For long it has been believed that non-vegetarian food is a necessity for athletes to enhance their performance to the highest possible limit. However, I recently came across a book which presents strong arguments to the contrary. The book in question is ‘Capoeira Conditioning’ by Gerard Taylor. Read the rest of this entry »
India, once a major civilizational and economic power that suffered centuries of decline, is now newly resurgent in business, geopolitics and culture. However, a powerful counterforce within the American Academy is systematically undermining core icons and ideals of Indic Culture and thought. For instance, scholars of this counterforce have disparaged the Bhagavad Gita as “a dishonest book”; declared Ganesha’s trunk a “limp phallus”; classified Devi as the “mother with a penis” and Shiva as “a notorious womanizer” who incites violence in India; pronounced Sri Ramakrishna a pedophile who sexually molested the young Swami Vivekananda; condemned Indian mothers as being less loving of their children than white women; and interpreted the bindi as a drop of menstrual fluid and the “ha” in sacred mantras as a woman’s sound during orgasm. Are these isolated instances of ignorance or links in an institutionalized pattern of bias driven by certain civilizational worldviews? Read the rest of this entry »
Our understanding about global warming has reached a definite mode when scientists across the globe (Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Changes) have declared a few things in unequivocal terms. They are as follows:
1. The global temperature is going to rise by 6.4 degrees Celsius by the end of thiscentury, resulting in great human misery.
2. It is not the nature but man (human activity) himself who is responsible for the problem. They have clearly stated that the impending doom is not because of one of those natural cyclical phenomena that appear, creating damage to human life and property. Read the rest of this entry »
“Who am I?” or “Who are you?” are questions both profound and quotidian. The answers could be mundane, convoluted, enlightening, “real” or “false”. The eighth century Indian philosopher (788-820 couC.E. ) Ad I Shankara, following Yagnavalkya, may have argued “ayam atma brahma” (this self is Brahman).
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Celebrating the Guru
Hindus attach paramount importance to spiritual gurus. Gurus are often equated with God and always regarded as a link between the individual and the Immortal. Just as the moon shines by reflecting the light of the sun, and glorifies it, all disciples can dazzle like the moon by gaining from their Gurus.
What is Guru Purnima?
The full moon day in the Hindu month of Ashad (July-August) is observed as the auspicious day of Guru Purnima, a day sacred to the memory of the great sage Vyasa. All Hindus are indebted to this ancient saint who edited the four Vedas, wrote the 18 Puranas, the Mahabharata and the Srimad Bhagavata. Vyasa even taught Dattatreya, who is regarded as the Guru of Gurus. Read the rest of this entry »