My Journey into Sanatana Dharma

A friend of mine asked me this question on Facebook recently: So why did Krishna create this universe? Is it for fun or is there a purpose/goal to achieve something..? Good question. Glad someone is even pondering. That I think is the first thing that makes us human. Consciousness. First of all I do want to replace the word "Krishna" (proper noun) with the word "God" (common noun) to attempt an answer. Its an interesting loaded question though. To answer that question, you have to first understand what/who "God" really is. And what "creation" really is. Its an important point to clarify before we attempt to answer the main question. My answer is based on my understanding of Advaita, mixed with the more common more popular notion of God. The Vedas are very clear: Where your thought and language cease to being able to imagine or explain, the Almighty (God), is 10's of hundreds of times larger than that. i.e. God is inf

I found a good blog that compares the three major sub-schools of thoughts of Vedanta school. http://upanishadtattva.blogspot.com/ Caution: To the un-initiated, the information presented in the blog may seem like gibberish, information about these schools are not for the faint-hearted or the casual readers, for them, you might think we are just crazy (am sure u'd say that abt theoretical physicists too when details of what they do emerge and you read). Read at your own risk. If you are interested to further understand these schools, discuss and talk to a guru specialized in these schools. These are schools of thoughts people take life times to understand and internalize. And English as a language might not be able to convey the entire gist/meaning of the concepts as intended by the original: Sanskrit or its derivatives (telugu, kannada). leave me any questions, i can try and answer as much as I can. FYI, I belong to the Advaita school, so I know a little bit only about what t

This is Sanatana Dharma 101. This speech right here started my journey of understand what Sanatana Dharma was all about. I have no words to describe the genius of Swami Vivekananda in his ability to succinctly explain something as complex as Sanatana Dharma to the world. This is step 1 for anyone interested in attempting to understand Sanatana Dharma. I feel unless and until someone completely understands this speech their journey cannot even begin. Paper on Hinduism At The World's Parliament of Religions Chicago, 19th September 1893   --- Swami Vivekananda -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three religions now stand in the world which have come down to us from time prehistoric - Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism. They have all received tremendous shocks, and all of them prove by their survival their internal strength. But while Judaism failed to absorb Christianity and was driven out of its place of birth by its all-conquering

What is freedom? "your" ability to control your mind, no matter what the circumstance, coz circumstances and events in life are not in your hand.  Its a long path that kind of true freedom. Any thing less, you are a slave e to your own desires, will and wishes, taste buds, greed and lust. Think about it. I learn't this from "The Conquest of the Mind" by Eknath Easwaran. The more I think about it, the idea of freedom becomes clearer. The image though, is something I pulled up from the internet, which has no connection with the book, but is deeply connected with the what Mr. Easwaran was trying to convey. The monk is a Mahayana Buddhist Monk. From what I read, Mahayana Buddhism is very very similar./close to Advaita school of thought. In fact many vishishta advaita and dvaita school's of thought proponents have accused  AdiSankaracharya of having borrowed concepts from Mahayana Buddhism, which predates advaita by many centuries (may be even

I am sure the title must seem a very, as some one put it, very "castist" especially coming from a Brahmin. First of all let me make it really clear, casteism in India in the contemporary world has very little to do with Sanatana Dharma. And that casteism is a common concept among Christians, Muslims,Buddhists,Sikhs, Jains and Bahai' in South Asia (At least). (  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India ) But I believe there is a real need to define a case for the caste system, although,  definitely NOT in its current form. The current form of caste system in India is pathetic and rotten to its core. So, the first thing I need the readers to grasp is, YES, the current caste system of India is ROTTEN. I am not sure how and where it got to this point over the thousands over thousands of years, but I would have to guess, as we discussed in an earlier post, it is the Law of Entropy working its magic on everything. The word "caste", I am not sure who t

I would like to present a case for astrology from life's experiences, from veritable books and a scientific study I came across recently. Why am I making a case for it? Well, recently I've embarked on understanding what Darwin really said about Evolution and how he came about these conclusions. I've been watching the documentary (The Genius of Darwin) by the foremost proponent of evolution in the contemporary world, Sir Richard Dawkins, below is the link on youtube to the same: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSYREfaZP1U Now here is what I said recently on my Facebook post: If Darwin's theory of Evolution is accepted in the scientific community although there is no empirical evidence, only based on observations and derivation of possibilities, then Astrology, planetary influence on the human mind/ character/psych, SHLD be accepted by the scientific community as a fact. If not this is pure bigotry by the scientific community to call evolution a science and as

