Exceptions Prove the Rule

I would love to tell you that Hindus have always been shining examples of a people who consistently respect religious traditions, but I'd be lying if I did. Human nature, and the tendency to believe that one's own faith is not only the best, but perhaps the only valid one, has raised its head in Indian history, too.

If you have a look at the Puranas, you'll find that while some of them are quite versalistic in outlook, others are notably sectarian. Some of  the authors of the Puranas poke fun at their neighbor's gods in a fairly lighthearted manner. In others the insults get edgier.

At times, friction between different Hindu dominations has gotten out of hand. At some points, the devotees of Vishnu have actively persecuted the devotees of Shiva. At other points, the devotees of Shiva have persecuted the devotees of Vishnu.Non-Hindus living in India, such as Jains, Sikhs, and Buddhists, and more recently Muslims, have occasionally taken some serious hits from fanatical Hindus.

A Test of Tolerance

Before the arrival of the Muslims around 1000 C.E; Hindus handily assimilated all the would-be conquerors who came storming over its northern borders. The Kushans (Mongolians), the Parthians (Persians), and the Huns all eventually melted into India's embrace, disappearing into the sea of Hindu Culture.

The broad-minded Hindus were able to accommodate just about everybody who came knocking on their door-until the Muslims. For the first time, foreign invaders left wounds so deep they refused to heal. Hindu tolerance was being put to the ultimate test.

In ancient times, however, religious tolerance was the norm throughout much of the world. The ancient Greeks and Romans, for example, were astonishingly tolerant of other religions,at least by today's standards. As the monotheistic religion's began to dominate world culture, respect for other cultures, religious beliefs largely disappeared.  Today Hindu culture is one of the last remaining enclaves of a universal -minded religion.

A Peaceable People

Generally speaking, the Hindus are a peaceable people. Whether or not different communities liked each other, they made an effort to get along. The caste system, considered evil in the West, assured that different subcultures, whether they ranked in high or low in the pecking order, survived relatively unmolested within the framework of India's structured society.

The Hindus are perhaps the most peaceful of the major world cultures. Think about it : For at least 2,500 years, the only significant military foray Hindus have made outside India was the South Indian conquest of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines around 1400 C.E. Hindus may fight with each other but thy've had very little interest in conquering anyone else-though many of the world's other cultures have certainly had a crack at conquering India!

One Culture, Many Traditions

Westerners today tend to think of India in monolithic terms : one country, one culture. In reality, at very few times for a very brief periods in its history has most of the Indian subcontinent been unified-at least until 1947 when the state of Bharat (the Indian name for India) was created. Instead, for most of its long history, India has been home to an amazingly large number of district subcultures.


There are about 80,000 subcultures in India today. That's not a misprint-the correct figure is 80,000. Over 325 languages are spoken there, not to mention thousands of dialects. There are also 25 commonly used written scripts . And we think of America as a melting pot of different cultures!

Hinduism is by far the most complex religion in world, shading under its enormous umbrella an incredibly diverse array of contrasting beliefs, practices, and denominations. Hinduism is by far the oldest major religion. It has had more than enough time to develop a diversity of opinions and approaches to spirituality unmatched in any other tradition.

The Tolerant Religion

Christianity and Islam are aggressive missionary religions. In Hinduism, missionary efforts have traditionally been exception rather than the rule. For the most part, the Hindu attitude toward other faith is " Live and let live".

This does not mean Hindus always look at what goes on in other traditions, or even within their own tradition, with unblinking acceptance. Even in the Veda, the rishis rolled their eyes at what they felt were the excesses of some of the trible practices and urged Hindus to live nobly, abiding by the highest ideals and practicing some rudiments of self-control. How did Hinduism develop this tolerant spirit?

Inner Religion

One of the great ironies of religious history is that, although the religions that came out of the Near East-Judaism, Islam Chistianity-adamantly reject most of Hinduism's fundamental teachings, their mystical traditions-the Kabbalah, Sufism, and Christian Gnosticism-reflect Hindu insights in almost every detail. Numerous students of comparative religion, from Muslim scholar Al Biruni in 1000 C.E. to the world famous writer Aldous Huxley nearer our own time have expressed their amazement at the parallels between the major mystical traditions of the world and Hinduism.

The Image of God

There are probably no two religions as radically opposed in their fundamental beliefs as Hinduism and Islam.The meeting of Muslim and Hindu cultures led to catastrophic historical consequences still playing out in South Asia today.

