Spirituality/Culture

It was my great pleasure to be invited to the September 29th, 2013 Hindu Unity Day organized by the tireless and dedicated Narain Kataria and Arish Sahani of the Indian American Intellectuals Forum.  The event hosted many bright lights of the international Hindu community, including Dr. Subramanian Swamy and Baba Ramdev. The entire event was [...]

Religious fundamentalists are on the rise and that is bad for our societies. Most people will agree on this. Yet few examine who religious fundamentalists are. Obviously, such persons would want to stick to the fundamentals of their religion. They want to live a life that is advocated in their holy books and would please [...]

Temple Tanks are an essential part of every large Hindu temple. In fact, every village/town/city definitely has a temple that has a sizable temple tank. But why does every temple need to have one? Conventional beliefs hold that the water of a temple tank is holy and has cleansing properties. The water acts as a [...]

In this life, I was born American, of mixed European and Native American ancestry, culturally Christian by default – or at least as Christian as could be expected with my father scarcely believing in God and my mother being turned off from religion by having if forced on her in her youth by my well-meaning, [...]

Secret Knowledge: Traditional Levels of Vedic Interpretation   How do we approach cryptic mantras from ancient cultures, which are said to require special initiations in order to understand them? Can we assume that their evident meaning according to our present mindset of several thousand years later should be accurate? So far, that has been the [...]

I am an American like many other Americans, born into a family of mixed European and Native American ancestry. My interest in my own origins started early. I knew that my European ancestors were pagans who were converted to Abrahamic faiths, and that my Native ancestors were pagans mostly obliterated by those Europeans. I knew [...]

This stotra is in Sanskrit and it is creation of Vibhishana- Ravana’s brother. Initially this stotra starts with praise of shri Hanuman admiring his virtues and describing his tremendous power. Then very wisely, God Hanuman is requested by the devotee to remove all the diseases, bad health and all sorts of troubles from the life. Further God [...]

“Time is not just a concept that we invented; it is deep-rooted in the system, in the very way we are made.” – Sadhguru Time – the invisible current behind every story. And Mahabharat is no exception. In this video, Sadhguru gives us an eye-opening insight through the ancient concept of yugas (eras or ages [...]

A county judge in San Diego CA has ruled that yoga is not always religious (Washington Post, 2 July 2013). Parents in a San Diego school district had complained that yoga is intrinsically intertwined with the Hindu religion and that its practice in a public school setting violates the constitutional separation of church and state. [...]

Book : The Immortals of Meluha : Author : Amish Tripathi The legend of Siva would be fertile ground for authors to adapt from and weave magical tales of adventure from. But only for the talented and hard-working. This book reflects neither talent nor hard work. The fascinating premise remains just that. What if the [...]