Avinash

I have one suggestion to increase your life span. Run as much as you can and as fast as you can. According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, moving clocks run slow. So, the time that will be spent for you will be less compared to that spent for those who do not run that much. Everybody ages according to his own body clock. So, your life expectancy will be more. What do you think of this idea?

I find it rather paradoxical. Many harmful things come out of body with urine. How can taking back the same harmful things be beneficial?

How many arrrrgghhhhrrgghh are you going to need now? Any no. of arrrrgghhhhrrgghh's is not enough. I would rather die of disease.

From Prasna Upanishad: From where are all these creatures born? Prajapati desired creatures. He performed penance and produced matter and spirit, thinking that these together should produce creatures. The sun is life, and the moon is matter. Both with and without form are matter. When the rising sun illumines everything, it takes all the life-breaths in its rays. That fire rises as universal life in all its forms. The year is the creator. This has two paths: the southern and the northern. Those who worship thinking, 'Sacrifice and merit have perfected us,' attain only the lunar world; these are born again. Thus those desiring children take the southern course, and that path of ancestors is matter. Those seeking the soul by discipline, holiness, faith, and knowledge by the northern course attain the world of the Sun. This is the home of the spirits, the immortal, free from danger, the highest. From there they do not return. The month is the creator. Its dark half is matter; its bright half spirit. Thus some seers perform sacrifice in the bright period, others in the dark. Day and night are the creator. The day is spirit, and the night is matter. Those who unite in love by day waste their spirit, but to unite in love by night is right. Food is the creator. From this seeds are produced, and from these are creatures born. Those who observe the rule of creator, produce a pair, and to them belongs this world here. But those in whom dwell penance, abstinence, and truth, to them belongs that pure Brahma-world. How many angels support a creature? How many illumine it? And which of them is supreme? Space, air, fire,water, earth, speech, mind, sight and hearing are such angels. These, having illumined the creature, said, 'We support and preserve this being.' To them the supreme life-breath said, 'Do not be deluded. I dividing soul fivefold support and preserve this union.' They did not believe it. It rose up and out. When it rose up, then all the others rose up; and when it settled down, they settled down. They said, 'He is fire, he shines as sun, he is rain, air, earth, matter- he is what is and what is not, and what is immortal. As spokes in a wheel, everything is fixed in life: the verses, the sacrifice, the Kshatriyas, and the Brahmans. As creator, you move about in the womb, you indeed are born again. To you, these creatures bring offerings. You are the best carrier for the gods, you are the first offering to the Fathers. You are the true work of seers. You are Indra, Rudra, Sun. When you send down rain, these creatures are delighted, hoping that there will be food, as much as they desire. You are the consumer of everything. We are the givers of what you have to consume. You are our father. Make sure that body of yours which dwells in speech, in the ear, in the eye, and which pervades the mind; does not go away. Whatever exists in the three heavens is in your power. Protect us like a mother, and give us happiness and wisdom.' From where is this life-breath born? How does it come into this body? How does it dividing the soul become established? By what does it depart? How does it relate to the external and to the soul inside? The life-breath is born from the soul. As a person casts a shadow, so is this life-breath extended by the soul, and for the perfection of the mind it comes into this body. As a ruler commands the officials, so this life-breath rules the other breaths. The soul lives