Muslim feel it is a spiritual crime to make an image of God. Hindus feel that, used with proper understanding, images of God, such as the statues of various deities found in Hindu temples, are an excellent way to focus the mind on the divine. Some Muslims feel they are called upon by their faith to destroy any images of God they came across.

During the first few centuries of the Muslim occupation of North India, that today you must travel to south India, where the Muslims didn't penetrate, to find a truly ancient Hindu temple.

Using an image as a focus for worship is a defining Characteristic of Hinduism. You"ll learn about it in Chapter 11, " Can you Show Me God?"

Christian Beliefs

Orthodox Christians believe Jesus took on sins of the entire world. (Hindus also believe saints can take on the karma or their disciples.) To access the saving grace of Jesus, it's absolutely essential to have faith in him.

A Hindu would find this idea perplexing. Many Hindu saints devoted every breath of their lives the love of God and service of humanity. Why would someone be sent to hell for eternity because they hadn't heard of Jesus?

In Hinduism, two great principles are at work in the universe : Karma and kripa, justice and grace. Despite huge campaigns and outlay of hundreds of millions of dollars, Christian missionaries have made little headway in converting Hindus. This is largely because Hindus see little justice or grace in a God who would damn all their ancestors for no fault of their own.

Hindus believe very literally that " As you sow, so shall you reap." But in Hinduism there is no eternal damnation. No being can have sown enough bad karma that in the vast stretches of eternity, God can't find a way to bring that lost soul back into the light.

Begging to Differ

There is no minimizing the fact that Hindu belief differs dramatically from the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. Before I begin explaining in detail what Hindus do believe, let me clarify what they do not believe.

Jews believe that they have a very special relationship with God. God has selected them for His special loving attention and created laws for them that mark them apart from the rest of humanity. Hindus do not accept the concept of a chosen people. For Hindus, God's relationship with every soul is equally special.

A metaphor repeated by Hindu saints is that God is like the Sun. The sun shines equally on everyone, no matter what social class you belong to, no matter whether you're male or female, a good person or a not-so-good person. And certainly no matter what religion you subscribe to.

My God's Not Better Than yours

According to the Veda. It's a serious mistake to confuse your name for God with the Supreme Being Himself. The Big Guy is bigger than you think. In fact, He's not necessarily even a guy at all.It's just as valid to call Him Her or It. If words like " God" or " Goddess" or " Supreme Reality" point you in the right direction, use them by all means.

But the point is not to choose a name for God and then claim that anyone who calls God by a different name is wrong. For Hindus the point is to enter into a living relationship with the Supreme till you feel Its breath in your breath. Till you feel enveloped in the all-encompassing embrace of the infinite wisdom out of which this universe emerged.

There are no false gods according to Hinduism. At least not if your prayer to that god is sincere. Whatever form of the divine you worship, even if it's a man with an elephant's head, the one all-pervading Being who loves you more than you can possibly imagine will use that form to guide you to Her.

One God with Many Names

" God is one. Men call Him by various names", is the eternal truth voiced by the Veda. It doesn't matter what address you send your prayer to. Whether you mail it to Indra or Agni, God or Goddess, Allah 

To use another maetaphor : Christians say that to access the hard drive, you have to click on the Jesus icon. No other icon will let you access the hard drive.

Muslims say it's a spiritual crime to use any icons at all. Never confuse the hard drive with any of the silly icons on the desktop. Access the drive directly, with the code Mohammad provided.

Hindus say, hey, click on any icon. Every icon on the screen will connect you with the hard drive. Don't see any icon you like? Make up a new one-it will work just as well.

What Hindus Believe

Hinduism is in some ways the most open-minded of the world's great religions. Maybe this is because India is composed of so many different people and cultures and languages. Respect, or at least tolerance, for other traditions grew gradually over the centuries. People borrowed each other's gods and goddesses, each other's spiritual practices, even each other's saints. In the end, India merged into one more or less unified Hindu Culture.

In this part, we'll look at the defining beliefs most Hindus share in common. Reincarnation. Karma. An immortal soul. An infinite ocean of divine energy that underlines the universe we perceive with our senses. And an inner universe of consciousness through which we connect with the whole.

How to Become a Purana

There's certain ground a book has to cover if it wants people to think of it as a Purana. It has to include...............

> An explanation of how the Supreme Being projected the universe out of its limitless awareness. Not just our world, but all planes of existence must be accounted for.

> Details of how the multibillion year cycles of the manifestation and dissolution of the universe actually work.

> Cycles of the different types of humanity that have appeared and disappeared on our planet since it originally formed.

> Historical information about the original lineages of our present humanity.

> Genealogies of important early Hindu rulers.

