Significance of Hindu Mythology

Hindu mythology is heavily dominated by different stories and folk tales which have passed generation after generation orally through mouth before it was written and printed. These are a myriad of mythological articles and stories which has both educational and recreational value. These stories act as a medium through which many parents teaches their children about the Indian culture and the values of life. Almost every story in the mythology conveys some interesting fact and guides our day to day life. It tells us what is good and bad how we shall respect our elders and advices us on living a healthy life avoiding the path of dishonesty.

Books like, the tales of Panchtantra and Jataka tales, the Bhagvad Gita, the epics Ramayana and Manabharata tells tale of human enduring power and how good overcomes evil power.  

The legendary collection of Panchatantra was originally composed in 2^nd century BC. This book was written by Vishnu Sharma along with other scholars. The reason behind such a composition was to teach the moral values and management skills to the young sons of the King. It is great book of preaching where not humans but animals and plants are the main characters of the story. These animals and plants can talk and move around in the world of Panchatantra and converse with humans. The famous stories like, “Ass has no Brain”, “Bird with two heads”, “Blue Jackal”, “Brahmin’s Gift”, “Crows and the Serpent”, “ Foolish Lion clever Rabbit”, “ Girl who Married a Snake”, “ Gold giving Serpent” and etc. All these stories have a moral to convey the subtle meaning about daily life.

The Bhagvad Gita is commonly known as Gita consist of some 700 verses is a part of the epic Mahabharata. The book contains the verses of Lord Krishna which he communicated to the Pandava pince Arjuna at the battle field of Kurukshetra. When Arjuna responded in confusion that how could he fight the battle with his close kins and own cousins and was at a verge of leaving the battle field, it was then Lord Krishna explained him the duties of a warrior a prince and explained him the meaning of Samkhya, reincarnation, karma yoga, moksha and jhana yoga.

The great Hindu epic the Ramayana also tells the tale of duties of a King towards his country and how he carries it the best. Ramayana is all about duties and performances. Explained wonderfully by rishi Valmiki.

Various spiritual accessories and their importance in India

In India the term religion and spirituality are often applied as synonyms. The term religion is more close to organising certain rituals where as the term spirituality talks more about individual spirit, human mind and soul. As the spirituality is practiced often considered as an individual path towards achieving salvation, hence people often uses certain accessories to offer prayer that conduct the ritual in a sacred manner. The most commonly used accessories are, sankh, jap mala, ghanta, kalash, swastik and etc. It is believed that the person offering prayers should sit in a special position and often he starts the ritual with meditation. Meditation is considered to help connecting the man with the ethereal spirit in a proper manner.

Conch shell or Sankh: This sankh or conch shell has been attained from the God as a gift from the deep blue ocean. The shell has a spiral formation inside which symbolises the infinite space. All conch shells that the formed naturally produces cosmic sound, this sound can be heard if you hold it near the ears closely.

Conch shell is blowed at the beginning of any auspicious religious event. The blowing of sankh is considered sacred and is often used regularly while offering prayer to the deity. Historically conch shell was blowed at the beginning of the battle of Kurukshetra in the Mahabharatha every morning before the beginning of the war.

Jap Mala or Rudrakhsh mala: Jap or rudrakhsha is a seed from a rare fruit which grown in Karnataka and in some Konkan area. The seeds are round in shape with a cellular discrimination and with a bore in the centre. Each seed have about 1 to 21 cells and it is considered that seeds with one cell have great sacred value. Yogis and Rishis are often found sitting with a jap mala and chanting their prayer. Due to its spiritual quality and it considered to produce healthy and positive vibration, rishis often prefer wearing these as necklaces. Hindu God, Lord Shiva adorns himself with such rudraksha seeds. These seeds help a devotee to get into a deep meditation comfortably, hence they are used while pujas.

Ringing bell or Hindu ghanta:The bells produces effective sound as it is made with eight different type of metals. The echo produced by the bell spreads in all direction. Today it is ringed in all temples or any pujas to invoke the blessings of the deity.

