Big Raju

namaste & sat sri akal 2 all. B4 I start, let me jst clarify that i am a Hindu. saying (as Vijaydeep Singh has) that Hindus had no other shaheeds is ridiculous. it is an underhand attempt to try and portray Hindus as weak & cowardly, and to create contempt. just to make an example of when many Hindus (who were mostly not trained soldiers) perished fighting explicitely for the defence of their religion was in the last minute defence of Somnath when 50,000 or so people, mostly laymen from neighbouring areas attempted to defend the temple, and after a few day fight were killed to the last man. another example is the Ramanandin sect (a relatively early and influential sampraday of the Bhakti movement). They created bands of armed yogis to protect the temples that they set up (which were of course at that time often under risk of attack), and on many occasions they fought and were slain. there are also scattered references in medieval chronicles of many lesser known Hindus who were arrested on some charge or another, and were offered to be let off if they converted to Islam, refused and were killed. the fact is that all people of all cultures are capable of valour, and Hindus have had their valourous moments in our history. Hindus haven't recorded them in one document, because we are a relatively ahistorical people (not too bothered about secular history writing - and are now slowly trying to rectify this). of course moving out of the medieval era and into the era of the freedom struggle against the British, there were many Hindu shaheeds, some of whom died with the Gita in their hands. Check out the following link of a list of the names and dates of freedom fighters killed in British custody, and you'll see a lot of them were Hindu. http://p205.ezboard.com/fhinduchatzonefrm8...opicID=34.topic

Isha Upanishad The following is a translation of the Isha Upanishad, in its entirety. It is the shortest of the principle Upanishads, yet is of great beauty and immense meaning. The Upanishads are perhaps the most important Hindu scriptures. They are called Vedanta, meaning “the end/essence of the Vedasâ€. They are the portion of the Vedas that deal with the highest realities of God, soul the world and existence. Even though this Upanishad is very short, it has amazing death, and a commentary on it could extend beyond a hundred pages. Doing only sacrificial action here one may wish to live a hundred years. Only thus it is and not otherwise that karma does not cling to a man. Sunless are those worlds, enveloped in blinding darkness, where they go upon departing who are slayers of their own Self. One only, unmoving, swifter than the mind, the senses cannot reach him who moves front. Standing still he speeds beyond all things that run. In him the Lord of life sustains the waters of creation. That moves; that moves not. That is far; that is near. That is within all beings and That is outside all beings. He who sees all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings, henceforth has no more distress. In whom the Self has become all beings, where can there be any delusion, any sorrow, for that man of discernment who sees only the Oneness? All the universe exists as an expansion for the Spirit, whatsoever changing thing there is in this changing world. Experiencing life through that renunciation do not desire what any man has. He is all-encompassing, luminous, bodiless, without organs, beyond disease, pure and untouched by evil. The Seer, the guide of the mind, all-pervading, self-existent, he ordained all objects according to their nature from eternal equanimity. Into blinding darkness enter those who worship ignorance. Into even greater darkness, as it were, fall those who are attached to knowledge. Ignorance is of one movement, they declare, and knowledge of the other. Thus have we heard from the wise who related to truth to us. The knowledge and the ignorance, who knows them both together, crossing over death through the ignorance, attains immortality through the knowledge. Into blinding darkness enter those who worship destruction. Into even greater darkness, as it were, fall those who are attached to creation. Destruction is of one movement, they declare, and creation of the other. Thus have we heard from the wise who related the truth to us. Creation and destruction, who knows them both together, crossing over death through destruction, attains immortality through creation. The face of truth is covered by a golden vessel. Remove that, oh Sun who nourishes all, that we may perceive our real nature. Sun, our Father, solitary seer, death, who control the power of creation, disperse your rays and gather up your heat that I may see your most beneficent form. The Being in the Sun, He am I! Let my life enter the immortal life and the body end in ashes. Om, Intelligence remember, remember your labor; Intelligence remember, remember your labor. Fire, lead us by the perfect path to reality, God who knows all the ways of wisdom. Remove from us the wandering evil. The most full utterance of surrender may we offer unto you. Translation by David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastri)