Puranas : Encyclopedias of Spirit

I mentioned earlier that most Hindus today don't really worship the gods in the Veda anymore. If you want to connect with the living gods of India you should turn to any of the nineteen major to Puranas. (Or else turn to chapter 12 and 13 in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hinduism, and I'll
introduce you to the most popular gods and godesses form the Puranas, one by one.) Purana means " ancient chronicle " or " book of the ancient times".

The Puranas are often called " the fifth Veda". While the first four Vedas are reserved for particular classes of people, the Puranas are for everyone. They're the average person's Veda.

The vision of God

Arjuna is persuaded by Krishna, but asks for a favor. He's not content with the Big  picture-now he wants to see the Really Big Picture. He knows Krishna is God in disguise and wants to see what God really look like.

Krishna shows him.

Arjuna sees universes without end, galaxies spinning and trillions and trillions of souls trapped in the cycle of birth and death, being born, suffering, dying.

For a mind that has not yet been completely purified by spiritual practice, the Vision is too much to bear. Arjuna screams for Krishna to stop, and the Lord resumes his Human form.

" I have taught you the secret of secrets, " Krishna concludes. " Now surrender to Me, worship Me in all your words and thoughts, and offer your actions to Me as a sacrifice of love. You cannot even begin to conceive how much I care for you. I am your eternal refuge. Don't be afraid ! I promise, I will save you".

For 2, 500 years, Hindus have clung with unshakable faith to Krishna's loving promise.

Very often, Westerners , when they're exposed to the Gita, complain that it condones war. At one level, there's some truth to this. At another, it misses the point completely. Mahatma Gandhi , the quintessential man of peace, kept a copy of the Bahagavad Gita with him at all times. Hindus understand that the battlefield Kurukshetra, Where Arjuna and Duryodana are facing off, is not really near Dehli. It's really in the human heart. All of us are at war with the Duryodhanas inside ourselves greed, hatred, ignorance. In the God himself shows us the way to victory.

A conversation with God

The Bahgavad Gita (which means " Song of God") is the conversation between Krishna, who is God in human form come to guide and protect righteous, and Arjuna, who is the rest of us in Human form, confused about what the right course of action in life is and sickened by the horror we see in the world around us.

The Gita, as most Hindus call it, actually consists of eighteen short chapters lifted right out of the Mahabratha. It is the most loved holy book in Hinduism. Many Hindus can recite the entire Gita from memory. Most have memorized at least a few lines.

Krishna has already explained that in the battle against evil, when all peaceful options are exhausted, men of good conscience must get up and fight. Control of the world cannot be handed over the evil men by good people too weak-willed to stand against them.

Now, in the face of death and catastrophe, Krishna urges Arjuna to look at the Big picture. everyone dies: From the perspective of eternity, these men are dead already. Since death is inevitable, why not die nobly, fighting for justice?

During the day, we change clothes several times. Death, Krishna says, is when the soul changes its clothes. It takes off a body that's worn out or damaged and puts on a new one. But the inner self never dies. It is wrong to identify ourselves with our perhisable body. We need to realize that we are immortal spirits, ultimately unaffected by death.

Arjuna may win the battle, or he may lose. He may live, or he may die. The outcome of the events ahead is in the hands of God. Krishna advices his friend to not be concerned with how things will turn out. He should focus instead on fighting for truth and justice simply because, under the present tragic circumstances, it's the right thing to do.

Bhagavad Gita : The song of God

The war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas was about to begin. Arjuna asked his friend Krishna to drive him to the center of the battlefield so he could get his bearings. But sitting in his chariot between the two enormous armies,  the full enormity of what was about to happen hit Arjuna like a ton of bricks. Tens of thousands of good men on both sides, including many of Arjuna's friends and relatives, were about to die.

Innocent women would lose their husbands and sons. A whole generation would grow up without fathers. It would take decades for the kingdom to recover from the staggering losses about to ensue.

Was it really worth it? So many deaths for control of a piece of land? Arjuna sank to the floor of the chariot in a state of emotional paralysis. He couldn't do it. He couldn't fight these people.

Then Krishna turned to him, and the two of them had a little chat.

Choosing God

Duryodana came rushing in the next morning before the break of dawn and sat anxiously at the head the Krishna's bed, waiting for him to wake up. Arjuna got up at his usual time, took his morning bath and sat for worship and meditation. Then he headed over the Krishna's house, where he stood humbly by the foot of Krishna's bed.

