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A Personal Appeal to Spread Dharma

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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,
 
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,


Dear sir,

You do have a valid point but you know to a certain extent I feel we really cannot impose any rigid rules and regulations on anyone.

I feel it isnt too hard to impose Human Values in society without further dividing ourselves too rigidly.
We can not create any new form of Dharma..Dharma is Eternal and it has been there before any one of us existed.

Sanathana Dharma doesnt need missionaries..it speaks for itself.
All we need is just to sit down and contemplate how to be a good human first before calling ourselves Hindus, Muslims,Christians,Atheist etc.

Sanathana Dharma has clear guidelines on Trikarana Suddhi..Purity in Thought,Word and Deed.
What is most important is for us to cultivate all these instead of getting too deeply involved with any new method to spread Dharma.

Dharma is actually enveloping all of us..its just that we never get its whiff cos we do not practise it.

I was giving a thought the other day...that we must have taken countless births before this as different races and religion too.
In this birth I am Hindu..I have no idea what I was in a previous birth and what will I be in my next birth..every impression of the religion and culture of my past birth must be still stored in my Chitta portion of my Antahkarana and that has also shaped my thinking today.

So how can I say that I am also 100% Hindu? Can I say this? 100%? Can anyone actually claim to be 100% of anything?

But one thing has never changed through out our lives and that is Dharma..
All of us would have practiced some form of Dharma in our previous lives which could have been subject to variation of religion and culture.

All these lives we have been carrying too many identification tags which actually finally translate to be the same.

Dont get me wrong..I am not saying that we shouldnt maintain the religion and culture we are born in but just dont let it be an obsession and just do not let religion and culture suffocate us.
God intended things to be simple, we should not complicate things and make the younger generation move away from their own culture.

There in no actual need for a revolution..that only creates fanaticism.
Fanaticism is not Sanathana Dharma.
Fanaticism leads to bondage.


None of us can actually shape the intellect of another.A Guru dispels Darkness from the intellect.Mantras call for Illumination of the intellect.
That goes to show the intellect has the capacity to decide on it own.

After all as the famous saying goes..a student acquires a quarter of his knowledge from his Guru, a quarter from his own intellect, a quarter from his fellow classmates and another quarter in the course of time.

God didnt intend for anyone to dominate the mind of another so when we leave things simple and follow the prescribed duties without any undue pressure the intellect will finally grasp what its meant to understand.

Dharma has always been around..it does not need us but we need it.
 
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Renukaji,

Spreading awareness and in a way awakening of thoughts need not be equated to imposing rigid rules and regulations on anyone. Due to the type of education and the distorted history we learn in India, we are all well isolated from our roots and may be one or two strands still remain between us and our roots.
I feel that every family in TN, some member(s) of the family undergo the assault of aggressive religious propaganda run by the Missionaries. Unless the family members have some sort of conviction in what their ancestors believed and practiced, they are sure to be en-trapped by the aggressive marketing going around.
Dharma is eternal and going a step further, we believe that God will take avatar if Dharma is threatened beyond a limit. Such belief is not wrong, but it brings in complacency. If you have time, please read the "Open letter to India" in the link here
Informed India
The result of complacency has brought us to this point.
 
Renukaji,

Spreading awareness and in a way awakening of thoughts need not be equated to imposing rigid rules and regulations on anyone. Due to the type of education and the distorted history we learn in India, we are all well isolated from our roots and may be one or two strands still remain between us and our roots.
I feel that every family in TN, some member(s) of the family undergo the assault of aggressive religious propaganda run by the Missionaries. Unless the family members have some sort of conviction in what their ancestors believed and practiced, they are sure to be en-trapped by the aggressive marketing going around.
Dharma is eternal and going a step further, we believe that God will take avatar if Dharma is threatened beyond a limit. Such belief is not wrong, but it brings in complacency. If you have time, please read the "Open letter to India" in the link here
Informed India
The result of complacency has brought us to this point.


Dear Sir,

I do agree about complacency but actually decline in practice of Dharma is not caused by being complacent but rather by being irresponsible.

