwali festival has a historical event as the greatest Hindu King Vikramaditya was coroneted on the day of Diwali festival.

2. Diwali festival day is a very special day for the Arya Samaj people.

One of the greatest reformers of Hinduism and the founder of Arya Samaj, Maharshi Dayananda attained his nirvana (heaven ) on the day of new moon day of Kartik i.e. on the day of Diwali.

3. Even Diwali is a special day for Jains sinve the founder of modern Jainism Mahavir Tirthankar also attained his nirvana on the day of Diwali.

4. Sikhs also celebrate Diwali as a special day where on the day of Diwali in the year 1577, at Amritsar their laid a  foundation stone for the Golden Temple. And another historic reason for Sikhs to celebrate this Diwali festival is when the sixth Sikh Guru Hargobind and other kings were released who were held by Jahengir a Mughal Emperor of Gwalior.

Bhog offered to Durga Matha during Navrathri:

Bhog offered to Durga Matha during Navrathri:
Dussera Navrathri festival celebrated in India with many varieties of delicious recipes offered as Bhog (Prasadam) to goddess Durga Matha while worshipping her during Navrathri festival which continues for nine days. During Dussera Navrathri festival different forms of Goddesses Parvati, Lakshami and Saraswati are worshipped respectively for three days each.
As Goddess Durga Matha has nine incarnations called as Navdurga. are worshipped during Navrathri in each form for nine days. So each deity has special Bhog offered to them on these nine days as it is considered as incomplete pooja for Hindus without offering Bhog to the goddesses.
Each deity is worshipped on different day as the first form of Goddess Durga as:
Shailputri Matha is worshipped on Pratipada
Bahmacharini Matha is worshipped on Dwitiya
Chandarghanta Matha is worshipped on Tritiya
Kushmanda Matha is worshipped on Chaturthi day
Skand Mata is worshipped on Panchami day
Katyayani Matha is worshipped on Shashthi day
Kaalratri Matha is worshipped on Saptami day
Mahagauri Matha is worshipped on Ashtami dayand day
Siddhidatri Matha is worshipped on Navami day.

Different varieties of Bhog is offered to the nine form of Goddesses during Navratri festival are:


Bhog offered to Shailputri Matha :
On the first day of Dussera Navrathri festival goddess Shailputri Matha is worshiped on the day of Pratipada. Shailputri Matha is a daughter of Himalaya is offered with pure Ghee on the foot of deity as Bhog and the devotee takes the blessings for disease free life.
Bhog offered to Brahmacharini Matha :
Brahmacharini Matha, the second form of Goddess Durga is worshipped on the second day of Dussera Navrathri festival on the day of Dwitiya. Goddess Durga was named as Brahmacharini, when she was the daughter of Himalaya with the name of Parvati did vigours meditation for Lord Shiva to get married to gods of god. Brahmacharini Matha was offered with sugar as Bhog with her blessings for increase of longevity of the family members.
Bhog Offered to Chandraghanta Matha :
On the third day of Dussera Navrathri festival Chandraghanta Matha is worshipped on the day of Tritiya Tithi. Deity Chandraghanta Matha has crescent moon on her forehead in bell shaped. Chandraghanta Matha is offered sweets prepared with milk as Bhog seeking her blessings to fulfill their wishes gets rid of all the worldly pains.

how to improve self esteem

Everyone in life experience problems with self-esteem at certain times especially when they are in teens when they enter into the world by figuring out who they are and where they fit in the world. Now a days

low self-esteem is causing a widespread problems in everyone’s life. People who are suffering from low self-esteem, it can affects negatively in every aspect of their life which may include their relationships, job and even their health. Those who have low self-esteem may feel as if no one will like them or accept them or are not capable of doing well in anything.

Self-esteem is nothing but how much one feel valued, accepted and loved and how well they thought of by other people. One should know how much they love, value and accept themselves which build self esteem in them. People those who have good self-esteem they are able to feel good about themselves, can appreciate their own worth, and will feel proud for their abilities, skills, and achievements.

There are some causes low self esteem which are considered as :

Loosing hope on one’s ability

Considering as looser and are not worthy to be cared by others

Always opting for safe methods instead of facing any risk they come across.

And always fears that they might be rejected by others

Often struggles for solving a problem

Poor reputation at work with irrational beliefs.

