Story Of Annapurna

In Hindu Dharma, the goddess Annapurna is regarded as the goddess of food. In Sanskrit, Anna means food and Purna means abundance or filled. Goddess Annapurna promises all those who come to her something that only a mother can give, to nourish them and to give without thinking about yourself, to be unselfish. She offers nutrition to not only the physical body but also the soul in terms of enlightenment and provides energy to achieve wisdom and knowledge. Goddess Annapurna is believed to be an avatar of Goddess Parvati, the spouse of Lord Shiva and is one of the many forms of Shakti. The Annapurna Shastranama is devoted to the Devi and sings praises of her 1000 names. While the Annapurna Shatanama Stotram talks about her 108 names. Some of the names of Goddess Annapurna are Visalakshi, Visvasakti, Vishwamata and Bhuvaneshwari. There are several temples devoted to her, one of the most famous being the Annapurna Devi Mandir in Varanasi with millions of devotees who come to this holy site to seek the blessings of the Divine Goddess. Since the Akshaya Tritiya festival is believed to be the day Goddess Annapurna was born, the day is considered very auspicious and favourable for purchasing gold jewellery or beginning new ventures. It is mentioned in the Puranas that before proceeding to Lanka, Lord Ram prayed to Annapurna Devi to eliminate the hunger of the Vanara Sena and bless them to be victorious in their quest. The iconography of Annapurna Devi is depicted as a gorgeous young woman with a fair complexion, bright and round face like the full moon, three eyes, high breasts and four hands. She is adorned with ornaments and holds a bedecked pot with tasty porridge in her lower left hand and is portrayed holding a golden ladle decorated with shimmering jewels in her right. Symbolically, it is implied that her worshippers will never run out of food. Her other hands showcase the Abhayamudra, which is for protection, and Varada, the boon-giving poses. In a few places, she is depicted as sitting majestically on a regal golden throne with a crescent moon adorning her head with Lord Shiva standing adjacent to her with a begging vessel pleading her for alms. The story of Goddess Annapurna is mentioned in the Annapurna Upanishad, Skanda Puran and Linga Puran. The popular game of dice used to be played by Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. Once, they were playing an interesting game and decided to start betting. Shiva kept his trident and Parvati decided to bet on her jewels. As the game continued, Shiva lost the game and thus ended up losing his trident. In the subsequent game, he bet on his snake to win the trident back. But unfortunately, he did not win that game as well. He continued with more games and bet even more but did not win anything. Finally, he ended with nothing and lost everything including his begging vessel. Humiliated, Lord Shiva headed out to the Deodar forest to seek Lord Vishnu's advice. He told him the entire story of how he lost everything while betting. Vishnu then asked Shiva to play again and said that he will be victorious and win everything back in the next game. Pleased with Lord Vishnu's counsel, Shiva returned to play the game again. This time, Lord Shiva started winning everything he had lost. Goddess Parvati became sceptical of Shiva's unexpected turn of fortunes. She became upset and called him a cheat. This resulted in an argument and fight between the couple. Eventually, Lord Vishnu could not take it anymore and appeared in front of them. He informed them that the dice in the game had worked as per his desire and they were only under the impression that they had been playing. Adding to this conversation, Lord Shiva stated that everything materialistic was simply an illusion or maya. Everything that we owned was an illusion, including the food we consume. This enraged Goddess Parvati as she did not believe that food was an illusion. She declared that calling food an illusion was the same as referring to her as an illusion. Wanting to demonstrate her importance to Lord Shiva as well as to the world, she vanished, stating that she wished to witness how the universe would sustain itself without food. Goddess Parvati being gone meant that nature came to a halt. The seasons did not change. Luscious land became infertile. Everything turned barren and nothing grew. This resulted in a massive dearth of food and severe drought. Everyone from the gods to humans and demons were starving and praying for food. Parvati heard their pleas and could not bear to see her children dying out of hunger and starvation. So she emerged in Kashi and began distributing food. Lord Shiva finally understood his blunder and the fact that he was not complete without Shakti. He materialized before Goddess Parvati and Kashi and had a begging container in his hands. He stated that he recognized where he went wrong and realized that food is something that cannot be written off as an illusion or maya. It was essential to nourish the physical body and the inner soul. Since that day, Parvati Devi has been revered as the Goddess of Food or Annapurna. It is assumed that if the food is cooked with holiness, it becomes pure as it is blessed by Goddess Annapurna. According to the second legend, one day the three deities, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva had a heated argument over who among them was the greatest. After hearing their arguments, Mahadevi decided to show them her importance in the world and disappeared, thus causing severe famine and scarcity of food. As a result, yagyas could not be performed and the devas or gods began to weaken and in turn turned to Trimurti for help. Lord Vishnu then requested Shiva to ask Goddess Shakti to return. He told Shiva about a woman in Kashi who started donating food to people. Lord Shiva immediately realized that this woman was none other than Jagadamba or the mother of the universe and went to Kashi as a beggar to ask for food from Devi for the devas. Goddess Parvati was glad that the need for her and her nature became recognized by everyone. She offered Shiva food as alms and told Mahadev that she would reside in Kashi in the form of Annapurna. The place where Shiva went was the only kitchen on earth that was located on Kashi. Kashi is a place regarded as the region where the casual body manifests the highest level of peace. The Annapurneshwari temple in India is located a few meters away from the Kashi Vishwanath Mandir where the Jyotirlingam of Shiva is located. Annapurna is recognized as the ruler of Kashi while her husband, God Shiva is the Lord. Every day at noon, food is distributed in the temple on behalf of Mother Annapurna. And during the celebration of the Navratri festival, the amount of food distributed increases tenfold. The famous temple of Devi Annapurna is also in Asan of Kathmandu, a pagoda-style three-storied brass temple. Here, the Goddess is portrayed with eight arms. The four right arms hold a sword, bajra, varad mudra and a bowl, while the four left arms hold a bindu mudra, a rosary, a bell and an urn. Besides, there are numerous family temples where Annapurna Mata is worshipped by local pandits. Every year, from Ashwin Shukla Navami to Dwadashi, the Kathmandu residents, especially the Nevar community, celebrate the Annapurna festival. The devotees in Kashi believe that Kashi is the home of Goddess Annapurna, so no one ever sleeps hungry in this city. Worshipping the Annapurna Goddess destroys all sins. She protects her devotees from calamities. Mother Annapurna also provides her devotees all worldly pleasures and, in the end, salvation. She takes care of everyone without discrimination, and whoever worships Goddess Annapurna with complete devotion resides in their home in her subtle form.