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From the Editor's Desk
Namaste,
The
month of September brings with it a number of auspicious
festivals, including Ganesh Chaturthi, the birthday of Lord
Ganesh. There is much to be learned not only from the stories
of Lord Ganesh, but also from his physical appearance. Check
out the symbolism behind Lord Ganesh below.
Gratefully,
Tattva
Team
I am a Hindu YUVA, by Sairam
Thyagarajan
If there has been a word which can cause a lot of
discomfort among many Indians, irrespective of their religious
affiliations, it is the word Hindu. What an irony that many
Hindus wriggle in discomfort when they hear or have to speak
that word. When I became part of a student chapter whose name
had the “discomforting” word, one of my room mates asked “Why
Hindu? Why not Indian? As people may not feel comfortable with
‘Hindu’ and moreover the term ‘Indian’ attracts more
people.”
This made me think of what deserves more importance - is it
either being Hindu or Indian?
Read
the rest of this entry » Dwarfing the BP Oil Spill: Bhopal, by Sanjay
Lohar
 As
people watch the BP oil spill get bigger and bigger, the
marine life continues to be threatened by the invasive
spread. In light of all the media coverage that the
spill receives, the coverage that the findings of a certain
report received seem trivial. What recieves even less
coverage are the events that transpired 25 years ago at the
end of 1984, and the hundreds of thousands lives that it’s
affected. Be warned, this post contains disturbing
content. Read at your own discretion. Dec. 2,
1984 is coming to a close, routine checks are being done at
the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in the
city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The personnel are hardly
qualified to carry out the checks, products of cost-cutting
moves by the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) based in the
United States. The plant uses the gas methyl-isocyanate
(MIC) as part of the production process, this gas is highly
toxic and reacts strongly to liquid water. The MIC is
supposed to be stored in drums, but it is instead stored in
large tanks. The tanks have alarms that warn of any
leaking or other failures, these alarms had not worked since
1980.
There are several pipe leaks on the facility, something
which is ignored by the higher up when it’s reported.
Several key safeguards are offline. At about 10:00 PM,
water enters one of these tanks. The reaction is
immediate, the poisonous chemicals begin to escape from the
tanks and into the surrounding air. The scrubbers, that
were supposed to remove some of these harmful chemicals, have
not been functioning for several months.
Read
the rest of this entry » Tantric Roots to the Vedas, by Yogi Baba
Prem
 While the Tantric system has often been
viewed as a later development within the greater field of
Hinduism, a deeper study reveals that the roots to Tantric
teachings exists within the Vedas themselves. Tantric
teachings are based in and as old as the Vedas itself,
representing another side of the Vedic approach.
Read
the rest of this entry »
Significance of Aurobindo Ghose Jayanti, by
V.N.
Gopalakrishnan Sri
Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950) was a multifaceted personality-a
great scholar, litterateur, philosopher, patriot, social
reformer and above all a visionary. His 138th birth
anniversary was celebrated on the 15th of August, which
coincided with India’s Independence Day. India attained
independence on the same day 75 years after his birth in 1872.
In a message on the Independent Day, he said: “I take this
coincidence, not as a fortuitous accident, but as the sanction
and seal of the Divine Force that guides my steps on the work
with which I began life, the beginning of its full
fruition.” Read
the rest of this entry »
From Limited Tools to Greater Resources, by
Ravi Kumar
 The following is an excerpt from the book
Glimpses of Hindu
Genius, by Ravi Kumar.
An interesting development is taking place these days: Many
foreigners have taken inspirations from Bhagwad Gita and they
are putting their efforts to promote it. Once upon a time we
were fighting our battles all alone. But now with these
educated and resourceful persons joining Hindu forces, our
strength has increased. Every time someone utters uncharitable
remarks on India or Hinduism, Francois Gautier (the French
journalist based in India) gives a fitting reply. Some of our
people have been sold out to the foreign media. But Francois
Gautier is there. Koenraad Elst and Michel Danino are there.
They are a special breed of people who have been inspired by
Hindu philosophy and Hindu way of life.
Read
the rest of this entry »
Mahavidhyas (3 of 10), by Deepak
Saagar
Shri
Lalitha Tripurasundari, as her name says is one of extreme
beauty not only in form but of our own perception.
Tripurasundari represents the ultimate beauty of pure
perception which arises when we see all the universe in
ourselves, when we see all nature as a reflection of the
reality of consciousness… She is called Lalitha meaning the
one who plays, drives home the point that all of the universe
exists only for one purpose, for Her play alone.. She is the
ruler of the Sri Chakra, the supreme Yantra and is the goddess
of consciousness and pure knowledge… She rules from the summit
of Meru, ordering about the dance of the universe… She is
shown as a woman of extraordinary beauty, sitting on a throne
with Shiva lying below her and the throne itself supported by
Brahma, Vishnu, Eshwara and Rudra.. She holds five arrows in
her hand representing the five senses, a noose and goad and a
sugarcane… She has one leg folded and another dangling down
resting on the Sricharka… She is considered to be the supreme
deity in all Shaktha beliefs centered around the
Srichakra…
Shloka: Namaskara
Samaye
(While performing
Pradakshina Namaskara)
यानि कानि च पापानि जन्मान्तर कृतानि च |
तानि तानि
विनश्यन्ति प्रदक्षिण पदे पदे ॥
yani kani ca papani janmantara krtani ca
tani tani
vinashyanti pradakshina pade pade
Sanskrit to English Word Meaning:
yani kani ca- whatever; papani- sins; janmantara- all my
lives; krtani ca- committed; tani tani- those; vinassyanti-
destroy; pradakshina- circumambulation; pade pade- with every
step
Translation:
O Bhagawan! Whatever sins I have committed all my lives
(including previous lives), please destroy them at every step
I take around you.
Brief Explanation:
Pradakshina, meaning circumambulation, consists of walking
around in a clockwise ‘circle’ around the deity, as a form of
worship in Hindu ceremonies. We see people doing this at our
temples where they go around in circles either chanting some
shlokas or just walking with pure devotion. In that context,
this shloka can be sung where in, one asks the lord for
forgiveness from the sins that he/she has committed with every
step taken during the Pradakshina. |
