- http://sanskritdocuments.org/ : Excellent website. Contains documents in different languages, audio and more
- http://sanskrit.safire.com/ : Another beautiful website
- http://yajur.veda.tripod.com/
- http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/
Saturday, January 28, 2012
List of websites containing Sanskrit Stotras, Upnaishads, Vedas and other Holy Scriptures
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Thus Spake Sai Baba (2)
Do not think that the world will not go on without your work. God has engaged you in work only as His agent. - Sai Baba
Thus Spake Sai Baba (1)
The Soul is eternal, ancient, permanent, devoid of changes due to birth and death. It is denoted by the letter AUM. It has no beginning. It is infinite and everlasting. - Sai Baba
Monday, March 7, 2011
Many people including the so called religious preachers infer Vedas in a different way and convey distorted message to the mass.. Some even go to an extent of quoting particular shloka number from Vedas & Upanishads in big gatherings to make the audience believe that Vedas advocate animal sacrifice...
However, none of the current day "recognized" stalwarts of Hindu religion openly (read: so as to reach 100's of thousands, not just thousands) challenge such mis-quotations / mis-interpretations. There can be two reasons
1) either they can't defend due to their lack of confidence in their knowledge about Vedas or
2) they say they don't want to defend by calling the mis-interpreters as minnows and they say that they feel it is better to keep quite instead of challenging/arguing with minnows..
and the interesting thing is these people give the second reason, even if the actual reason is the first one... these people are already in their comfort zone where 'they know that they know much less than what their followers think' and they don't want to disturb that feel good factor...
I would like to point out here that if Adi Shankaracharya had not fought for Sanatana Dharma during its declivity, we (in our generation including the recent past) might have never seen or heard about Vedas/Upanishads and other Shritis and Smrithis... and if Hindus don't act now, if we don't defend our sacred texts, then only Brahma can tell whats in the future for us..
The process of saving what our ancestors have left for us should start soon, and someone should start it.. Some may say that God sends another savior to this earth who can argue for Vedas and Upanishads when the problem comes, but I don't think why the articles like AGKM's can't be a step towards such a process... We need many such articles like yours..
Personally, I do whatever I can with my limited abilities.. I give three examples (there are many such even you will know of)
1) Whenever I meet people (especially those who are not from India) and when such a topic arises and when they say oh.. you have many gods, you worship cows, elephants, mice...., I use the opportunity to tell that "Hindus do not worship many gods.. it is a wrong statement... Hindus believe and worship only one god who is the supreme being and the many gods what you are referring to are just different manifestations of the supreme being, not different gods"..
2) Sometimes our own Indian friends say that they don't believe in sacred texts because scriptures like Manusmriti resulted in caste system in India because Manusmriti was the first to divide the society into four castes and we have problems now.. I say.. "my friend, looks like you have misinterpreted the contents of Manusmriti or someone has passed onto you a distorted version of the contents in Manusmriti... In Manusmriti the castes are stratified according to ritual purity, and it doesn't say that the caste is hereditary, it also says that one belongs to a particular caste based on his/her deeds.. so anyone can become more pure (by good deeds like love, non-violence, helping the needy, not hurting others etc..) which means that he goes more closer to understanding the supreme being... but in the course of the development of Hinduism, some people have distorted this message and have implemented this caste system in a wrong way"..
3) People say Hinduism does argue against war, because Mahabharata has an instance of a war.. which means it argues for fighting.. (they give reference to Krishna telling Arjuna not to give up, which is an important part of Bhagavadgita).. I say.. """my friends, you just got it wrong... if you interpret "do not give up" as "fight with bombs" I can't help.. Also, the depiction of war in Mahabharata is to convey the message about 'dharma (good)' and 'adharma (bad)' and how can you equate that to the current day wars which are fought between two dharmas?"""". One has to go beyond the war to understand Krishna...
So, in summary, we need a movement for the safety of our treasures (Vedas), the safety here meaning "to preserve the messages that they convey".. and we need people who can really stand up and contribute with concrete evidences...
