I m extremely happy to share my interview with Hinduism Today.
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Story: Life As A Human Being
One day Krishna and Arjuna were taking their usual walk, when they came across an old Brahmin begging, taking pity on his condition, Arjuna gave him a bag of gold coins. The man was overjoyed and went home. On his way he was robbed by a thief in the forest. He cursed his fate and the next day set off to beg again.Arjuna and Krishna saw again and when Arjuna got to know of his story, once again took pity and gave him a large diamond. The man took it home and kept it in an old pot which had been unused for many years in order to keep it safe and went to sleep. The next morning before he could wake up, his wife went to fetch water from the river and on her way back, she slipped and her pot broke. She immediately remembered the pot at home which lay unused and brought it to fill it with water. Just as she dipped the pot in to the river the diamond escaped the pot and went in to the river. When she returned home the Brahmin was desperately searching the house for the pot and when he saw it in his wife's hands, he got to know what had happened. Dejected with what had happened, he once again left home to go begging.Once again Arjuna and Krishna saw him and when Arjuna heard of the unfortunate incident that had happened, he told Krishna ," I don't think this man is destined to be blessed at all, I don’t think I can help him anymore". Krishna then gave the man two pennies and the man took them and walked away. Arjuna then asked Krishna," My Lord, if gold coins and diamond could not change his condition, what good can two pennies do to him?". Krishna smiled and replied, "let us see".As the man walked home he was cursing his fate when he saw a fish that had just been caught by a fisherman and was struggling for its life, he took pity on it and thought to himself," these two pennies cannot fetch me food anyway, let me at least save the life of this creature" and he purchased the fish and was about to throw it in the river when he saw that the breathlessness of the fish was caused due to some large obstruction in its mouth and when removed it , it was the very diamond he had lost in the river. He was overjoyed and started shouting "Look what I found! Look what I found". At this very time the thief that had robbed him in the forest was passing by and heard the Brahmins shouts, he recognized the Brahmin and thought that the Brahmin too recognized him and was thus shouting. Fearing that the Brahmin may take him to be executed, he rushed to him and begged for his forgiveness and returned all the gold coins he had stolen from him. The Brahmin was happy and walked away joyfully with all his wealth. He went straight to Arjuna to narrate the turn of events and thanked him for all his help and went away.Arjuna then asked Krishna,"My Lord, how is it that my gold and diamond could not help him but your meager two pennies did?. Krishna replied," when he had the gold and diamonds he was only thinking of himself and his needs, but when he had the two pennies he put the needs of another creature before his and so I took care of his needs. The truth is O Arjuna when you think of the pain and needs of others and work to help them, you are doing God's work and hence God Himself takes care of you"Let us serve others physically, financially and mentally to the best of our abilities. Our life as a human being is worthwhile only if we can make a difference in the life of others !
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Godmen & Godwomen in India
Talking about Godmen and Godwomen is now the trending thing on Indian Channels after the Radhe Ma issue. Unfortunately there is either extreme support or extreme hatred shown. Regardless of whether she has committed a crime or not, people should know the following.
- You can call your godmen/godwomen in any lovable way or not (calling someone maata or maa or sri or guru)
- What they wear doesnt matter. i.e. someone wearing a saffron robe doesnt make them pious and someone wearing skirts/jeans doesnt make them un-pious.
- There is nothing called "new age guru". Whoever you follow or want to be like can be your guru.
- Any guru can give only if they get. If people give, ask the people why they are giving and not the guru why they are taking.
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Yoga, Meditation & Other Courses
Back in India, yoga & meditation is associated less with athleticism and more with spirituality and health. I have seen elders in my family, through repeated practice, claims to have come to clarity with their place under the gods and in the world, and at 80+ years old still possesses the limbs and lungs of a much younger man. Yoga was the collection of asanas and pranayamas that my people had crafted and curated and concocted to promote health, harmony, and spirituality. This cultural discipline turned into a billion-dollar industry featuring yoga pants and various meditation courses.
In the recent few months, I have had many people ask me if I have done any meditation courses (from various organizations, not mentioning names here). I have always loved listening to people talk about meditation and got answers for some questions which I had about meditation. Personally, I m not a big fan of meditation and yoga because of the way it has turned itself into a business. Some people have questioned me why I think it that way because we pay similar amounts for temples, educational institutions etc., which I think is a valid question.