Universalism of God in Hinduism

The term “Universalism” means set beliefs which can be religious, philosophical or theological through which an individual usually understands his universal or nature’s existence. Universe is considered as the supreme of creation, power and involves all religious observations. The importance of “Universalism of God” is mentioned Rig Veda and the Upanishads.

As early as in1500BC, the term universalism was used in the Rig Veda. The concept is explained in two different ways, one from the non dual perspective. According to them only the One or Brahman is true. They called the world of names and forms as maya and it is an illusion in relation to Brahman. Thus according to the non-theistic belief, human ways of understanding are untrue.

But the dualistic scools of Vedanta interprets the “Ekam sat”in a different way. According to their belief,  Brahman is present in a particular god, and all of the gods, as well as such figures as Prajapati and Purusha. This interpretation came to include symbols, visible signs of the invisible truth, such as space, wind, fire, prana, and certain mantras like OM.

Thus, the “Ekam sat” line has been interpreted to mean that only brahman is universally true, and everything else (including all gods) is maya or illusion. It has also been interpreted to mean that all gods are true, as they participate in or share in the reality of brahman. Thus one interpretation says all gods are universally false, and the other says all gods are universally true.

Both non-dual and dualistic interpretations of universalism are also present in the Upanishads. The major texts of these Vedic commentaries range in dates from about the eighth century BCE to the fourth century BCE, though many were written later. We have the non-dual approach of “Neti, neti” or not this, not that” meaning that no physical object or mental concept fully embraces brahman. We still see this approach today in jnana yoga, in which illusion is peeled away by a process of denial and negation in order to reach ultimate truth.

In both the Upanishads and the brahmanas, we see a tendency to establish equivalences between beings and qualities apparently belonging to different levels and spheres. As Dandekar notes, one derivation of the word “Upanishad” is “placing side by side, equivalence, correlation.”^I Such establishing of equivalents and correlations between different spheres acts as a precursor for the later universalist equating of different gods and symbols, all being part of the same underlying reality.

Origin of the Vedas

The Hindu Vedas is a book of verses which is composed in Sanskrit. These books are the oldest written document in Hindu religion. It was often thought that the Vedas were the earliest literary record of the Indo-Aryan civilisation. Even today these are considered to be the most sacred book of the Hindu religion. The Vedas contains the original scriptures of the preaching and talks about the spiritual knowledge encompassing various aspects of day to day human life. The term “Veda” means knowledge, wisdom or vision, and it conveys the language of the Gods in common men’s speech.

The laws of the Vedas regulate the social, legal, domestic and religious customs of the Hindus to the present day. All the compulsory duties of the Hindus at birth, marriage, death etc. owe their adherence to the Vedic ritual. They draw forth the thought of successive generation of thinkers, and so contain within it the different level of thought.

The Vedic text includes, The Rigveda, The Yajurveda, The Samaveda and the Atharvaveda. All the books contain hymns and preach about life and its values in different ways.

The Rigveda, the ancient book of knowledge written in the early vedic age is a book of sacred hymns. It contains pryayers which are chanted in Hindu religious functions and pujas. This veda contains several mythological and poetical accounts of the origin of the universe, hymns praising the gods, and ancient prayers for life, prosperity and etc. The verses here are offered to many deities, specially the Indra.

The Yajurveda is divided into the white (Shukla) and the Black (Krishna) Yajurveda literature. The second part is further divided into four broad sections or (Shakas) namely, Taittriya Brahmana, Kathakam, Taittiriya Aranyaka, Ekagni Kandam, Taittiriya Samhita, Taittiriya Samhita and Taittiriya Pratishakhya.

The Samaveda is though to be composed in 1700BC and it is highly praised for sanctity and liturgical importance. This veda contains, collection of hymns, portions of hymns, taken from Sakala Sakha of the Rig veda. The verses have been rearranged to suit different rituals in which they were chanted.

The Atharvaveda is also known as the book of spell, this last veda is very different from the other three Vedas. Its hymns are of a more diverse character than the Rig Veda and are also simpler in language. In fact, many scholars do not consider it part of the Vedas at all. The Atharva Veda consists of spells and charms prevalent at its time, and portrays a clearer picture of the Vedic society.