I agree with you for steps to be taken to increase awareness of Dharma but what I want to highlight is that should not cause any undue alarm that we Hindus are going extinct sort of feeling.

Even in your earlier post actually I was surprised to see this
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

This sort of thinking should be eradicated.The thought of helping someone should be selfless and out of love and compassion.
If the thought of Punya comes in many might be just motivated by the fruits of their action and might stop any further action if its sans merits.
After all didnt Lord Krishna say
"Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadacana,
Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani"




Many a times the above stanza is not highlighted but instead the punya phala factor is used to attract people to do a good deed.
If we want to promote Dharma we should promote the Truth and let people know not to let the fruits of action be their motivation to help others.

If anyone feels that if there is no Punyam they dont want to help anyone then let them drop off cos we need only people who are determined to follow the core of Dharma.

There is no use having a brigade of people who are have self interest in their actions.For them Dharma is only for their benefit and nothing more.

Thats why before we embark on a spiritual journey we need to have Human Values first.. of love and compassion.
Without these its of no use even thinking of God.

When I said that Dharma is eternal I didnt mean that we can be complacent as to let adharma prevail and then wait for an Avatar what I meant is we can take measures to ensure Dharma is understood and practiced by all without resorting to drastic measures.

Just to add, a person who is firm in faith and a person who is complacent might outwardly appear the same but the former is never swayed but the latter is easily swayed.

Extremes of thoughts always produce undesired effects.

I remember when I was a teen I used to read about other religions and also look for similarities and differences with each one.

Many used to think that I was complacent cos I could even recite the prayer call of another religion by heart and made lots of people worry too.

I do not advocate this sort of thinking to everyone but when I read other texts too,it just made me realize that everything lies in the substratum of Sanathana Dharma and since I am born a Hindu this is my path just like how Non Hindus have their own path.
I take my path seriously without imposing it on anyone.
 
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Renukaji,
I agree line by line what you have written. In fact, for me, I want neither Punya nor Paapa.
But we cannot forget this is material world and the question "Why should I do this and what do I gain from it?" is quite common. Doing selfless action is the ideal character for a person and we know that the humankind is too far from the ideal one.
A couple of weeks before, my relative's son doing 10th standard in a hostel came on 2 days break to his home. He was suffering from fever a week before that and he had difficult times in overcoming his sickness in hostel. The Hostel staff took care of him and provided medication. During the period he was ill, one of his room mate gave him a finger sized Cross - pendant and this relative of mine tied it to his poonal. When I saw him and asked about this, he said that he is feeling comfortable to wear the cross and he feels good after wearing it. During some other conversation, he said that he does not like the carnatic based songs and devotional songs and he will delete all of them from his mother's cell phone. She uses the cell phone to hear songs and shlokas.
So, I started from scratch to talk about the grand Mc Caulay plans and the consequent distortion of our history that has lead us to detach from the basics of Sanatan Dharma. I told him the basics of Vedanta (what I read) and told him to learn some of our scriptures, understand them and then start knowing about other religions to compare (if he wants to).
I ensured that he detached the cross from the Poonal on that day.
 
Very well said Shri aramakrishnan1,

When we think of sustaining the rich values of Hindu culture and tradition, we can not take for granted that what understanding and importance we attach to them as an individual would cirtainly be known and followed by fellow Hindus, by our closed relatives, near and dear ones. We can not take for granted that simply instilling Human values in children and other ignorants who all are born Hindus, would certainly make them understand and appreciate the essense of Hinduism. Human values are well instilled by other religions as well along with the philosophies of their religion. Many planned and systematic converstions have taken place in India by preaching folks with their religious philosophies along with Human values. In fact it was projected that Human values are given the apt importance, meaning and are perfectly carried out in their religion only, backed up by their clear & concrete religious philosophies.


In a huge country like India where obviously Western culture is gradually dominating and where lots of missionary are at work, taking advantage of the so called High Level Indian Democracy, it is imparative to make the values, priniciples, knowledge/wisdom and philosophies of Hindu tradition available and understandable to all Hindu folks of the present and future generation. They all should easily understand as what is the essense of Hinduism and what a perfect art of living it is.