People go for these courses, paying a lot of money, because they want a quick solution for relieving stress in their lifestyles, in which case, this is perfect. For someone like me, I look at spiritual education to be free of expectations i.e. something where I go to learn and, not learn because I want to gain something or not because I paid something and I expect something in return. Each of our actions these days have their own expectations tied to it. Expectations will lead you to happiness or disappointment. I think the happiness or disappointment is acceptable to receive if it is on materialistic things, but I dont want that for spiritual things.
Why did I write about this? I had a conversation with a friend, where I mentioned a few points which I wanted to share.
....
Me: How much did you pay for USC to get your Masters degree?
Friend: Lots. :(
Me: Why did you pay that?
Friend: To get a degree.
Me: Why did you want that degree?
Friend: Because it was aligned to my goals to move to the US i.e. get a job, get the exposure and experience.
Me: What if you didnt get either of those (say you didnt get a job)? Would you have been disappointed that you spent so much for the new experience and you didnt get it?
Friend: Yes. I would be disappointed that I didnt get a job, but will still go with my experience I gained.
Me: So, the motive of coming to USC, paying so much money is for the job and experience.
Friend: Yes.
Me: In this case, you needed a job which is capable of paying back all the money you spent on the education experience. This is called "expectation'.
Friend: Yes.
Me: And what you have now is "return of expectation" in multiple expectations. Even if one didnt go the way you wanted, you would have had a feeling "why did I spend so much money on this?". This is what happens on a day to day life of every person.
Friend: But then, I got so much. If something doesnt work out, then it doesnt right? Be disappointed and move on.
Me: When people's expectations are not fulfilled, instead of learning about it, people seek other means. Every person has a different solution for it. When I want to do the meditation/yoga course, I want to do it for learning and not with the expectation that it will solve my problems since I have paid for the course.
Friend: That's the thing about going inward right Bat, none of the rules of the outside world apply. When i get into difficult times, i have the patience to wait. Outside u need to plan, u need to prepare, Inside, u need to relax, to let go.
Me: You cant live a world just inside life is about both smile.
Friend: Yep. Definitely can't! Exactly. But how is the balance at the moment?
Me: Very much perfect. Imbalance is for people who worry about their problems in life. Balance is for people who work in finding solutions to their problems in life.
Friend: he he. No I mean balance in the amount of effort u put in to keep the inside and the outside happy.
Me: You dont need to put an effort for it. It is like "trying to quit smoking". When u say u r "trying",
u r already not confident that u can do it
Friend: Effort isn't the word. time maybe? Attention that's better, I think. See, what I am getting at is that, just take something simple. cooking. We spend at least an hour everyday to feed ourselves. If u think about it, if u skip a meal, or you skip 2, or 3, or 4. we will live.
Me: Yes.
Friend: Now stop breathing. 1 min, 2 mins, 3 mins. That's it. you can't hold it longer. Just like breathing. we do it like 30 times every minute, but have u ever done that consciously. How much time do you actually spend to ensure your breathing pattern is right?
Me: When u spend 1 hour to cook, how much time do u spend eating it? Do u eat it with a spoon or by hand? Do u look at ur food and eat or ur tv/comupter screen?
Friend: Bat, I understand what u r saying. that life is simple, focus energy on the stuff that needs it.
Me: Eating with ur hand is ur physical connection. Looking at ur plate and eating is ur visual connection. Relishing it and eating is ur mental connection. Realizing the energy of the food which u eat, which makes u live is the spiritual connection.
.......
Education is one of the most precious things in our lives. And spiritual education needs sincerity and focus and the interest to learn. Unfortunately, these days, people do not have the patience to learn things sincerely. Each of us have lots of expectations and get disappointed/stressed very easily because we have too many points of failure (i.e. expectations). For people who seek these yoga and meditation courses, go there with the interest to learn and not because it is trending or cool. And that time, this will have a much bigger impact on your lives.
In the recent few months, I have had many people ask me if I have done any meditation courses (from various organizations, not mentioning names here). I have always loved listening to people talk about meditation and got answers for some questions which I had about meditation. Personally, I m not a big fan of meditation and yoga because of the way it has turned itself into a business. Some people have questioned me why I think it that way because we pay similar amounts for temples, educational institutions etc., which I think is a valid question.
