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Showing posts from August, 2015

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam - A Beautiful Mind (and Intellect)

This is a tribute to Dr. Kalam. Coming from a very humble background he rose into prominence thus giving credence to Swamiji's assertion to Raja of Khetri Ajit Singh that life is the enfoldment and development of being under circumstances trying to press it down. His life story is now known to all Indians and is a source of inspiration to many. he has been glorified by many and strangely, has been vilified by a few as well, though he did nothing to deserve that. But sadly, this is India and there are always a section who would take great delight in vilifying greatness. even when he passed away a section of media and intellectuals gave almost the same attention to him, if not less, as to a terrorist who was hanged the following day. Some of them even went to extent for pleading for the terrorist's life for the sake of Dr. Kalam, strange as it may seem. Some of them did a lot of endeavour to highlight his religion, forgetting that fundamentalists actually don't like him muc

Rig Veda to Purana - maintaining continuity - Part 2

So where from these gods Indra, Mitra Varuna came in Rig veda and what happened to them afterwards? Swami Vivekananda provides the answer in a much more convincing way. The spiritual knowledge of India and the Rishis also went through an evolution and the distinction of Sruti or revelations and smriti or book of customs have to be kept in mind. Puranas, Mahabharata, Ramayana etc. are smritis while Vedas are Srutis or revelations. SV says that in the beginning man looked upon nature with awe and reverence and tried to search for the supreme being in the natural and visible universe, in external nature. But after many futile searches they found that the macrocosm and microcosm are in reality the same. The supreme being who is in the nature is also within and thus arose the knowledge of Vedanta. So in the beginning forces of nature were looked upon as the manifestations of God's power through nature and thereby through them the Almighty Himself was worshipped. Indra, Mitra, Var