HINDUISM 108 WITH GANESH

                                                                   The Upanishads, along with the Vedas and the Puranas, are the second of the three central texts of Hinduism, written around 600 BC. The version referenced here is the popular translation by Swami Prabhavananda (Signet 1948). They represent a unique approach to spiritual achievement. Where the Vedas promote specific mantras and rituals, and the Puranas relate the educational legends of our various deities, the Upanishads are a primarily philosophical text focused exclusively on the attainment of the One Higher Intelligence. Renounce the world, meditate on your Third Eye, think of nothing else but God, and repeat the mantra ‘OM’ until you reach a state of Eternal Bliss. This is the core of what is in the Upanishads, repeated over and over, in different...

                                                                               

                                                                                  Link to Companion Podcast The Puranas:  Select Quotes and Commentary from " Mahagatha" by Satyarth Nayak This is a book which samples various stories from the Puranas, principle Hindu texts about the lives and times of our various deities. Through these stories we are given guidance on how best to live life and produce spiritual achievement. Overall, I highly recommend it as a reader’s digest of the main Hindu epic stories outside of the Ramayan and Mahabharat, which of course are their own epics. It is not the complete set of Puranas, just a selection of 100 key stories as the title suggests. Given that our sacred number is 108, I am surprised that Satyarthji, th...

                                                         Pranam brothers and sisters. Thanks to my illustrious cousin, I visited the Vedanta Society in the upper west side of NYC last night for a session of their weekly Gita discussion. Places led by Swamis such as these often borrow much from Hinduism but do not have representations of God on the premises, and so I have no issue with it but as a loving devotee of Bholenath it does not make sense for me to return unless there is some pressing business need to do so. I think spiritual teachers are great, but as my time on this Earth grows dearer each day, I have no wish to spend any of my life essence worshipping other human beings when I could be dripping in the bliss of Bholenath and Mother Parvati. Respecting and honoring human teachers is great, but worship? Nah. This is the same reason why ...

Organized Hinduism is evolving in Western developed nations. The way things have been practiced until now was the right thing for the initial diaspora, but their now assimilated offspring and future generations are losing both a knowledge of the underlying language (primarily Hindi and Sanskrit) and an appreciation for the teachings, tools, and symbolism, lovingly gifted to us by Saraswati Ma, that have been our pillars since the dawn if time. The Kali Yuga [i] is upon us, and unproductive influences are everywhere. Our youths are being programmed to chase superficial goals, and devalue themselves in the desperate pursuit of living up to the standards set for them by the (sometimes vapid) societies we now find ourselves in. In many cases, there is nothing wrong with that, however the spiritual component is mission critical for us to execute on our dharma and has kept many at-risk youths out of the courtroom, jail yard, and mental asylum. In order to do this, we can learn a lot from ...

                                              Sri Krishna is perhaps the most popular deity of the Hindu pantheon. For many years I thought of him as a generally mellow, benevolent sort, since most of the stories we hear about him, for one reason or another, are cherry-picked to show this side of him. Interested in learning more, I read through some of the source texts and was fascinated by the complicated, strategic, deep, multi-faceted and often aggressive Krishna that I found. The books I read and reference below are Srimad Bhagavtam, 9 th Edition , by Kamala Subramaniam, which gives the life story of Krishna and other avatars, and Mahabharata, 33 rd Edition, by C. Rajagopalachari, the Indian epic about the battle of Kurukshetra. Whether or not you are of the faith, I believe that his life was action-packed, fascinating, and rich with practical lessons which, t...