Here is a good example of some concrete evidences disproving common misconception of Vedas: http://agmkonleave.sulekha.com/blog/post/2011/02/beef-and-vedas/comments.htm
However, none of the current day "recognized" stalwarts of Hindu religion openly (read: so as to reach 100's of thousands, not just thousands) challenge such mis-quotations / mis-interpretations. There can be two reasons
1) either they can't defend due to their lack of confidence in their knowledge about Vedas or
2) they say they don't want to defend by calling the mis-interpreters as minnows and they say that they feel it is better to keep quite instead of challenging/arguing with minnows..
and the interesting thing is these people give the second reason, even if the actual reason is the first one... these people are already in their comfort zone where 'they know that they know much less than what their followers think' and they don't want to disturb that feel good factor...
I would like to point out here that if Adi Shankaracharya had not fought for Sanatana Dharma during its declivity, we (in our generation including the recent past) might have never seen or heard about Vedas/Upanishads and other Shritis and Smrithis... and if Hindus don't act now, if we don't defend our sacred texts, then only Brahma can tell whats in the future for us..
The process of saving what our ancestors have left for us should start soon, and someone should start it.. Some may say that God sends another savior to this earth who can argue for Vedas and Upanishads when the problem comes, but I don't think why the articles like AGKM's can't be a step towards such a process... We need many such articles like yours..
Personally, I do whatever I can with my limited abilities.. I give three examples (there are many such even you will know of)
1) Whenever I meet people (especially those who are not from India) and when such a topic arises and when they say oh.. you have many gods, you worship cows, elephants, mice...., I use the opportunity to tell that "Hindus do not worship many gods.. it is a wrong statement... Hindus believe and worship only one god who is the supreme being and the many gods what you are referring to are just different manifestations of the supreme being, not different gods"..
2) Sometimes our own Indian friends say that they don't believe in sacred texts because scriptures like Manusmriti resulted in caste system in India because Manusmriti was the first to divide the society into four castes and we have problems now.. I say.. "my friend, looks like you have misinterpreted the contents of Manusmriti or someone has passed onto you a distorted version of the contents in Manusmriti... In Manusmriti the castes are stratified according to ritual purity, and it doesn't say that the caste is hereditary, it also says that one belongs to a particular caste based on his/her deeds.. so anyone can become more pure (by good deeds like love, non-violence, helping the needy, not hurting others etc..) which means that he goes more closer to understanding the supreme being... but in the course of the development of Hinduism, some people have distorted this message and have implemented this caste system in a wrong way"..
3) People say Hinduism does argue against war, because Mahabharata has an instance of a war.. which means it argues for fighting.. (they give reference to Krishna telling Arjuna not to give up, which is an important part of Bhagavadgita).. I say.. """my friends, you just got it wrong... if you interpret "do not give up" as "fight with bombs" I can't help.. Also, the depiction of war in Mahabharata is to convey the message about 'dharma (good)' and 'adharma (bad)' and how can you equate that to the current day wars which are fought between two dharmas?"""". One has to go beyond the war to understand Krishna...
So, in summary, we need a movement for the safety of our treasures (Vedas), the safety here meaning "to preserve the messages that they convey".. and we need people who can really stand up and contribute with concrete evidences...
Here is a good example of some concrete evidences disproving common misconception of Vedas: http://agmkonleave.sulekha.com/blog/post/2011/02/beef-and-vedas/comments.htm
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Ever since I ran into a text version of his 1958 Pune talks on the internet (which happened in 1999), I am completely dazzled by Jiddu Krishnamurti's personality. I have read several books of him and watched hundreds of hours' videos of his discussions, interviews, public talks. I wish I had a chance to meet him personally!!!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
You Think
I believe only in the supreme power (known to theists as the 'god'). If I want to understand or know about anything from the holy scriptures, I read and I infer with my mind and understand with my heart. I believe that the depth of the knowledge is in the depth of understanding a particular thing, and not only in quoting references. Preachers should only do two things: 1) guide the literates to read the holy scriptures and 2) educate the illiterates so that they are able to read. Preachers should not try to impose their inferences to the listeners/seekers. Answering a yes/no type of question by contextually linking the topic to 100+ references from the holy scriptures does not make the listener more content. The listener/seeker should be provided with the knowledge so that he/she becomes intelligent and helps him to live a good life by making proper decisions. To give an example, a person should be able to decide himself whether illegal download from the internet is ethical or not. The person should not decide that nothing has been told about this in the holy scriptures and hence it is not wrong!! That leads world nowhere.
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