Krishna finally woke up. Even though Duryodhana got there first, Arjuna was the first one Krishna laid eyes on because he was standing respectfully at the end of the bed, not sitting behind Krishna's head like the Duryodhana. So Krishna gave Arjuna the choice. " My army or Me?"

" I choose you, Lord", was Arjuna's very, very famous reply.

Duryodhana walked away a happy man, with all the military power at the Krishna's command. But guess who won the War?


Arjuna had a much smaller army, but with Krishna's advice he was able to outwit the Kauravas and win back the kingdom for his brother, Yudhisthira. The point, which I don't think anyone who's ever heard the story has missed, is that when we choose God over all the strengths and all the temptations of the world, we have made the right decision.

Mahabratha: The Great War

The Mahabharatha is attributed to the sage Vysa, who also appears as a character in the story.(This is the same Vysa we met in Chapter 14, " Matrix of the Hindu Tradition", who compiled the hymns of the ancient seers, shaping the Veda into its present format). The Mahabratha is based on a war that probably really happened, perhaps around 1500 B.C.E. It was fought at a battlefield called Kurukshetra, which isn't too far from present-day New Delhi.

If the account given in the Mahabharata is literally accurate-okay, that's a big if -it wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to call this real First World War. The story goes that the Indian warriors involved called in help from all their allies, all the way from Turkey in the west to Java in the east. That's pretty outrageous, but not as outrageous as it seems at first.

Remember that India was a major world trade center going back to Sumerian times at the least, and the area around Delhi would have been an important trade capital for international merchants. So there many well have been plenty of foreign leaders with a vested interest  in who won the war.

So is this a holy text or a war story? The Mahabharata is considered a scripture because it illustrates in dramatic form how good Hindus should live. The characters are constantly facing tough moral issues and having to make difficult choices. This gives their spiritual mentors an opportunity to advise them about Hindu ethics and spirituality, sometimes for a hundred pages at a stretch ! Then we learn from the wise or foolish decisions of the main characters and the consequences of their actions, what happens when people choose to follow dharma (righteousness) or dharma (unrighteousness).

The perfect king

After fourteen years, Rama, Sita, and Lakshman return in triumph to Ayodhya, and to the people's infinite delight, Rama assumes his rightful role as king. To this very day, the expression "the reign of Rama" the king ruled with complete integrity and absolute commitment to the welfare of his beloved subjects. It was a time of peace, prosperity, justice, and joy. This is something of a contrast with government in India today, which may be why Indians speak of "the reign of Rama" with such nostalgia!

The perfect Husband

Sita insisted on accompanying her husband into the forest. They roamed through the woods for many happy years, together with Rama's devoted half-brother, Lakshman. Thier numerous adventures, some harrowing, others hysterically funny, are lovingly described in the Ramayana.
Rama is very protective of Sita, whom he adores, and Sita is completely devoted to Rama. To this day, Rama and Sita are held up as the best possible example loving Hindu marriage.
But something's always got to go wrong. Tragedy strikes again. Rama and Lakshman are lured away from their campsite and when they return, Sita has vanished into thin air!



The bulk of the Ramayana is about Rama's desperate search for his missing wife, and the amazingly daring rescue when he finally finds her. It turns out that she was kidnapped by the tyrannical king of Lanka (that's today's Sri Lanka). I'll tell you more about how Rama gets Sita back in Chapter 14, " Avatars: Gods in Human Form".

The perfect Son

Long, long ago, the Ramayana goes, the king of Ayodhya had a very special son named Rama. He was intelligent, courageous, compassionate, and virtuous. The people  of  Ayodhya adored the prince and his lovely wife, Sita. More than once Rama demonstrated both his wisdom in guiding them and his valor in protecting them.

Finally the happy day arrived when the old king decided to retire and hand over the reins of the kingdom to his beloved son. But sometime's always got to go wrong or there's no story, right? The youngest of the king's three wives decided she wanted her son to rule instead.


The youngest wife was able to pull off a cup because many years earlier the king had promised her any two wishes she desired . Now she went to the king and demanded that her son, Rama, receive the coronation. Rama must be banished into the forest for fourteen years. She knew she couldn't get away with killing Rama, but she figured if he was gone long enough the people would forget him. Life in the forest in those days was extremely dangerous, with what the lions and tigers and bears. Perhaps she was hoping Rama get eaten by some large, furry, carnivorous animals.

When Rama heard the news, he immediately prepared to leave for the forest, without complaining or losing his composure. He was not just being a goody-goody Rama understood that people look to their leaders for examples of how to live. Long ago, his father had made a promise to his youngest wife, and if he broke it now, it would signal to the people that keeping your word was not important. Kings must keep their promises even if it causes them grief.