On the above grounds lots of traditional/cultural/vedic activities are carried out in India for the very same purpose. As you have stated, such activities need to be initiated to keep the Hindu folks aware of the values of Hinduism. We should contribute our bit in any ways and means passible, as Hindus for the sake of Hinduism, if we really revere our tradition and intended to retain them for the future generation. These attempts should not be mistaken as strict religious doctrine to torture our fellow Hindus and an ignorant attempt towards driving them away from Hinduism.

It should be our moral responsibility to contribute towards creating awarness of our rich Hindu philosophies and its true essense so that some folks would not reject them out of their ignorance. If they still reject out of their rational brain than it's fine. We can not do anything about it.
 
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Dear sir,

I know about such episodes in hostels.When I was in hostel in India whenever any of us were sick..all of a sudden we would get a christian girl whom we hardly know knocking at our door and offering us some hot soup to recover fast from our illness and some even sing prayers for us to get well.

See we knew that this is all drama tactics to get converts so we used to say "Oh How sweet of you..God bless you" and just accept the soup but never eat it.I do not like to eat food prepared by people I hardly know for safety reasons.

So I totally understand the Poonal and the Cross story you wrote.

Dear sir..one more thing..we Hindus too sometimes only want children to hear Carnatic style bhajans which sometimes to be frank can sound boring(Dont get me wrong I am not finding fault with Carnatic Music but some songs do sound too dragging sorts)

Thats why these days I prefer children learning Bhajans with catchy tunes.
I learnt all my bhajans with beautiful catchy tunes from Sathya Sai Baba organizations.
Its still very much Indian in Raaga and Taala but with a catchy tune that lingers in our mind.

Personally if you ask me I prefer Udit Narayan version of Hanuman Chalisa than MS Subbulakshmi's version.
I sing Udit Narayan's version when I pray.It stays in our mind.

I have noticed that Bhajans by North Indian singers tend to be really mesmerizing.
May be we South Indians can also think on those lines of rendering shlokas and chants in catchy tunes.
Have we noticed that even Non Indians love Hindi Bollywood songs much more than South Indian songs?
Why?? Its the tune I feel.
Here in South East Asia people of Indonesian and Malay origin are crazy for Hindi songs and even used to sing Om Jai Jagadish Hare which was in the movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hai even though they knew its a Hindu Devotional song.

When I was younger I used to compose bhajans with catchy tunes and even sing and play it on the piano and keyboard during bhajans at home.

When I felt to be a bit more traditional I would use the harmonium instead.

So I feel we should be open minded enough to accept all forms of music.
After all music notes come from the Sapta Svaras.

You know sir..there is something even called Christian Rock and its all rock songs with religious messages.
None of them are hearing traditional Amazing Grace types of hymns anymore.
Some of this tunes grab the interest of the person hearing it and then the interest deepens to know the religion.

So I feel there must be some changes in the way we approach the youth these days.
Moving with times is not Adharmic cos even our ancients have moved with times all the while without losing tradition and dharma.

I will give you here an example of a catchy tune bhajans here.Just check this out its simply amazing.

[video=youtube_share;p6JrW8e-FP0]http://youtu.be/p6JrW8e-FP0[/video]
 
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Dear sir,

I just asked my son age 12 right now (who learns learns Carnatic Music and Western Music) to tell me which tune he prefers..Udit Narayan's Hanuman Chalisa or MS Subbulakshmi's Hanuman Chalisa and he told me he prefers Udit Narayan's version and want to learn to sing it.

You get what I mean sir? Youth these days thinking differently.

[video=youtube_share;SqHiyRxykZw]http://youtu.be/SqHiyRxykZw[/video]
 
One more example of a Ganesh Bhajan in Sanskrit which would surely catch the interest of youths

[video=youtube_share;TlToTlu_5NI]http://youtu.be/TlToTlu_5NI[/video]
 
I like MS, having lived in North India her meera bhajan was very curious.
The accent makes quite a difference.
 
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