WHICH VIEW DO YOU BELIEVE IN ?

One view is that you are a prisoner of fate. Whatever you do, you simply cannot change it. Another view is that we are absolutely free. You have freedom of choice between picking right or wrong. At every step of life, you can make the effort to improve your condition. Acting thus, you could change your karma and so alter your destiny.
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Is Sanskrit (In)dispensable for Hindu Liturgy?

Another good question that Hindus, especially North American diasporic Hindus, ought to ask themselves concerns the indispensability of Sanskrit for Hindu ritual and prayers, basically for Hindu liturgy. Though it is true that vernacular languages have played a significant role in regional and devotion forms of Hinduism, the version that has developed in North America are founded on the centrality and indispensability of Sanskrit in temple rituals, home services (sacraments such as marriages etc.) and in prayers.

But how many practitioners understand the Sanskrit that is being recited? How many devotees (and potential devotees) are disenchanted or alienated because they do not understand the purport of the ritual or of the prayer? (Alternatively, how many are mesmerized by this?) Should Hindu temples in North America change their liturgical language to English? or to the majority language of the congregation (Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati etc.)? or should the liturgy still be in Sanskrit and interested devotees can obtain helpful "translations" or play-by-play guides in the vernacular language of their choosing?

The Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church addressed and rectified a somewhat similar problem in Sacrosanctum Concilium 36, where it was recognized that "the use of the mother tongue, whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or other parts of the liturgy, frequently may be of great advantage to the people..." Is this, then, the direction that Hindu temples in North America ought to take? Would it be beneficial if the liturgy were in the vernacular?

Such a scenario, to use the vernacular, may, prima facie, seem like a good idea. But several critical questions would need to be answered: Is there something about Sanskrit itself that would make a non-Sanskrit liturgy inefficacious? Would the gods/goddesses propitiated be "deaf" if the propitiation were not in Sanskrit? Would the gods/goddesses be unable to understand non-Sanskrit reverence (i.e. it's all Greek to me)? Would imploring Shri Ganesh, the elephant-headed deity, for example, in English, not provide the desired results? And is Sanskrit translatable? Could the purport of the liturgy in Sanskrit ever be accurately conveyed in English, Telegu, Chinese or any other vernacular? And if translation were permissible, then who would do the translation, and, more importantly, who would authorize it? While this issue was addressed in Sacrosanctum Concilium 36 ("Translations from the Latin text into the mother tongue intended for use in the liturgy must be approved by the competent territorial ecclesiastical authority mentioned above"), is there a credentialed governing Hindu group in North America (or elsewhere) who would have such power? And from where would such a group derive its authority?

These are just a few of the sort of questions that would arise should Hindus ask about the in/dispensability of Sanskrit in Hindu liturgy. It may be a critical time for Hindus, especially diasporic Hindus, to reflect on this. After all, many second-generation diasporic Hindus are neither familiar with Sanskrit nor with the vernacular language of their parents and may, consequently, opt to jettison their Hindu identities.
What do you think?

3 Ways to Increase Your Focus During Meditation

On a recent flight to Jackson, Wyo., it wasn't only the plane that soared to new heights -- so did a conversation with my seat-mate.
I had an inclination of something that might occur when she took out a book on Buddhist wisdom. So it came as no surprise that after laughing about some shared travel experiences, the topic shifted.

"Do you meditate?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

"I can't stop my thoughts from swirling around in circles when I do," she told me. "For instance, my yoga teacher asked me to focus on '1', but I just kept thinking -- does she mean the number 1 or the word o-n-e?"

I laughed and said, "I totally get it!"
It can be hard to quiet our thoughts, whatever we're doing, despite our best intentions -- whether we're in a class, in a meeting, behind the wheel, or even sitting in silence. (Sometimes especially when we are trying to sit silently!) My to-do list keeps insisting it needs my attention, or I might find myself ruminating on a past or future event.