An Evil Mantra

This is well with Valmiki. Mara is the Sanskrit word for evil, and it fit his deposition. So crazed with desire for wealth, Valmiki sat down and started chanting the mantra over and over, day and  night. " Mara, Mara, Mara".

As he sat there, Valmiki's heart began to feel lighter. Tremendous peace filled his mind, and he experienced real joy for the first time in many, many years. The he realized with a shock that the Sadhu, in having him chant " Mara, Mara", had tricked him into chanting " Rama, Rama", as the syllables ran together. Rama of course, is the name of God. While Valmiki had been sitting there lusting for gold, the divine vibrations of God's name had been purifying his mind.

Valmiki had become the Wealthiest man in the world. He now had the most valuable thing a person could possibly possess: the living presence of God in his heart.

Ramayana : The Great Rescue

Valmiki was a theif who piled his trade in northern India many a century ago. After a string of unsuccessful robberies, he was getting so desperate that he actually tried robbing a Sadhu, a Hindu holy man. Now Sadhus own absolutely nothing but the cloth they have wrapped around their private parts. " I don't have anything to give you", the holy man said.

" Give me something or I'll kill you!" Valmiki cried in desperation.

" Okay, Okay, how about this? I'll give you a mantra that will make you the richest man in the world. But it will only work if you repeat it constantly, day in and day out".

Valmiki knew that Sadhus don't lie. Because they've devoted their lives to God, they would rather die than tell an untruth. So he trusted the Sadhu completely. "  What's the mantra?"

" Mara", the holy man answered.

Epics : The Hindu Homer

Move over Homer! Homer's Illiad and Odyssey often considered the greatest epics in the western world. Homer has serious competition in India, however, where the great Hindu epics, the Mahabratha and Ramayana, have stirred hearts and exalted the spirit for thousands of years.

Does the size matter? The Ramayana is as big as the Bible. The Mahabratha is four times the size of the Bible and eight times as long as the Illiad and the Odyssey put together The Mahabratha contains so much material its author it's here too", he said. And " if it ain't here, it ain't nowhere else neither!"

No size, doesn't really matter; it's the content that counts. If you're wondering about the quality of the content, consider this. When television producers ran a series of hour-long episodes dramatizing these two epics on Indian TV in the 1980s, the entire country shut down! For the hour the program was being broadcast you couldn't get a taxi, you couldn't get a meal in a restaurant, you couldn't find an open shop, your airline pilot wouldn't even take off. Every Hindu in the country had somehow, somehow, somewhere, found a TV and was sitting transfixed, watching the great sages of Hinduism gamely portrayed on the small screen.

Both epics have been around since least 700 B.C.E. but not in their present form. The original texts were undoubtedly much shorter, but they were so popular that succeeding generations kept tracking on more and more of their contributions. Like a snowball rolling down the hill of history, they'd grown to glacier size. You practically need a shopping cart to carry around all the volumes of the Mahabratha, much less the Ramayana.

User-Friendly Scriptures

Fortunely, Hinduism has many other fully authorized scriptures which are open to the public and easy and fun to read. Like the Veda they were originally passed on through the generations by word of mouth. There were people whose job it was to memorize these huge texts and then travel around reciting them. When they showed up in a village, everyone would come running. Work was called off and folks would sit for days listening to the expert chant the scripture. It was like going to the movies, except you imagined the scenes on the screen of your mind.

Hinduism part 2

Hinduism Part1

SriPuram

The Sailent feature of Sripuram is the Lakshmi Narayani temple or Mahalakshmi temple whose " Vimanam" and 'Ardha Mandapam' have been coated with gold in the interior and exterior.

The temple is located on 100 acres of land has been constructed by Vellore-based Sri Narayani Peedam, headed by spiritual leader Sri Sakthi Amma also known as Narayani Amma. The temple with gold covering, has intricate carvings and sculptures in gold. The lighting is arranged in such a way that the temple glitters even during night. The construction of the temple was completed on August 24, 2007.

More than 1500kg of gold was used to build this temple. The LED lighting on the ridge of the roof of the star path is lit up at night so that anyone can witness a star on the earth.

Jambukeswara Temple, Thiruvanaikal

Thiruvanaikal is one of the five shiva temples in Tamil Nadu (panchabootha sthalams) representing the Mahabutha or five great elements; this temple represents the element of water, or neer in Tamil. The Sanctum of Jambukeswara has underground water stream and in spite of pumping water out, it is always filled with water.

