This is the first part of the two part series on
Rudraksha both articles together cover the following topics:
Article last updated
on 01st march 2017
Rudraksha English names: Blue Marble Tree, Bead
Tree, Lily of the Valley Tree, Blue Olive Berry, Blue Fig, Ash Quandong, Fairy
Petticoats, Native Olive, White Boree, Fringe Bells Ultrasum-Bead tree,
Sanskrit: Rudraksha; Hindi: Rudrak; Tamil: rudrakshi Telugu: aakkam,
Rudra-challu Bengali: rudrakya; Oriya: Rudrakhyo; Malyalam: Rudraksham; Kannada: Tamarai; Assam: Rudrai,
When I travel I bring back devotional items like bhasma from akhand dhuni (ashes from eternal fire maintained in
certain ancient temples or by sadhus),Ganga jal also items like rudraksha, chandan, bhojpatra etc after offering
them at ancient temples and distribute them as Prasad
Many people want a one mukhi round rudraksha, let me tell you something about it
One mukhi rudraksha
Ek mukhi rudraksha
The common one mukhi rudraksha called ek mukhi are
available in half-moon, cashew-nut shaped
The correct
round type of one mukhi rudraksha are
so rare that no one has seen them and those that are available at exorbitant
rates are mostly fake
The royal family of
Nepal-- Shah dynasty has a few of them, the king of Nepal presented one to our
ex-prime minister Indira Gandhi; we all know what happened to both these
families the Shah dynasty slowly lost all their powers and finally most of the
family members were massacred and the same fate came over Indira Gandhi and her
two sons
One mukhi round rudraksha are best kept in temples
or with spiritually elevated persons, ordinary people should not aspire for it,
you see some birds have extremely powerful wings which helps them to migrate
across continents, hunt etc. but powerful wings are developed very gradually as
the bird learns to fly, if very strong wings are developed initially the bird
will not be able to handle the speed generated and kill itself
Similarly we receive the sacred devotional items as
and when we are prepared for it
Coming back to the first point, maybe that is why Maharaja
Ranjit Singh had willed that the Kohinoor diamond would not be kept with the royal
family anymore and that it should be given to the Jagannath Temple in Orissa
but the British rulers took it by force; at least Queen Victoria had the wisdom
and she wrote in her will that the Kohinoor should only be worn by a female queen.
Often I wonder that behind so much Pomp, such
magnificent and splendid appearance, grandeur the members of the British royal
family are nothing but plunderers, mass murderers.
Please click on the link to read
http://bhoj11.blogspot.com/2012/07/in-spite-of-world-history-we-have-to.html
In spite of the worldhistory we have to stay in love.
The writer and historian William Dalrymple has
researched that before the Kohinoor reached the British, it had already passed
through a number of hands, all of which were not “Indian”; he says “I think
there is no doubt about that British took away the diamond by force, It is
complete nonsense that it was gifted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Sikhs.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh kept it with him his whole life. It was during the
regency of his son Duleep Singh that the diamond was taken away.”
He adds further that “The diamond did not come
peacefully to Ranjit Singh either. Indians claim that Shah Shujah gave the
diamond to Maharaja Ranjit Singh. But Shah Shujah’s autobiography clearly
mentions that his son was tortured by Maharaja Ranjit Singh before he took away
the diamond….. So if the British took it by force, so did the Indians.”
The only difference is that Raja Ranjit Singh
brought back by force what originally belonged to India
Some information about
rudraksha
Family:
elaeocarpaceae
Genus: elaeocarpus----there are 350
species of elaeocarpus, And there is much confusion in their botanical names;
the most common names of species of round Rudraksha are Elaeocarpus ganitrus
and Elaeocarpus angustifolius
Rudraksha is not a
fruit, it is found inside a fruit and is an Endocarp that is the covering of a
seed, if you cut a Rudraksha you will find seeds inside hence they are called
beads or some call them stones; I will explain the various stages of growth
later
Rudraksha are
classified as per their mukhis
A mukhi or dhari or facet or cleft is a line from
the top to the bottom of the Rudraksha
This is a 4 mukhi Rudraksha because it has 4 lines
A 7 mukhi Rudraksha has 7 lines
12 mukhi
15 mukhi
One important thing is that inside the Rudrakash
bead there are compartments which hold one seed each example a five mukhi bead
will have five clefts or lines visible outside and five internal compartments
which hold one seed each hence a five mukhi rudraksha will have five seeds, a ten
mukhi bead will have ten clefts and ten seeds, etc. So the number of internal seeds should be the
same as the number of mukh in any rudraksha.