People go for these courses, paying a lot of money, because they want a quick solution for relieving stress in their lifestyles, in which case, this is perfect. For someone like me, I look at spiritual education to be free of expectations i.e. something where I go to learn and, not learn because I want to gain something or not because I paid something and I expect something in return. Each of our actions these days have their own expectations tied to it. Expectations will lead you to happiness or disappointment. I think the happiness or disappointment is acceptable to receive if it is on materialistic things, but I dont want that for spiritual things.
Why did I write about this? I had a conversation with a friend, where I mentioned a few points which I wanted to share.
....
Me: How much did you pay for USC to get your Masters degree?
Friend: Lots. :(
Me: Why did you pay that?
Friend: To get a degree.
Me: Why did you want that degree?
Friend: Because it was aligned to my goals to move to the US i.e. get a job, get the exposure and experience.
Me: What if you didnt get either of those (say you didnt get a job)? Would you have been disappointed that you spent so much for the new experience and you didnt get it?
Friend: Yes. I would be disappointed that I didnt get a job, but will still go with my experience I gained.
Me: So, the motive of coming to USC, paying so much money is for the job and experience.
Friend: Yes.
Me: In this case, you needed a job which is capable of paying back all the money you spent on the education experience. This is called "expectation'.
Friend: Yes.
Me: And what you have now is "return of expectation" in multiple expectations. Even if one didnt go the way you wanted, you would have had a feeling "why did I spend so much money on this?". This is what happens on a day to day life of every person.
Friend: But then, I got so much. If something doesnt work out, then it doesnt right? Be disappointed and move on.
Me: When people's expectations are not fulfilled, instead of learning about it, people seek other means. Every person has a different solution for it. When I want to do the meditation/yoga course, I want to do it for learning and not with the expectation that it will solve my problems since I have paid for the course.
Friend: That's the thing about going inward right Bat, none of the rules of the outside world apply. When i get into difficult times, i have the patience to wait. Outside u need to plan, u need to prepare, Inside, u need to relax, to let go.
Me: You cant live a world just inside life is about both smile.
Friend: Yep. Definitely can't! Exactly. But how is the balance at the moment?
Me: Very much perfect. Imbalance is for people who worry about their problems in life. Balance is for people who work in finding solutions to their problems in life.
Friend: he he. No I mean balance in the amount of effort u put in to keep the inside and the outside happy.
Me: You dont need to put an effort for it. It is like "trying to quit smoking". When u say u r "trying",
u r already not confident that u can do it
Friend: Effort isn't the word. time maybe? Attention that's better, I think. See, what I am getting at is that, just take something simple. cooking. We spend at least an hour everyday to feed ourselves. If u think about it, if u skip a meal, or you skip 2, or 3, or 4. we will live.
Me: Yes.
Friend: Now stop breathing. 1 min, 2 mins, 3 mins. That's it. you can't hold it longer. Just like breathing. we do it like 30 times every minute, but have u ever done that consciously. How much time do you actually spend to ensure your breathing pattern is right?
Me: When u spend 1 hour to cook, how much time do u spend eating it? Do u eat it with a spoon or by hand? Do u look at ur food and eat or ur tv/comupter screen?
Friend: Bat, I understand what u r saying. that life is simple, focus energy on the stuff that needs it.
Me: Eating with ur hand is ur physical connection. Looking at ur plate and eating is ur visual connection. Relishing it and eating is ur mental connection. Realizing the energy of the food which u eat, which makes u live is the spiritual connection.
.......
Education is one of the most precious things in our lives. And spiritual education needs sincerity and focus and the interest to learn. Unfortunately, these days, people do not have the patience to learn things sincerely. Each of us have lots of expectations and get disappointed/stressed very easily because we have too many points of failure (i.e. expectations). For people who seek these yoga and meditation courses, go there with the interest to learn and not because it is trending or cool. And that time, this will have a much bigger impact on your lives.
Monday, October 13, 2014
Why Do We Perform Abhishekam? Is it Performed In The Right Way?
We have been to a lot of Hindu temples and for most major occasions we will be witnessing an abhishekam process before the archanai and aarti. So what is an Abhishekam?
