Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals : 13.6.

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12/03/2017.

 Chapter 13 : Lord Skanda – The Concentrated Divine Energy -6.

Skanda-Shashthi message given on the 9th of November, 1980.

We have in India two great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and also eighteen Puranas, each one touching upon one aspect of this universal activity going on in the form of evolution and involution, the warfare between the divine and the un-divine forces.

There is a perpetual conflict between god and devil, as the theologians sometimes tell us.

The ruling divinity of the universe and the forces of darkness fight with each other.

A noble and sublime instance of this epic event that is supposed to have taken place aeons back in the history of the cosmos, is the Skanda Shashthi Festival, which is observed for six days and which concludes and consummates on the sixth day, dedicated to Lord Skanda.

The great hero of this cosmic drama which is described in the Skanda Purana, and in certain other scriptures like the Mahabharata, is Skanda, the great War-god of India.

Oftentimes, westerners compare Him with Mars, the generalissimo of the celestials, the angels in heaven.

In the Bhagavadgita, Lord Krishna, the spokesman of the great poem, identifies Himself with Skanda among the generals: "Senaninam-aham Skandah."

Swami Krishnananda
To be continued ...


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