In this image an eight mukhi bead is cut into two
and you see eight compartments each will have a seed inside, the middle big
hole is the central hollow from which we pass the thread, wire or chain
This 5 mukhi bead has five seeds inside
However, you will see that the 14 mukhi bead on
the right only 6 compartments are fully developed, 2 are semi developed and rest
6 are hardly developed, so it is very difficult to make out the correct
formation of compartments seeing a X-ray of the bead, like in the image of a 10
mukhi bead below one compartment is not developed
And in many beads, particularly those beyond eight
mukhi, it has been observed that the seeds often gets overlapped or in some
cases some of the seeds do not attain complete growth; hence it is difficult to
identify a genuine bead by looking at its X-ray
Various stages of
growth
The Rudraksha tree flowers, not all flowering trees
produce fruits; it takes many years for the tree to bear fruits
Flowers of Elaeocarpus
ganitrus on left and flowers of Elaeocarpus angustifolius on right
Unripe green coloured
fruits
Rudraksha bead inside
the unripe fruit
Ripe fruits are blue
in colour
Ripe fruits fall to
the ground
When the blue cover is removed the Rudraksha
bead appears
If the blue cover is
not removed in time; the cover hardens and turns black; then it is very
difficult to remove the cover, the hardened fruit has to be dipped in water and
the cover rubbed with a hard brush
Later on the Rudraksha
bead has to be cleaned and dipped in oil for a few days
Different types of
Rudraksha
Rudraksha trees are found in many places worldwide
but Rudraksha beads are available from 3 countries
Nepal: the best quality
Indonesia also called Java beads: second best
India: not a good quality
Nepal beads are round, well developed with a high
density, Indonesia beads are smaller in size and not as developed compared to
Nepal beads, Indian beads have a low density
Nepal bead is on the
left and Indian bead on right
Indonesian bead on the
left and Indian bead on right
India had good quality of Rudraksha trees but they
were cut down by the British rulers as the light and strong white wood which is
a good quality timber was excellent to make aeroplane propellers during
World War 1; after that no one made any efforts to replant these trees as no
one cares for our Vedic culture everyone wants to make fast money, it is a pity
that only few of our Vedic humped cows which produce A2 nontoxic milk are left,
Vedic cows have a surya nadi because of which Gold is produced not only in
their milk but also in their urine; scientist have proved this by abstracting
Gold from their urine, please click on the links to read articles
It is such a shame that India where there was once
the Vedic way of living is the biggest exporter of beef and all the fake
Rudraksha which are available in the market are made in India
Please click on the link to read the article on Vedas
A Pilgrimagecalled Life---part 2
Spherical (round) big
size Rudraksha with natural hole are the best
Other types of
Rudraksha are
I will explain about following types of Rudraksha
Haridwar / Dehradun Rudraksha
South Indian type Rudraksha
Flat elliptical shaped South Indian Bhadraksh
Gaurishankar
Sawar
Trijuti
Ganesh rudraksha
Nandi rudraksha, Dwi Ganesh.