Abhishekam - Definition
An abhishekam is a religious bathing ceremony. The word abhisheka means a sprinkling. It is derived from the root sic, to wet, and with the prefix abhi, "around," abhisheka is literally, "wetting around." An abhisheka is the bathing part of a puja that usually is done with sacred water. In puja, a Deity is called, seated, greeted, bathed, dressed, fed and praised. The bathing of the Deity is the abhishekam part of the puja. In some cases, the main focus of the puja is the bathing ceremony itself. This is especially the case with the worship of the Shiva Linga. During an elaborate bathing ceremony a Deity is bathed not only in water, but also with milk, yogurt, butter milk, honey, clarified butter, sugar, and all kinds of fruit juices. After this bathing, the sacred image is dressed, ornamented, fed and praised with hymns accompanied with bells, drums and other instruments.
Scientific/Moral/Ethical Meaning Behind Abhishekam
Here is the actual scientific/moral/ethical reason behind Abhishekam. The idols/statues of the God for which we perform abhishekam are made up of various materials. Some of them are made up of granite (through a special process), some made of gems such as Emerald etc., some are made up of a mixture of materials which are capable of curing various diseases. So when we perform abhishekam on these idols, the water/milk/etc. used extracts a bit of the constituents/essence of the idol's materials which eventually get distributed as prasad. Since the temples are the place where people from all castes and socio-economic classes visit, it becomes the perfect place to distribute along with a spiritual feeling.
Why am I Writing About This?
In the past few months, I have been attending various Hindu festive celebrations and I find that in most temples, the milk, water etc which is used for the abhishekam just goes into the drain. One of the days, I saw more than 200 gallons of milk used for abhishekam and I saw it with a heavy heart as I was reciting the mantras for the pooja. One of the major things which I did for my poojas which I conduct at USC (University of Southern California), I use a glass of water (at max) for the abhishekam, which serves like a cleaning/bathing process for the idol. I encourage the students to bring fruits or any other prasad which eventually can be distributed to everyone who attended the pooja. Some of them even take a portion of the prasad for their roommates/friends who couldnt make it to the pooja.
My Request
All we need to do is to bring stuff to temples which can be distributed to everyone. Whether the milk/honey/anything else which you bring for a pooja goes as part of the abhishekam or not, the mind of giving something which can be given to everyone in the temple itself is a noble thought. Instead, take the items and provide it to the needy, if the temples drain these materials as part of the abhishekam.
Feel free to give your views on this page. I would like it to be a constructive comment. Also do share this link to others. More articles like this will be coming soon.
Abhishekam - Definition
An abhishekam is a religious bathing ceremony. The word abhisheka means a sprinkling. It is derived from the root sic, to wet, and with the prefix abhi, "around," abhisheka is literally, "wetting around." An abhisheka is the bathing part of a puja that usually is done with sacred water. In puja, a Deity is called, seated, greeted, bathed, dressed, fed and praised. The bathing of the Deity is the abhishekam part of the puja. In some cases, the main focus of the puja is the bathing ceremony itself. This is especially the case with the worship of the Shiva Linga. During an elaborate bathing ceremony a Deity is bathed not only in water, but also with milk, yogurt, butter milk, honey, clarified butter, sugar, and all kinds of fruit juices. After this bathing, the sacred image is dressed, ornamented, fed and praised with hymns accompanied with bells, drums and other instruments.
Scientific/Moral/Ethical Meaning Behind Abhishekam
Here is the actual scientific/moral/ethical reason behind Abhishekam. The idols/statues of the God for which we perform abhishekam are made up of various materials. Some of them are made up of granite (through a special process), some made of gems such as Emerald etc., some are made up of a mixture of materials which are capable of curing various diseases. So when we perform abhishekam on these idols, the water/milk/etc. used extracts a bit of the constituents/essence of the idol's materials which eventually get distributed as prasad. Since the temples are the place where people from all castes and socio-economic classes visit, it becomes the perfect place to distribute along with a spiritual feeling.
Why am I Writing About This?
