My Journey into Sanatana Dharma

An age old adage says "you are what you eat." I find it extremely convincing. Someone must have thought and observed the truth in that adage and coined it. Now obviously before I have to answer to some fools start taking the adage literally, let me explain: Science/Knowledge of Life: Ayurveda, is a science that has been in the Indian society for as long as recorded history goes and much beyond. This is not a blog about proving the efficacy of this school of medicine, let me tell you how advanced that science was, plastic surgery has been known to being performed  in India from 800 BC , as with anything from India, at least 800 BC because every piece of knowledge associated with the Vedas (vedangas etc) have been passed down generation after generation in an oral tradition beyond what history can track. Modern science just started to figure it out in the 1940's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery Now considering the advancement of this science as far...

పెళ్లి నూరేళ్ళ పంట -- Marriage is like a 100 year Harvest. Till Death Do us Apart. The institution of marriage, is an extraordinary institution and one of the most fundamental pillars in the society of Sanatana Dharma. In India. There has been an extraordinary amount of thought put in to this institution by the ancients in creating the traditions specific to cultures across India, but philosophical reasoning for these traditions, the results these traditions have tried to accomplish are the same. For thousands of years, these traditions have successfully helped our culture survive successfully in relative bliss. But today, this institution is in a state of flux. For many reasons, two of the biggest reasons being these mass migrations and mass communications that have been enabled in the last 30 years across India, and the widespread of a completely misunderstood idea about the already flawed dating culture in India due to the influence of Bollywood movies. But here is my t...

Humor me with this scenario for a moment: There was a class of 100 students in a Physics 101 session. The professor said: Newton's third law of states: "Every Action has an equal and opposite reaction" Hearing this: Some of them, lets call them group A, said... oh yeah ok. If the professor says, it must be right. So it is right. I just need to Another group lets call them group B, huh!,... i don't believe this guy, what is his source, lets check the prescribed textbook. so they open the textbook and lo and behold, its written right there so it must be true, there it is... this is enough proof that this law is true. Another group of students, group C, said, wait.... i dont trust this source, this is prescribed by the college, may be they just are brainwashing us, let us check what is being taught in a few other textbooks at randomly chosen colleges around the country. They do!!! and lo and behold!! all the text books say the same thing about the same l...

How  long will we keep singing the tune of the long gone Great Swami Vivekananda who was responsible to the renaissance of the Sanatana Dharma in the Indian youth. Why does it seem like we as a population only seem to only recognize someone  once they are dead? Yes, Swami Vivekananda was a brilliant statesman. Had the clarity of thought. Had the strength of a great leader to lead the renaissance of Sanatana Dharma in India and its introduction to the west. But he is dead now. Its about time we start recognizing the living Vivekanandas to be a part of a similar legacy. The attacks on the Dharma have been around since time immemorial. Its not new. But we have to keep fighting. The most basic of our responsibility to our children and future of society. Time to wake up to the living Swami Vivekananda's of Modern India. One such modern Swami Vivekananda in my view is Swami Paripoorananda Swami . His knowledge, his grasp and his vision for the modern renaissance rival that o...

One of the posts on facebook by Eknath Easwaran's page said this recently on facebook: Happiness has nothing to do with having two cars in the garage, or a terraced swimming pool, or the latest dress from Paris.  "Happiness lies within us, and the more desires we have for this and that, the less happy we are going to be.  "Nothing we can buy, nothing we can own can ever fill the aching void within us, and the restlessness of modern living is really a signal from the Lord that it is time to turn inwards and find the source of all joy, wisdom, and security in our own hearts." - Eknath Easwaran, from "Like a Thousand Suns", volume 2 of "The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living" I realized this every time I've been miserable in America, driving a car I never dared dream I'd drive, driving super bikes I never dared dreamed I would own, talking on the most advanced cell phone I never dreamed I'd be talking on, comfortable in perfectly ...

Earlier in one of my posts "Freedom": I had said this: 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 millenia), there are subtle differences though, we should read up further on both to understand.  My understanding stands to be completely wrong. When I wrote the blog, i thought that the Advaita vedanta was an interpretation of the Vedas and the Upanishads provided to us by Adi Sankaracharya in the 6th-7th Century A.D. I couldn't have been more wrong. Tracking the lineage of Adi Sankaracarya, it goes back all the way to Brahma, the creator of the universe. There was never a time when Advaita wasn't a school of thought. Mahayana Buddhism, like other Buddhist schools are greatly influenced by the Upan...

A common question, I am sure: Why is and has been there so much bloodshed in the world on the name of religion? People who blame religion for hatred and bloodshed in the world:  Just follow the comments people post on tech news articles, and other domains which a lot of people from different parts of society are interested in and more importantly emotionally invested in, you'll realize this: People fight. Period. And belligerent and political leaders just need a reason. Religion just seems to be in fashion these days. Remove religion from the equation, I guarantee this, people will still fight, perhaps people who like Microsoft vs people who swear by Apple vs people who swear by Google. Haven't you heard of riots and violence after soccer games? What about political riots? How about regional fights? (Ukranians vs Russians) (Telangana vs Andhra) maharastrians vs north Indians? What about racial fights? Whites vs Blacks? Chinese vs Japanese? white supremacists Arya...