It is one of the 275 Paadal Petra sthalams, where all of the four revered Nayanars (saivite saints) have sung glories of the deity in this temple. The temple has incriptions from the Chola period.

Viralimalai Sri Shamuganathan murugan Temple

Viralimalai is on the bus route between Madurai and Tiruchy. It is 25 kilomaters from Tiruchy. and 40 Kilometers nothwest of poddukottai. From Azhankudi viralimalai is 372/12 kilometers. A railway station is very close to the town. Viralimalai temple is on top of a big rock and can be seen from a great distance.

Next to the Navaratri Mandapam we find the south-facing Raja Gopuram. In the Shanmuga Moorthy Mandapam of this temple with a single prahara the utsavamoorthy gives darshan together with devas. In the Western part of the prahara we find the shrines of vinayagar, Dakshina Moorthy, Agasthiyar and Arunagirinathar and in the Northern side we find the shrine of Chandikeshwarar and Bairavar.

Uchi Pillaiyar temple

Uchi pillaiyar Temple is located on the peak of the Rock hill. The Shrine is a height of 273 ft and you have to climb over 400 steps and reach the pinnacle. One has to cross Sri Tayumanavar temple, which is located half way to the peak. Though the climb is a bit difficult, the soothing and breeze gears up our energy to climb without much strain. A panoramic view of the entire Thiruchi and Srirangam Temple from the Uchi Vinayakar  temple is just amazing.

The Rock Fort temple complex in Thiruchirapalli is a collection of three temples-the Manikka vinayaka temple at the foot of the hill, the Uchi Pillaiyar Kovil at the top of the hill and the tayumanavar Kovil (Shivastalam) on the hill. This Shivastalam is a rock cut temple on a hill in the most prominent landmark in Thiruchirappalli (Trichy); reached by a flight of steps on the way to the famous ucchi Pilliaya temple.

Brihadeeswarar Temple

The Solid base of the temple raises about 5 meters (16feet), above which stone deities and representatives of Shiva dance. The inner Sanctum is 7.5m square and its pramidal towers, having 13 levels and raising above 216 feet was the tallest in India during the time. The temple is constructed granite, mostly of large blocks.

The stone constituting the huge Shikara or Kalasam (top portion of the Shrine) is believed to weigh 81.28 tonnes and was raised to its present height by dragging on an inclined plane of 6.44km. The big Nandi (bull), weighing about 20 tonnes is made of  a single stone and is about 2m in height, 6m in length and 2.5m in width-the temple is a vijayanagara addition. The presiding deity of lingam is 3.7m tall. Even today, the Brihadeeswara temple remains India's largest temple.

Thirukkadaiyur Abhirami temple

This is one of the holy places of Saivism today. Legend has it that Mrikandu, a sage and devotee of Lord Shiva, prayed to God to bless him with a son. God appeared and gave him a choice to select the type of child he wanted. An honest responsible and virtuous son who will live only for 16 years a son who would live for 100 years but whose behavior is bad. Mrikandu chose the former.

The boy Markandeya also grew up to be an ardent devotee of Shiva. The destined time came, When Yama (the lord of death) tried to snatch the life of a boy. Markandeya went to the temple and clutched at the Shiva Lingam in a bid to escape death. Pleased by the boy's belief, Shiva rescued him from death, incarnating his as Kalantaka (the enter of death).

Bhramaramba Malikarjuna Temple

The origins of this temple have been lost in antiquity. The Skanda Purana has a chapter Called Sri Saila Kandam dedicated to it, which points to the ancient origin. This is confirmed by the fact that saints of the past millennia have been sung its praises. It is said that Adi Shankara visited this temple and at that time he composed his Sivananda Lahiri.

SriSailam is referenced in the ancient Hindu Puranas, and the epic Mahabharata.

Adi Shankaracharya

Towards end of his life, Adi Shankara travelled to the Himalayan area of Kedernath-Badrinath and attained viedha mukthi ("freedom from embodiment"). There is a samadhi behind the Kedernath temple. However, there are variant traditions on the location of his last days. One tradition, expounded by keraliya Shankaravijaya, places his of mahasamadhi (leaving the body) as Vedakkumathan temple in Thrissur, Kerala. The followers of the Kanchi Kamakoti pitha claim that he ascended the Sarvajinaptha and attained Videha mukthi in Kanchipuram (Tamil Nadu).

How is the Veda Used?

If you qualified for their help by being a member of an upper class and you had a problem or wanted to express your gratitude to a particular deity, you could go to a Vedic Priest who would perform a fire ritual for you, chanting the appropriate sacred hymns.

