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The Four Pillars of Health

What can we do to stay healthy? Nothing much frankly, except for an easy adherence to a few simple rules. These rules relate to the four pillars of health namely, food, sleep, exercise and emotional wellness.

आहार-निद्रा-व्यायाम-ब्रह्मचर्यै: सुयोजितै:।
शरीरं धार्यते नित्यमागारमिव धारणै:।।
(राघवन् तिरुमुत्पाट्)

The Tradition of Kshaatra in India – The Skill of Kshaatra Karma

In the Vedas, alternative words for kshatriya are ‘गोप,’ ‘पशुप,’ ‘शर्धा,’ ‘व्रात,’ etc. The word ‘गो’ has ten meanings of which one of them is ‘earth.’ Other meanings include ‘wealth,’ ‘knowledge,’ etc. It also has the meaning of one who nurtures all these. In several places, Indra has been called ‘गोपति.’ The word ‘गोप्ता’ comes from the root word ‘गुप्.’ When words like ‘गोप’ and ‘गोप्ता’ are used in the sense of nourishers and kshatriyas, it emphasizes the philosophy of nurturing dharma.

Bhagavad-Gita in the Life of Krishna: The Statesman

Krishna had the qualities of a good statesman – be it eloquence, integrity, intelligence, wit, or the ability to take quick decisions. One can imagine he was a soft-spoken person. He spoke words that were at once pleasant and honest (see BG 17.15). While his words were practical, they were never devious. He never forgot a promise, he never broke a promise. And yet, for the sake of dharma, he was willing to abandon a hundred promises. Krishna had dharma drishti (vision of overall goodness) and the Gita is full of that.

From Battlefield to Theater

For the primitive man, who led his life like an animal, hunting was the primary means of livelihood. The current article examines the process by which a rustic activity such as hunting helped in the evolution of sophisticated theatrical art forms. We will need to closely examine the relation between reality and the ideality, livelihood and life, the worldly and the sublime while dealing with this subject. When we question ourselves thus, we might be pleasantly surprised with the discoveries we make.

Gayatri Mantra Explained

Which is the oldest religion in the world? Nobody knows. Ask the foremost historian or the greatest saint but they will not have an answer. We know so little about the earliest humans who inhabited our planet. But we can take an educated guess about the first god. Keep aside for a moment the view that god created the universe and just consider how humans visualize god. Most probably, the first god that humans recognized and worshiped was the sun.

The Tradition of Kshaatra in India – Awareness of Kshaatra in the Lineage of Seers

In our tradition, of the lineage of seers, the family that stands out is the Bhrguvamsha (or the Bhargavavamsha). Bhargava was one of the leaders of our country’s rise in material prosperity; he even tried to reach out to other-worldly wealth. Chyavana, one of the founders of Ayurveda; the seer-poet-artiste Shukracharya, who was a master of the Arthashastra and skilled in martial science; the seer Dadhichi who sacrificed his own body for the sake of universal welfare; and other greats were all descendants of the Bhrguvamsha.

Bhagavad-Gita in the Life of Krishna: Society

The agnishomiya vyuha – the Agni-Soma formation – is the cosmic structure, the eternal arrangement. It is the eternal establishment that binds the consumer and the consumed. This concept has been discussed in the Upanishads and the Yogavasishtha. Krishna speaks about this in the Gita when he identifies himself with the sun, the moon, fire, energy, sap, thought, etc. (BG 15.12-15).

ಪರಮಾರ್ಥಚಿಂತಾಮಣಿಯ ಪರಮಋಷಿ: ಶ್ರೀ ಸಚ್ಚಿದಾನಂದೇಂದ್ರಸರಸ್ವತಿ ಸ್ವಾಮಿಗಳು

A profile sketch in Kannada of Sri Sacchidanandendra Saraswati, a foremost proponent and sage of Advaita Vedanta.

A Story for a Verse - Sriharsha

साहित्ये सुकुमारवस्तुनि दृढन्यायग्रहग्रन्थिले
तर्के वा मयि संविधातरि समं लीलायते भारती ।
शय्या वास्तु मृदूत्तरच्छदवती दर्भाङ्कुरैरास्तृता
भूमिर्वा हृदयङ्गमो यदि पतिस्तुल्या रतिर्योषिताम् ॥