Why is Kali Dancing on Shiva? Navratri is a festival dedicated to the Goddess – the feminine personification of the divine. Various forms of Goddess can be seen at the shrines in the centre of Navratri celebrations, such as Durga, Sarasvati and Kali. The image of Kali is seen at virtually all Navratri celebrations and is one of the best known, but poorly understood forms of the Goddess. She is dark destructive and terrible in image. She is allied to the forces of death and destruction. The most common image of Kali shows her dancing on Shiva. This article aims to give an insight into Hinduism’s use of such mystic imagery. Shiva and Shakti Within each of the major sects within Hinduism, the divine is not considered solely as masculine or feminine, which is a unique feature compared with other religions of today. The divine is not referred to only as 'He'. In the Shaivite tradition, the supreme divine reality is represented as Shiva-Shakti. Shiva is the masculine force, the power of peace, while Shakti translates to power, and is considered as the feminine force. In the Vaishnava tradition, these realities are portrayed as Vishnu and Laxmi, or Radha and Krishna. These are differences in formulation rather than a fundamental difference in the principles. To render Shakti as power may cause some misconceptions. Shakti is the power of Shiva. It is not a power born of aggression or domination, but a power born from the strength of the silent consciousness, the energy which comes forth from the void, the life and creation that stems forth from the still eternal consciousness. Shakti is not a power which is asserted against something, but a power which enlivens everything from within. Shiva is the still consciousness, the spirit which pervades everything, who accomplishes everything through Shakti alone. Both Shiva and Shakti have various forms. Shiva has forms like Yogi Raj (the common image of Himself meditating in the Himalayas), Rudra (a wrathful form) and Nataraj (performing the dance of destruction). About Kali The Sanskrit word Kali literally means time. Kali is the feminine word for time, for which the masculine is kala. Time as we are forced to understand it, is the foremost power that we experience. Kali is the personification of time. It is not surprising that the deity of time has a terrifying image. After all, time is the slayer of all. Time is the very stuff that our lives are made of. To waste time is to waste life. The reason as to why time is represented in a feminine form is that time is the great womb – the great mother – from which we are all created – therefore it has a feminine quality. Time is also the force which causes all living beings to perish. Therefore Kali is like the mother who destroys the children which she has created – which is one of her frightful features. Yet, through the action of time, Her action, occurs our salvation. Through time, over repeated births, we experience all that we have to and learn all that we must learn in order to merge back into our eternal existence, from which we fell into limited time and space. Why is She dancing on Shiva? That’s the million dollar question – I don’t know! Just kidding. Shiva, in the Shaivite tradition, is the all pervading eternal primeval consciousness of the universe and beyond, who is beyond motivation. Hence, He is commonly shown as meditating in tranquil. His action and motivation occur only prior to the final destruction and dissolution of this cycle of creation. Hence, when Shiva dances, it is considered to be the terrible awesome dance of destruction. It is on the passive, ultimate reality of Shiva, that Kali (time) does her dance, causing the constant cycles of creation, life and death of all things in the universe. Shiva is the substratum upon which Kali acts. Hence, in this part of the Hindu spiritual traditions, the entire divine action and existence is represented by the dance of Kali (time) upon the changeless all pervading consciousness, Shiva. Does Kali actually have a separate consciousness or is she just a representation of time as an unthinking scientific principle? Hinduism personifies what to us are abstract spiritual truths as Gods and Goddesses. Spiritual ideas are clothed in concrete imagery, and approached as living beings. This does not reflect a lack of reasoned thinking, or attachment to form, but rather an experiential contact with the higher truths, as living forces. Hinduism creates a personal relationship between ourselves and the forces of the cosmos, and eventually leads us to realise that these forces are within us rather than separate. All forces of the universe are pervaded by consciousness, hence the reason as to why they are approached as living beings is because in reality, they are. The purpose of vivid imagery is that whilst meditating upon the image, our mind is shocked into thinking into the depths of the concept we are trying to understand and know, beyond our usual conditioned ideas. In that way we can really experience the truth of time as an awesome conscious force and understand how our existence relates to it. Kali is a particularly important deity, because by understanding Her we stop identifying ourselves as only our body - we come to terms with the utter impermanence of our body and begin to perceive the true existence of ours which lies beyond - which most people believe but wish to experience directly. Hence she is said to kill the ego - the attachment to pettiness, which is represented in Her image by the severed head she hold in Her hand. A Mantra for Kali One important Mantra for Kali is: om aim hrim klim camundayai vicche svaha! Each syllable of this mantra conveys a distinct vibrational energy, and whoever chants this mantra, after a short while will feel that they are tapping in to a deep spiritual energy. Om is the sound corresponding to the absolute reality in its entirety. Aim is the syllable of knowledge (Sarasvati). Hrim is the syllable of purification (Parvathy). Klim is a syllable corresponding to transformation (closely related to Kali). Camundayai is a name of Kali. Vicche means cut (as in to cut of the head of the demon, demon referring to the ego) and svaha ends the mantra. --- Jai Kali ---