in the heart. Here there are one hundred and one channels. Each of these has one hundred smaller channels. Each of these has seventy-two thousand branching channels. Within these moves the diffused breath. Rising upward through the up-breath leads by virtue to the heaven of virtue, by sin to the hell of sin, and by both back to the human world. The sun rises externally as the life-breath, for it helps the life-breath in the eye. The goddess of the earth supports a person's outbreath. What is between, namely space, is the equalizing breath. Air is the diffused breath. Heat is the up-breath. Therefore one whose heat has ceased goes to rebirth with the senses sunk in the mind. Whatever is one's consciousness, with that one enters into the life-breath. The life-breath joined to the heat together with the soul lead to whatever world has been imagined. The wise who know the life-breath thus do not lose their offspring and become immortal. What are those that sleep in a person here? What are those that remain awake? What is the angel who sees dreams and who enjoys them? In whom are all these things resolved? As all the rays of the setting and the rising sun become one in a circle of brilliance, so all of human becomes one in the mind, the highest God. In that condition people do not see, hear, smell, taste, touch, speak, take, give, nor move. It is said, 'They sleep.' The fires of the life-breath remain awake in this city. The out-breath is the householder's fire. The diffused breath is the southern fire. The life-breath is the sacrifice fire, and as the eastern fire takes its fuel from the western, so in sleep the life-breath takes from the lower. The equalizing breath is called this, because it equalizes the two offerings: the in-breath and the out-breath. The mind is the sacrificer; the upper breath is the fruit of the sacrifice, for it leads the sacrificer day by day to God. The mind in sleep experiences its greatness. Whatever it has seen it sees again. Whatever it has heard it hears again. Whatever it has felt and thought and known in many regions and various places it experiences these again. What has been seen and not seen, heard and not heard, experienced and not experienced, both real and unreal, one sees it all, for the mind is all. When one is overcome with light, then he dreams no longer. Then in this body arises happiness. As birds return to their nesting tree, so all these return to the supreme soul. Whoever knows that shadow-less, bodiless, colorless, bright imperishable, attains the imperishable. Knowing all, one becomes all. If someone here should meditate on the word AUM until the end of one's life, then which world is won? The word AUM is the higher God and also the lower. Thus with this support the wise attain one or the other. Whoever meditates on one letter is led by Rig-Veda to the human world. There endowed with discipline, holiness, and faith, one experiences greatness. Whoever meditates on two letters is led by the Yajur Veda to the regions of the moon, then returns here again. Whoever meditates on the supreme Spirit with the three letters of AUM is united in brilliance with the Sun. As a snake is freed from its skin, so is one freed from sin,and is led by the Sama Veda to the world of God, where one can see the Spirit that lives in the city of the human body and is above the highest life. What is the spirit with the sixteen parts? Here in the body is that spirit in whom they say arise the sixteen parts. It thought to itself, 'In whose departure shall I depart, and in whose staying shall I stay?' It created the life-breath, from the life-breath faith, space, air, light, water, earth, senses, mind, food; from food, virility, discipline, affirmations, actions, the world; and in the worlds, naming. As these flowing rivers move toward the ocean, and on reaching the ocean are lost, their name and form destroyed, and all are called merely ocean, so all the sixteen parts of the witness move towards Spirit, and reaching the Spirit are lost, their name and form destroyed, and all are called merely the Spirit. That one continues without parts, immortal.

