It’s Basant Panchami and festivity has gripped people across India, with devotees taking a holy dip in the river Ganga, Yamuna, Bhramputra and Narmada. Around 50 lakh pilgrims and devotees were due to take holy dip in Sangam at Prayag only. Hindus worship goddess of knowledge, music, art and culture Saraswati Devi on the auspicious [...]
February 4, 2014
HHR
Spirituality/Culture
I began with a study of India based and primarily Hindu yogic teachings at a young age. I examined different paths of Yoga and Vedanta through several modern gurus, and took up various related meditation practices, much like what many Hindus in India usually do. Later after traveling to India, it became evident to me [...]
January 30, 2014
Vamadev Shastri
Spirituality/Culture
Even after demonstrating physical, mental and spiritual fierce resistance for a thousand years, while all other ancient civilisations ended up in a museum, today’s Hindu seems to be apologetic over his or her own existence, and desperately begs for acceptance by others especially the very people that attempted to destroy them in the first place. [...]
I had to go and buy some tea mugs downtown. Little did I know that I would literally come face to face with my own past. Instead of ‘face off, it was more a case of ‘head off’. Browsing the shop, a survival holding out against the corporate onslaught on the high street, I notice [...]
January 24, 2014
HHR
Spirituality/Culture
Alcoholics and other addicts refer to it as a moment of clarity. As I stood in the police cell amidst a cacophony of sound and rising nausea the unlikely effects of such a ‘moment of clarity’ washes over me. Here I stood in a London Police station in the early hours of Sunday morning looking [...]
January 23, 2014
HHR
Spirituality/Culture
”Why do you worship an idol?” is a question frequently encountered by some Hindu’s. Another common question is, “Why do you worship a rock?” This is an excellent opportunity for a Hindu, or follower of Sanatana Dharma, to educate their momentary student of spirituality or religion. [...]
When the sun changes direction from one constellation of the zodiac to another, it is known as Sankranti. There are 12 Sankrantis in a year, of which Mesh (Aries) Sankranti, when the solar year begins, and Makar (Capricorn) Sankranti, when the sun begins its northward journey from the Tropic of Cancer, are of primary importance. [...]
It has often been said that much of our spiritual journey is an attempt to tame the ‘monkey mind’, as the mind is often compared with the actions of a monkey-jumping from one thing to another. It would be true to say that the serious spiritual work does not begin until one has tamed the [...]
Just days after the news broke that a Satanic Temple in New York City is seeking to build a monument to Satan on the grounds of the Oklahoma Capitol, a Hindu organization announced this week that it, too, would like to build a monument there, to one of its chief deities. Rajan Zed, president of [...]
Inclement weather on November 17did not deter participants and guests who flocked to Redgum Community Centre to celebrate Samaskrutotsavam 2013, the annual day of the Sydney Sanskrit School (SSS). It was an event at which history was truly in the making. The SSS is the world’s first school to produce and launch a bilingual CD [...]
December 10, 2013
HHR
Spirituality/Culture