Tag: Spiritual

Vedic Chanting the Shri Rudram

The vibrations of this chant purify the atmosphere and mind, fill your being with peace and vigor, bestow protection, and coupled with a pure intention, have the power to grant your wishes, including liberation.

I discovered Vedic chants while playing rock music in my college years [yes, it seems like an unlikely combination, but not really -:)]. I realised the meter, the feel and the vibration, went so well with some of the fusion work I was doing and it also took me deep into myself. It intrigued me so much, that over the years, I have put different tunes to different Vedic chants, for my own pleasure and happiness. In this video, Vidura Barrios a fellow sadhaka (someone on the spiritual path) chants the Shri Rudram with the text on the screen, for us to follow. The abhyasa (regular practice) of scared chanting, is a great discipline in the Indian tradition.

The Shri Rudram is an ancient Vedic text and part of the Krishna Yajurveda (look up more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yajurveda). It is a powerful hymn in praise of Rudra, or Shiva. In the mystical tradition, Shiva represents the consciousness within everything, the pure essence within all, referred to in the Hindu scriptures as Sat Chit Ananda: truth, consciousness and bliss. It is in Shri Rudram that the great five syllable mantra, Om Namah Shivaya is first mentioned. You might simply listen to the chant during meditation or you could chant along.

The vibrations of the chant purify the atmosphere and mind, fill your being with peace and vigor, bestow protection, and coupled with a pure intention, have the power to grant your wishes, including liberation.

Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness

Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness

This is not just a video about happiness; if you see it one pointedly it is pure joy, expressing through the Dalai Lama and infectious to the people around him. Just hearing him, I was moved to both laughter and tears. The Dalai Lama, talks about warm heartedness, a quality so integral to our sense of connectedness with the universe. When we are warm hearted, we intuitively acknowledge that the highest part of the universe – if you would like to call that God – resides deeply in each of us. If we cannot approach each other with warm heartedness, then we have cut ourselves off from the nectar that flows in our own heart; which is the beginning of loneliness. Please have a lovely day.

Video Length: 8 min 7 seconds

My India – Potentially Flawed?

Yes, we all want to see India do well, especially those of us who stay in India and are brought up here. And yes, we have inherited a great culture as we like to say, 5000 years old say some. But when I look around me, either we are blinded by this great culture we have inherited or we are plain shitting on it – this applies literally as well. Remember Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt and many others are developing nations like India, but we have a unique reputation globally, of defecating on the streets. And I cannot ignore this. A nation that “allows” people to defecate on its streets on a regular basis, creating tons of organic waste left outside to rot, reflects an inner state within the cultural fabric of its soul. It communicates very simply – we don’t care, say what you like, when I want to shit, I will just defecate right there in front of you – that, is the inner feeling. Of course, the solution is not in having more public toilets (that is one of the outer effects of an inner change) , the solution is in changing our mindset first – both parties, the ones who shit and the ones who do not – need to care about the country. But do we really?

Continue reading “My India – Potentially Flawed?”