Robert Oppenheimer ( father of the atomic bomb ), Carl Sagan ( worlds foremost cosmologist ), Nikolas Tesla ( arguably the most prolific inventor of modern times ), Heisenberg ( one of the key founders of quantum mechanics that has made modern life even possible ), the list can go on, to understand how these highly intelligent ppl of the world were drawn to the wisdom found in Vedanta and related schools of thoughts by themselves with no need for prostelizying , with no need for someone promising a heaven with 72 virgins or with the fear of an eternal Hell. Any decent man should be able to see through the grandeur of Sanatana Dharma and it's mind boggling sanity that every great mind that comes in touch with it is influenced by it. And history is proof that all great minds have been at odds with other religions, starting with Galileo. Here is a list of quotes on Hinduism by various ppl around the world. Http ://www.hinduwisdom.info/quotes1_20.htm One excerpt by Voltaire: 

Can't talk about it, for the fear of backlash. I have no interest in putting my life or the life of my loved ones in danger by talking about it. It is a sad state of affairs in their world, tolerance and introspection do not seem to be a part of their religion. At least not in the popular culture. But i am positive and sure that there are absolutely wonderful saints in certain pockets/sects of Islam that are more tolerant and introspective in nature which allow for a good intelligent thought process. They just are a very small minority who themselves are endangered because of their willingness to discuss the issues at hand. And hence, unfortunately there shall be no discussion regarding Islam on this blog. How veritable is it, is a question, I leave to the introspection of its own adherents. Hopefully over time this religion will become tolerant and try to address its fallacies while focusing on the good parts of it.

The whole world is upside down. These are weird times. Don't you think? There are so many things which just defy logic. Farmers are the poorest and make the least while the guys sitting in wall street/dalaal street make the most. Guys playing sports for entertainment while having a lot of fun and actors acting in front of the camera, while having dubious lifestyles, have the adulation, the money, the fame all the good things in life, even governments awarding them seats in the higher houses (Sachin, Rekha etc) and national honors, while the soldier who puts his life at risk to save his nation, is dying alone, sick, going crazy, while the govt. does not have enough money to support them and their families completely, and most of us cannot name a single soldier who laid down his life for the country. Places like Dubai, California and Texas, supposedly some of the driest places, technically considered deserts and in capable of support large human populations are brilliantly de

One of the most common ideas on time in the Sanatana Dharma is the concept of Yugas. As far as I know there are 4 Yugas (which also possibly repeat themselves), but in general the four of them are : Satya Yuga Treta Yuga: SreeRama Dwapara Yuga: Sree Krishna Kali Yuga And if you read about these yugas in any of our scriptures, be the Puranas, or the Bhagwath Geeta, the Bhagavatham, but there is a strong agreement in every school of thought regarding the yugas. Now, what does this have anything to do with the second law of Thermodynamics: Law of Entropy I just read through chapter six of the Fabric of the Cosmos by Dr. Brian Greene (obviously I watched the PBS Nova show as well, but I waited till I read the book to blog on this concept for better clarity). Chapter six talks about the conundrum of how classical physics and our common perception of time are related to entropy. A vastly complicated topic for the purposes of this blog. But here is the gist: The re

ఏకాదశి వ్రతము ప్రారంభము మార్గాసిరమాసుములోనే  -- సామవేదం శంముఘ శాస్త్రి 

I do believe Jesus Christ was a great saint with a great message. I do believe that he tried to bring the ppl of Jerusalem closer to God. But I do not believe the Bible is accurate. I mean if the 4 main gospels have different, completely un related accounts on Jesus's ressurection, i dont know what to believe any more. Its a sad state of affairs with Christianity today (since forever). I am sure Jesus Christ himself would be ashamed of the power politics that has ruled Christiandom since its grabbing of power in Europe, its Crusades. Christianity today is a money making, power grabbing empire, anything but what Jesus Christ had hoped for. He was a true saint. I am sure many of the St.s were true and I respect them and pray to them. And the corruption and the reality of today's Christianity is what troubles me about the conversions happening all over India. This is the kind of mindset that eventually, if Christians gain a considerable % of the population in India will t

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgtk1mxgWDU&feature=related

Even he quoted from the Mahabharata when touched by the enormity of the Atomic bomb. Wonder why, beign a christian/Jew he has nothing to quote from these scriptures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=_kw4hOoxq4M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wovyc4_k8Y&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuDyj6SHywk&feature=related

Nikola Tesla and Swami Vivekananda by Mr. Toby Grotz, President, Wireless Engineering Swami Vivekananda, late in the year l895 wrote in a letter to an English friend, "Mr. Tesla thinks he can demonstrate mathematically that force and matter are reducible to potential energy. I am to go and see him next week to get this new mathematical demonstration. In that case the Vedantic cosmoloqy will be placed on the surest of foundations. I am working a good deal now upon the cosmology and eschatology of the Vedanta. I clearly see their perfect union with modern science, and the elucidation of the one will be followed by that of the other." (Complete Works, Vol. V, Fifth Edition, 1347, p. 77). Here Swamiji uses the terms force and matter for the Sanskrit terms Prana and Akasha. Tesla used the Sanskrit terms and apparently understood them as energy and mass. (In Swamiji's day, as in many dictionaries published in the first half of the present century, force and energy were no