Avinash

Yes, it is written in Hindi. I know Hindi very well. But the image is not clear. Is it possible for you to attach a clearer image?

To Elliott, Let me know if "I" in Elliott is pronounced like "I" of "Island" or "I" of "India". Both are different.

As I said, pronunciation is important and not how you write it. That is why I want to know how you pronounce your name. You have written 'E' is pronounced like E of Elephant, L like L of Leaf, I like I of Island. If I am not wrong, I of Island is pronounced like the word "eye". I am assuming the same. If you think it is like I of In, then let me know because I of Island is pronounced differently from I of In. O of october. I guess you pronounce it the same as first O of doctor. There are two L's and two T's. It does not matter. What matters is do you pronounce two L's and two T's? Do you pronounce LL like LL in CHILLY? I am assuming yes. Then, your name is to be written as follows:- I repeat. How you read your name is important and not how you write it so far Hindi is concerned. Elliott.bmp

I think that the following thread will be useful to you:- http://www.indiadivine.org/audarya/sanskrit/48650-do-you-want-write-hindi-sanskrit.html

It is good that I do not know how to use mantras to activate weapons. Otherwise, I would be doing all kinds of mischief and troubling people.

I am not asking about spelling. I am asking how you pronounce Elliott. Can you explain the pronunciation of each part of Elliott. For example, you can say that 'E' is pronounced like first 'e' of 'elephant'. Like that let me know the pronunciation of whole of ELLIOTT. Please note that Hindi is a phonetic language. Therefore, how you write depends on how you pronounce.

"Laura and Paul" is correct. For Elliott, what you have written is pronounced as Elayit. But I guess correct pronunciation is Eliyat. That should be written as follows:-

Let me know which names you want to be translated.

>>Is this evam एवं and is this and च<< Both एवं also means च(pronounced cha) mean "and". Another word in Sanskrit with the same meaning are "tathaa. Evam and tathaa are used in Hindi also. However, cha is used only in Sanskrit. At present, more people are aware of the meaning of evam than of cha. सदैव means forever. Sarvada also means forever. However sarvada should not be written as सर्वदा. I think it is because of some problem with the font that you are using. I see similar problem with font in your translation of soulmates.

Tulsi needs natural sunlight. Place her in warm, sunny area. Make sure that whenever there is Sun in the sky, Tulsi gets sunlight. Water her daily. When she grows, she will develop manjaries. When the manjaries dry and become brown, then clip them off with scissors. Do it everytime a manjari dries. In hot areas, Tulsi can be put outside. But, since you live in cold area, do not put her outside. Therefore, keep her inside and near some window from where she can get sunlight. If possible, do not put her in a flower pot. But plant her in ground itself. If you need to plant her in a flower pot, then use the flower pot, which has a hole in the bottom to drain excess water. You should water her everyday. Do not put too much of water. Water just enough to make the soil soft. But make sure that you water her daily. To find out how much water to give, you should give her a little water and wait for a few seconds. If you find that the water has been absorbed, then give some more water and again wait a little. When you find that some water puddle is formed at the top of the soil, then do not give any more water. If you are using a water pot, then you can use the same method. Once a week, give her so much water that water starts draining out of the hole in the flower pot. But make sure that there should not be too much of water draining out of the hole. When you find that water has just started coming out of the hole, then stop watering. It will be best if sunlight and water are provided at the same time. You have written that it is winter and there is almost no sunlight. But make sure that Tulsi gets sunlight whenever there is sunlight. Water her at that time. Also water her in the morning before nine. When she is not getting sunlight, then give her light from fluorescent tubes and bulbs. Place some light source above her, close to her but without touching her. Put some light sources around her also. Use specially made full spectrum plant tubes. These are not as good as sunlight, but this is the best you can do in absence of sunlight.

But who says that Shiva Puranas are tamasic? Vaishnavas say this, isn't it. Shaivas do not accept Shiva puranas as tamasic. Why should arguments of Vaishnavas be real proof but not the arguments of Shaivas? I am not a shaivaite. Since you claim Vishnu is supreme, that is why I am asking for proof. If somebody claims Shiva is supreme, I will ask him also for proof. Many advaitins claim that advaita scholars have proved advaita as authentic.

Do you pronounce it as eliyat?

Tulsi plant needs natural sunlight; artificial will not work. You must give it water daily. Three drops a day is too little; you must give more.

Post this query in Sanskrit forum. Let me know if you have already posted it there.

gokulkr, How do you explain the story of Shiva appearing as a pillar and Vishnu not able to find its end?

WOW! You have written both "Laura" and "Paul" correctly. Regarding the word "and", if you pronounce it like "aand", then what you have written is correct. But I was thinking why not translate "and" into Hindi and then write. There are more than one way in which "and" can be translated into Hindi. One of them is pronounced as "evam". So, write "evam" in Devanagari script and put that between "Laura", "Paul".

