aramakrishnan1
Active member
Courtesy: [email protected]
hariH om,
If your families were not traditional vaidikas to begin with, many of you would have simply happened to bump into vedanta on the internet- prArabdha or otherwise. I myself chanced across advaitam through some posting I read a couple of years ago, and the journey has only been getting more scenic with the advent of time.
If Vedanta is something you love and enjoy, it would really be useful to actually share some of the things from our study group here, onto your internet profiles (facebook,orkut etc) or discuss it with family and friends.
Some of the advantages of doing so are:
1) Being an instrumental cause in jumpstarting someone else's journey- Give someone else a chance to be as fortunate as you are
2) Gaining punia for dharma prachAran- as the saying goes, dharma rakshati rakshitAH... what goes around comes around, the help you give someone else will directly come to aid you in your own journey
3) Attracting like minded people - it will improve your quality and quantity of satsangas. satsangatve nissangatvam, nissangatve nirmohatvam, nimohatve nishchalatattvam, nishcalatattve jiivanmuktiH.
4) Keeping the Vedic culture alive in the form of traditional memes- vedAnta is the knowledge, and culture is the medium through which it is passed on, by keeping the culture alive you are making vedAnta available to the forthcoming generations
5) Creating a spiritually and intellectually healthier environment - self explanatory
Today, Hinduism is in really bad shape due to several reasons. I had published an article over the New Year which discusses these issues in detail. While this is not entirely concerned with Vedanta, per se, it still is very important subject to discuss.
http://informed-india.blogspot.com/
If you have time I sincerely suggest reading all of it, however if you don't wish to read it in its entirety, here is a short extract which is more specific to our discussion.
A ‘meme’ can be looked upon as a theoretical unit of an idea. It is the carrier of cultural themes, symbols and traditions that flow from mind to mind, generation to generation. What we consider socially acceptable or unacceptable, our likes and dislikes, fads, fashions, and thoughts prevalent in our society today; these are all prompted by memes. The huge nation-wide furor over corruption and support for Anna Hazare too latched onto the public through memes alone. Memes spread like viruses, with each individual mind being the host.
The most dangerous one unleashed is pseudo-secularism. This is nothing short of Intellectual Terrorism. What the divisive organizations and foreign nexuses do is smother our traditional memes and deliberately flood them with a barrage of introduced ideas to suit their own agenda. As a result, it has become common practice; even fashionable, for Hindus to disenfranchise themselves from their customs, rituals, and religion, all of which are resultant effects of an overdose of methodical brainwashing by the divisive forces covertly at work. This is done by soliciting and/or exploiting the System- comprising of the polity, the intelligentsia, the academia and the media.
As individuals, you have the power to influence. Simply by discussing these issues with your family and friends, you can effectively undo some of the damage done by popular media, by being a medium in your own sphere of influence. You can generate new Dharmic ideas, as well as resurrect old ones that are being methodically erased.
As householders, you can ensure that your children grow up in a cultured setting by re-instating Hindu values at home. Taking them to the temple, keeping ancient family practices alive, and the study of Indian philosophies is a great way to start. It is a fundamental economic principle that demand facilitates supply. Once a market is created it acts as a feedback mechanism, so demand the incorporation of yoga as part of Physical Training (PT) in school, demand Sanskrit to be taught in class, encourage extra-curricular activities like classical dance and singing. If these aren’t offered in school, kindly enroll your child in some independent institution for the same. In due time, your dissatisfaction with the system will compel the schools to cater to these needs. All these things will go a long way in re-discovering our long lost cultural ethos, both in our homes and in society.
As citizens, please vote responsibly in elections. Make your voice heard through the ballots. Politics isn’t dirty; it is people who exploit it because the well intended ones do not take interest in it. Every citizen of the world should be politically aware as a minimum social responsibility.
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
-Martin Niemöller
These statements reference the inaction on part of the German intellectuals, in the face of rising Nazism. They remained silent and allowed injustice to sweep the nation. Our national discourse has been polluted and we are all equally responsible for cleaning it up.
Facts by themselves are lifeless, but when clothed as ideas, they come alive. Ideas cannot be contained- they are self-illuminating, they always find a way to shine even through the smallest crevices, given the faintest sign of hope. Each point discussed in this analysis is an idea worth sharing. The time has come to reclaim our roots through a new wave of interest. Let this be an intellectual awakening. First make it yours, and then share it with others. This revolution can either begin or end at your doorstep, I fervently appeal to you to carry the torch forward.
