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Welcome to My Hindu Page's Community Homepage

The Community Pages of My Hindu Page is a web portal for individuals to air their views and for Hindu organizations to publish or announce their activities. It is hoped this site will also be a place for Hindus to network and work together across borders. This is My Hindu Page's community service project. If you have views on Hinduism that you are passionate about and would like to share with others; if you lead an Hindu organization or are part of one and would like to publish the organization's activities online; if you would like to highlight a temple within your community; if you would like to share testimonies of divine miracles that have happened in your life, you can do it here in My Hindu Page's Community Pages. Below is a list of categories that is currently open for postings (Page is still under construction, the links are not active yet). Each category will be organized differently. Some for instance, will be organized according to countries, such as temples, others according to content topics. The simple rules for postings are described within each of the categories below. This is however, not an open posting site. All postings are vetted by the webmaster and then posted in the site. If you would like to send articles or items for posting in the Community Pages you may send it to submissions@myhindupage.org. Please read the copyright paragraph at the end of each page for instructions on downloading and usage of the material cotained in this section of the site. (Note: If you are sending attachments with your email please use your email client and send it to submissions@myhindupage.org, the online email form on this site does not support attachements).  

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Kanappan’s Story

Kanappan literally means, “father of the eye.” This is not Kanappan’s original name. The name his parents gave him was Thinnan. He got the name Kanappan in referance to his saintly act of devotion for which he is recognized as a nayanar.

Kanappan’s story starts with his parents. His parents were Nagan his father and Thaththai his mother. They were forest dwellers, adivasis who made their living collecting meat and plant products from the forest. Their community lived in the forest surrounding the famed Thirupathi Venkatesvara temple. This community was feared by the villagers surrounding the forests. The tribesmen occasionally stole livestock from the villagers, and any villager caught wandering in the forests would be robbed. They were also famed archers. Occasionally kings would send messengers to the tribe to recruit young men as archers for their army. Nagan was the leader of this community and he was their most accomplished archer. Nagan though famous for his archery and courage was hardly known as a pious man. However after years of being childless, he and his wife began to pray fervently to Lord Murugan for an heir. Their prayers was answered and Thathai gave birth to a son whom they named Thinnan.

When Thinnan was born, it was said, his father could not carry him because he was too heavy by virtue of some spiritual force. Thinnan grew up to be a strong young man admired by his community. He had mastered the art of archery even at a young age and became the fastest runner in his village. As Nagan was getting older, he decided that it was time for Thinnan to be the leader of the community. As a leader, one of the duties of Thinnan was to lead the annual hunting party. According to the custom of the adivasis, once a year the hunters of the adivasi communities from different parts of the forest will gather at Nagan’s village and go on a massive hunt to fill their stores with animal products. Before they go for the hunt they will pray together the night before to the nature deities for permission for the hunt and their safety. It was on such an occasion that Nagan announced to all the hunters that Thinnan is their new leader and he would lead the hunt.

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The Swami and His Samadhi

Swami Sivananda Sarasvati was a guru who lived near the famed city of Jaipur around the 1600s. He was widely known in Jaipur as he was acknowledged to be enlightened and was well known for his simplicity in teaching religion. Swami Sivananda Sarasvati was an ardent devotee of Lord Sri Krishna. Even during his quiet moments he could be heard whispering, "Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare ; Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare.”

Swami Sivananda Sarasvati kept a strict daily schedule of meeting his congregation. He would usually give a sermon first and then lead his congreagation in devotional singing in praise of Lord Sri Krishna. After that each devotee would come up to him and he would whisper in their ears, “Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare ; Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare” and then apply tilak on their forehead. He would also answer any personal questions the devotee might have then. 

After giving time to his devotees for nine days Swami Sivananda Sarasvati will take a two day break. During his break he meets no devotees. Most of the devotees think that Swami Sivananda is resting on these days. However Swami’s closest devotees know that on these days the Swami intensifies his spiritual disciplines and enters samadhi.

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The Divine Play

The following story comes from the Saivite collection of stories called the Tiruvilaiyadal. Tiruvilaiyadal means divine play or divine games. The Tiruvilaiyadal consists of 64 stories of Lord Shiva’s appearance in the sacred and ancient city of Madurai in Tamilnadu, South India. This particular story is part of the life history of Saint Manickavasagar, who is a nayanar. Like Pusalar’s story this story also involves a saint, a king and God Shiva.