In the past few months, I have been attending various Hindu festive celebrations and I find that in most temples, the milk, water etc which is used for the abhishekam just goes into the drain. One of the days, I saw more than 200 gallons of milk used for abhishekam and I saw it with a heavy heart as I was reciting the mantras for the pooja. One of the major things which I did for my poojas which I conduct at USC (University of Southern California), I use a glass of water (at max) for the abhishekam, which serves like a cleaning/bathing process for the idol. I encourage the students to bring fruits or any other prasad which eventually can be distributed to everyone who attended the pooja. Some of them even take a portion of the prasad for their roommates/friends who couldnt make it to the pooja.
My Request
All we need to do is to bring stuff to temples which can be distributed to everyone. Whether the milk/honey/anything else which you bring for a pooja goes as part of the abhishekam or not, the mind of giving something which can be given to everyone in the temple itself is a noble thought. Instead, take the items and provide it to the needy, if the temples drain these materials as part of the abhishekam.
Feel free to give your views on this page. I would like it to be a constructive comment. Also do share this link to others. More articles like this will be coming soon.
Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Incorporating Hinduism In Our Daily Life
I happened to go for the weekly Aarthi organized by the Hindu Students Organization (HSO) at USC. Swami Sarvadevananda had come to lead the discussion for today. The topic was "How do we incorporate Hinduism in our daily life". It was a very interesting discussion and I relished every minute of it. Here are some of the extracts from the dicussion.
"What is our final goal of life?" was the first question asked by Swamiji and everybody was silent. I then told "Mukti". This started off a very interesting reply from him. Eventhough what I told was a good answer, it wasnt the simple answer. The simple answer was that our goal of life is to live peacefully. That is something which we are all searching for.
An example: If we go to a person who takes drugs or drinks heavily and ask him why hes drinking/taking drugs, his reply would be that hes going through a lot of struggles in his life and he wants to forget all those and be peaceful.
Yes. What he does is right i.e. searches for peace, but the means of going about it is different. When his intoxication comes down, he goes further depressed. This is because he is already quite unhappy, and he gets more depressed because he has come back from so much joy to the unhappy situation. Hence, this isnt permenant peace.
And so on, the discussion progressed.
Then came the question, what is actually a Hindu way of living? The way we are on track with our final goal i.e. peace, is the Hindu way of living. When we compare with the other cultures, they have short term goals and they achieve it. Then they go in search of the next goal. But what happens here is that, when they reach close to the end of their life, they have no clue about what they were trying achieve overall. Hence its always important that we focus on short term goals that will go in the path of our final goal. So, in the way we are grown up, we are trained to live a life where we set peace and happiness as our top priority and the actions which we do revolve around it.
Then propped the question of whats the use of living a life like that? Every person is respected around for his character whether its Christ, Buddha, Krisha or Rama etc. When you are able to do actions which would not just serve you, but a group of people, it brings in happiness and satisfaction. It makes you realize the positives in everything and will make you more focussed. It helps you learn more things and admire them. And so on..
Finally, we ended up in the last question talking about Reincarnation. At that time, Swamiji explained to us, how rebirth of any soul is in search of the higher truth from the lower truth. He told us that no one is a sinner and whatever actions we do, its an experience for us to proceed in the path towards the infinite truth.
And there ended a lively and wonderful discussion today. I thought it was something which I should share with all of you. Hence I m posting it right away.
"What is our final goal of life?" was the first question asked by Swamiji and everybody was silent. I then told "Mukti". This started off a very interesting reply from him. Eventhough what I told was a good answer, it wasnt the simple answer. The simple answer was that our goal of life is to live peacefully. That is something which we are all searching for.
An example: If we go to a person who takes drugs or drinks heavily and ask him why hes drinking/taking drugs, his reply would be that hes going through a lot of struggles in his life and he wants to forget all those and be peaceful.
Yes. What he does is right i.e. searches for peace, but the means of going about it is different. When his intoxication comes down, he goes further depressed. This is because he is already quite unhappy, and he gets more depressed because he has come back from so much joy to the unhappy situation. Hence, this isnt permenant peace.
And so on, the discussion progressed.
Then came the question, what is actually a Hindu way of living? The way we are on track with our final goal i.e. peace, is the Hindu way of living. When we compare with the other cultures, they have short term goals and they achieve it. Then they go in search of the next goal. But what happens here is that, when they reach close to the end of their life, they have no clue about what they were trying achieve overall. Hence its always important that we focus on short term goals that will go in the path of our final goal. So, in the way we are grown up, we are trained to live a life where we set peace and happiness as our top priority and the actions which we do revolve around it.