Thank you,
hariH om,
If your families were not traditional vaidikas to begin with, many of you would have simply happened to bump into vedanta on the internet- prArabdha or otherwise. I myself chanced across advaitam through some posting I read a couple of years ago, and the journey has only been getting more scenic with the advent of time.
If Vedanta is something you love and enjoy, it would really be useful to actually share some of the things from our study group here, onto your internet profiles (facebook,orkut etc) or discuss it with family and friends.
Some of the advantages of doing so are:
1) Being an instrumental cause in jumpstarting someone else's journey- Give someone else a chance to be as fortunate as you are
2) Gaining punia for dharma prachAran- as the saying goes, dharma rakshati rakshitAH... what goes around comes around, the help you give someone else will directly come to aid you in your own journey
3) Attracting like minded people - it will improve your quality and quantity of satsangas. satsangatve nissangatvam, nissangatve nirmohatvam, nimohatve nishchalatattvam, nishcalatattve jiivanmuktiH.
4) Keeping the Vedic culture alive in the form of traditional memes- vedAnta is the knowledge, and culture is the medium through which it is passed on, by keeping the culture alive you are making vedAnta available to the forthcoming generations
5) Creating a spiritually and intellectually healthier environment - self explanatory
Today, Hinduism is in really bad shape due to several reasons. I had published an article over the New Year which discusses these issues in detail. While this is not entirely concerned with Vedanta, per se, it still is very important subject to discuss.
http://informed-india.blogspot.com/
If you have time I sincerely suggest reading all of it, however if you don't wish to read it in its entirety, here is a short extract which is more specific to our discussion.
A ‘meme’ can be looked upon as a theoretical unit of an idea. It is the carrier of cultural themes, symbols and traditions that flow from mind to mind, generation to generation. What we consider socially acceptable or unacceptable, our likes and dislikes, fads, fashions, and thoughts prevalent in our society today; these are all prompted by memes. The huge nation-wide furor over corruption and support for Anna Hazare too latched onto the public through memes alone. Memes spread like viruses, with each individual mind being the host.
The most dangerous one unleashed is pseudo-secularism. This is nothing short of Intellectual Terrorism. What the divisive organizations and foreign nexuses do is smother our traditional memes and deliberately flood them with a barrage of introduced ideas to suit their own agenda. As a result, it has become common practice; even fashionable, for Hindus to disenfranchise themselves from their customs, rituals, and religion, all of which are resultant effects of an overdose of methodical brainwashing by the divisive forces covertly at work. This is done by soliciting and/or exploiting the System- comprising of the polity, the intelligentsia, the academia and the media.
As individuals, you have the power to influence. Simply by discussing these issues with your family and friends, you can effectively undo some of the damage done by popular media, by being a medium in your own sphere of influence. You can generate new Dharmic ideas, as well as resurrect old ones that are being methodically erased.
As householders, you can ensure that your children grow up in a cultured setting by re-instating Hindu values at home. Taking them to the temple, keeping ancient family practices alive, and the study of Indian philosophies is a great way to start. It is a fundamental economic principle that demand facilitates supply. Once a market is created it acts as a feedback mechanism, so demand the incorporation of yoga as part of Physical Training (PT) in school, demand Sanskrit to be taught in class, encourage extra-curricular activities like classical dance and singing. If these aren’t offered in school, kindly enroll your child in some independent institution for the same. In due time, your dissatisfaction with the system will compel the schools to cater to these needs. All these things will go a long way in re-discovering our long lost cultural ethos, both in our homes and in society.
As citizens, please vote responsibly in elections. Make your voice heard through the ballots. Politics isn’t dirty; it is people who exploit it because the well intended ones do not take interest in it. Every citizen of the world should be politically aware as a minimum social responsibility.
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
-Martin Niemöller
These statements reference the inaction on part of the German intellectuals, in the face of rising Nazism. They remained silent and allowed injustice to sweep the nation. Our national discourse has been polluted and we are all equally responsible for cleaning it up.
Facts by themselves are lifeless, but when clothed as ideas, they come alive. Ideas cannot be contained- they are self-illuminating, they always find a way to shine even through the smallest crevices, given the faintest sign of hope. Each point discussed in this analysis is an idea worth sharing. The time has come to reclaim our roots through a new wave of interest. Let this be an intellectual awakening. First make it yours, and then share it with others. This revolution can either begin or end at your doorstep, I fervently appeal to you to carry the torch forward.
Thank you,
