tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46338251242958426152008-05-10T16:32:09.062+05:30M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-26212854669830144892008-05-10T15:53:00.001+05:302008-05-10T16:32:09.423+05:30

When Lord Krishna, in his role as the ambassador of the Pandavas, reaches Hastinapur to ask the Kaurava king to return the part of the kingdom that justly belongs to the Pandavas, it all comes down to getting the proposal accepted by Duryodhana, for the king and all the rational members of his council are powerless. For a second, during the exchange of talks, Krishna even transcends the

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-33558799487867152982008-05-02T15:27:00.002+05:302008-05-02T16:27:50.532+05:30

If a musician who has spent his or her life playing selected ragas on a musical instrument leaves the planet without any valuable recordings or disciples, most of us may deem his or her life to be devoid of any contributions to the world. Only a few individuals who have directly received moments of joy from the artist’s efforts may appreciate his or her presence. Besides, in the field of music

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-10986571771248104832008-04-23T16:03:00.004+05:302008-04-23T22:19:13.454+05:30

To support the order of natural evolution, Lord Vishnu follows his incarnation as a fish (matsya) with that as kurma, a giant tortoise. This incarnation is set in the midst of the Samudra Manthan, the churning of the great ocean, a mythological narrative where the good and the evil work collectively to gain riches and ambrosia but only the virtuous gain immortality at the end as per Vishnu’s plan

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-46309420641208696142008-04-14T00:11:00.003+05:302008-04-14T12:28:52.771+05:30

Just like the Ashwin Navaratri concludes with the victory of Rama (Dussehra), the Chaitra Navaratri concludes on Rama Navami, the birthday of Sri Rama, Lord Vishnu’s incarnation as the ruler of Ayodhya as well as the Creation. On the occasion of the Lord’s birthday, let us partially revise the distinction his name has acquired in Indian culture. Most Hindus would acknowledge that following the

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-66688679170125587512008-04-02T21:27:00.003+05:302008-04-03T18:39:56.730+05:30

I once heard a countryside story wherein a follower visited a saint to beg for money. Finding his monetary needs genuine, the saint filled the follower's jholi (shirt) with a handful of soil. The follower, disappointed with the gift, left most of the clay at the temple premises except for the few particles of soil that caught his dress as he rushed back home. On reaching home, the devotee saw the

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-64653039718085208352008-03-20T09:31:00.004+05:302008-03-21T06:45:40.966+05:30

Holi, a greeting to the spring season, is joyfully celebrated to remember Lord Vishnu’s protection of Prahlada, one of his kid devotees, and to remember Lord Krishna’s exchanging of colors with his friends in Vrindavan. Nothing equals such remembrance of God when it is coupled with music. The traditional style of vocal music developed specifically to celebrate this arrival of spring with devotion

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-78581501829942660072008-03-13T15:31:00.005+05:302008-03-13T18:03:53.355+05:30

Even to me, a believer in selected principles of astrology, something looks wrong as I switch on the TV and see a group of people fearing planetary phenomena in the sky. A typical astrology show, intending to solve our problems, leaves me with the thought, “Does any planetary transit or combination in a chart need to be so horrifying?” For believers, the location of planets in our birth chart is

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-33582602282163828892008-03-06T11:41:00.004+05:302008-03-06T12:12:40.782+05:30

Lord Shiva’s wedding anniversary is celebrated as Shivaratri on the 14th day (krishna-paksha; waning fortnight) of the lunar month Magha (Phalgun according to some calendars). Shiva’s wedding with Goddess Parvati forms a popular, beautiful devotional event and some of its retellings in the Puranas are associated with a few witty scenes, all saturated with the devotion of His followers.

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-85795193195353490832008-02-25T13:14:00.002+05:302008-02-25T15:48:42.765+05:30

Towards the end of the Drona Parva, Arjuna asks Ved Vyas, “When I was fighting the enemy forces, I envisioned a divine being who was releasing all the weapons for me. While everyone around assumed that it was me displaying valor, this great being was destroying the opponents; I was only following him. Who was this great personality?” Vyas replies that he had had a vision of Lord Shiva, the Sole

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-51322265002234623872008-02-18T16:18:00.001+05:302008-02-18T16:51:38.210+05:30

While nothing less than realization of our eternal connection with Brahman is expected from a satguru -- the spiritual guru who is trusted to guide our soul -- the Indian culture has some guidelines for advisors and teachers of all subjects. Besides enough knowledge to clear a student’s doubts (jnana) and the yearning and energy to orally (and truthfully) communicate (vak-shakti), two major

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-57756549086366715152008-02-10T17:52:00.000+05:302008-02-10T18:07:22.033+05:30

After finishing my music practice for the day, I listened to a discussion between the two elderly musicians who had come to visit us. The first person, now in his eighties, narrated details of a mahatma he had once met, named Ganeshdasji Baba. The story begins with our narrator visiting the mystic when he was a young boy. As soon as he reached the mahatma’s tiny premises, he saw a group of 3-4

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-51457598991670239732008-01-31T18:10:00.000+05:302008-01-31T18:39:17.779+05:30

The Lagna (ascendant) is the heart of our physical life and the placement of planets with respect to it is used by astrologers to analyze the energies influencing our body (appearance) and our visible personality. The moon, the significator of the mind, is the focal point of mental level experiences, including our instincts and emotional nature, while the sun represents our soul (ego) – our

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-10560060161847506252008-01-24T12:08:00.000+05:302008-01-24T12:28:23.913+05:30

When Vishnu-incarnate Ramachandra visits Shabri’s ashram in the Adhyatma Ramayana, Shabri explains that she has been waiting for Him ever since her guru, Rishi Matang, left for Brahma’s abode. Her mystic guru had foretold her that the Eternal Supreme Soul, who has incarnated on earth for the preservation of dharma, would bless her with His darshan one day and had instructed her to maintain her