But it's worth it to mentally quiet down. It's now well-documented how a practice of regularly calming our thinking is healthy -- evidence abounds showing that meditation is good for emotional and physical wellbeing.

The Journal of Neuroscience reported recently that newly-trained meditators showed a 40 percent reduction in pain intensity and a 57 percent reduction in pain unpleasantness after just a few sessions of meditation. Other recent research found that mindfulness-based stress reduction methods can decrease loneliness and, remarkably, may reduce "pro-inflammatory gene expression" in older adults.

These two studies focused on using a tightly structured program of meditation. But there isn't just one way to practice it.

I asked a few Boston-based yoga instructors what kind of training they'd received. They said it runs the gamut. They'd received training about many different ways to meditate, and incorporate different ideas they find helpful into their own practices and classes.

It's not just yogis, martial artists and people taking an active interest in Eastern philosophy who meditate. In 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that over 20 million Americans meditate to improve their health.

Even the website for the movie Escape Fire -- a documentary to be released October 5 about radical changes needed in the U.S. health care system -- has a meditation app in its solution area.

This indicates how widespread the approaches taken to meditation can be.

One definition of meditation is to engage in contemplation or reflection. Another is to engage in mental exercise to reach a heightened level of spiritual awareness. Often, people associate meditation with Buddhism or Hinduism, or even consider it to be a purely secular activity.

But contemplative practices are also deeply rooted in Judeo-Christian scripture. For example, in one of David's songs, he says: "I meditate on all Your works; I muse on the work of Your hands."

Rather than the practice of emptying one's thought, this suggests an approach of consciously filling thought with something good, of meditating on a divine influence that acts throughout our day.
Time and time again, I've found that this brings a feeling of release from needing to control every aspect of my experience.

That may sound great in theory, but in practice, we may go back to trying to figure out how to stop wondering about that tricky question sitting in our email, or why we're stuck folding so much laundry every week.

So how can we move past this pesky mental chatter and think about a broader perspective? Here are a few ways I've found helpful to fill my thoughts in my moments of meditation:

1. Silently ask a really big question.

Simply allowing ourselves to consider big questions can completely change the trajectory of our thoughts. For example, I've asked questions like, "How unlimited is divine spirit, or just how good is divine love?" And then I'll wait to gain some sense of that.

I've found that when I accept the insights that come to me, it transforms my thinking. It gives me a peaceful feeling of stillness and a sense of release from concern about my ability to accomplish what lies ahead.

2. Consider the idea that you're connected to the divine.

After my flight landed in Jackson, Wyo., I headed out to a rural destination for a friend's wedding, and in the night sky I could see the Milky Way so brilliantly. As I reveled in the vastness of the universe, I thought about the oneness of everything. It's not like we are in one place and the stars are in a separate place -- I was glimpsing that time and space are constructions of a limited perspective. There is nothing that divides us from each other because we are all linked directly to and through the divine.
This had a unifying aspect to it that enabled me to feel as though I was part of the spiritual spokes that emanate from a divine source along with everything I could see in the vast sky and everyone else around me.
Contemplating this idea of connection with the divine and with one another in this way made it feel simpler for me to navigate and enjoy the busyness of the wedding weekend.

3. "Marinate" in those ideas.

Just as marinades work through chemical reactions with food -- to make it more tender and enhance the flavor -- letting new insights overtake old ways of thinking can tenderize and enhance our being.

When a new perspective comes in response to contemplating a big question or a sense of connectedness, we can be humble enough to soak it in and let it calm and still our thought. Humility helps provide the mental space to consider a new angle. And having this mental space makes it easier to bring fresh insights into our next activity after we have finished meditating.

I find that considering even just one spiritual point expands my thinking and changes me. I also find that I need to practice this type of thinking regularly in order to feel the benefits consistently.

Before my seat-mate and I parted, I mentioned some of these thoughts on contemplative thinking. She said, "I'm definitely going to try asking a big question the next time I meditate!"

