Flying A Kite

Kite Flying Isn't As Easy As It Seems

One of my 20009 new year resolutions was to fly a kite. The last time I had flown a kite was maybe 20 years ago. It didn't fare to well at it then. I ran with the kite, it flew and gained altitude quickly but fell to the ground just as quickly when I stopped running. Not enough wind perhaps.

This time around, I was at a beach. With my more mature understanding of the science of upwind and downwind, this time I was sure to succeed at getting the kite up. I was with my friends and their family in the island of Pangkor off the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It was a holiday get together but I took the opportunity to have fun with teaching yoga to my enthusiastic young students, children of my friends. I wasn't planning on the fulfilling my kite flying commitment but Kala had bought a kite for her kids to try it out.

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The Hidden Worlds

All religions teach about places we go to after death. Scriptures describe the two main places we may enter as heaven and hell. Heaven is a beautiful and divine place and a place where only righteous people live together with angelic beings and God. All things good and enjoyable are experienced in Heaven. It is a blissful place free from suffering. Hell on the other hand is a dark place. A place of torment, pain and suffering. The company in hell consists of those who lived sinful lives on Earth. It is obviously a place to avoid. This is generally used as a motivation by many religions to persuade its followers to live by the tenants of their religion and to do good to earn their place in heaven. According to Hinduism sum of the quality of our actions on Earth determine whether we go to heaven or hell.

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Guided Meditation: Internal Worship

This guided meditation is based on Pusalar’s story. When parents or teachers teach children this meditation, the parent or the teacher should instruct the children on what to do mentally as they sit in meditation. This meditation can be done in the temple or in the home shrine after ceremonial prayers. If you are doing this meditation in a children’s class, then it would be good to start with devotional hymns or songs to get everyone into a sublime mood.

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Questions on Hindu Philosophy

• 9 Common Questions on Hinduism
• 5 Unique Questions on Hinduism
• Apostasy in Hinduism?
• Questions About God
• Questions About The Vedas
• Questions About Hindu History

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Welcome to Hindu New Year 5111 Virodhin

Between Mid March and Mid April, different ethnic communities celebrate their New Years. For instance on March 29th the ethnics of Karnataka, Andhra Pradhesh, Sindhi and Maharashtra celebrate their New Years. The Telugu and Kannada people call it Ugadhi, whille Marathis call it Gudi Padwa. On April 13th or April 14th, the Tamils celebrate Puthandu, Malayalees, Vishu, Punjabis Vaishaki and Bengalis Bohaag Bihu. These vary new year days however share a common origin, which is Astrological.

In the Hindu Astrological system, Jyothisha, April 13/14 in the Gregorian (Western) calendar is the day when the Sun will have come full circle around the 12 zodiacs and restart the cycle in the traditional zodiac number one, that is Mesha, or Aries.

The differing dates among the different Indian Hindu communities reflect legends or important historical events of the community, such as the day God began His cycle of creation or the coronation day of an influential King of the community.

As with all new years, the Hindu New Year is a time of review and renewal. Traditionally households will spring clean their homes, wear new clothes and attend the temple at the crack of dawn for special prayers.

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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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