THE GREAT SAGES OF INDIA

India is a land of spirituality and divine purity. It is a vast land of rich culture and religion that has been beckoning people since the time immemorial. India is known for the sages and their valuable teachings. The great sages of India devoted their lives towards the enlightenment of mankind. The sages actually became the bridge that lead man towards peace and happiness.

Following is brief information on some of the great sages of India.

Vasishtha: Sage Vasishtha is one of the saptarishis of the present human age or Manvantara. He was Rajpurohit or Rajguru of the solar dynasty popularly known as Suryavansha. It is believed that Vasishtha was a son of Lord Brahma or his Manasaputra. Sage Vasishtha was married to Arundathi. The star Mizar of the Ursa Major constellation is denoted as Vasishtha and the small star Alcor, beside the Mizar is denoted as Arundhati. Vasishtha authored the Mandala 7 of the Rig-Veda. He also wrote a book on Vedic system of astrology that was named as “Vashisht Samhita”.   This great sage owned a magical cow, named Kamadhenu that granted anything to her owner.

Agastya: Sage Agastya was again one of the saptarishi. According to several scriptures he was known as the greatest of all the seven sages of Saptarishis. Agastya or Agathiyar authored several Mantras in Rig Veda that first came to his mind directly from Lord Brahma. This sage was again said to have born of the gods, Varuna and Mitra. Sage Agastya helped in formation of the language Tamil, which is used widely in Southern India. The great sage has several stories in his name where he used his entire yogic powers for betterment of mankind.

Ashtavakra: There are a lot of stories associated with Sage Ashtavakra. His birth is mentioned in Ramayana. Ashtavakra literally means “eight bends”. He was physically challenged and when he walked, eight bends appeared on his body. That is why he was called “Ashtavakra”. He was cursed by his father when he was in womb of his mother and because of this curse he was born as physically challenged. At a very tender age he attained self realization.

Shankaracharya: This sage was born in 788 AD in a Brahmin family of a small village of Kerala, in Southern India. He was born to Shibguru and mother Bisishtha Devi. He learned the scriptural scriptures when he was only seven years of age. He left home at a tender age to know God and actualize himself (Atman). He established an Ashram named as Shringeri Math.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa:   He is the great sage born in modern India. He lived on this earth from 1835-1886. He was born to a common man Khudiram Chattopadhyay and his wife Chandramani. Paramhansa lived in a village named Kararpukur in West Bengal. As a child, he was very talented and loved learning great epics. One day, at the age of eight, he went to a temple and at the sight of goddess he went unconscious and when he regained conscious he told that he felt as if the god merged within him. He authored several books and worked for spiritual enlightenment of the people.. His teachings mainly revolve around god realization.

 

Spirituality As A Way To Control Stress And Balance Your Life

Focused as today’s man is on the material aspect of life, busy from morning to night pursuing a profession and his dreams of an outwardly prosperous materialistic life, that he has little time to explore his inner self and his spiritual side. The result is imbalance and disharmony in life leading to stress that spirals out of control.

Busy as he is, a man needs to take time out for spirituality and a little meditation on a daily basis. A little bit of time spent early in the morning exploring your inner self goes a long way to calm your inner turmoil, bring about an inner harmony and a coherence in the flows of inner energies, the yin and yang, the ida and pingla, the spiritual and material aspects of your being. A little bit of spirituality infuses your being, your core, with an inner strength and a lot of calm to manage your life. As days pass, your practice of spiritual meditation will become an indispensable part of your life, enabling you to stay relaxed and free of stress while achieving much more. Spirituality is nourishment for your soul that drives you onwards in your quest for excellence.

Spirituality is not religion though people may confuse the two. Spirituality is recognition and acceptance of your inner being and bringing about a balance in your life. Meshed as you are with the hubbub of daily life, there is a need for communion with your inner self to know who you really are. Spirituality helps you turn a mirror to your self and see yourself and align yourself with nature. Through oneness with nature you generate a potent force within for integration of your outer and inner self into a coherent being. A laser light is coherent and powerful while other light sources are discordant and with no power, aim or direction.

