Ishvara Pranidhana : Keep God in Mind

Surrender to God means making god your top priority. Most people surrender their minds to their jobs or their relationships or their TV set. Patanjali says focus on inner truth. And

Antidoes to Bad Behaviour

Patanjali was quite aware that listing a code of ethical conduct and getting people to actually follow it are two different undertakings. So he offered some practical advice on how to turn your personality around if it wasn't already heading in the right direction

In Hinduism, it's not enough that you don't harm anyone else if in your heart you'd still really like to smack them. Thoughts are things, and negative thoughts may hurt the person you hate if they're strong enough. And they certainly hurt you! The increased pressure, churning stomach, and grinding can't be doing you any good.

Patanjali advises that when you're in the throes of a destructive emotional complex or feel trapped by a bad habit, you "cultivate the opposite". If you hate your brother-in law's guts, sit down for set a time every day and focus intently on sending him your good wishes. If his personality aggravates you so much you can't visualize his face without starting to froth at the mouth, then beam your best wishes to his inner-most soul, which is free from the personality characteristics that irritate you so much.

Patanjali suggests that rather than wrestling with a bad habit that undermines your spiritual progress, work on developing a good habit. One that counterbalances the unhealthy one. For example, if you're having trouble cutting back your unrestrained indulgence in oily carries and Indian sweets, then go out and get some exercise every day.

Ishvara Pranidhana : Keep God in Mind

Surrender to God means making God your top priority. Most people surrender their minds to their jobs or their relationships or their TV set. Patanjali says focus on inner truth. And don't worry so much. Do your level best, then surrender to God's will and let things flow. The universe is going to flow its own way anyway, no matter how much you resist! 

Self Study : Svadhyaya

Svadhyaya means study that leads to self realization. Patanjali is encouraging Hindus to study the sacred scriptures. They should study the wisdom the sages embedded in the great myths of Hinduism. And no doubt also study classic works like Patanjali's own yoga Sutras. These books generate enthusiasm for spiritual practice and help dispel doubts.

But svadhyaya has a second meaning. Ultimately self-study is more important than scriptural study. One can read holy books for lifetimes without getting enlightened Ramana Maharshi lay down on the floor and studied himself for just a couple of minutes and achieved enlightenment. It's in the direct living experience of divine being that moksha, the fourth and final goal of life, is achieved. It can only come from divine within one's own self to make the actual connection with divine being. Then the circuit is closed, and the electricity of inner illumination starts to flow. 

Discipline yourself : Tapas

Tapas actually means heat but is used in the Hindu tradition to signify the red-hot focus of concentrated attention. The Veda says God created the universe through tapas trough the force of concentrated will. Hindus practice focusing the will through self-discipline and austerity. A well-disciplined body and mind, like a lovingly cared for yet carefully trained horse, can carry us to the goal. 

Give up the Greed : Aparigraha

Patanjali took a dim view of greedy, possessive people. In Hinduism the emphasis has always been on acquiring things of lasting value. In a religion that believes in reincarnation , this means collecting things you can take with you. Everything you own is lost at death. What you can carry with you into the next life is generosity of spirit, devotion to God and Goddess, fearlessness, and all the good karma you've acquired through your loving and selfless acts. Greedy behaviour can't benefit you for more than one lifetime. Generosity benefits you forever. 

Constant Craving : Santosha

" Be content. But not satisfied!" the late Swami Rama Bharati used to tell me. He was reiterating the old truism that the wealthiest person is the one who's content with what he or she has. Constant craving for more things, more success, more sex, and more premium grade ice cream transports us out of the present into a continual uneasy relationship with a fantasy future in which we hope things will be better. But God-in the form of the deepest states of consciousness-can be experienced only in the present moment. When the mind stops being distracted by what it hasn't got, it can start attending to what it does have-living presence of divine being within itself.

Yet complacency is also a spiritual pitfall. So the swami warned against feeling smug or self-satisfied, feeling that you'd gotten as far spiritually as you need to go until you've actually reached the final goal. Enlightenment is an attainable goal to those who sincerely strive and connect with divine grace, according to Hinduism.