In olden times, the fire rituals often involved blood sacrifices. Animals like goats were commonly sacrificed; on rare occasions other creatures, such as horse, might be offered.

Most Hindus abandoned animal sacrifice many centuries ago. Today priests offer objects such as flowers, grains, clarified butter, fragrant-smelling wood, and herbs into the sacred fire. The Vedic fire rituals are no longer practiced as widely as they used to be, but at certain major life events, like marriage, brahmin priests are called in, the ritual fire is lit, and once again the ancient mantras are chanted exactly as they have been at Hindu weddings for at least six thousand years.

Incidentally, I've attended numerous Vedic rituals and seen effects for myself. It's not unusual following one of these ceremonies for fantastically unlikely events to occur. The individual asking for offer right out of blue. Cancerous tumors go into remission. Business suddenly starts to boom after a several-year slump. We in the West are trained to call these events coincidences. I've seen some of the best-timed coincidences in the world right after a traditional Vedic fire offering is performed!

For the Western scientific mind, conciousness is rooted in matter. For the brahmin priest performing the fire ceremony, though matter is rooted in counciousness. Therefore, according to the Hindu laws of physics, if the brahmin sends out a message into the cosmic mind. " Kumar Sharma needs work! " it's not surprising to him when a job offer immediately materializes. It's par for the course.

Who Reads the Veda

Not anyone benefited from the Veda. Because the priests considered these hymns so holy, they were very careful about who was allowed access to them. Only members of the three top classes of Indian society was permitted to the four Vedas and participate in Vedic sacrifies. Over the centuries, women's access to the Vedas, even if they were high class, became increasingly limited. This is rather ironic since numbers of the Vedic hymns were composed by women.

Today the four Vedas have been translated into many different languages and just about anyone who wants to read them can. However, reading them and understanding them are two projects. Vedic knowledge remains an oral, initiatory tradition. Without a guru to lead you through the complex symbolism and hidden mystical underpinnings, frankly quite a few of the hymns don't make a lot of sense.

Still, the Vedas are so important in the Hindu tradition, even after 6,000+ years, that the word Vedic is often used as a synonym for anything Hindu, as in " Vedic literature" or " Vedic science".

Who Were the Vedic Sages

The sages who   composed the Vedas, capturing eternal truths and shaping them into beautiful hymns, are called rishis, which means"seers". A rishi is someone who sees the divine reality for himself or herself. These sages are not content to rely on the testimony of others but have gained direct personal experience of divinity.

Hinduism acknowledges that seers come in different flavors. There are advanced seers who see everything. There are beginning level seers, too-great soul for sure, but they have only just begun to glimpse the full majesty of the Supreme Reality. Here is how V. Madhusudan Reddy,

Vedic Appendices

There are three very special compenduims of texts that are considered part of the Veda but consist of discussions and explanatory material rather than hymns.

The Brahmanas are a huge mass of writings that  explain how to perform various Vedic rituals. They throw in a few good myths for added color. The Aranyakas and Upanishads are philosophy texts that discuss the inner significance of the Vedic rites.(The Upanishads are so important I've dealt with them in a separate section, " Upanishads: Liberating Literature", later in this chapter.)

What's in the Veda?

The Veda is actually four different books, which is why you'll often hear it called "the Vedas", plural They are in a language called the Vedic, an archaic form of Sanskrit.

Though the Vedic hymns had been known for a long-long time, they were finally compiled into one large edition by the great sage Vyasa sometime before 1500 B.C.E. He then organized the Veda into the four books.

The most important of these is the Rig Veda, a collection of 1,017 hymns to a wide assortment of gods, arranged in ten sections. The Sana Veda is mostly a selection of hymns taken straight from the Rig Veda. The big difference is that the Sana Veda is specially notated with melodies so that rather than just chanting these hymns, you can sing them.

The Yajur Veda hymns are used specifically for certain types of sacrifices, not just for singing or chanting of The Atharva Veda is in some ways the most practical of all the Vedas. It contains hymns for a variety of useful purposes including attracting lovers, subduing enemies, regulating the weather, and curing diseases such as urinary track infections!

Veda: The Hindu Bible

The Veda is the massive holy book of Hinduism. It has existed from before the beginning of time. It was carefully preserved by Brahma, the creator god, during the dissolution of the last universe, and then given to humanity once again when the world Hindus do not believe the Veda was written by a group of authors. Rather, the great sages of antiquity "heard" the verses of the Veda in deep states of meditation (today we might say they "channeled" them) and passed them along to other brahmins, the priests who have been the custodians of the Veda from the immemorial.

