Way of Life

ash… a.k.a.Vibuthi…

2007-10-19T12:16:00.000-07:00

For someone who doesnt know what Vibuthi is...

Vibhuti is the holy ash obtained from sacred Puja rites involving fire. Ash as the product of fire is considered intrinsically pure. It is used on the forehead, normally as three horizontal lines representing Shiva.
Some Hindus meld both the three horizontal Vibhuti lines of Shiva and the 'U' shape Thilaka of Vishnu in an amalgam marker signifying Hari-Hara (Vishnu-Shiva).

This is Navarathri season. When I went with Vibhuti on my forehead, one of my colleague mentioned me, “in US we call Indians dot-face” because of this. He also asked me, “Why do you keep this dot on your forehead?” I just told him “Nothing is permanent and this symbolizes that.”

The reason for the Vibhuti on fore head is to remind you that “one day your body will turn to ash. And that remembrance will rid of all the evil thoughts”.

The reason for Hinduism to constantly remind that the body is not permanent is not to scare, but to indicate that no one is spared from death and that realization will help the mind to direct the body and soul to live an honest and truthful life.

“Sacred ash signifies that the body's origin is from dust and ash and to dust and ash it shall return. The ash is a marker of impermanence. Everything in the interim is but an illusion (maya).”

“vittu vitu pogudhu uyir; vittavudan udalai suttu vida pogindranar;” – Patinathar
Translates to “The soul departs the body, and the moment it departs, our relatives burn the body and even our relatives depart from our place”.

A common man gets enlightened on this at some point of time in his life. The body is God’s gift for the soul which is temporary. The signs of ageing are mere indications that the time for the soul to depart is nearing and the body is becoming useless. That’s why many Tamil poets often refer to the body as the wick “yaakai thiri”.

This realization enables a human being to lead honest, positive, kind and affectionate life. This also helps humans disregard any difficulty in personal or professional life.

A person who does not realize this fact runs behind immaterial things in life. For instance some people earn plenty of money and depart from this world, even before making full use of the money they earned.

This is one of the main intentions of Hindu Scholars is making a man realize the power of his death even before it actually occurs.

One may inquire in way what considering this body or its beauty useless is beneficial. Any extraordinary passion towards it is eliminated. Allows a person to be satisfied with what he has and lead a peaceful life.

That is also the reason why Hindus burn the body after a person is dead. This is to indicate that the purpose of the body is achieved and turning it into ashes is the best thing to do. If we bury it, then the body is present in this world with out life. This creates an illusion that the person is still there.

Also, when we bury a person, the place becomes the body’s property. But a body turned into ash, does not own anything and it is dissolved in water. A person should be able to judge himself and correct if he is wrong is what Hindu Scholars insisted by considering the body as useless.

energy...

2007-09-28T15:22:00.000-07:00

If you have come directly to this page, read the post Form of Energy further know what I am talking about in "energy..."

God. You don't know where he is or how he is. One reason why I am able to possibly argue for the reason why Hinduism is about idol worship is energy.

The one single reason why energy is not appreciated is because, energy is not seen and known how it is. Like how energy is not appreciated as it's outcome is, is possibly the reason why we have idols of Ganesha, Muruga, Shiva, Krishna, Vishnu, Brahma and so on... so that the actual energy has a form which could be appreciated, thought about, explained and believed.

So, if God does not have a form, how are we going to appreciate the concept of God? So, when Hinduism evolved approximately 5000 years back [The oldest veda is Rigveda which is 1700 BCE], the scholars at that time, probably judged that any concept of energy without a form, may not be appreciated and created the form of God.

One more probable reason we have many forms of God [Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Krishna, Ganesha, Hanuman, Rama] is may be because we don't find all the qualities in one person completely. Like energy, heat is only from the substance which is associated with Fire or Mechanical energy is only from moving objects, we have a God who preserves, a God who creates, a God who destroys,a God who teaches how to be loyal, a God who teaches us to be respectful to parents at all times, a God who is loyal to his wife and so on.