Spirituality can be practiced in solitude, in calm and peaceful environments with or without the help of music to help you along. Yoga can be used as an aid to achieving spiritual balance and harmonizing your forces to help you in the battle of life. Combined with appropriate breathing techniques, music, chanting of slokas and even aroma, spiritual practice is your very own private area for rejuvenation and fortification. Each day you renew and strengthen yourself through a little bit of spirituality, become a better human and see life in its true perspective, when you achieve the sought after balance.  Stay calm, focused and free of stress even though your burden may increase multifold.

Though not proven by scientific tests, spirituality has a potent effect on your inner charkas—centers of energy—helping you achieve an inner peace and strength otherwise not achievable. Spirituality and meditation generate the right “waves” in the brain for a positive effect on your physical body while ordering the turmoil in your mind, bringing about an eventual coherence, turning you into a laser beam, as it were.

On your path in life you may achieve the highest success but at the end, without spirituality to fill the inner vacuum and give you bliss, you will feel empty. Adopt the path of “ananda” and give spirituality a place in your life.  At the end, it gives you joy, happiness and peace—all of which are located within yourself.

Tie and Dye Craft of Gujarat – Bandhej

Bandhej, as it is known inGujarator Bandhani as it is known in the other regions ofIndia, is a form of textile craft flourishing inGujaratand Rajasthan. InGujaratthe Khatri community ofKutchis famous for this craft since generations. Bandhej or tie and dye, is also practised inJamnagarand Surendranagar districts of the State. Each region has its special techniques giving rise to brilliant and striking compositions. In a sense, each piece of tie-dye fabric is unique since the process is completely manual.

Process

An artist first of all draws a pattern on the fabric. Then the specialists in tying knots (bandnari) go into action,  pinching and tying the dots created by the artist. There may be thousands or millions of knots tied in the fabric before it goes for dying. The dyeing specialist (Rangnaar) takes over next, dipping the fabric into selected dyes made from vegetable sources. Of course now synthetic dyes are also used. The process is repeated for each colour. The lightest shade is dyed first and then tied up tightly with threads  and successive processes take care of the darker hues. The artists uses circles, squares, dots or geometric designs. Borders are usually broad and designed to be matching or contrasting in colours. The finer the dots and the number of patterns and designs in a fabric, the more expensive and laborious it is to produce and the better the overall effect achieved. Red, Yellow, Green, Black and Maroon are common colours.

Simple Bandhej or Bandhani sarees or dresses may have only a few natural colours, patterns and designs while wedding outfits may be extremely complex with intricate designs, embellishments in the form of silver and gold threads known as “zari”. Only the finest cotton muslin cloth is used in the most expensive creations.  There is no limit to creativity due to the limitless permutations and combinations possible in the patterns and designs and the process.

Bandhej fabrics commonly carry patterns of dots in the form of circles called “laddu” or squares known as “dabbi”. Oblong or tear shaped dots are also used in the design. It is the artist’s creativity that blends these dots into a rich, visual pattern that exudes style and elegance. Along with cotton, silk, cotton silk and jute may be used as the fabric base along with brilliant colours for a dazzling and ravishing look.

Bandhej Dyed and Tied In the Fabric of Life of Gujarat

Bandhani is inextricably woven into the fabric of life ofGujaratsince times immemorial. The “gharchola odhni” made with the tie and dye process is a must-have wedding outfit for a Gujarati bride and later on it becomes family heirloom.   It is a symbol of marital happiness and is considered auspicious for wedding. One can observe various themes depicted in Bandhej creations like flower gardens, Rasleela(dance of Gopis and Lord Krishna), Shikari (the hunt) and other themes drawing inspiration from folklore.

Once restricted to Gujarat and parts of Rajasthan, Bandhej or Bandhani has come a long way and has a universal appeal for women not only all over India but across the world for its uniquely rustic yet divine looks that no form of machine printing or dyeing can ever achieve.