Was there a debate between the shaiva acharyas and the vaishnava acharyas that you have mentioned? What did the shaiva acharyas do after being defeated? Did they accept what vaishnava acharayas were saying? And did they become vaishnavas?

It is said that we should make the habit of simple living so that we do not get attached to materialistic pleasures. Consider a person who lives very simply. Is it possible that he gets attached to that kind of living? Suppose, for some reason, he goes to a place where he is asked to sleep on velvety bed, be in a room with AC, with pop music being played in neighbourhood. In the day time, he is asked to go to a place where there is singing and dancing on some Michael Jackson's song is going on. Is it possible that he will feel very uncomfortable in such a place because of his attachment with simple living? Is such an attachment good?

You have mentioned three Vaishnava acharyas - Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, Vedanta Desika. Give the name of any one Shaiva acharya with whom any of these three Vaishnava acharyas debated and in which that Shaiva acharya was defeated.

As per the stories I have read, it is always Rama who kills Ravana. But how he kills may be different. In some incarnation, he may kill very easily. In some, hemay kill after lots of bloodshed.

I never said that. There are many more incarnations. If we take a particular incarnation in a given brahmanda, say Rama incarnation, then two Rama the stories of two incarnations are similar but not exactly the same. I mean there are many similarities but also some differences. This is true for different Rama incarnations (or any other incarnation) in the same brahmanda : two Rama incarnations are similar but not exactly the same; two Krishna incarnations are similar but not exactly the same. As far I have read, scriptures do not talk about incarnations in different brahmandas. So, the incarnation in one brahmanda may be similar or may even be completely different from the incarnation in another brahmanda.

Scriptures do say that same incarnations occur in all kalpas(of course, there may be exceptions that I am not aware of). Some incarnations may happen more than one in the same kalpa. Here, kalpa is one day of Brahma. If we take Rama incarnation, then many Rama incarnations have happened. The stories in all these incarnations are similar but not exactly the same. This can be one reason for variations in Ramayana versions. But this need not be the only reason. Cultural difference can also be one reason. I have found that cultural difference is more important reason for different versions of Ramayana. Let us take some examples:- The version of Ramayana in Malaysia is called as "Hikayat Seri Rama". In that, Dashratha is the great grandson of Adam and Ravana receives boon from Allah instead of from Brahma. Why this deviation from Valmiki Ramayana? I believe the answer is because of culture of Malaysia. When Ramayana was introduced to Malaysia, then it was important to keep in mind Islamic culture of Malaysia. It was blasphemy to talk of any god other than Allah in that culture. Therefore, Brahma was not mentioned and Allah was mentioned. Likewise, Dashratha's lineage was also changed and his ancestor was mentioned as Adam because in Malaysia, Adam was well known. Moreover, Rama is shown as a human being and not as God because in Islamic culture, it is blashphemy to talk of any god other than Allah. Thailand's Ramakien has many tales similar to Valmiki Ramayana but names have been changed to Thai names. Also clothes, weapons, topography, and elements of nature are described as being Thai in style.

Can you name a Shaiva acharya and a Vaishnava acharya who debated and in which the Vaishnava acharya won? Any example?

I did not get confused at all. Rather, I found it quite clear. Consider the words "regains his original spiritual body". Consider the word "original". It means that there was a time, when we had spiritual body. And we should have that body again. If we gain something, which we had in the past, then we use the word "regain". The statement "Only when one regains his original spiritual body can he enter into the spiritual kingdom." means that there was a time when we had spiritual body and now we do not have. Before entering into spiritual kingdom, we once again need to have spiritual body. In other words, one cannot enter into spiritual kingdom with material body. Next, consider the statement "One has to attain a spiritual body like that of a gopī to enter into the pastimes of the rāsa-līlā." It means that gopis are always having rasa-lila with Lord Krishna and those gopis have spiritual bodies. If we also want to participate in the rasa-lila, then we also need to have spiritual bodies. Here the word "regain" is not used because there is no word "original" or any other word to indicate that we already had spiritual body and we should gain it again. Do not miss forest for trees. If a statement as a whole has simple meaning, then be happy with that meaning. If you start disecting the statement to find more accurate meaning, then rather than finding more accurate meaning, you will lose even the simple meaning.

To Suchandra- It is true that as per GTR, gravitation is a consequence of the curvature of space-time because of mass. But often Newton's laws are good approximation to GTR. Moreover, you yourself talked about gravitational force, centrifugal force etc. thus treating gravitational force as a force as defined in Newtonian mechanics. This is why I decided to clarify the difference between centripetal force and centrifugal force.