Tattva

Namaste,

Summer is coming to a close. Many of us have already started the new academic year while others are just about there. Whether you are a commuter student or have housing on or near campus, this time of year gets busy very quickly. At home, the family converges in the morning to fight over the shower, pack everyone’s lunches, and see one another off to work or school. On campus, the homework piles up and students quickly become slaves to their textbooks. Wherever you are, your schedule has probably taken a drastic turn from the nonchalance of summer. As always, the Tattva Team wants you to remember the finer things in life. Throw out some bad habits this semester and adopt some healthy practices. Clean up your time management, clean up your room, clean up your diet. Establish honorable goals for yourself and set out to conquer them.

In this edition of Tattva Magazine, we are serving a lot of food for thought. Stephen Knapp is an influential leader, among many other things, whose article is about - well frankly, the title says it all. His work is a “must read,” so go check it out. Shobhit Mathur writes for Tattva once again with an interesting piece rich in knowledge about social entrepreneurship in today’s world. Apurva Kaushik puts emotion into words with an article on her experience volunteering as a Yuva for Sewa fellow this summer. And we end this edition with a brief piece covering some of the fundamentals of Vijay Dashami, a major festival that occurs this month.

Please visit http://www.hinduyuva.org/tattva-blog/2009/09 to read the September 2009 edition of Tattva.

Take Care,
Tattva Team

The typical Indian mentality and the path of Hinduism, or the Vedic path of spiritual progress, is one of great individuality and freedom for each person to decide what they want or what is best for their own spiritual development. Thus, it is typical for Hindus to work on their own, not necessarily as a group. There is nothing wrong in that. It is the last of the great cultures that promote the utmost freedom for the individual. Yet, there is a great need that is not being met, and that is the need for Hindus / Dharmists / Devotees, especially in India, to unite and work together as a group, or even as a whole society, in order to continue to preserve and protect their own culture, traditions, and certainly the freedom of the individual. Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Muhammad Yunus, well-known social entrepreneur

In the past couple of decades, social entrepreneurship has become very popular and a potential career option for youth across the world. Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. While entrepreneurs in the business sector identify untapped commercial markets, and gather together the resources to break into those markets for profit, social entrepreneurs use the same skills to different effect. For social entrepreneurs, untapped markets are people or communities in need, who haven’t been reached by other initiatives. Though they may have different goals, social and business entrepreneurs have a lot in common. They build something out of nothing. They are ambitious to achieve. They marshal resources to meet their needs. They are constantly creative. And they are not afraid to make mistakes. Read the rest of this entry »

Though this summer began with ambivalent uncertainty, it ends with contented fulfillment. Since I was given the extraordinary opportunity to dedicate the entirety of my summer volunteering in both India and Guyana, I was decidedly excited but a tad apprehensive about, well, everything: could I handle the doubtless myriad issues that daily life in foreign places would entail? As my project mostly involved teaching children English (in India) and Vedic Math (in Guyana), I was also anxious about how it would be—would there be communication issues? Would I be able to deal with them, to reach them? Would they like me? Read the rest of this entry »

Vijay Dashami, also known as Dussehra, falls on September 28th this year. In Sanskrit, “Vijay” means “victory” and “Dashami” refers to the tenth day of the bright half of the lunar month of Aashwayuja. Thus, Vijay Dashami is a festival of victory, the triumph of Dharma over Adharma. This day is marked by many inspiring episodes from history that reflect the victorious tradition of our ancestors. It was on Vijay Dashami that Shri Ram defeated Ravan after ten days of battle, thus liberating the city of Lanka from its adharmic ruler. Vijay Dashami is also the finale of the nine-day festival of Navaratri. During the days of Navratri, we worship Saraswati, the goddess of learning; Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth; and Durga, the goddess of strength. There are countless names of the goddess of strength—Durga, Maha Kaali, Mahishasura Mardini. Time and time again, she has defeated the demonic forces and established the supremacy of the righteous. Read the rest of this entry »