From Prasna Upanishad: From where are all these creatures born? Prajapati desired creatures. He performed penance and produced matter and spirit, thinking that these together should produce creatures. The sun is life, and the moon is matter. Both with and without form are matter. When the rising sun illumines everything, it takes all the life-breaths in its rays. That fire rises as universal life in all its forms. The year is the creator. This has two paths: the southern and the northern. Those who worship thinking, 'Sacrifice and merit have perfected us,' attain only the lunar world; these are born again. Thus those desiring children take the southern course, and that path of ancestors is matter. Those seeking the soul by discipline, holiness, faith, and knowledge by the northern course attain the world of the Sun. This is the home of the spirits, the immortal, free from danger, the highest. From there they do not return. The month is the creator. Its dark half is matter; its bright half spirit. Thus some seers perform sacrifice in the bright period, others in the dark. Day and night are the creator. The day is spirit, and the night is matter. Those who unite in love by day waste their spirit, but to unite in love by night is right. Food is the creator. From this seeds are produced, and from these are creatures born. Those who observe the rule of creator, produce a pair, and to them belongs this world here. But those in whom dwell penance, abstinence, and truth, to them belongs that pure Brahma-world. How many angels support a creature? How many illumine it? And which of them is supreme? Space, air, fire,water, earth, speech, mind, sight and hearing are such angels. These, having illumined the creature, said, 'We support and preserve this being.' To them the supreme life-breath said, 'Do not be deluded. I dividing soul fivefold support and preserve this union.' They did not believe it. It rose up and out. When it rose up, then all the others rose up; and when it settled down, they settled down. They said, 'He is fire, he shines as sun, he is rain, air, earth, matter- he is what is and what is not, and what is immortal. As spokes in a wheel, everything is fixed in life: the verses, the sacrifice, the Kshatriyas, and the Brahmans. As creator, you move about in the womb, you indeed are born again. To you, these creatures bring offerings. You are the best carrier for the gods, you are the first offering to the Fathers. You are the true work of seers. You are Indra, Rudra, Sun. When you send down rain, these creatures are delighted, hoping that there will be food, as much as they desire. You are the consumer of everything. We are the givers of what you have to consume. You are our father. Make sure that body of yours which dwells in speech, in the ear, in the eye, and which pervades the mind; does not go away. Whatever exists in the three heavens is in your power. Protect us like a mother, and give us happiness and wisdom.' From where is this life-breath born? How does it come into this body? How does it dividing the soul become established? By what does it depart? How does it relate to the external and to the soul inside? The life-breath is born from the soul. As a person casts a shadow, so is this life-breath extended by the soul, and for the perfection of the mind it comes into this body. As a ruler commands the officials, so this life-breath rules the other breaths. The soul lives in the heart. Here there are one hundred and one channels. Each of these has one hundred smaller channels. Each of these has seventy-two thousand branching channels. Within these moves the diffused breath. Rising upward through the up-breath leads by virtue to the heaven of virtue, by sin to the hell of sin, and by both back to the human world. The sun rises externally as the life-breath, for it helps the life-breath in the eye. The goddess of the earth supports a person's outbreath. What is between, namely space, is the equalizing breath. Air is the diffused breath. Heat is the up-breath. Therefore one whose heat has ceased goes to rebirth with the senses sunk in the mind. Whatever is one's consciousness, with that one enters into the life-breath. The life-breath joined to the heat together with the soul lead to whatever world has been imagined. The wise who know the life-breath thus do not lose their offspring and become immortal. What are those that sleep in a person here? What are those that remain awake? What is the angel who sees dreams and who enjoys them? In whom are all these things resolved? As all the rays of the setting and the rising sun become one in a circle of brilliance, so all of human becomes one in the mind, the highest God. In that condition people do not see, hear, smell, taste, touch, speak, take, give, nor move. It is said, 'They sleep.' The fires of the life-breath remain awake in this city. The out-breath is the householder's fire. The diffused breath is the southern fire. The life-breath is the sacrifice fire, and as the eastern fire takes its fuel from the western, so in sleep the life-breath takes from the lower. The equalizing breath is called this, because it equalizes the two offerings: the in-breath and the out-breath. The mind is the sacrificer; the upper breath is the fruit of the sacrifice, for it leads the sacrificer day by day to God. The mind in sleep experiences its greatness. Whatever it has seen it sees again. Whatever it has heard it hears again. Whatever it has felt and thought and known in many regions and various places it experiences these again. What has been seen and not seen, heard and not heard, experienced and not experienced, both real and unreal, one sees it all, for the mind is all. When one is overcome with light, then he dreams no longer. Then in this body arises happiness. As birds return to their nesting tree, so all these return to the supreme soul. Whoever knows that shadow-less, bodiless, colorless, bright imperishable, attains the imperishable. Knowing all, one becomes all. If someone here should meditate on the word AUM until the end of one's life, then which world is won? The word AUM is the higher God and also the lower. Thus with this support the wise attain one or the other. Whoever meditates on one letter is led by Rig-Veda to the human world. There endowed with discipline, holiness, and faith, one experiences greatness. Whoever meditates on two letters is led by the Yajur Veda to the regions of the moon, then returns here again. Whoever meditates on the supreme Spirit with the three letters of AUM is united in brilliance with the Sun. As a snake is freed from its skin, so is one freed from sin,and is led by the Sama Veda to the world of God, where one can see the Spirit that lives in the city of the human body and is above the highest life. What is the spirit with the sixteen parts? Here in the body is that spirit in whom they say arise the sixteen parts. It thought to itself, 'In whose departure shall I depart, and in whose staying shall I stay?' It created the life-breath, from the life-breath faith, space, air, light, water, earth, senses, mind, food; from food, virility, discipline, affirmations, actions, the world; and in the worlds, naming. As these flowing rivers move toward the ocean, and on reaching the ocean are lost, their name and form destroyed, and all are called merely ocean, so all the sixteen parts of the witness move towards Spirit, and reaching the Spirit are lost, their name and form destroyed, and all are called merely the Spirit. That one continues without parts, immortal.