Since we do not have only one energy in this world, Hinduism does not insist on one form of God. It created so many forms of God with lot of stories around God just to explain to Human Beings the.... way of life!

Thirupattur

2007-02-02T04:23:00.000-08:00

Thirupattur is a small village in the
Indian State of
Tamil Nadu. Thirupattur is located 27 Kms from
Trichy or
Thiruchirapalli on the Trichy - Chennai highway [NH-45]. NH-45 is also known as the
Grand Southern Trunk Road [GST].

Though the history of this village is not known much to the world outside, this small village boasts a history of more than a 1000 years.

From the history of this temple we understand that between the God's there was some powerplay. Every temple in India which was there and which is there has a great history behind the very formation of this temple. Each temple is carrying a message. A message to every society, a message which forms a base for human life.

Like every other temple, Thirupattur carries its own moral to human life.

Lord Brahma is the creator of human life in this world. He is one of the Trimurthi. The other two are Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. According to the "Purana's" Lord Brahma was born without a mother from the flower Lotus. Lord Brahma is not widely worshipped in the Hindu Community. There are only few Brahma temples in the country. However, there are no separate temples for Lord Brahma. There are reasons for the lack of Brahma worship.

The Great Cycle of Brahma controls the birth, life, and death of the universe. 4,320,000,000 years is the length of a Brahma day. A Brahma night is the same length, making the whole day/night cycle 8,640,000,000 years long. 360 day/night cycles make "One Year of Brahma" (3,110,400,000,000 years) . After 100 Brahma years (311,040,000,000,000 years) the cycle of creation is over, Lord Shiva uses his destructive influence and the universe is dissolved.

Lord Shiva is considered to be the most powerful among the Thirumurthi. Lord Brahma had a feeling that "I am creating life in this world and I have five heads like Lord Shiva, why should I pray to Lord Shiva ?" These thoughts never came across Lord Vishnu who is a gentle preserver of everything created, while Lord Shiva who is the destructor. When Lord Shiva learnt the arrogance of Lord Brahma, he became furious. In anger Lord Shiva cut off one of Lord Brahma's head.

Lord Shiva cursed Lord Brahma and defied him of his post and sent him to earth. When Lord Brahma lost all his power, the whole evolution of life stopped. Lord Brahma then realizes his mistake and prays to Lord Shiva.

After 9 years of prayers Lord Shiva finally appears in front of Lord Brahma and lifts his curse. Lord Shiva also says "Brahma, you are the creator of life, you are the creator of everything, you create everything's fate. But, your fate changed here. So, anyone who comes here to pray you will be able to change their fate. Since you had felt for your mistake this place would be named "Thiru-Pattur" ["Thiru" - Respectful "Pattur" - Equivalent to Felt].

What does such incidents in the Hindu System convey to the society? What does this particular incident convey to our society? In simple words, "there is always someone above you".

Arrogance is an attitude that no one should have. Be it God. What can we interpret from the words "there is always someone above you"? There is so much of hidden meanings and truth in that phrase. These hidden truths are visible in our day to day activities, but our mind does not allow us to realize it. We are in our own world and think that we are capable of doing things ourselves. But, the plain fact is that it is not possible for us to exist in this society with out others. It is just that this is not visible to our naked eye.

Arrogance can turn away people from you, will make people shut their doors on your face. The very people you need.

From this temple's history what I learnt is that I am not superior to anyone. However, I am not inferior.

Click here for more photos

The Way of Life

2007-02-02T04:16:00.000-08:00

There comes a time when you start adding up the positives and negatives of your life. While I think there are many negatives in my life, it persuaded me to write positive things.

What are these positive things in my life? I consider the things which I got without me choosing them. Or, I would say, the things which I dont have the right or capacity to choose. What are those things? Nation, Religion, Parents,Spouse,Children are some of them.

In my pursuit towards these positive things, I am starting to write about them in these pages. To start with, Hinduism.