Later, at the ranch in Wyoming, overlooking golden-colored aspens clapping in the wind, it was easy to delight in the stillness of the moment.
But getting back to my daily routine, that "ah-ha" moment hasn't completely left me. I've returned to Boston with a slightly more joyful spring in my step and a touch more peace in my heart.

The Importance of Wearing the Bindi

The uniqueness of Hinduism lies in the fact that all the rituals and activities prescribed by the Vedas are to be performed by us to get us closer to the ultimate truth of life, Ishvara and myself. But this truth is not easily understood. It requires enormous amount of chitta shudhi (literally meaning purity of the mind i.e.mind with minimum likes and dislikes). The Vedas, as interested as they are in our understanding of our scriptures, are kind enough to give us an insight into how to attain that chita shudhi before plunging into the “knowledge”.
As I had already mentioned, one aspect of understanding and assimilating this jnanam is understanding the concept of Ishwara (or god). In our Hindu culture the truth about god is “All that is here is just only God and nothing else”. As Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswathi, succinctly puts it “In our religion, we don’t have many gods, we don’t have one god, we have only god”.

Since EVERYTHING is manifestation of Ishwara including the body, we do alankara or decoration to the body.
Though I have always been a bindi wearer all my life, I never knew the real facts behind wearing the bindi until I had the good fortune of meeting Pujya Swamiji in mid 2011 along with a youth group. Pujya Swamiji was addressing how glorious our Hindu culture was and how small things made a huge impact on our living style.

In the beginning, the womens’ only form of bindis were kumkumam (vermillion powder). It added what we call Mangalam to the woman. Slowly, due to foreign influences, bindis were seen as fancy ornaments and started coming in various colours and shapes. Competitions were conducted for designing and colouring the bindi. The winning design was the one with the smallest size and the same colour as the skin! This became a hit among the young minds who started using it in various colours, sizes and designs thereby diluting the kumkumam and the entire mangalakaram concept. The colour bindis were a trend for years to come and there were many add-ons to the same.

Slowly this was further diluted by opining loudly that bindi was only a cosmetic and it became an OPTION whether to wear it or not (it was already too small, anyway). This became the fashion statement and has graduated into a habit which is now widely practiced and well known.

When Pujya Swamiji said this, I felt I had really been shaken awake from a deep sleep. I was shocked and proud at the same time. Shocked because of the manner in which our culture was disintegrating, and proud because of two things – (i) I am a part of this wonderful culture (ii) I have not been influenced by this so called “fashion statement” in anyway, and though I do not wear the traditional kumkumam, I am ALWAYS (I can vouch for it) with a red bindi on my forehead.

I hope this serves as an eye-opener for the delusion that girls of my age are under, and provides them even more reasons to be proud of our Sanatana Dharma.

Ghosts in Hindu Religion – the Preta Concept in Hinduism

Ghost in Hinduism is referred as ‘preta’, ‘pey’, ‘pret’ or ‘pretam.’ Do Hindus believe in ghosts? It depends on the individual but it is believed that majority believe in ghosts. The concept of ghosts in Hindu religion is often associated with those people who had an unnatural death like murder, accident, etc and those dead people who were not given proper Hindu dead rituals like Shraadha or Tarpan.

In Hinduism, there is the concept of Kshooshma shareera apart from the physical body. This Kshooshma shareera is a sort of carbon copy of all the impressions of the five senses of the physical body. It is said in the Brahma Sutra that this acquired impressions is carried by the soul when it leaves the body.

What is left of these impressions on natural world, also referred as pinda shareeram, are completely destroyed through the various rituals performed to the dead in Hindu religion.

So the primary aim of Hindu death rituals is to destroy all the impressions that are left of a dead person in natural world and to release the soul. Therefore, what is popularly referred as ghost is completely destroyed by Hindu dead ceremonies.