"You can do it! You will do it! Do it now!" Swami Rama would shout.

Keep It Clean : Saucha

Hindus strongly believe in internal purity and external cleanliness. It's not unusual to find orthodox brahmins bathing repeatedly throughout the day. ( This is more understandable if you keep in mind the heat and dust of India.) But a dirty body is the least of problems on the spiritual path. Meditation is the Hindu method for cleaning out the gunk in the mind, which is far more serious obstruction to spiritual progress. And through japa, constant repetition of the the mind remains full of pure vibrations throughout the day, rather than polluting itself with erotic fantasies and gossipy internal jabber.

Five Things to Definitely Do

Patanjali then spelled out five niyamas, the things everyone should be doing :
1. Saucha  : Cleanse yourself
2. Santosha : Be content
3. Tapas     : Discipline yourself
4. Svadhyaya : Study
5. Ishvara Pranidhana : Surrender to God.

Control Yourself ! Brahmacharya

All Hindus are supposed to practice brahmacharya, celibacy. Fortunately, celibacy has a broader meaning for married couples! Husbands and wives who are faithful to each other are considered the equivalent of celibate. But Brahmacharya means more than avoiding extramarital sex. It also avoiding any kind of sensual overindulgence. Not giving in to gluttonous impulses for a second or third bowl of ice cream is a form of brahmacharya, for example. 

Not taking What's Not Yours : Asteya

Taking something that doesn't belong to you is wrong according to Hinduism. (So is hoarding

something you don't really need that someone else does need!) Yet the command to practice asteya,nonstealing, was never enforced as strictly in Hinduism as it was in the West. In medieval Europe, a starving man could be hanged for stealing a loaf of bread.

Hindus were a lot more flexible about this kind of thing. In a country with an increasing number of hungry people, it has long been acknowledged that sometimes you have to do to keep body and soul together. Punishment for poor people stealing something they urgently needed like food or clothing was not severe, and sometimes wasn't enforced at all. Gratuitous theft, however, was viewed less tolerantly. 

Honest Indian : Satya

You'll notice that Patanjali's instruction not to lie comes after his advice not to harm anyone. Hindus are very conscious that speech can be hurtful, even when-perhaps especially when-it's true. In a society where so much depends on group dynamics, good Hindus take care to ensure that their speech is kind and helpful. Even when this means bending the truth a little. 

Ethics 101 : Ahimsa

Ahimsa literally nonviolence. It may ring a bell because it was the famous codeward of Mahatma Gandhi's movement resistance to the British occupation of India. Ahimsa means not hurting yourself.

There are some situation where causing harm cannot be avoided. In the well-known example from the Mahabhrata, Krishna advises Arjuna to take up arms against a prince whose evil actions must be stopped. Note that Krishna makes this suggestion only after multiple attempts at peaceful negotiation have failed.

Hindus are generally a peace-loving people. Yet only a minority go so far to say that even in cases of self-defense or protection of the innocent, violence must always be avoided. Hindus generally acknowledge that the ahimsa movement worked because Mahatma Gandhi was defying the British. If he had been up against the Nazis, the outcome might have been different.

Nevertheless, practicing Hindus takes ahimsa quite seriously. A Canadian friend of mine was mentioning how each time he would leave the home of a Hindu friend she would hand him a sweet and say to him", If I have offended you in any way during your stay in my home, please forgive me". This was a women of extraordinary kindness who he couldn't even imagine anything offensive! Yet it was important to her to ensure that if she had inadvertently anyone, she is clear at once. 

Five Things to Definitely Avoid

I recently returned from Prayag, the area Allahabad where the second century B.C.E sage Patanjali had his ashram. He was a spiritual genius of the first magnitude whose books on yoga science, medicine, and grammar are Hindu classics. His presence is still strongly felt there and legends about the great master abound.

