Bharatheeyam : ( 08/11/2012. )

        Surya Namaskar is included in the regular routine of prayer and worship. Means it must be practiced regularly. Its greater importance has been described in the scriptures. As per the scriptures, a single day worship of the sun has virtues equivalent to the bestowal presentation of one lakh milk cows. Like worship, Surya Namaskaras too has their own significance. Surya Namaskara means prayer (Vandana) of Lord Surya. Surya Vandana is short. Surya Namaskara is an ancient system of Indian exercise. Stand facing the east at dawn and peacefully chant the mantras to pray Lord Surya and offer red sandals, flowers, rice grains (Akshatas) with water of simply the water alone as ARGHE (libation) and perform Surya Namaskara. This whole process must be performed before the sunrise.  Take water in a metal pot and mix all the available veneration materials in it and hold the pot in your fingers alone keeping the thumbs aside and facing the east and chant...

SANATAN DHARMA :      The meaning of Sanatan is eternal. Vedic Dharma can aptly be defined as Sanatan Dharma. In English, Dharma is defined by the word 'religion'. But the term religion is incapable to describe the vast meaning of Dharma. In fact, the spirit of Dharma is so vast that it includes things related not only to our present incarnation but to the past and the future incarnations as well.  According to the definition given in the scriptures:  DHAARNAAT DHARMAH  Meaning- Dharma is something that should be borne all the time. Thus, it is the powerful means that saves us from catastrophe and leads to evolution. For example, Vedas are not only the means to attain comfort in metaphysical world but they also show the path to all round development and prosperity.  MEANINGS OF SANATAN DHARMA  SANAATANASYA DHARMA ITI SANAATAN DHARMAH|  Meaning- Sanatan Dharma, as the name suggests owes its inception to none other than the et...

SIX STREAMS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY   In the field of philosophy, India has an unmatched contribution. The streams of Indian philosophy are said to be an eternal message of India’s learned sages. Ancient Indian philosophers have expressed their essential thoughts in a special style bound in well-balanced symbolic stanzas. In all, there are six streams of Indian philosophy known as Shaddarshan. Principles and subject matters of each of these six streams have been discussed explicitly. The Sanskrit word ‘Darshan’ means to see, to reflect and to have faith as well. Because of natural curiosity, human being has given philosophy, a supreme importance in his life. In fact, human’s whole outlook for life has been nothing but philosophy. Every human being has a different philosophy for life. It is natural instinct of the human being to learn more and more about his ambience. A wave of curiosity constantly pricks his mind with questions like: What relation do I have with my ...

The Brahmam of the Upanishads, which stirred the awe and reverence of the sages, could be realised only by the cream of mankind, and those who are fit to pursue the path chalked out in the Upanishads are small in number. But religion has to extend beyond realisation and cater to the emotional needs of the lesser category of humanity. No historian of philosophy, to our knowledge, has been able to get over the prejudice that all religious thought subsequent to the Vedas and Upanishads, and apart from the later systematic Vedanta of the Darsana school, is a kind of trash, or, at best, a concession to the weakness of the popular mind. But it need not be emphasised that, if the religion of the Hindus had exhausted itself in the visions of the Vedas and Upanishads and the metaphysics of the intellectual Vedanta, Hinduism would have died out long ago and remained today as a memory, like the cultures of Babylon, Greece or Egypt. The almost universal sweep of the thought of the Hindu...

Srimad Valmiki Ramayana, which is considered as the Adi Kavya, equivalent to Veda itself, is something whose exposition it is rare to obtain. Vedah prachetasadasit sakshat ramayanatmana is a famous verse which makes out that the whole of the Veda has been expounded in epic language by the Adi Kavi Valmiki in the Ramayana. The power, the force, the literary style, the mellifluous movement of the whole theme of presentation and a subtly permeating undercurrent of immortal power in the whole epic of the Ramayana make it an almost unparalleled scripture in the world. All Sanskrit literature originated in its form as sahitya from the time of Sage Valmiki himself. There was, as we are told, no versification or presentation of any subject in the form of a sloka before Valmiki for the first time uttered words which became a sloka [verse] though what he expressed to all is a shoka [sorrow]. Manishada pratishtatum samagah sashvatisamah yat krouncha mithunadekam sokam avadhim kama m...

Swami Udit Chaithanya was born and brought up in Kerala, the beautiful green state in the southern west part of India. After graduating in Law, Swamiji joined Sandeepani Sadhanalaya in Bombay. Finishing his post graduation in Vedanta, he became a part of the Chinmaya mission and served the organisation for 3 years. He was inspired by Swami Sevananda who was the secretary of Acharya Vinoba Bhave when he discovered a new dimension in Sevanandaji's unique interpretations of India's ancient spiritual texts. Ever since, Swamiji has been teaching the messages of Srimad Bhagavatham, Bhagavad Gita, Narayaneeyam and the other Holy Scriptures to thousands of people in India and abroad. Swamiji has dedicated his life to the mission of spreading the divine message and to transform the society and the individual through heightened spiritual awareness. Swami Udit Chaitanya is the founder of Bhagavatham village, a spiritual retreat home and Swamiji  has formed “Bhagav...

Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on 15 August 1872. At the age of seven he was taken to England for education. There he studied at St. Paul's School, London, and at King's College, Cambridge. Returning to India in 1893, he worked for the next thirteen years in the Princely State of Baroda in the service of the Maharajah and as a professor in Baroda College. During this period he also joined a revolutionary society and took a leading role in secret preparations for an uprising against the British Government in India. In 1906, soon after the Partition of Bengal, Sri Aurobindo quit his post in Baroda and went to Calcutta, where he soon became one of the leaders of the Nationalist movement. He was the first political leader in India to openly put forward, in his newspaper Bande Mataram, the idea of complete independence for the country. Prosecuted twice for sedition and once for conspiracy, he was released each time for lack of evidence. Sri Aurobindo had begun th...