Starving for Peace

Fasting for Peace

Fasting, as a spiritual practice is common among Hindus. Many Hindus fast weekly or as an observance during certain festivals. It is also a common practice to forsake meals as non-confrontational or non-violent protest against injustice or cruelty. Mahatma Gandhi for instance fasted numerous times during his campaign for an independent India, though not to protest the British government, but instead as atonement whenever his followers became violent in their campaigns. A couple of times he fasted almost to the brink of death, and only ended his fasts when his followers renounced violence.

Early this year a group of eight Tamil youth in America, touched by the tragedy befalling innocent civilians in Sri Lanka, decided that they had to do something. They called themselves, People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) and came up with a campaign to fast 10,000 meals collectively as act of solidarity for all those suffering in the Sri Lankan conflict.

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Q & A: What is Deja Vu, and Why Does it Occur

Shyamini Questions:

Situation: You go trough life each day as it is.. somehow, sometimes during conversations had, you feel like you've already heard about a certain piece of news or information or story before this that's just been revealed when in truth, nobody has breathed a single word about it to you before this... not even the media! When you tell the others around you that you've heard about it before this or that the particular info is on the stale side, they give you a weird look and try to overlook this matter. This situation has occurred numerous times in my life. Sometimes i feel weird all around. Sometimes... just plain freaked out. In other words, its like we are having a conversation about a certain topic (that isn't necessarily covered by the media of course!) when suddenly, i feel like i've heard this particular conversation before. Word by word you feel like you're replaying the conversation for real...

Question: What does the above situation signify?
: How does 1 know if he/she is a reborn soul?
: How do you interpret dreams?

After my initial response, Shyamini replied asking for clarification on some of my answers. Her further questions are below. My posted response below will cover all the questions.

Shyamini Queries further:

Moving on to the questions I asked earlier. For the 1st one, u said it was dejavu and that 'we are able to see our near future based on karmas currently sprouting and prepare mentally for them'.
My question(s) this time is:
- How are we able to do so?
- What role does the karma play in this?

As for the third question i posted earlier, you wrote that 'Spiritual advice is that you don't linger on dreams and instead concern yourself with normal life'.
My next question is this:
-How can you just concern yourself with normal life, when you know some of these dreams replays itself from time to time?
- What if these 'dreams' involve real life people you know?

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My Hindu Colouring Book

Hindu Children's Corner Content

My Hindu Colouring Book

My Hindu Colouring Book contains 47 panes of pictures for colouring covering Hindu subjects:

• Hindu God's, Mahadevas and Symbols

• Saint Auvaiyar's Aathi Soodhi Advice

• Puja Items

• Worship At Home

• Hindu Culture

• Musical Instruments

• Hindu Temple and

• Hindu Saints

The 47 panes are presented in 10 printable A4 sized pdf documents. Click here or on the title to go to My Hindu Colouring Book's download page.

Apostasy in Hinduism?

Recently a student from a college approached MyHinduPage to present the Hindu view of apostasy. It will be part of a research paper which deals with the interpretation of apostasy in different religions. Below are the questions and my reply to them.

1) Who/ What do you consider an apostate?

The concept of apostasy is not existent in Hinduism. I must note that Hinduism is not a religion. It is actually a family of different persuasions or sects that share similarities in belief and origin that have been grouped under the umbrella called Hinduism.

However, even among the sects of Hinduism there is no such thing as apostasy. A Hindu may change his or her sectarian views as one wishes, and formally enter one sect or another without need for excommunication or a declaration of apostasy.

The reason there is no such thing as apostasy in Hinduism is because of the belief that there is One Supreme God who is the God of all religions. Despite what people of other religions think, Hindus belief that we are all praying to the same God, Who appears in different forms. Therefore, even if one gives up Hindu practices and enters another religion, say Christianity, it does not mean that that person is 'leaving' God. He is still considered faithful to God, but simply worshipping and believing in God in a way more intune with his or her nature.