Then propped the question of whats the use of living a life like that? Every person is respected around for his character whether its Christ, Buddha, Krisha or Rama etc. When you are able to do actions which would not just serve you, but a group of people, it brings in happiness and satisfaction. It makes you realize the positives in everything and will make you more focussed. It helps you learn more things and admire them. And so on..
Finally, we ended up in the last question talking about Reincarnation. At that time, Swamiji explained to us, how rebirth of any soul is in search of the higher truth from the lower truth. He told us that no one is a sinner and whatever actions we do, its an experience for us to proceed in the path towards the infinite truth.
And there ended a lively and wonderful discussion today. I thought it was something which I should share with all of you. Hence I m posting it right away.
Monday, August 25, 2014
Is This Really Hinduism?
(Reposting an article which I wrote in 2008. Since I have a dedicated blog on Hinduism now, I thought I can share it again)
Today I had received an email with the subject "Save Dharma" from an unknown person who had managed to get my email id through someone. Of course, this wasn't a spam email which was sent by any automated script. The email had a message
"Dear all,
Kindly save sanathana dharma from being destroyed as shown in the attachment. Forward this mail to all and protect dharma.
DHARMO RAKSHATI RAKSHITAH
PROTECT DHARMA AND IT PROTECTS YOU".
It was indeed great to see a good line of sanskrit in the body of the email, but then when I saw the attached file, I got quite angry. The name of the file was "The Death of Hinduism" and it had presented a very extremistic view on how many hindus got converted to christianity, how politicians support these moves, etc.
I had just sent that person a small email with the following message.
"I dunno who you are and how you got my email Id. But I totally condemn this email. I m a born Hindu and I follow dharma. Whether people get converted or not, or whether the politicans support or not, its finally we who should take care of ourselves. I m living out of the country and I follow Indian tradition and values. I cant go and ask another fellow Indian why he/she is not following it. It just depends on themselves. I can find a lot of extremism in the attachment. Hinduism is all about acceptance and tolerance. That's where we tell "Hindusim is a way of living".
Anyways, I dont wanna give a lecture or explain this thing. But please do not send it across to all of us. This is again a request. Its upto you to follow it or not.
Thanks."
Many of you friends would have received emails like this. The reason for me to write about this event in my blog is because I wanted to express my views on such emails and also request all of you not to spread this kinda message to anyone.
(Update: 7th Nov, 2008)
Animesh Pathak, my senior at USC, had posted about this in his blog after reading this article. Thanks Animesh. Click Here to read it.
Today I had received an email with the subject "Save Dharma" from an unknown person who had managed to get my email id through someone. Of course, this wasn't a spam email which was sent by any automated script. The email had a message
"Dear all,
Kindly save sanathana dharma from being destroyed as shown in the attachment. Forward this mail to all and protect dharma.
DHARMO RAKSHATI RAKSHITAH
PROTECT DHARMA AND IT PROTECTS YOU".
It was indeed great to see a good line of sanskrit in the body of the email, but then when I saw the attached file, I got quite angry. The name of the file was "The Death of Hinduism" and it had presented a very extremistic view on how many hindus got converted to christianity, how politicians support these moves, etc.
I had just sent that person a small email with the following message.
"I dunno who you are and how you got my email Id. But I totally condemn this email. I m a born Hindu and I follow dharma. Whether people get converted or not, or whether the politicans support or not, its finally we who should take care of ourselves. I m living out of the country and I follow Indian tradition and values. I cant go and ask another fellow Indian why he/she is not following it. It just depends on themselves. I can find a lot of extremism in the attachment. Hinduism is all about acceptance and tolerance. That's where we tell "Hindusim is a way of living".
Anyways, I dont wanna give a lecture or explain this thing. But please do not send it across to all of us. This is again a request. Its upto you to follow it or not.
Thanks."
Many of you friends would have received emails like this. The reason for me to write about this event in my blog is because I wanted to express my views on such emails and also request all of you not to spread this kinda message to anyone.
(Update: 7th Nov, 2008)
Animesh Pathak, my senior at USC, had posted about this in his blog after reading this article. Thanks Animesh. Click Here to read it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)