By Promod Puri Even now, with very few exceptions, the American civil rights movement has never been led on a political platform. Instead, religion has been the motivating factor in the ongoing struggles and challenges, beginning with the emancipation from slavery to racism and police brutalities. Whereas religion does not find a liking in the…
Temples And Other Range Of options In Hindu Worshipping Practices
The overall mood in temple environs causes and motivates an ardent and a psychological conviction that this is the abode of God by Promod Puri An accepted convention among Hindus is to have home shrines, but a temple aside from a place of worship offers a visible embodiment of…
HINDU DEVOTIONAL PRACTICES
Besides the devotional practices at dedicated places like temples, homes, or public shrines, a striking and environmentally sensitive and gratifying feature of Hindu worshiping practices and reverence is idolizing natural landmarks like rivers, lakes, mountains, plants, animals, etc. There is divinity in all elements of nature. The belief is that gods and goddesses manifest in…
RIG VEDA: HE KNOWS, PERHAPS He DOES NOT KNOW
Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? The gods came afterward, with the creation of this universe. Who then knows whence it has arisen? Whence this creation has arisen— perhaps it formed itself, perhaps it did not the one who looks down on it, in the…
Buddhist and Hindu philosophies help us see clearly, act wisely in an interconnected world
Krishna the charioteer guiding Arjuna in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Matthew MacKenzie, Colorado State University (Article courtesy The Conversation) To say the world today is interconnected is a cliché. Never before have so many people been linked by their activities and consequences. But knowing how to think and act…
NANAK DUKHIYA SABB SANSAR SO SUKHIYA JIS NAAM ADHAAR
NANAK DUKHIYA SABB SANSAR SO SUKHIYA JIS NAAM ADHAAR (Loosely translated: Nanak says life for everybody is suffering, blissful is the one who has based his/her life on Him.) It is a universal truth. Agony, misery, pain, suffering, both physical and emotional, and in all degrees of intensity are the realities of life experienced by…
Mantra: An Ingrained Feature In Hindusim
By Promod Puri Peace in all the cosmic environments influences peace in humankind as well An ingrained feature in Hinduism is the mantra. It is a productive tool that effectively generates tranquil and energetic feelings. A mantra inherently is the delivery of sacred word(s) or a sound with literal meaning or without meaning, but capable…
EQUALITY AND DUALITY ARE THEMES IN HINDU MANTRA:
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पुर्णमुदच्यते पूर्णश्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥ “ Om purnam adah purnam idam purnat purnam udachyate purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavashishyate”. An ideological and free translation of the mantra begins with the word Om (ॐ), personified here as God. The term ‘Purnam’ and its related derivates in the mantra mean complete and signify His…