One of Patanjali's many contributions to Hindu culture was a set of ten commitments. It's a famous list of basic do's and don'ts that define what it means to be an ethical person. It spells out a fundamental commitment to spiritual life. It's the perfect place to begin our consideration of Hindu morality.

Patanjali began by listing five yamas,things that no one should ever do :

1. Ahimsa : Do not harm anyone

2. Satya    : Do not lie

3. Asteya  : Do not steal

4. Bramahacarya : Do not overindulge

5. Aparigaraha     : Don't be greedy.

Manu and women

Manu the ancient Hindu lawgiver is leery of granting women independent status. He prefers that they be supervised either by a father or a husband. This way there's no question who is a baby dad.

But Manu's impression of women wasn't all bad. " Men who wish for good fortune must always honor women," he wrote. " The gods shower happiness and prosperity wherever women are venerated. But in those lands where women are not respected, misfortune surely befalls".

The Ten Commitment

The ultimate goal of Hindu spirituality is liberation from the wheel of rebirth. But while we're still riding up and down on the wheel, there's a practical matter we need to attend to. How do we live in this world? How should we conduct ourselves?

Moral principles are foundation of every religion. Not everyone is capable of becoming enlightened in this lifetime just as very few of us have the stuff to become gold medal Olympic athletes. But all of us have to live together on this planet. And most of us are concerned about living at peace not only with others but also with ourselves and with God. Our ethics shape both our inner and outer worlds.

Different religions hold many principles in common. Other ideas about what constitute virtuous actions are startlingly different. We've already looked at one major difference between Hindu beliefs and Christian and Islamic principles. Christians and Muslims feel morally obliged to convert other people to their religions. Hindus feel respect for other faiths is a more appropriate moral position. Let's look at the basic ethical tenets of Hinduism. We'll see how they agree with and how they diverge from contemporary Western views. 

Selling Sons

The dowry probably did not start out as a bad thing. On the contrary, its original purpose was not to demean women but to support them. In Hindu culture, most women have the birth home when they marry and become part of their husband's family. The dowry ensured that they brought their own financial resources with them-money they could use to support themselves and their families if their husband died or abandoned them.

Hindu males, however, stay with the birth family. The eldest son is particularly important since he's responsible for looking after the welfare of his younger siblings, for supporting his parents when they retire, and for conducting the parent's funeral rites.

While men receive their inheritance when their parents die, women receive theirs when they marry. This means that each time a daughter marries, her family sustains a substantial loss of income. There's financial loss in both cases, but families only feel that it when the girl marries because the son keeps his money within the family.

This system has become grotesquely distorted. It has evolved from sending a daughter away with  some worldly goods, to would-be-in-laws demanding huge sums of money from parents looking for husbands for their girls. " If she's joining our family, she better bring plenty of income with her!" In other words, these parents sell rights to their sons for exorbitant prices.

The disastrous social consequences are that Hindu families go bankrupt financing the weddings of their daughters. Many families just can't afford to have girls. Now that tests to check the sex of a fetus are available, some Hindus opt for abortion if the fetus is female. That it should come to this is bitterly ironic since Hindu scriptures uniformly condemn abortion.

The opposite practice, of demanding money for a daughter, was strictly forbidden in Hindu law. It smacked too much of prostitution. 

Declined Status

Nevertheless, there's no question women have lower status than men in Hinduism. The difference in status was almost certainly not so dramatic in the distant past. Hindus scriptures written centuries ago describe women and teachers and philosophers and show women receiving initiations they are denied today. The Veda itself includes women among its highest seers.

Some of the unfortunate problems women experience in Hindu culture today may be due to 1,500 years of nearly continual invasions from the north, beginning around 500 B.C.E. To protect mothers, wives, and daughters, women were increasingly confined inside the house, cutting back their wider social roles.

But the worst problems Hindus women experience are due to the horrible practice of selling sons. Though outlawed in modern India, sadly this custom is still widely practiced.

Yemen

The majority of Yemen's population is divided into tribal groups, especially in the northern areas of the country where 85% of local residents belong to various tribes. There are also small groups of peoples of Turkish/Ottoman origin in urban areas. Roughly 53% of the population are sunni Muslims following the Shafi school while 45% adhere to the Zaydi Shia branch of Islam with small minorities of Ismail Muslims.

