According to mythology,
Rudraksha is the tear
center of
Lord Shiva's eyes, which is like the
Lord Shiva himself.
"Rudra" means
terrible and
"Aksha" means eyes and the
axis. Even in his angry form,
Lord Shiva is
beneficial, When he opens his third eye, He even turns "Kama"
to ashes. In fact,
Lord Shiva is the axis, the
base, foundation of the world. The
Rudraksha has
originated from the aqueous drop center of the eye of the Lord and
is very beneficial for human beings.
At one time the
Rudraksha was very popular in
India. All young and old men, and even women used to wear
Rosaries
of Rudraksha. First Mohammedans came to India and
then the British followed. Both ruled our country. During this
period the importance of the Rudraksha diminished. These foreign
people began to call those men who sported the
Rudraksha
as uncivilized and barbarians. They would say that these Indians
wear ornaments of seeds of just any tree. The Indians, fooled by the
ignorant comments gradually gave up wearing
Rudraksha.
They even forgot its beneficial qualities.
The supreme father
Lord Shiva went into deep
samadhi. After the deluge for the sake of creating this world
Lord Shiva went into meditation and turned his
full attention inwards and got lost in deep penance. When his
penance was complete and his eyes opened, along with all the Gods
and Goddesses, the tears that fell upon the earth solidified and
gave birth to
Rudraksha. These are the solidified
tears of pity that he sheds at the woes of his bhakts. These trees
bear fruit, which are indeed the Rudraksha. These fruits like
Rudraksha are used as ornaments by all the Gods and Goddesses for
their own well being.'