It is thought that whenever we ask "Does God know ... ?", the answer should always be in affirmative. After all He is God. So, He has to know everything? But, what if we are asking if God knows something that does not exist? How can we answer in affirmative if we ask: Does God know the color of donkey's horns? A donkey does not have horns. So there is no meaning of the 'color of a donkey's horns'. Some may say, "A donkey has horns but we ordinary mortals do not see those. God can see those." May be it is true. But it is possible that there is something that we do not observe and which really does not exist. What if ask if God knows its properties? Not having the knowledge of something that does not exist is not contradictory to One's omniscience.

Do you people eat ladies finger?

They will say that they are not "worshipping" the idol,but merely paying reverence to what the "idol" represents" --- the memory of Lord Buddha. Agreed. But what I am trying to say is that even this much was not part of Buddhism initially.

They will say that they are not "worshipping" the idol,but merely paying reverence to what the "idol" represents" --- the memory of Lord Buddha. Agreed. But what I am trying to say is that even this much was not part of Buddhism initially.

In Bhagwatam, there is mention of Varuna asking Hariscandra to sacrifice the latter's son Rohita. Hariscandra gives many reasons to explain why his son was not yet fit for sacrifice and asks Varuna to wait some more. Finally some other person is chosen as a substitute for Rohita. Valmiki Ramayana also mentions this, but according to Ramayana the sacrifice does not really take place.

Thank you. One problem that I find with historians is that very often they become very biased specially if the topic involves the place where they belong. And, I did not think even once that you wanted me to read only Sri Prabhupada's books.

Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism – By Ananda K. Coomraswamy Of which publication is this?

Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism – By Ananda K. Coomraswamy Of which publication is this?

But there are also several verses in the gita and other scriptures which state that there are and will be many fake gods/holy men (especially in the kali yuga, our current yug) who claim to represent god but are in fact just mortal men. Now considering that the kali yuga has been going on for the last couple of thousand years, jesus christ/mohammed/etc are probably what krshna was talking about. According to the verses, many people who claim(ed) to be divine are/were fake. But it does not mean that all should be considered as fake. It is possible that some are genuine. So, why can't Jesus Christ be genuine?

Has anyone seen the temple of Brahma in Puskar?

Has anyone seen the temple of Brahma in Puskar?

It is possible that they had heard that Brahma is four faced. They liked the idea and made four faced Buddha. I find that the way Buddhism is practised at present is more similar to Hinduism than to original Buddhism. Idol worship was initially not a part of Buddhism but now many Buddhist temples with different kinds of idols are made and Buddhists worship there.

It is possible that they had heard that Brahma is four faced. They liked the idea and made four faced Buddha. I find that the way Buddhism is practised at present is more similar to Hinduism than to original Buddhism. Idol worship was initially not a part of Buddhism but now many Buddhist temples with different kinds of idols are made and Buddhists worship there.

S.B. and Valmiki Ramayana mention human sacrifice. I will check the verses and post here.

The Budhists might have usurped it by some cunning means. Cunning? Which of their means were cunning?

The Budhists might have usurped it by some cunning means. Cunning? Which of their means were cunning?

Don't stay any longer in Newton's age. Which post of mine shows that I am staying in Newton's age? A solid matter in macroscale consists of particles in irregular movement in microscale. I know. If future is thoroughly fixed, all prophercies are insignificant If future is thorougly fixed, then may be it is fixed that there would be prophecies. if it is thoroughly unknown, all prophets are cheats. Agreed. These are the explanations of "God is/isn't omniscient." Are you trying to say that God is knowledgeable about those things in future that are fixed but not about those that are not fixed?

We know that in the past many things happened because of which Hinduism could have been wiped out of India. Example: Invasion of Muslims who tried to convert many Hindus to Islam and who used to give benefit to Muslims over other religions (not all Muslim rulers did this but some defintely did so) New religions like Buddhism, Jainism. Colonialism during which benefits were given to those who converted to Christianity. But stll, Hinduism has survived. I agree that many rituals are not the same as they were in the past. But, still, there are many who believe in one or the other branches of Hinduism. What could be the reason for this survival? Any thoughts? (Note: I have used the word "Hinduism" to mean "Sanatan Dharma" as it is very commonly used).

Dear Karthik, As is clear from posts here, not all historians hold the same view on any topic. In fact, in some of the cases, the views are completely contradictory. What criteria do you use to decide who is right?

Hmmm, None of these is Indian.