Gupt mukhi
Haridwar / Dehradun
Rudraksha
Commonly known as Indian oval three mukhi Rudraksha
they are oval in shape with less density and they do not have a proper centre
hole, the bead has to be drilled to create a big hole for the thread to pass;
belonging to the species Elaeocarpus serratus; 90% of beads under this species are
three mukhi, rest are two mukhi and very rarely a one mukhi is produced
Unlike the round Rudraksha bead, the oval Indian
bead has only one seed inside for three, two as well as one mukhi
In the above photo I am wearing the Indian oval
beads (Auroville meditation centre in the background) (click on the photo to enlarge it); I received them from the
Keshav ashram at Haridwar who have a more than 100 years old Rudraksha tree
planted by lahiri mahasaya, also some of lahiri mahasaya’s ashes are kept in
this ashram
It is indeed commendable that this ashram is not
turned into a commercial joint like most ashrams; such a huge area has been
kept in its pristine green form; they do not sell the Rudraksha beads but give
them for free to all who visit the ashram
The Indian Rudraksha
tree at the ashram
Swami Keshvanand
Ashram
Accommodation is excellent;
they have constructed only 4 rooms
Ashram is right on the
bank of the Ganga
I collected a few
unripe beads which had fallen to the ground
I would like to add a note about Kriya yoga; A
person who was doing aura photography told me that practices like Kriya yoga
where you pull up your Kundalini Shakti (energy) can be dangerous as our lower
chakras are not purified first.
I often think that why so many Gurus who teach
Kriya yoga or practice Kundalini yoga are themselves not in the best of health,
many have suffered from cancer, ill health, sudden death etc
All the Kriya yoga gurus teach a different method;
which itself proves that the original authentic teachings have been lost over
the years
My search for a guru had taken to me to Varanasi (Benares)
where I met Shibendu Lahiri, the great grandson of Lahiri Mahasay, I found him
to be an insane person
South Indian type
Rudraksha
Half-moon, crescent
moon or Cashew-nut shaped
These beads are straight
and not moon shaped
Species: Elaeocarpus
tuberculatus: Mostly available in one mukhi called as One mukhi
Chandrakar (half-moon), Cashew-nut shaped, crescent moon shaped are considered
as an alternative to one mukhi round Nepal variety. (Sometimes two, three and
four mukhis are also available in this shape) However, the beads are not having
the properties – like the natural hole, texture, density and shape of the original
one mukhi rudraksha. In terms of internal structure, it has just one wide
compartment. Even the two, three or four mukhi Chandrakars too have only one
compartment inside which is contrary to the accepted norm of recognizing the
mukh in a typical Roxb (round) variety. For wearing, it is clamped using a
specially designed cage and hole is never drilled.
There are many trees of this species in South India
and they are available for a very cheap rate; but because of the advertisements
and promotions the price has been hiked up
Flat elliptical shaped
South Indian Bhadraksh
 |
Species: Elaeocarpus tuberculatus; available in two
mukhi only, they are flat without a natural hole, light in weight and not so
thorny; they are not considered as Rudraksha beads and are called Bhadraksh
Gaurishankar
We come across two fruits which are joined together,
so rarely two Rudraksha fruits join together on the tree and the resultant bead
is a joint bead, here mukhis are counted together, some gaurishankar have 21
mukhis, they mostly have one common hole but some have two separate holes
Most of gaurishankars available are fake; one
indication to judge a genuine bead is that the beads should not join close to
each other in a flat way and the
joint should emanate from inside the bead and not merely peripherally.
Sawar
Sawar means a rider; very rarely a bead of one
mukhi rides over another bead (similar to gaurishankar), again most available
are fake, as dealers separate the one mukhi and sell them at a high price
Trijuti
Trijuti also known as Tribhagi, Gauri Path or
Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh are three beads joint naturally together
Trijuti with nearly equal spacing and uniform bead
size is an absolute rarity.
Again most beads available are fake
Ganesh rudraksha
Some people get obsessed with the image of Ganesh
in rudraksha to such an extent that they look for the contours (an outline representing or
bounding the shape or form of something) on the surface
of any rudraksha resembling the trunk of the elephant God Lord Ganesh.
So any projection in a Rudraksha is counted as a
Ganesh Rudraksha
Ganapati was mentioned
in the Vedas; but the idol with the elephant head and human body does not find
any mention in the Vedas,
I will write about it
in the blog series “A pilgrimage called life” and the truth I will write may disappoint
some people
Nandi rudraksha, Dwi
Ganesh.
Similar to Ganesh Rudraksha but with two trunk-like
protrusions on two sides of the bead
Gupt mukhi
A rudraksha bead without mukhis, that is without
lines formed
End of part 1; article
will be continued in part 2
