International Women's Day

I wish all the Annapurani’s a happy International Women’s Day 🥰❤️🙏

I address all of you as Annapurani because it is a combination of two words “Anna” meaning food and “purani” meaning filled completely!

Annapurani is the goddess of food and the kitchen. She is the goddess of nourishment and never allows her devotees to be without food. She is also considered to be the goddess of Kashi or Varanasi as it is the “city of light”. The goddess not only provides nourishment to the body, but also provides nourishment to the soul in the form of enlightenment. She gives us the energy to attain knowledge and strength.

I salute the Annapurani in all of you and pray that you continue to create food that not only fills the stomach but also provides strength and nourishes the soul of your loved ones. ❤️🙏

On this special day I share with you the story of Annapurni:
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Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati used to play the game of dice. One time they were playing and the game became very interesting; they started betting. Parvati had her jewels and Shiva had his trident. Shiva lost the game and lost his trident. So in the next game he bet his snake to get back the trident. Unfortunately he lost this game too. He played more and bet more and kept on losing. Eventually he lost everything including his begging bowl.

Shiva felt very humiliated and went to Deodar forest to meet Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu approached Shiva who told him everything about what had happened. Lord Vishnu then told Shiva to play the game again. He told him that he will win back everything he had lost in the next game. Shiva took Lord Vishnu’s advice and went back to play dice again.

Goddess Parvati became suspicious of Shiva’s sudden turn of fortune that led him to win back everything and she called him a cheat. This led to an argument between the two of them. Finally, Lord Vishnu appeared as he could not take the fighting anymore. He told them that the dice in the game had moved according to his wish and that they were only under the illusion that they had been playing.

To this Shiva added that everything materialistic was just an illusion or Maya. Everything that we possess is an illusion, even the food we eat is Maya. This made Goddess Parvati angry. She did not agree that food was an illusion. She said that calling food an illusion was equivalent to calling her an illusion. So in order to show Lord Shiva and the world her importance, she disappeared saying that she wanted to see how the world would survive without her and without food.

Her disappearance meant that Nature came to a standstill, there were no changes in seasons and everything became barren. The lands became infertile and nothing grew anymore. This led to severe drought and a huge food shortage. The Gods, humans and demons all kept praying for food. Goddess Parvati heard the prayers and she could not watch her children perishing from hunger, so she appeared in Kashi (Varanasi) and started distributing food.

Shiva realized his mistake and the fact that he was incomplete without Shakti, so he appeared before Goddess Parvati in Kashi with a begging bowl in his hands. He said to her that he had realized his mistake and that food could not be dismissed as an illusion as it was required to nourish the body as well as the inner soul.

Since then Goddess Parvati is worshipped as the Goddess of food – Annapurna Devi. It is believed that if the food is cooked with a spirit of holiness it becomes sacred as Annapurna blesses it.