If you carefully examine all the ghost stories, you will realize that the ghosts are associated with those people who had met with an unnatural death or whose ‘pinda shareera’ was not destroyed through the usual Hindu dead rituals. Such ‘pinda shareera’ will only get destroyed after a longtime and the natural destruction will depend on the aspirations and desires of the ‘pinda shareera.’ And such people are believed to roam the graveyards and there are references in the Puranas of Lord Shiva having an army of pretas or ghosts.

Now can a preta enter another person’s body? No. This is against the basic tenant of Santana Dharma (Hinduism) as a body can only have a single soul.

But hearing about the unnatural death of a person can make the listener sympathize with the dead person. And sympathy will become empathy and it can go to such an extent that the listener will assume the role of an agent to help the person who had met with unnatural death. This particular aspect has been widely used in Indian movies and folk stories and is often misunderstood as ghost.

All latent impression of dead person referred as ‘pinda shareera’ is destroyed by Hindu dead rituals like Shraadha and Tarpana. So the question of such souls roaming around as ghosts does not exist. Those ‘pinda shareera’ that did not receive proper burial get destroyed in due natural course.

But the greatness of Santana Dharma is that while performing rituals to dead ancestors, people knowingly or unknowingly perform rituals to all the dead. Thus it is believed that annual sharaadha ceremony performed destroys all the latent impressions of all the dead. Thus what is called ghost is properly dealt in Hindu religion and is given proper rest through rituals.

Forgiveness is Human

Forgiveness is Human

This is the final part of a series of three posts starting with “Time: past, present, and future“. The previous articles looked at God being within us all, and God not needing to forgive, as he always shows mercy and love.

Toy dealer's pet dog 'ate Batman'

The picture to the right is from a news story about a dog, Lola,  who chewed a rare vintage Batman toy which was worth £1,000.  Lola’s owner is a  collectable toy dealer, who was valuing the toy for a client.

The story starts with the words “She is out of the doghouse and already forgiven“.  Nobody would be surprised if the Lola’s owner was initially cross, but quickly forgave her. The anger would be a typical emotional response, but forgiveness would come easily, because everyone knows that the dog did not understand what she was doing. She was left on her own with something chewable and interesting, and followed her nature. Even if she knew that she was not supposed to chew the toys, she would have had no idea of the value of them, or that she had picked the most valuable toy in the collection.

Its possible that if her owner is someone in control of his emotions and of a generous disposition that he never got angry, and that understanding the situation would see that there was nothing to forgive.

However, forgiveness is not always that easy. People may have done something deliberate to take advantage of us, or hurt us. Some people even delight in causing pain to others.

Because Hindus believe that we are all divine at heart, we believe that every transgression is ultimately caused by our ignorance of our true nature.

Shiva: The beautiful one

There may be an infinite number of attributes in the universe that would make Shiva unique, for there is none like him. But some of the things that have always enticed me are as follows:

1. Shiva can be pleased simply by offering water or weed [1]. More than his liking, this shows the height of his acceptance.
2. Just like Shiva accepts the weakest plants — even the poisonous ones — he also accepts prayers from tamasic beings, including asuras. Few other forms of the Divine possess such unparalleled grace [2].
3. Sacred stories teach us that even other forms of the Divine, including Rama, Krishna, Vishnu, and Devi, worship Shiva. The list of his devotees, of course, includes the gods, saints, humans, and lower life forms. In other words, he is accessible to all — from a bee to Brahma.
4. He is easily pleased with both sakama and nishkama bhakti. He understands that many of us, the weak souls, may not be ready for his nishkama bhakti.
5. Sanatana dharma considers Shiva the ultimate giver. The scriptures describe how he gave away the most impressive functions of the universe to Vishnu and kept nothing for himself.

[1] It is the rainy season, the time of the year when Shiva makes it easier for Hindus to offer him water. Consequently, his temples are more frequently visited by Hindus during the month of shravan. Remember that Shiva not only accepts water or weed, he accepts flowers, sweet fruits, and vegetables as well!
[2] This should never be interpreted as, “Shiva is worshipped by mainly non-sattvic beings”; such interpretations suit only unthankful humans.