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-73533404898938744452008-01-14T18:48:00.000+05:302008-01-14T19:25:01.378+05:30

Namaste has been the traditional Hindu greeting to both family as well as strangers. However, with cordiality escaping from our hearts over the past few decades, the use of the term is becoming more like a burdensome ritual, and at some instances the greeting is considered an inferior version of “Hi!” The biggest evidence comes from the fact that many individuals do not bother to reply back to a

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-46958947878175317052008-01-07T13:07:00.000+05:302008-01-10T13:13:01.375+05:30

If our job involves fighting corruption, or evil in any other form, and we have neglected our duties to reach God, chanting the Lord’s name with untrustworthiness within is simply an attempt to “fool the self.” In the Mahabharata, this is what Arjuna was trying to do prior to listening to Krishna’s discourse. Like Arjuna, most of us, who are newcomers on the spiritual path, run into moments where

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-28131928639198567972007-12-27T12:15:00.000+05:302008-04-01T23:41:09.263+05:30

Just like Pisces concludes the zodiac for a new beginning, the fish (matsya) incarnation enabled the smooth transition of life from the last aeon (kalpa; one day of Brahma) to the current one. When the world was nearing an end and the continents began to submerge in water, the Lord, Who is present in all beings, incarnated as a huge fish to protect the devotee king Satyavrat and the seven sages

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-59344664781912214202007-12-20T18:51:00.000+05:302007-12-20T18:58:29.952+05:30

We can use music as a means to reach God by forgetting ourselves as we sing hymns, mantras, and the names of our favorite form of the Lord. In devotional music, including bhajans and kirtans, this spiritual connection remains the objective. But what about the non-emotional musicians who solely worship music? They too can obtain the highest levels of ecstasy that comes not from the mood of the

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-55839138923983873312007-12-13T17:47:00.000+05:302007-12-13T18:54:07.110+05:30

In Vaishnava theology, Lord Vishnu manifests Lord Brahma from His navel so that Brahma may create the universe. According to the Srimad Bhagavata Purana, the first day of Brahma, which he experiences in the ‘latent universe’, or whatever you call it, is not a smooth day. Following his birth on a lotus, floating on water, connected by a stem to Lord Vishnu’s navel, Brahma sees only a few things

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-54780229009063722842007-12-06T15:50:00.000+05:302007-12-06T16:13:02.904+05:30

In a Vedic horoscope, the houses (and signs) of the dharma trine (trikona) and the moksha trine stand for spirituality and religion. While the signs numbered 5 and 9 signify dharma, the signs of the zodiac numbered 4, 8, and 12 represent our attraction to liberation. Because every house or sign of the natural zodiac has a distinct meaning, it is supposed to impart its characteristic flavor to how

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-60392204138319199242007-11-29T16:35:00.000+05:302007-11-29T16:48:24.018+05:30

According to the Ramacharitamanasa, when Garuda (eagle; Vishnu’s vehicle) helped Lord Rama in His divine play on earth by untying Him from a mystical weapon, he got doubtful about the divinity of Rama. He kept pondering that if Rama were the Absolute, why would He ever need any help from him. On seeing no end to this confusion, Garuda eventually reached Lord Shiva for help. All Shiva had to do

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-37712686512337634552007-11-23T06:44:00.000+05:302007-11-23T07:20:59.897+05:30

Many of you might have heard percussionists recite and play a Tabla composition, usually a sequence of diverse syllables aesthetically tied together in rhythm along with its speed variations. Like any other piece of music, for piano or vocal, every group of strokes on this instrument is reproducible and writable. While any composition can be labeled 'devotional' if it is accompanied by the feel

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-4129423787506184372007-11-17T11:18:00.000+05:302008-04-01T23:41:20.831+05:30

Children have to be brought up in an atmosphere of truth. In a spiritual context, this may be more important than loving your kids. Communicating wrong information to children may temporarily disconnect them from reality, creating chaos in their mind. Even if you feed your children with accomplishments you never actualized, just to gain some praise from them, you may be hurting your children in

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-8983343234574005952007-11-13T12:18:00.000+05:302007-11-13T12:27:32.042+05:30

Kali, the Goddess with the shine of a blue lotus, is the Energy of Shiva. She is the form of Brahman for which birth, aging, death, and regeneration – are merely dance steps. If I got this right, the Yoga Vasishtha holds that the universe in Kali’s body resembles a reflection in a mirror; it is illusionary and yet true for the one who believes it to be true. If this sounds too complicated, we

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-10310215647315068772007-11-08T20:04:00.000+05:302007-11-08T20:19:44.349+05:30

Tomorrow is Diwali, the festival of lights, celebrated on the Amavasya of the lunar month Kartika. In the midst of all the lighting, fireworks, get-togethers, and the distribution of sweets, Lakshmi-puja will be the chief event of the evening. Whether we offer flowers, sweets, food, incense or light, some wishes may be present in our minds as we remember the Goddess on this occasion. While we can

M. Shrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12894931275191748342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633825124295842615.post-73432382099375839822007-11-05T09:01:00.000+05:302007-11-05T09:27:20.870+05:30

In his Vinay Patrika, Tulasidasa eulogizes Lord Shiva, the Lord of all, in a very distinctive tone. Basically, Lord Brahma, who authors everyone's destiny, visits Shiva’s abode and offers his resignation to Goddess Parvati. He complaints that Shiva keeps playing with the karmic law to bestow boons upon His devotees. As a result of Shiva’s habit to grant, Brahma believes that he is forced to

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