Madurai in its ancient days was the capital of the Pandiyan Kingdom. It was a famed city for its richness in religious culture, Tamil academia, agriculture and commerce. Madurai is also home to one of the biggest temple complexes in India, the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple, which is dedicated to God Shiva and His consort Meenakshi.

Before Manickavasagar nayanar turned his life’s quest to religion and became a saint, he was the Prime Minister (his name was Thiruvadhaoorar then) to the Pandiyan King of Madurai. The King was very fond of Thiruvadhaoorar and was secure in the trust he had for Thiruvadhaoorar. 

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Pusalar's Story

Pusalar lived about a thousand years ago in Tamilnadu, South India. He was one of 63 Tamil Saivite saints. These 63 saints are affectionately called nayanars. Each of the nayanars earned their sainthood by leading an examplary life of devotion to God. The story of Pusalar nayanar’s life is an inspiring one that teaches some of the essential truths and practices of Hinduism.

Pusalar was a simple and humble man. He was a priest who attended to a small shrine in his village–Thirunindraoor. He also worked in paddy fields for a simple wage of food and lodging, that was a simple hut by the paddy fields. He lived alone. He spent the day working in the fields until the sun became too hot to work under. After that he would spend his time singing devotional hyms to God and in meditation under his favourite illupai tree by the padi fields. People rarely visited him. He would usually be in his hut by himself except for the occasional trip to the village township to buy some supplies.

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Hindu Stories Content

In Hinduism we have a huge treasure chest when it comes to myths, legends, biographies and parables. Take for instance the Mahabharata, which is recognized as the world's longest epic. Within the Mahabharata alone you can find hundred's of stories that relate to everything from moral conduct, warrior ethics to examples of true devotion, sacrifice and life's important values. In the middle of this mighty epic there is the Hindu Scripture the Bhagavad Gita. Then there are the legends of God that are enshrined in the Puranas of each sect, like the Shiva Puranas or the Vishnu Puranas. The biographies of Hindu saints and gurus, ancient and contemporary, are also sources of inspiring stories that amplifiy truths enshrined in Hindu beliefs and provide life examples of Hindu virtuous conduct. Hindu parables that come from the Pancha Tantra is among the favourite litearature of Hindu children, was written over 2,000 years ago. The stories in this section will come from these sources and more.

Stories are great vehicle for teaching Hinduism without preaching. But for the teaching to be effective we must learn to draw whatever lessons we can from the stories. Thus each story  in the growing list below is proceeded with an article on the lessons that can be drawn from each story. These stories are written so that parents or teachers can tell or read them to children. Some of these stories are also referenced in some of the lessons in the other topics. So you will find links to the stories appearing in different lessons because they provide amplification of the beliefs or examples of conduct disscussed in those lessons.

There is no particular organization for this list of stories at the moment. But as the list of stories grows, they will be organized in some form. For now you can go through the short summary below the title of the stories to choose stories you would like to read.

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God (Part 3 of 3)

 

2.8 God: Part Three

The Final Conclusions: Introduction

God’s presence is tangible. As a person to relate to, or as the divine powers of love and pure energy that sustains our existence, God is an experiential reality for some and one that can be for everyone. It is the goal of the Hindu religion to take its devotees beyond intellectual faith in God to a faith in God based on personal experience. 

To this end, Hinduism is replete with practices, such as different styles of personal worship and meditations that a devotee can learn and practice. However Hinduism does not force upon its followers that they must realize God or even have the desire to know God in this very lifetime. Hindu teachings reveal that the spiritual evolution of the soul occurs over many lifetimes, and that the desire for the experience of God is a desire that develops from the very core of our soul as part of a natural process. So if you are Hindu and have no desire whatsoever to know God, don't worry, it doesn’t mean that you are not a good Hindu or anything like that. If, for now, all Hinduism is to you is a means of providing you with a structure for an ethical or cultured life then so be it; because one day, perhaps in another lifetime, you will suddenly begin to yearn to see God or want to feel His or Her presence as if your life depended on it. In the meantime we can at least prepare ourselves by gaining more knowledge about the path leading to God and nurture faith in God.

The path to ‘knowing God,’ begins with clearing misconceptions we may have about God. The previous two lessons of this series examined how it is that in Hinduism, though there are many forms of God, we believe in one Supreme Godhead. The lessons explored The Three Aspects of God. These three Aspects explain the variety of experiences we may have of God and how having these experiences relate to the salvation of our soul. Part three, contains the concluding part of our exploration of God’s nature. 

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