Well, I learnt a bit about both this week. First – about gold. That it’s lure still attracts, but in ways that I didn’t quite imagine. Something about the yellow metal makes it impossible for us to stay away from it, even after so many years. Anyways, I was speaking to someone about how he …
The lunar calendar can be confusing, or invigorating, depending on which side of the fence you are on. If you are on the boring side, every year is the same, as far as dates are concerned. Your birthday always falls on the same day, so does New Year, and everything in between. But if you …
Ok, I watched a match after a long time, and India lost. Terribly. India-Pakistan matches used to be evenly balanced – our batting vs their bowling prowess. These matches used to be fought inch-to-inch, with the tide turning many times during the battle. Then, they started to get one sided. Usually on our side. India …
Two bits of information caught my attention today. One was about Epishura, and the second was about Li Ziqi. Now, chances are that you have not heard of either of them. Nor had I. The first one inhabits Lake Baikal, the largest source of freshwater in the world. It contains 23% of the worlds’s freshwater, …
ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय।तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय।मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय ॥ ॐ शान्ति शान्ति शान्तिः ॥ बृहदारण्यकोपनिषद् 1.3.28। asato mā sadgamaya, tamaso mā jyotirgamaya, mṛtyormāmṛtaṃ gamaya We have all heard this mantra and have had a quick glimpse of it’s meaning – lead us from ignorance to knowledge, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. This mantra …
A break from the Gāyatri series today. Not in practice, just the blog. A few things caught my attention today. One – how difficult (or easy) it is to make a child sleep – depends on the day, the quantity and quality of food, and above all – the hair dryer sounds on loop. I …
That is why this great mantra dhīyo yo naḥ pracodayāt prays not for these ephemeral constituents of our imagined glory in this world. It asks for our understanding to be rightly directed. What is meant by rightly directed understanding? It is that understanding which can tune itself to the great light of the universe. It is the …
“The body has its own natural obligation to get subjected to the process of the movement of time, and thus has to one day or the other enter a condition called senility, old age, it is expected that our mental, intellectual and spiritual life is not to attain senility. That our understanding be vigorous even …
Did you try the task that I put across yesterday? I did. Woke up, had a bath, performed basic yog and prānāyāma and then sat down to listen to the Gāyatri japa. I sat through the complete 108 japas. The beauty of a mantra is that it’s sounds should reach your ears – that is …
तत्स॑वि॒तुर्वरेण्यं भर्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑धीमहि । धियो॒ यो नः प्रचो॒दया॑त् ॥ tatsaviturvareṇyaṃ bhargo devasyadhīmahi dhiyo yo naḥ prachodayāt We all know the above as being the Gāyatri mantra. Actually we may know it in it’s varied form, the one that starts with ॐ भूर् भुवः सुवः । You may also have heard it in Anuradha Paudwal’s soothing …
A sound by any other tālā will not sound as sweet… Read More »
