Names of Lord Rudra

In the Rudram Namakam, the Eleven Rudras are praised as follows with Eleven names.

Namaste astu bhagawan

Visweswaraya, Maha Devaya, Tryambakaya

Tripurantakaya

Trikagni Kalaya, Kalagni Rudraya, Neelagandaya

Mrtyunjaya,Sarveswaraya, Sada Shivaya

Sriman Mahadevaya Nama

Tripura Samhara, due to which Rudra gets the name of Tripurantaka,  is interpreted as an event of volcanic eruption, an event of inter-galactic fight, an event of terrestrial fighting,  a meta-physical event or an event with spiritual and philosophical undertones, depending on one’s understanding.

Tripura Samhara – The Puranic version

Tripura Samhara is mentioned in Matsya Purana, Padma Purana and Shiva Purana. There is a difference in the way Tripura Samhara is treated in these puranas, though the ‘core’ of story is same.

Maya, an asura, did a lot of penance along with Taraka and Vidhyunmali to achieve immortality. Finally they got a boon that they can only be killed by Shiva’s single arrow, when that single arrow burns the three places they live.

Maya, who was destined to be the architect of Universe, built three flying cities, each moving with respect to each other such that they converge in a single line only during a day of Pushya Nakshatra which happens in millions if not billions of years.  Taraka’s fort was made in iron, vidhyunmali was made in copper and Maya’s was made in gold.

Very soon, the asuras take over the entire Universe. Devas are subdued. Devas pray to Shiva to fight for them and set them free from the reign of Asuras. Shiva accedes to their prayer.

Shiva fights with them using Brahma as a Charioteer. On the day of Pushya Nakshatra, when their forts come in a line, Shiva’s arrow made using Vishnu, Agni and Soma destroys the three forts in a single arrow.

The asuras except Maya are destroyed and Devas regain control of the Universe. Maya goes underground, undetectable.

Tripura Samhara – The cosmic version

It was the time in Universe, when it could not proceed further evolving as anti-matter had taken over.

According to science, during Big Bang, three forces came out. Property that causes Gravity, Strong force and Weak force came out from a Unified force. A mesonic cloud also appeared out/along of the Strong force.

The mesonic cloud quickly decayed through strong force into quarks. Subsequently the Weak force decay took over due to which the mesons quickly decayed into electrons, positrons, neutrinos and anti-neutrinos.

The positrons and anti-neutrons were anti-matter (asuras) and electrons and neutrinos were the matter (deva) particles.

These kept annihilating each other producing gamma ray photons which due to high temperatures simply got converted back to into electrons, positrons, neutrinos and anti-neutrinos. The Universe was vacillating between mass and energy.

Since Weak interaction became predominant (Vedas say the inertness of Madhu had taken over the Surya) at the time of Universe, the Universe became stagnant and under the control of anti-matter (asuras).

Shiva (Matter/Energy) destroys the Asuras (anti-matter) and brings out the Devas (higher order atoms, molecules, elements etc).

Three Asuras of the Darks Night of Universe

Thus it became the night of the Universe. In the dark night of the Universe things were churning inside still.  There were three regions of that plasmic cloud.

These three regions of hidden forces were churning around at different speeds, that they appeared as if there were three flying forts/cities.

The three regions are Taraka (Core), VidhyunMali (Center) and Mayasura (Outside).

Taraka means ‘Deliverer’.  It was the core of that plasmic cloud made of mesons that was decaying through strong force.  This was the region that delivered the quarks and leptons through decay of Mesons by Strong and weak-force.

Puranas call it as made of Iron (ayasa). Science says this region is inflexible (ayAsa) as quarks bound with strong force in this region.

Vidhyunmali is the region around this core. It is depicted as the region where transfer of energy  happens (Agni). Puranas describe this as a region of sliver to symbolize the flashing/lightning that happens in this region.

Science says this is the region of Electrons, positrons, neutrinos and anti-neutrinos. They were formed out of decay of mesons. Electrons and positrons were annihilating each other and forming gamma ray photons which converted back into electrons and positrons. At high energy levels this annihilation produced neutrinos and anti-neutrinos which also falls back into electrons and positrons.  Thus this region was a region of lightning, flashing and radiation.

Mayasura is the external region.  MAya means the veil/screen that hides the reality. This is the region where mass that get formed hides the Energy, gives shape to Universe.  It is still a region where anti-particles exist and fight their battles. MAya is considered a 'Deva' in the midst of 'Asura'.

According to science, at very high energy levels of electrons-positron annihilation, W and Z Bosons are produced according to science, which acquire mass from Higgs field. The mass of W and Z Bosons enable elastic scattering of positrons and electrons and inelastic scattering of neutrinos, which makes the plasmic cloud to expand, making its temperature to fall. The fall in temperature initiates nucleo-synthesis, forming nucleons, atoms and then elements.

Thus in this region the mass and shape was architected.

But then this region of Mayasura requires very high energy levels to produce the bosons. And this high energy has to emanate from the same place where Big-Bang originated and travel through all three regions.

Shiva – The Purusha – Building up Resonance

According to science the high energy levels are built up due to high temperatures at that time. How did the high temperatures come up..?

If we believe Tripurantaka story and this mapping is right, then that energy came from Shiva. Shiva is nothing but matter (Shiva) and energy (Shakti).

Vishnu, Agni and Soma

The vehicle that carried the matter are Vishnu, agni and Soma. 

Soma is the Strong force or the binding force.

Vishnu is the Ever working motion or Inertia. 

Agni is the energy transfer between forces and particles.

According to the story, Shiva (matter/energy) was guided by charioteer Brahma. I map Brahma to the force of Gravity. 

In other words, Inertia, Strong force that binds and Transfer of energy are the mechanisms by which the temperatures get built up.  The force of Gravity guides this process of temparature building up.

The increased temperatures (guided by Gravity and carried by Strong Force, Inertia and Energy transfer) creates the W and Z Bosons that would become the architect of Universe by providing mass and shape.

Tripurantaka – Shiva

Thus Shiva is hailed as Tripura-antaka, the one who bought an end to the  inertness caused by the tripura-asuras.

The Tripura-asuras here are the anti-Quarks, positrons and anti-neutrinos which were formed due to the weak-force (tamasic, madhu) decay of Mesons and that had over taken the Universe by their battle with particles, thus making Universe to vaccilate between Energy and Mass and not allowing to evolve further.

Shiva brought it to an end, guided by Brahma (Gravity) and carried by Vishnu (Inertia), Agni (Transfer of Energy) and Soma (Strong binding force) increasing the temparatures, thereby forming the W and Z Bosons which acquired mass from the Higgs field, providing mass and shape to universe and architecing the Universe as we see it today.

Thus Rudra is hailed as ‘Tripurantakaya’, the one who manifests as the destroyer of Tripura asuras.

The Eleven Rudras are the fundamental eleven force-fields that emanate from the Atma (core of Universe), establish the Universe and also contribute to the eleven-dimensional space perception of Universe.