Fasting in Sanskrit is called upavaasa. Upa means “near” + vaasa means “to stay”. Upavaasa therefore means staying near (the Lord), meaning the attainment of close mental proximity with the Lord.

Then what has upavaasa to do with food?

     We spent a lot of our time and energy in procuring food items, preparing, cooking, eating and digesting food. Certain food types make our minds dull and agitated. Hence on certain days man decides to save time and conserve his energy by eating either simple, light food or totally abstaining from eating so that his mind becomes alert and pure. The mind, otherwise pre-occupied by the thought of food, now entertains noble thoughts and stays with the Lord. Since it is a self-imposed form of discipline it is usually adhered to with joy.

     Also every system needs a break and an overhaul to work at its best. Rest and a change of diet during fasting are very good for the digestive system and the entire body.

     The more you indulge the senses, the more they make their demands. Fasting helps us to cultivate control over our senses, sublimate our desires and guide our minds to be poised and at peace.

     Fasting should not make us weak, irritable or create an urge to indulge later. This happens when there is no noble goal behind fasting.

     The Bhagavad-Gita urges us to eat appropriately – neither too less nor too much – yukta-aahaara and to eat simple, pure and healthy food (a saatvik diet) even when not fasting

Usually we call our home as a temple but still most Indian homes have a prayer room or altar. We lit a lamp and Worship our Lord every day. Most of other spiritual practices like japa – repetition of the Lord’s name, meditation, paaraayana – reading of the scriptures, prayers, and devotional singing etc are also done here. On auspicious occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, festivals and the like, we had special worships. Each member of the family – young or old – communes with and worships the Divine in the prayer room.

The Lord is the entire creation. He is therefore the true owner of the house we live in too. The prayer room is the Master room of the house. We are the earthly occupants of His property. This notion rids us of false pride and possessiveness.

The ideal attitude to take is to regard the Lord as the true owner of our homes and us as caretakers of His home. But if that is rather difficult, we could at least think of Him as a very welcome guest. Just as we would house an important guest in the best comfort, so too we felicitate the Lord’s presence in our homes by having a prayer room or altar, which is, at all times, kept clean and well-decorated.

Also the Lord is all pervading. To remind us that He resides in our homes with us, we have prayer rooms. Without the grace of the Lord, no task can be successfully or easily accomplished. We invoke His grace by communing with Him in the prayer room each day and on special occasions.

Each room in a house is dedicated to a specific function like the bedroom for resting, the drawing room to receive guests, the kitchen for cooking etc. The furniture, decor and the atmosphere of each room are made conducive to the purpose it serves. So too for the purpose of meditation, worship and prayer, we should have a conducive atmosphere – hence the need for a prayer room.

Sacred thoughts and sound vibrations pervade the place and influence the minds of those who spend time there. Spiritual thoughts and vibrations accumulated through regular meditation, worship and chanting done there pervade the prayer room. Even when we are tired or agitated, by just sitting in the prayer room for a while, we feel calm, rejuvenated and spiritually uplifted.

We as Indians, prostrate before our parents, elders, teachers and noble souls by touching their feet. Our elders bless us back by placing his or her hand on or over our heads. It is done daily, especially when we meet elders and particularly on important occasions like the beginning of a new task, birthdays, festivals etc. Abhivandana is served to introduce one-self and to announce one’s family and social culture along with prostration in certain traditional circles.

To touch the feet in prostration is a sign of respect for maturity, nobility, age and divinity that our elders personify. It is a symbol of the sacrifices they have done for our welfare and our recognition of their selfless love for us. It’s a way of acknowledging the greatness of another humbly. It reflects the strong family ties, which has been one of India’s enduring strengths as well as our social security.

The aashirvada (blessings) and sankalpa (good wishes) of elders are highly valued in India and which we seek during prostration. Positive vibrations are created by good thoughts. There is tremendous strength in good wishes springing from a heart full of love, divinity and nobility. We invoke the good wishes and blessings of elders which flow in the form of positive energy to envelop us, when we prostrate with humility and respect. That’s why the posture assumed whether it is in the standing or prone position, enables the entire body to receive the energy thus received.

There are different forms of showing respect:

Pratuthana : Rising to welcome person   

Namaskaara: Paying homes in form of namaste

Upasangrahan: Touching the feet of elders or teachers                       

Pratyabivaadana: Returning a greeting                                   

Shaashtaanga: Prostrating fully with the feet, knees, stomach, chest, forehead and arms touching the ground in front of the elder.   

Well, i think there are even more than that but nobody does the easiest namaste. What do you think?

          We, Indians greet each other with namaste. While saying the word namaste, our two palms are placed together infront of the chest and head bows towards the other person. We do namaste to all, means those older than use, of the same age, younger than us and also to strangers and even us.