Lantern Festival

It is not to be confused with the Mid-Autumn Festival; Which is sometimes also known as the " Lantern Festival" in locations such as Singapore and Malaysia. 

Women First

In Hindu India, the role of women is perceived very differently than in North America. Take the first 50 years of India's as an independent nation following its emancipation from Britain. From one third of that time, India had a woman prime minister. In the United States, at least up till the moment I'm writing, if Americans so much as had a strong first lady, half the country would become apoplectic!

Perhaps the reason Hindus seem to feel more comfortable with a female commenderin-chief than North Americans they're because they're constantly exposed to images of powerful goddesses. And the Hindu national epics are full of accounts of intelligent, politically influential women. Or maybe it's because the archetypal role for a women in India is rather than sex object as in the West. You might trust your mother to run the country, but you probably hesitate to have a sex kitten do so!

If you cross the border from Hindu India into Muslim Pakistan, you'll instantly feel the different cultural climate. In most of India, women can travel comparatively free from fear. In Pakistan, a women needs to be covered from head to toe in a heavy robe or accompanied by a male guardian. Otherwise she may find herself in serious trouble. 

Metamorphoses

The Hindu life course is specifically structured so that each individual has an opportunity to go for the gold, to reach the spiritual liberation before death. If all goes according to plan, life metamorphoses through four stages :

1. Brahmacharya : Student life

2. Grihastya        : Married life

3. Vanaprastha    : Intensive spiritual

4. Sannayasa       : Letting go

Brahmacharya literally means " walking with God". During these years, the student receives cultural, vocational and religious training. You'll also hear the term brahmacarya used to mean celibacy since Hindus weren't supposed to have sex before marriage.

Marriage is a very Big Deal in Hindu culture. A small number of individuals renounce the householder in life and go directly from brahmacharya to sanyasa, devoting their entire lives to the spiritual quest alone. But the vast majority of people are expected to practice spirituality within the context of raising a family. Remember that having children was one of the five sacred duties required of Hindus. Even parents of some of the greatest saints India has ever known, like Shankaracharya and Ramana Maharishi, tried to pressure them into married life to meet the social norm-and so that they'd support in their old age.

When a couple got on in years, they'd retire as we do in the West. But rather than moving to Florida and fishing all day, they'd go live in a hut in the forest to pursue intensive spiritual practices. Vanaprastha literally means "living in the woods".

As death approached, Hindus (especially males) would renounce even the little hut and go wandering on pilgrimages, living on whatever handfuls of food strangers would offer. This was the act of letting go preparatory to final release when the body itself dropped away.

In Western culture, people are very rarely prepared for death. Hindus spend the last years of their life specifically preparing for this transition. Though these customs are have gone to spend the last months of their lives chanting God's name and praying. Many temples specifically accommodate these retirees with a minimum of food and shelter so that they can close out their lives with God.

Moksha : The Ultimate Goal

The basic goal of life on which the  are founded is dharma : morality especially as it expresses itself in the fulfilment of one's duties. But the ultimate goal of life is moksha, enlightenment. The previous three aims are understood with this very much in mind.

Prosperity and pleasure are great. Just about everybody wants them. But they don't last forever. After eight or nine decades at the most, the soul loses both at its physical body crumbles away. If your pursuit of the good things in life hasn't been from the perspective of the supreme good, then death can be a horrendous experience. Being cut off from the people and things we're attached to its wrenching.

Death is less of a trauma if during our lives we've been practicing the premier Hindu spiritual discipline of vairagya, dispassion. Western students sometimes think vairagya or nonattachment means stifling nature and cutting ourselves off from relationships. In fact it means expanding them.

Truly dispassionate people are the most loving folks you'll ever meet. They don't just love their family members and friends. They love everyone and everything. The divine inner nature, which is love itself, is allowed to shine in all directions, embracing everyone without particular attachment to one individual or another.