If there is anything remotely close to apostasy in Hinduism, it would be the recognition of atheism. Hinduism acknowledges atheistic beliefs as part of the spiritual evolution of the soul. Because of this, Hinduism recognizes atheism as a path of life. Yet a person may still continue following all the practices of Hinduism, even temple worship from a strictly cultural point of view, but maintain an atheistic point of view. However even in such a grey scenario of apostasy, excommunication is not necessary.

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Questions on The Colour Meditation

The colour meditation is a meditation technique that is explained in the Meditation Video Tutorial playlist No. 9. Recently I received an email from a MyHinduPage reader, Mr. Mandar, who has been practicing the colour meditation, with some questions and description of his experiences. I am including excerpts of his email, with his permission, and my response to him as I believe it will be helpful, especially the description of his experiences, for others who are practicing this meditation technique. 

Click Here to Read the Q & A on the Colour Meditation.

Moksha – An Arcade Style Hindu Based Game

Last month, I received an email with a request to review a game called Moksha. Initially when I saw the email I thought the game was probably one that was (as is mostly the case) some kind of game that was named moksha simply for the sake of novelty. There are many games out there that have Hindu philosophical words such as avatar, karma or maya, but have really nothing to do with the actual concept of these words except perhaps for some really far fetched connection to the concept. However, with Moksha - The Game I was pleasantly surprised, because the game actually teaches the concept of moksha.

The game is not sophisticated graphically, compared to what you can find out there in this multi billion dollar industry. The controls are rudimentary, the basic move right and left, move up and down and shoot to destroy obstacles. It is after all an arcade style game. The main character of the game is you, the player. Your main goal is to become free of the cycle of reincarnation on earth (the meaning of moksha) and reunite with God, which occurs after you have gone through all of the game levels and successfully answered the quizzes on Hindu teachings at the end of each level. Before you attempt the quizzes the teachings are presented after end of each level.

Click here to read the  rest of this review and for more information on Moksha - The Game.

Question on Widowhood in Hinduism

The Position of Widows in Hinduism

Recently, I received a question from a concerned Mr. Bala regarding the position of widows in Hinduism. Unfortunately, there are a lot of negative misconceptions on this issue which leads to needless pain and misplaced disdain in the society. Below are excerpts from his email and my response.

Bala wrote:

"Radhe Krishna,

Namaskaram Swami,

I would like to know why widows are not allowed to do any pujas or activities in the temple. For example: Doing aarathi, they say only sumangali (explained in my response) only can do it…"

"Recently I went to the temple for some special puja, after all the puja finished the gurukkal (priest) asked for three sumangalis to perform aarati, then came three ladies to perform the aarati, of which one of them is a widow. Immediately one of the ladies told her that she cannot do the aarati because she is a widow, later arguements broke out.

I was very upset about the incident, more over it happened in a temple. The worst thing is that the widow cursed the other lady saying that she will also be a widow one day."

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Atma - Our Soul

Atma - Our Soul

Religion seems to have all the answers doesn't it. All the mysteries of life can be answered by religion. For instance to the question 'Who am I?' The answer is the most unobvious. It's not our body nor who we think we are or whom we call ourselves. Instead it is this indestructible, intangible part of ourselves that is the soul. This soul was created by God, religion's doctrines state, and it is unaffected by death, disease or destruction. It is ever pure.

If not for the fact that all these qualities of the soul can be experienced, one could conclude that this is an escapist theory, trying to distract us from the realities (especially the harsh realities) of life.

Yes! We can experience our soul. From personal experience I can tell you that when I experienced my soul for the first time, it created a paradigm shift in the way I perceived my life. I felt complete and an unfading feeling of fulfillment started to take hold within me. I felt an affinity with the my guru and all those sages and rishis who spoke so loftily about the realities of life. Finally, I understood, and I could share the same sense of profoundness about life. It is an amazing experience to touch into the atma.

The atma is that part of us that is immortal, the Life of our lives as my guru used to say. The atma has a discernable form like our other bodies though it is made of spiritual elements. It is the deepest of five bodies or sheaths of existence within us. Click here to continue reading the Hindu Philosophy Lesson on Atma - Our Soul.