          Actually, there are five forms of traditional formal greeting in the shaastras from which namaskar is one of them. Namaste can be casualised or formalised as a cultural convention or an act of worship. In Sanskrit namah+te = namaste. It means – I bow to you – my greetings, prostration or salutes to you. Namah is having spiritual significance of decreasing one’s ego in the presence of another as namah can be interpreted as “na” (not) “mah” (mine)

          When we meet each other physically, it is actually a real meeting of our minds. In this meeting when we say namaste with folded palms over the chest, it means as “may our minds meet.” The forward bowing of the head is to show a form of extending friendship inlove and humility.
   

          There is even much deeper meaning of doing namaste spiritually.  The self, the lord, the divinity or the force is the same in all. Understanding this oneness with the meeting of the palms, we respect the Divinity in the person we meet. We close our eyes sometimes as we do namaste to a, it me revered person or the Lord – as if to look within. The gesture is often accompanied by words like “Jai Shri Krishna“, “Namo Narayana“, “Jai Siya Ram“, “Om Shanti” etc – indicating the recognition of this divinity.

          When you know such significance of this graceful namaste, it does not remain as a superficial gesture or word but makes the way for a much deeper communication with other in an environment of love and respect.

In almost every Indian home a lamp is lit daily before the altar of the Lord. In some houses it is lit at dawn, in some, twice a day – at dawn and dusk – and in a few it is maintained continuously – Akhanda Deepa. All auspicious functions commence with the lighting of the lamp, which is often maintained right through the occasion.

Light symbolizes knowledge, and darkness – ignorance. The Lord is the “Knowledge Principle” (Chaitanya) who is the source, the enlivener and the illuminator of all knowledge. Hence light is worshiped as the Lord himself. Knowledge removes ignorance just as light removes darkness. Also knowledge is a lasting inner wealth by which all outer achievement can be accomplished. Hence we light the lamp to bow down to knowledge as the greatest of all forms of wealth.

Why not light a bulb or tube light? That too would remove darkness. But the traditional oil lamp has a further spiritual significance. The oil or ghee in the lamp symbolizes our vaasanas or negative tendencies and the wick, the ego. When lit by spiritual knowledge, the vaasanas get slowly exhausted and the ego too finally perishes. The flame of a lamp always burns upwards. Similarly we should acquire such knowledge as to take us towards higher ideals.

Whilst lighting the lamp we thus pray:

Deepajyothi parabrahma
Deepa sarva tamopahaha
Deepena saadhyate saram
Sandhyaa deepo namostute

I prostrate to the dawn/dusk lamp; whose light is the Knowledge Principle (the Supreme Lord), which removes the darkness of ignorance and by which all can be achieved in life.

Imagine the scene:

When Arjun with his confusion about fight or not to fight against Kauravas with no hopes comes to Krishn for help and Krishn replies:

“Hi Arjun, I understand your confusion and I do have solution, we are right now in battlefield , let’s discuss this issue on dinner table”

Weird scene, right? That’s the first feeling came to my mind after this imagination. What I tried is , merged two time frames and outcome was silly. What could be the better place to learn about battlefield? Battlefield itself. 5000 years back, to sing life’s ultimate song, shree Krishn did not use dinner table but selected battlefield only and when Krishn selects war as equally as peace is, then there should be connection between life and war just like we understand life and peace. One cannot be without the other. Peace has identity dependent on war and war reflects peace only. War will be with us as long as life exists on this planet earth. Maybe the character of war will change, its structure and shape will vary, its plane, strategy, and style will be different, but war will continue as long as life will. It is impossible that war will disappear from this earth. Man cannot live without war, war had always been with us, it is with us now, and it is going to be with us in future. Life is war and we should be warriors else there will be question mark on our existence.

Am I talking about becoming warmonger? No, please, absolutely NO. But surely, I am talking about becoming peaceful warrior. Now, you will say that, stop confusing us and come to the point.

Let’s talk about peaceful warrior.

Point here is to take life as a war and fighting each battle of survival like a warrior. War signifies not only fight based on guns or nuclear weapons but it also means tiny battles we fight in day to day life. There is word in Hindi language called “Shaurya” which I will translate to “bravery” and which means “No fear”. It is about developing NO FEAR mind set towards life and its intricacies. NO FEAR at individual level will help us in battles we fight against our will, fellow men and nature. NO FEAR at society level will create fearless nation which can fight righteous wars.

NO FEAR is one quality of warrior. I will try to explore more in subsequent writings.

Stay tuned.

~ Trailblazer.

We as a Hindu are blessed with a cultural heritage of thousands of rituals and customs known as Aacharaas. This customs and rituals are for us to improve the productivity and life. There are no strict rules or regulations to follow. That is the reason that present survey shows we had forgotten almost every customs and rituals except couple of flexible rituals. And,now we had started getting curse of it in manner of new psychological and physical health problems. This clearly signifies that our culture and dharma is founded on scientific spiritually.