As human beings we naturally love our children, our family and friends. Hinduism suggests though that we not get overly attached to our attachments. At some point, we will have to let everyone of them go. If we bear this in mind through life, death becomes an expensive experience, not a fearful ending. We look forward to-and work toward- an illumined state of consciousness that enfolds all our fellow beings in a state beyond time.

Making Love

Hindus's attitude toward sex is perplexing to many outsiders. No one can fail to notice the expansive variety of sexual postures assumed by half-naked statues that decorate the outside of many Indian temples! Yet to outward apparences, many if not most Hindus are quite sexually conservative. Not only women, but men are often still sexually inexperienced on their wedding night. And it seems overly prudish to Westerners that many Hindu women remain dressed even while bathing! (This was also the practice in much of Europe till fairly recently.)

Sexuality is celebrated in Hinduism, but generally within the context of marriage. By confining one's amorous adventures to a spouse, the sexual drive is expressed in a healthy manner and yet also disciplined. There have, of course, always been other norms. A few parts of India have been known for their more relaxed

attitudes toward sexuality. Today as Western influence becomes more pervasive, sexual experimentation is increasing among Hindus generally. 

Making Money

In the Hindu religion, getting rich is considered an entirely appropriate human behaviour. In fact, some holy texts advise us to make as much money as we can with our two hands. And then to give it away with ten hands to those in need!

There's an important caveat here. Remember how in the list of goals of human life, dharma came first?This means that while we are free, and even encouraged, to make money, it must be done within the context of dharma. Our way of making a living must be ethical. Dharma not only means our duty in life, it also means righteousness Morality is the basic underpinning of society.

Paying Your Debts

There is also a general dharma incumbent on all human beings. Each of us has five duties or debts we need to repay:

1. We must fulfill our obligations to the gods for their beings. Each of us has five them with the appropriate rituals.

2.The tremendous debt we owe to our parents and teachers must be rapid by supporting them and by having children and passing on our knowledge in turn.

3. We fulfill our duty to our guests by treating them as if they were deities visiting our home.

4. We have a debt to all other human beings as well. This can be rapid by treating each with the respect he or she is due.

5. Also, we have an obligation to all other living beings. We must offer them our good will and food or other types of help when appropriate.

There are two preoccupations in Hinduism : freedom and responsibility. While tantrics, and renunciates launch into the freedom of spirit, Hindus who choose to remain in the workaday world are very conscious of their karmic debs and the profound interconnection and interdependence of the living in the many different planes of reality. Dharma defines their place in the world order and shows them how to live together in mutual respect and support. 

Arjuna's Dharma

In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna urges Arjuna to pick up his bow and go to war. This was because Arjuna had been born into a ksharitya family of kings and warriors. His brother's kingdom had been illegally taken over by a tyrant. It was not the dharma of the priest or the stone mason to stop the evil tyrant. As a defender of justice, it was Arjuna's job to ensure that the kingdom was returned to its rightful ruler.

Even though Arjuna didn't want to fight, Krishna insisted he must fulfill his dharma. The Hindu view is that even if the stone worker would rather be a World Federation wrestler, he should stick with the professional responsibility he was born into. This attitude is incomprehensible to many Westerners. But in India (as in many Asian cultures), the welfare of society as a whole outweighs the individual's own preferences. Traditional Hindus believe that it is by fulfilling their duty, not by fulfilling their fantasises, that people hold their society together. 

Doing Your Dharma

In this context, dharma means doing that which you were meant to do, doing it ethically, and doing it to the best of your capacity. Generally it refers to one's career. One person's dharma may be manufacture tires. Another person's dharma could be to sing professionally, or lay foundations, or practice medicine.

In Hindu culture, often your dharma was determined by the family and clan you were born into. If you were born in a family of stone masons, your fulfilment in life would come from working with stone. If your mother was a washerwoman, you would probably be a washerwomen, too. Though for most women, the primary dharma was being a housewife and mother. 

What's Life For?

According to Hinduism, there are four main goals in human life.

