HINDU Terminal...!

Hi there, As promised earlier, I am starting a series of posts that will explore the brilliance of ancient Indian scholars. There are many discoveries that have been made by them, but have subsequently been wrongly attributed to western scholars and others. Most of this stuff is already available on various websites, but I'm trying to make a compilation of everything so that this blog can have a consolidated list of Ancient Indian Scientific discoveries. Let's start with something that nobody escapes during his/her Schooling - Pythagoras Theorem. I'll state it below graphically just to refresh your memory: This theorem is used almost by everybody in some point of life. But do you know that it was stated by an Indian priest and Mathematician, Baudhayana, several centuries before the western mathematician? Referring the Sulbha Sutra, circa 800 BC, we get the following verse: "A rope stretched along the length of the diagonal produces an area which the vertical ...

Good Evening, There are a lot of other discoveries and findings made by Aryabhatta, but I am taking a break for now. Will come back to Aryabhatta's scientific discoveries sometime later. This post deals with the various beneficial properties of Turmeric, one of the most important herbs of our tradition that has been used in India since time immemorial. I am sure you would agree that there is no home in India which does not use Turmeric. Called Haldi in India, it is utilised for a variety of purposes in our daily lives. Turmeric has been part of our cooking since aeons, and is used both as a spice as well as for natural colouring. Ayurveda cuisine refers to the use of turmeric in it's dishes, and that practice has been passed down the generations. Get ready for a long post loaded with links, because Turmeric (Haldi) has a plethora of medicinalproperties due to the presence of the chemical Curcumin. Some of these are: 1) Prevention or Slowing down ...

Namaste, I am a big fan of our Hindu traditions and our calender, simply because there is no month devoid of festivities! The basic background of celebrating so many times a year is that these festivals give us reasons to meet our relatives, interact with them and share our joys and sorrows. Thus, we are forever in touch with our friends and family, and thus these festivals create a sense of bonding that unites us. Why I particularly like them so much is that I get an excuse to gorge on the umpteen amounts of sweets that are prepared for each of these events :-) This month (August) witnesses 2 biggies - The Krishna Janmashtami (celebrated earlier on the 14th of August), and the Ganesh or Vinayak Chaturthi, which falls tomorrow. Lord Ganesha, also known as Ekdanta (one with a single tooth), Vinayaka, Vignaharta (remover of obstacles), etc., is the only mainstream God to have a non-human face. Legend has it that Goddess Parvati, wife of Lord Shiva, created a boy out of th...

Good Morning, Though this post is slightly off-topic, it is related to the Dasavathars. One of the things I am quite passionate about is Philately. I focus on all philatelic material (stamps,covers,etc.) related to Mahatma Gandhi. You would be surprised to learn that more than 90 countries have issued stamps on Mahatma Gandhi. The detailed scans are available on my website: www.gandhistamps.com India recently issued a set of 11 stamps (yes, 11!) on the 12th century epic "Gita Govinda" by Jayadeva. This is perhaps the largest single set of stamps issued on a single topic together. The scan is shown below: The stamp on the top is that of the author Jayadeva, while the other 10 stamps depict the Dasavathars. The Gita Govinda is written with the view of Lord Krishna as the supreme being, and the Dasavathars being incarnations of Lord Krishna. What is interesting is that all the Avathars (Mathsya, Kurma, Varaaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parasuram, Ram, ...

Today, an average Hindu is not familiar with the Vedas or any literature associated with them. Though the Vedas themselvesa are not so voluminous, they are rather too difficult for the inunitiated. The commentaries, on the other hand, to which one must naturally look for help to understand the Vedas, are so voluminous that they would actually break the back-bone of the student. So, with a view to familiarise an average Hindu with the Vedas, Sir GC Narang, the author of  Message of the Vedas,  had compiled selected mantras from the Vedas with their English translation. It is a great blessing to the reader that the mantras are arranged according to their subjects. This book will help him to have a fairly good idea of the nature of the contents of the Vedas. DOWNLOAD E-BOOK Link 1 DOWNLOAD E-BOOK Link 2

Hello everyone, Stambhas (pillars) play an important role in both Hinduism and our ancient history. Kirti Stambhas were erected by Kings to commemorate their famous victories. The most famous one among them is the Vijay Stambha in Chittor, Rajasthan (shown below). Literally translated into "Tower of Victory", it was made by Rana Kumbha to celebrate his victory over the combined forces of Malwa and Gujarat led by Mahmud Khilji in 1442. The other variety of Stambha is the Dhwaja Stambha, which is a very common feature in most of the Indian temples. It is a tall post-like structure, which is referred to as the flag-mast of the deity of the temple. The Dhwaja Stambha is different from the Kirti Stambha, as it is characteristically thinner. Also, it is made of metal or has a metal covering rather than the former, which is made predominantly of stone. During festivities, the Dhwaja Stambha is decorated with different types of flags to commemorate and celebrat...