If you go back to search in our ancient literature, it is clearly posted in Eesaavaasya Upanishad, the 40^th chapter of Yajurveda that use spiritual wisdom to attain immortality through philosophical outlook and use scientific knowledge for solving problems in our life. Spiritual is closely intermingled in each and every Hindu custom and so in every life of Hindu.

Following Shlok defines importance of Aachaaraas:

Aachaaraath labhathe hi ayu:

aachaaraath dhanamakshayam

aachaaraath labhathe suprajaa:

                          aachaaro ahanthya lakshanam

Aachaaraas should be followed for prosperity and wealth, strong family and social bondage. According to our dharmasaastra, it gives fine personality, dharmic outlook and vision. We need to follow it for our benefit and it is our right as well as duty to understand scientifically, rationally and logically the meaning of each and every Aachaaraas and follow them in our life systematically.

Achaaryaath paadam aadatthe

paadam sishya swamedhayaa

paadam sa brahmachaaribhya

                sesham kaala kramena cha

Above is an important advice given in Smruthies, it means that a person gets only one quarter of knowledge from Aacharya – the teacher, another quarter from analyzing himself, one quarter from discussing with others and the last quarter by method of addition, deletion, correction and modification of already known Aachaaraas or new Aachaaraas.

We will explain in upcoming MONDAY LEARNINGS about common Aachaaraas at our Vedic Learnings so as to help someone understand the wisdom of our ancient heritage. By doing such noble work, we are expecting to get the quarter of knowledge from discussing with others.

Now, it is your turn, your right and your duty!!

Habit of regular reading can prove to be one of the best friends of any human being. And in my life so far, I have seen and met many such people (My two team members are one of the best examples of such people here) who have befriended reading religiously. When I say religiously, it has got nothing to do with conventional religion. To me, religion means some decided set of practices, disciplines and guidelines that becomes part of human habits and which – if followed regularly, could help keeping a human being active and full of life. Reading covers a very broad spectrum of resources; ranging from mythological scriptures, philosophy, natural sciences, medicine, economics, technology to sports, business, entertainment to anything, which basically can satisfy human interests.
 
On an average, many people who decide to learn reading, tend to spend some part of their lives for some ‘type of reading.’ But, it is this ‘type of reading’ that plays an important part in deciding the future paths for them. Any type of reading is good as long as it does not lead one to indulge into something, which can be termed commonly as, bad, or an evil. The battles between ‘good and evil’, ‘light and darkness’, ‘truth and untruth’ are older than our own existence. Verily, the question of ‘life and death’ has been so profound that its inception and contemplation dates back to thousands of years.
 
But hey! Why am I writing all these here? Well, because I feel that with ‘Vedic Learnings’, I wish to explore and share the possibilities of expanding the horizons of human knowledge, understanding and will. And I believe, that ‘Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta’ is one of those many literary resources, which unveils one of the highest philosophies for the ‘free human mind.’
 
~ Robin Jani (‘Daffodius’)

Dear friends,

First of all, thanks for flooding us with your comments and suggestions. We would love to be flooded again and again with learnings and love to remain wet with such “Spiritual delight”. We are and we will appreciate each and every efforts made by you to motivate us in spiritual learning so as to make it as perfect as ‘Bhagwad Gita’ itself.

Here are some of the comments from our Spiritual viewers.

“Nisarg, U know, When Mahabharata was well written why Gita has all its own unique Identity…..the reason is Mahabharata is huge…but then also it is just an example of the chapters that written in Gita. Gita is consider and plotted as a part of Mahabharata, Though reality is just as different like mirror image. I believe this is the best step in the blog world you are taking and will be helpful.”

“Hey Guys, you are doing an extremly commendable task. Its worth applauding the amount of time and energy you spend on doing such noble task.
One suggestion – can we include some elaboration for this kinda shloks… may be we could relate it to some stories or related quotes.” 

“Taral, Nisarg, and Robin. You are doing nobel work. and your layout for the site is very impressive. Good. Keep it up. I want to say if you allow that you shoud elaborate on every Shlok that you post. Not just translation but an Arthvistar, understanding with examples and quotes. I think this will be a betterment for everybody involving in the learning the greatest THE GITA . I will all the best. Taral love you and take care.”

“My best wishes and a quote for your new venture,
“Sever the ignorant doubt in your heart with the sword of self-knowledge. Observe your discipline. Arise.” ~ Gita.”

We will be waiting for more comments as it serves as feedbacks to improve us and so as to improve the human kind.

Once again, Thanks and we wish you a great spiritual learning!