< Dharma : Fulfilling your purpose 

<Artha     : Prospering

< Kama    : Having fun

< Moksha : Getting know God

Let's take a brief look at each.

Renouncers

Some people step outside the caste system on purpose. These are the sannyasins, the wandering holy men and women of the Hinduism. Caste law applies only to Hindus of this world. Sannyasins have given up the comforts and luxuries of home and family to wander freely without any possessions or worldly responsibilities. without any possessions or worldly responsibilities. They are focused on self-realization and are considered "in this world but not of it". Caste regulations don't apply to them, yet they are among the most highly respected members of Hindu culture.

Some sannyasins are swamis, who have formally taken vows in one of the renunciate orders. Don't expect to go to their headquarters and get a list of all the swamis, though. Things are not done in an organized someone who's swami initiates you in his or her order without necessarily registering your name anywhere. You put on the orange robe of a swami, and you're in business. Recently there was an attempt to begin keeping order in the orders, but the resistance was so fierce the effort collapsed. How can you expect someone who's renounced the world to worry about whether their name is listed in the ledger in some administrative building?

Quite a few of the sannyasins wandering India are not swamis but have simply renounced worldly life with blessing of their guru or even on their own. They beg for food once a day or get a free meal at the local temple. Typically they move along from one pilgrimage spot to the next since staying in any one place for longer than a few days (except during the monsoon season when travel is impactical) is seen as a potential source of attachment. They do their daily ritual practice, chant, meditate, and sometimes teach or hang out with fellow renunciate.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is also known as the spring Festival, the literal translation of the modern Chinese name. Chinese new year celebrations traditionally ran from Chinese New Year's Day itself, the first day of the first month of the Chinese calender, to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month, making the festival the longest in the Chinese calender. Because the Chinese calender is lunisolar, the Chinese New year is often referred to as the " Lunar New year".

Outsiders

Not everyone in the world fits into the four-caste system. There were people who left the system voluntarily. And there who left involuntarily. Finally, there were people who never in the system to begin with.

The panchamas are the famous outcastes of India. These are people, or descendants of people, who committed some serious infringement of caste regulations that led to their being ostracized from orthodox Hindu society. A person could become a pariah, for example, by marrying outside their social group. (Remember that until about the twentieth century, this kind of thing wasn't so unusual in Western countries either.) Hindus who adopted a new religion, like Buddhism or Jainism, met with disapproval, too.

People who performed unsanitary types of jobs were also considered "untouchable". These were people who cleaned dirty like lavatories or who handled dead animals or dead people. Perhaps the ancients noticed that these people were a source of contagion (of viruses and bacteria we'd say today) and started keeping a distance.

Mlecchas are foreigners, people who never were Hindus to begin with. Generally Hindus have tended to be somewhat suspicious of foreigners. Until only recently, many Hindus considered it a calamity to have to leave India and live with mlecchas. This makes sense because for most of their history Indians enjoyed a high standard of living compared to many other cultures. 

The Hierarchy of Being

The three upper castes (all except the Shudras  are called twice born in Hinduism. The first birth occurs when the infant burst hollering from its mother's womb. The second birth occurs at initiation, the Hindu version of Christian rite of conformation. At this time, the child is inducted into formal spiritual practice. Shudras do not receive this initiation probably because originally they were not considered focused and serious enough to stick with a spiritual discipline. In real life, of course, many Shudras are highly spiritual. Many great saints have come from the shudra caste.

The four castes are very broad groupings. Most Hindus actually think of themselves in terms of their subcaste 

and clan. There are over 3,000 human subcastes in Hinduism. This system represents in the hierarchical nature of souls in the universe, so there are nonhuman subcastes, too. Animals, plants, even insects have their subcaste. So do gods and demons. 

Isha Foundation

Isha foundation is a non-profit, spiritual organization founded in 1992 by sadhguru Jaggi vasudev. It is based at the isha yoga center near coimbatore, India at the Isha Institute of Inner sciences at MacMinnville, Tennessee in the united states. The foundation offers yoga programs under the name Isha yoga It has over 2 million volunteers and works in tandem with international bodies like the Economic and social council of the united Nations.