Never try to make good assessment of their own abilities and strengths and never received any compliments or appreciation from others.

But one can improve their self esteem very easily by following the below mentioned steps which are very much helpful in building confidence about themselves.

1.To improve self esteem one must feel that they are valued and are worthy what ever happens in their life by accepting themselves and be happy to grow and improve without self-criticism.

2. One should never feel guilty whenever you said NO for things you feel wrong and try to meet new people and make friendship with confidence.

3. The most important aspect to be consider for improving Self Esteem is never try to compare yourself with other people since there might be some people who have more than you and some who have less. So one cannot defeat from their opponents if they fall into comparison.

4. Evaluate about conditions or situations that deflate one’s self-esteem whether they might come across in business presentation or

crisis at work or home . With identification of such situations one can improve self esteem by paying attention and try to think about them though your thoughts and beliefs positive or negative and might be nothing. 

5. Always have an association with positive and supportive people

to improve self esteem with their encouragement. One’s self esteem can be lowered when they are surrounded who degrade you and your ideas down.

6. Recollect things when you did something new or achieved for the first time. It might be like passing your driving test despite being nervous. Because it builds confidence and being normal in you when you remember new things you achieved relieves nervousness, lack of self belief and high stress levels.

7. Don’t put yourself down because it may leads to negative phrases about yourself and your abilities which lets your self esteem lowered.

And try to avoid self deprecating comments whenever you speak of your career financial situation or may be personal relationships to improve self esteem levels.

8. Everyone knows that exercise is great way to lose weight and stay fit, but it is also a source of improving self esteem. Since exercise affects in your attitude in a positive way so do an exercise that you enjoy doing.

6. Get your self relaxed seriously because when you are properly relaxed, your brain is less emotional and your memory for good events works better since you stop thinking.

7. Accepting compliments by responding with simple "thank you " you ever received builds your confidence and self esteem. And when you reject a compliment, the message you give yourself is that you are not worthy of praise.   

8. To enhance your self esteem use affirmations such as writing about yourself on a card and carrying it with you always by repeating the statement you wrote for several times during the day time and at night times. Whenever you say the affirmation, allow yourself to experience positive feelings about your statement.

9. There are many workshops, books and cassette tape programs available on improving self-esteem which allow you to dominate mind and affect your behavior.

10. By living your own life and being true to yourself you will gain self esteem instead of depending on the decisions of others those who decide about you where you never feel good and lose your respect if those decisions are not suitable for you and your self esteem gets lowered.

11. Self-esteem increases when you are in work and activities that you enjoy and make you feel valuable.

12. Inculcate the habbit of giving more by helping others around you

It may not be money it can be a positive contribution you are giving them in need where you are valued more which lifts your spirits and raises your own self-esteem.

goddess Skanda Mata

Goddess Durga Matha is worshiped in her fifth form as Skanda Mata

During the fifth day of Dussera Navrathri festival. Deity Skanda Mata

Is the mother of Lord Kartikeya who is known as Skanda. Lord Kartikeya was by gods as their commander in chief in the war against the demons. So being the mother of Skanda Goddess Durga is called as Skandamata.

Deity Skanda Mata rides on a lion accompanied by her son Lord Skanda in his infant form holding in her right upper arm. Skanda Mata has four arms and three eyes. She holds a lotus in her right hand which is slightly raised upwards. The left arm is in a mudra symbolizing benediction and in left lower hand which is raised also holds a lotus. Skanda Mata has a bright complexion and often depicted as seated on a lotus. Whenever the oppression by the demons increases, goddess Skandmata rides on a lion and kills them.

Skanda Mata is revered form having produced such as a remarkable son and worshipped as the mother figure par excellence. Skanda Mata symbolizes for her gentleness and love of mother, peace and prosperity. Deity Skanda Mata is considered to be the Goddess of Fire.

It is believed that those who worship Mata Skanda their mind reaches Visuddha Cakra and stays therein and even a moron can become the enlightened one blessed with all the worldly knowledge and blesses  all her devotees praying with their hearts and souls with the wealth and prosperity.

Deity Skanda Mata pooja starts on the fifth day of navrathri festival in the early hours of morning with the portrait of the Goddess being decorated with good clothing and expensive embellishments with a variety of sweets offered to her, along with cash. The day is very important for the worshippers who believe in the mother Skanda Mata

for showing the path of righteousness.