Indore Jan 7, 2013:  RSS Pranth Ekatreekaran Convention was held Yesterday at Indore. Here are few photos. source: http://samvada.org/2013/news-digest/indore-mega-rss-convention-photos/

Bangalore Jan 1, 2013:  Senior RSS Functionary Dr. Bajranglal Gupta delivered this years lecture on Guruji Golwalkar, as a part of Noor Ahmed Ali memorial annual lecture programme in Bangalore on last Sunday  30 December 2012 at Mythic Society, Bangalore. The lecture series had its focus on the economic values specified by Second Sarasanghachalak of RSS MS Golwalkar, who popularly was known as Guruji. The highlight of the gathering was an enlightening session by Dr. Bajranglal Gupta, who spoke of the necessity of having an indigenous concept of economics, reiterated by Guruji himself. Dr. Bajranglal Gupta spoke on the high price paid by humanity at large for the model of development the world chose to adopt soon after the Industrial Revolution. Enumerating his views expressed ‘New Paradigm of Development’, which he stated has been in line with Guruji Golwalkar’s thoughts on economics, Dr. Gupta stated that a whole lot of ills like environmental...

Channenahalli, Bangalore:  ’Respecting all other ways of worship is Hindu way’ said Dinesh Kamat, Veteran RSS Pracharak and National Organizing secretary of Samskrita Bharati, at the valedictory ceremony of  annual RSS Cadre training camp  Prathamik Shiksha Varg  and  Sangh Shiksha Varg  of RSS IT Milans at Channenahalli, Bengaluru on 29 th  December 2012. Addressing the audience he said, “We, Hindus think that our way is right and others ways are also right. Hence, we respect other religions as well. This is not the same as tolerance, tolerance means that one does not like or agree with someone. But, somehow can manage to co-exist. In this way of thinking the very fact of ‘dislike’ remains. That is not sustainable for a long time and not good for the harmonious living.”     He also said,“Unity in diversity (‘Avibhaktamvibhakteshu’) is the specialty of our country. Though we have so many languages, foo...

January 08 2013:  Educators’ Society for the Heritage of India (ESHI) and Hindu Students Council (HSC) are releasing  ‘Beware of God’: an educational documentary series  concerning Indian culture. Based on the work of the acclaimed thinker Professor S.N. Balagangadhara (Ghent University, Belgium), this documentary series is available online at  http://www.youtube.com/ESHIFilms.  The educational film will be released on  Friday January 11, 2013.   The misrepresentation of Indian culture in school textbooks and the media has attracted the attention of critical minds in the West and India. The struggle to correct such misrepresentations resulted in some changes, but these are largely cosmetic and the underlying problems still remain. In this series, Prof. Balagangadhara explains how the basic problem lies in the way the Western culture has viewed other cultures like that of India. Western thinking about ‘religion’ was structured by...

  Speeches made by a few Muslim politicians in October 2012, ahead of the municipal elections, are believed to be at the bottom of the riots in Dhule on Sunday that saw four killed and over 200 injured, more than half of them policemen.The police are probing the “context” and “words” of the speeches and investigating if these could have led to the riots. “We have inputs of a few Muslim politicians inciting a crowd in Dhule and allegedly telling them to attack policemen and officers at the next opportunity. We do not know the reason behind this, but this will be probed,” Director General of Police Sanjeev Dayal said.   According to sources, the politicians were led by Abu Azmi, Mumbai unit president of the Samajwadi Party. Azmi told The Indian Express: “I don’t remember the context of the speech made. I would not use words like these. I said the police are being unfair to Muslims. Innocent men are being put behind bars. The government should do something....

Mumbai January 08, 2013:  Senior RSS Pracharak Srikant Joshi passed away this morning following a massive cardiac arrest, in Mumbai.   Srikant Joshi, known for his works for building Hindustan Samachar group across the nation, a s its chief Mentor . Earlier, Joshi also served as Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh of RSS. When Balasaheb Deoras was the Sarasanghachalak of RSS, Srikant Joshi served as his Personal Secretary, touring across India with Deoras. श्रीकान्तजी जोशी नही रहे मुंबई, दि. 8  जनवरी  : रा. स्व. संघ के ज्येष्ठ प्रचारक तथा केंद्रीय कार्यकारिणी के सदस्य मा. श्रीकान्तजी जोशी का आज तडके मुंबई में दिल का दौरा पडने से दु:खद निधन हुआ। मृत्युसमय आपकी आयु 76 वर्ष की थी। असम में संघ का 25 वर्ष तक काम तथा पूजनीय तृतीय सरसंघचालक श्री. बालासाहबजी देवरस के स्वीय सहायक के रूप में आप का कार्य स्वयंसेवकों को काफी वर्ष तक स्मरण में रहेगा। आपने हिंदुस्थान समाचार इस संस्था को नवसंजीवनी देकर फिरसे का...