 to all these vedas, puranas and itihasas has been described as
"shakthi swarupini"....
( shakthi's incarnation )
( does one needs to read all these things to understand this )
this is just an example. we use many words which insults woman each and every day. does insulting woman on one hand whom we treat as shakthi swarupini... and spelling out the knowledge of vedas and itihasas go hand in hand.
Why do i need to still go deep and understand the complexities involved in vedas and itihasas when people ignore such a small thing in their day to day life.
i do understand we need to be open minded..... but i believe when talking about vedas and itihasas and the knowledge that we gain from them we need to be very careful to follow the basics taught in them.
Leave aside the complexities... of vedas. dont u think women can be treated as next thing to god. they are the origin for each and every one of us. without them there is no further life at all. may be the man is reason for the life, but a woman bears it all the way 9 months experiencing the pains which are hard to bear even for a single day.
If not they be treated as god, cant we stop referring them in an insulting manner. if this can be done, i believe it goes a long and better way than reading all those things.
btw do u think u r being open minded. no, not at all. if u r really open minded and would have thought about this atleast once, u will never support the word that i mentioned above and the words that insult woman.
dont get an impression that i am a female chauvinist.i am a man and this is one of the contradictory things that i observed in our day to day life which people know, but has never given a thought.
if u still disagree with me...
i think u r being more bookish and theoritical than applying the basic knowledge that everyone knows in your day to day life...
and who in my opinion are a kind of person who unless u understand each and every word of brilliant tutorials material for IAS, u cannot be successful in IAS :-)
"Why do I need to still go deep and understand the complexities involved in vedas and itihasas when people ignore such a small thing in their day to day life."
This is like saying "Why would I go and study engineering or medicine in detail when so many people are not using the Internet?"
"dont u think women can be treated as next thing to god. they are the origin for each and every one of us."
Going by your own idea, wouldn't that simply make it another venue for emotional ventilation? What good does it do? (Though, I do respect my mother to near revered status, but not 'as' God.)
All that I gather from your post is, "There are so many things people are not following, so why should 'I' spend time to know about vedas and such?". But my point is, we have to and can learn what ancient wisdom has to offer instead of resigning efforts to simply jumping to our own conclusions based on limited senses and experiences.
Close minded and bookish surely are not my characteristics... but yes, you are entitled to your opinion.
123,
social service - theosophy/ religion are independent things. i dont believe u have to do the former to be even related to the latter. i see it as stupidity.
if mother teresa did it. it is her style. there is no obligation for others to follow the same.
people who read upanishads are human beings too. they can secual desire, get angry, spit on the road, eat masala dosa, scract their armpits, pick on their nose.
reading and knowing about upanishads doesn't really preclude you from being a human being otherwise. if during the process of learning they understand that using the word "bastard" etc is incorrect they they should stop it thats it.
for the sake of ur argument..is it fair if we conclude that people who use..whatever.. "bastard" etc stop using that and then get into reading stuff and people who dont use it anyway..just read stuff.
my basic point to you was - if you give your thoery on God etc off-hand with 2 minutes of thought and say this is god. i am less likely to care/believe than a person who has read a lot and has more logic in words.
yues! education is important because it is also developed from somebody's real life experience. so somebody who is educated and also has real life experiences is a better teacher for me than just somebody who is going to talk about "laughter" "happiness" hugging and all that crap
Guys,.
u got me wrong.
anyways no more arguments.
i dont mean to show disrespect towards education nor disrespect towards acient wisdom... but i just tried to highlight the contradictory things that r happening in day 2 day life.
thats all.
hawkeye,
r u referring munnabhai here?
r,
Just curious. At the age of 24, how do you find time to enrich yourself with this topic? Is there a history or a basis to this interest or is it just plain curiosity?
@Uknowme: Hehe... I promised Bharath that I will not enter into an argument too. And I think I have kept it as much as possible. Hope everything will turn out well for you.
@Bharath(I spied your name on the blog somewhere :). Hope you don't mind me using it to address you)
"social service - theosophy/ religion are independent things"
Very true. This idea of social service associated with religion/spirituality is a modern concept of convenience and one which is NOT supported by any of the dvaita schools. Its not like they do not encourage social service, they just do it in a more... non-material.. way.
@Anamika:
Hmm... there is no simple answer to your question. It just started as a desire to search for answers to some questions which are beyond the reductionist logic of science. Time is not a problem at all... if you like what you are doing... like how people spend hours upon hours watching cricket matches. :P
r,
Do u really know me?
just to assure you that i dont mean to underestimate the value of education,... my mother tongue as many of the bloggers here is not english.... but i am all ready to accept with you that it is the education thay makes a person explore several beautiful things created by god.
hawkeye..
i dont know how u figured me out of the 42000 visitors to your site... but i think i am unique among all your friends. i am honoured :-)
@Uknowme:
"Do u really know me?"
Why would you ask this question to me? Anyhow, the answer is 'no'. For that matter, I don't know anyone on this blog either... just stumbled across it.
hi,
There is a book "Living with the Himalayan Masters" by Swami Rama. Although the whole book is very good, the 2 chapters of Dattatreya & Adi Shankaracharya are real eye openers.
To know what vedas & upanishads really mean, see these 2 links
1. How we got the vedas
2. Significance of the Vedas
on a tangential note: it is considered by some that sankara was dated back to a few hundred ADs by the English on purpose and the actual date was more in the BCs.. just another unproven theory such as the Aryan invasion..
The "dating" of Sankara's work is of great significance though, depending on how you look at it, considering that Plato theorized about Dvaita and Advaita in 300 BC..
the works of Plato is of great significance to the development of spirituality in Christianity - as saints such as Thomas Aquinas (roughly around 1200 AD) extended Plato's theories (which were lost to the western world for nearly a millenium and got it back thanks to the Muslims) to Dualism, Non-Dualism and Monism.
Makes for an interesting connection doesn't it?
Suresh
Good post hawkeye. Visit when you have time. Its a comprehensive website on Indian temples with no external links.
Hi,
I don't have much spiritual knowledge. If the Vishnu Sahasranama is just chanting a 1000 names of Vishnu, do YOU think it is a good thing to pursue? Is it because Bheeshma said and felt that way or do you know of other reasons. The reason I ask is because for a long time now, I have been thinking of chanting the VS but never quite came around to doing it, partly because of understanding slokas that carry a lot of meaning and messages relevant to me on a personal basis. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this. Thanks.
AS
ananth,
disclaimer: the key thing here is belief. so if you have belief things will flow logically. if you don't then you can just about question everything. there is no way i can alter/comment-on something as high-level as belief. thats purely personal.
/* If the Vishnu Sahasranama is just chanting a 1000 names of Vishnu, */
for some (or even many) the use of "just" would seem inappropriate. But you are entitled to your views. For