Other authorities, such as the great Yogi Patanjali, had a slightly different perspective Patanjali said it was not  the words of the Veda that were eternal but the wisdom contained in them.

Either way, because the Veda was so holy, it was imperative that it be preserved exactly as it was first given out by the original sages. Therefore, to this day brahmin priests memorize the Veda backward and forward, then backward and forward again but this time skipping every other word, and then backward and forward in various other combinations.

They also used other memorization techniques, such as chanting the Veda to particular rhythms and moving their hands according to prescribed rules as the rhythm changed. Brahmins from different Villages would meet regularly to check each others' mastery of the text. These methods helped to ensure that when we hear the verses being chanted today, they are almost certainly still being pronounced exactly like they were thousands of years ago, with not one word or even one syllable lost due to passage of time.

Matrix of the Hindu Tradition

Hinduism is a living lineage of enlightenment. It is very much an oral tradition, passed on from the spiritual teacher to the deiciple, from the mother to the Child. The Veda, the Bible of Hinduism, was transmitted by word of mouth for thousands of years before finally being committed to writing.

But once the Hindus did start writing down their holy scriptures, well, they just never stopped. All the sacred texts of the other great world religions put together would be scarcely a drop in the bucket of the immensity of Hindu sacred literature.

Thoreau Joins the Club

Emerson excitedly introduced other Americans to Hinduism, perhaps most notably his young protege, Henry David Thoreau. Theroreau was not busy earning a living or raising a family like Emerson. Instead he was living in the woods outside Concord, composing some of the greatest classics of American literature, such as Walden. And reading the Bhagavad Gita.

" What extracts from the Veda I have read fall on me like the light of a higher and purer luminary, which describes a loftier course through a purer stratum Thoreau wrote enthusiastically.

In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, since where composition, years of the gods have elapsed and in comparison with which our modern world its literature seem puny and trivial.

If Hinduism influenced Thoreau, he certainly returned the favor! Thoreau's great essay, " On Civil Disobedience", had a profound effect on a Hindu born a century later. Mahatma Gandhi acknowledged Thoreau as a major inspiration for the movement he founded calling for nonviolent resistance to British rule in India.

Emerson Meets the Bhagavad Gita

Ralph Waldo Emerson, a nineteenth-century in the Unitarian minister who lectured on theology at Harvard University, was becoming increasingly disillusioned with aspects of Christian teaching that just didn't make sense to his active and inquiring intelligence. When he first began reading newly translated Indian scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu tradition hit him with the force of revelation. He wrote:

I owed a magnificient day to the Bhagavad Gita. It was the first of books, it was as if an empire spake to us, nothing or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions that exercise us.

In part due to the mind-expanding influence of mystical Hinduism, Emerson went on to found the Transcendentalist movement in America. The Transcendentalists turned from unquestioning faith in the religious doctrines of their own culture to a more open and honest inquiry into direct spiritual experience.

Transcendentalists Groove on the Gita

As European powers gained more control of India in the late eighteenth century., Westerners had a similar response to Hinduism that Muslims had had. Hindus do not believe in forcing their beliefs on others, but both Muslims and Christians were determined to convert all India to their respective faiths. In the minds of sincere Christian missionaries replacing Hinduism with the Judeo-Christain tradition was the greatest possible blessing they could bestow on India's heathen.

But some open-minded and sensitive Western artists and intellectuals had a very different response.

Notes on Reincarnation

Al Bruni's description of the Hindu view of reincarnation is particularly interesting:

Until it reaches the highest state of Conciousness, the soul is not able to experience all things at once, as if there were no space or time. Therefore it has experience the universe piecemeal, one thing at a time, until it has been through all possible experiences. An awfully lot of experiences are possible, so this process takes a very long time.

So immortal souls range through the universe in mortal bodies, which have good or bad experience depending on whether their behavior has been virtuous or evil. The purpose of experiencing heavenly states in the time between physical incarnations is so that the soul learns what is truly good, and wants to become as good as possible. The purpose of experiencing hellish states in the time between lives is so that the soul learns what evil is, and determines to avoid it all together.

The process of reincarnation begins at very low levels of consciousness, like minerals, plants or animals, and slowly winds its way upward toward very elevated states of awareness.

The process ends when the soul no longer desires to explore new worlds, but gains insight into the sublime nature of being, and rests content in itself. At that point the soul turns away from matter, and its links with physical existence are broken. It returns to its true home, carrying with it the knowledge it has gained during its many journeys.

Having closely studied all their systems, Al Biruni noted that the Greek, Indian, and Sufi mystics taught essentially the same doctrine.