Krishna, Kishan, Madhav, Banke Bihari, Gopala, Kanhaiya, Ranchhod, Parthasarathy, Ishvara…the many names and the many facets of the personality of the most loved God in the Hindu pantheon – Sri Krishna. The Madhurāshtakam of Sri Vallabhacharya sounds like a bit excessive at first glance. The lyrics have too much sweetness in them, it is literally …
God is all-powerful, controls the Universe – fear God, they say – since He is looking at all your bad deeds and will punish you. Pray to God, else you will rot in hell. Be afraid. Don’t speak ill of Him, be in awe of Him. The fear of God has led many men to …
Narayana and Nara are supposed to have taken form as Sri Krishna and Arjuna. They were almost like twins, working together living together, eating together, one being in two bodies. The association of Sri Krishna with Arjuna, so inseparable, is an illustration of the inseparable relation between God and man. यत्र योगेश्वर: कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धर: ।तत्र श्रीर्विजयो …
The devotee’s love for Krishna cannot be expressed in words – but some do come close. The kiran of Sri Krishna is full of celebration, an intense involvement, far removed from the stillness that one experiences when meditating on Siva. The beauty of Sanatana Dharma is that it allows for contradictory opinions, even for no …
The story of Sudama is touching indeed. He was very poor, and was always dressed in rags. On the insistence of his wife, he trudged from Avanti, near Indore, through the deserts of Rajasthan to Sri Krishna’s palace in Dvarka. The gatekeepers would not allow him in because of his ragged appearance, but when Sudama …
“Now that you’re an adult, you might still feel a pang of guilt when you decline a dinner invitation in favor of a good book. Or maybe you like to eat alone in restaurants and could do without the pitying looks from fellow diners. Or you’re told that you’re “in your head too much,” a …
Status-quo bias – The tendency for people to stay committed to current situations, for fear of changing to the unknown. Status quo bias is also caused by laziness, aversion to complexity, unnatural learning style demands, reading small print, etc. I have been reading this book – Nudge – by Richard H Thaler and Cass R Sunstein. The crux of the …
बन्धुउद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत् ।आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मन: ॥ ५ ॥ बन्धुरात्मात्मनस्तस्य येनात्मैवात्मना जित: ।अनात्मनस्तु शत्रुत्वे वर्तेतात्मैव शत्रुवत् ॥ ६ ॥ uddhared ātmanātmānaṁnātmānam avasādayetātmaiva hy ātmano bandhurātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ bandhur ātmātmanas tasyayenātmaivātmanā jitaḥanātmanas tu śatrutvevartetātmaiva śatru-vat One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the …
Rākhī derives from the Sanskrit rakṣikā, a join: rakṣā protection. Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shraavana, which typically falls in August. The expression “Raksha Bandhan,” Sanskrit, literally, “the bond of protection, obligation, or care,” is now principally applied to this ritual. Until the mid-20th-century, the …
A lot is spoken of the word “Budo”. Budō is a compound of the root bu (武:ぶ), meaning “war” or “martial”; and dō (道:どう; dào in Chinese), meaning “path” or “way. Superficially translated, it is read as “the martial way”. But what is the martial way? Surprisingly, just like karate itself, Budo has it’s roots in ancient India. The “way” has …