Isha Yoga is the mastered under which the Isha foundation offers yoga programs. The word "isha ' means the formless divine. Isha yoga's introductory flagship program is 'inner engineering'. It includes initiation into meditation and pranayama and the Shambhavi Mahamudra. 

Four Classes of Hindu Society

The sages gave each of these types a name.

< Kashatriyas : motivated by power
< vaishyas      : motivated by material objects
< Brahmins    : motivated by knowledge
< Shudras     : unmotivated people

The kshatriyas are your kings and queens. They're your top-level executives and administrators. They're also your military and police personnel, the ones who use force to keep order. For most of its history, India was a patchwork of numberless little kingdoms. So the kshatriyas were primarily your maharajahs and maharanis, your princesses and dukes and their families, and the warriors they retained to help protect those they ruled and conquer those they didn't.

Vaishyas are your business people, traders people, artisans, farmers. Your skilled labor. Brahmins are priests, counselors, educators, philosophers. In India until fairly recently, brahmins were primarily responsible for preserving the Veda and were valued as ritual specialists. Today more brahmins are moving into other fields, such as politics, administration, and medicine. Shudras are your unskilled laborers.

Originally the varnas, or four castes as these groups are called, were somewhat fast and loose designations. But in India as in much of the rest of the world, children learned their trade from their parents.

What Turns you On?

What turns people on? The Hindu sages noted that there are basically four distinct personality types.

The first type is people whose primary passion in life is power. They feel most alive when they're controlling others. They would be miserable if they couldn't express their need to be in charge.

Another personality type is mostly motivated by material things. These folks want to be wealthy.Their satisfaction comes from producing or owning things. Their worst fear is poverty. Or sometimes simply having less than other people do.

The third kind of person is oriented more toward the inner world. It's ideas that turn them on, and internal experiences like spiritual visions. Give them a book, have them teach a class, or let them sit quietly thinking or meditating, and they're happy as ducks in a pond.

Then there are your burger flippers. These are the people who don't particularly want to rule the world. And they aren't money hungry enough to work their way up to a job. They don't necessarily long to be the world's leading philosophers either. They're content and relax with friends and family.

Guidepost

Ever feel like an outcast? Sad to say, the outcastes of India probably feel even worse. Mahatma Gandhi renamed this group of people Harijans, "the children of God".Outcaste status was outlawed in 1950. Today all Hindus are equal before the law.

A Classy Religion

Hindu culture is tightly structured. Everyone knows where they belong-and where they don't. If you're a Hindu, many of life's choices are made for you. What your job will be. Who you'll marry. The class of people you'll hang out with.

For those of us who've grown up in the individualistic West, where our right to self-determination is a paramount value, the hierarchical societies of the East may seem stifling, even inhumane. Yet many Hindus would not trade their way of life for ours. Hindus who move to the West often complain that compared to home, Western culture seems cold and selfish.

Let's look at the way Hindu society organizes itself, and the religious purpose for this way of life.

How Hindus Live

Hindus live in a tightly ordered, hierarchical world with clear moral values. Although India is technically a secular state, for practicing Hindus there is no such thing as a secular life. Everything occurs within the context of religion. Sacraments for every Hindu begin before birth and continue after death. Holy days are frequent. Activities are oriented, directly or indirectly, toward the ultimate goal of Hindu spirituality : liberation of the soul from the bondage of karma and rebirth.

Mother India herself is sacred. You can't travel far without reaching one pilgrimage center or another. Temples appear everywhere, though the most familiar one is right in each Hindu's own home.

Here is how the saints and sages of the Eternal Religion counseled Hindu men and women to structure their society-and how to live with each other and find peace with themselves.

Adi Shankara

Shankara travelled across the subcontinent to propagate his philosophy through discourses and debates with other thinkers. He is reputed to have four mathas ("monasteries"), which helped in the historical development, revival and spread advaita Vedanta of which he is known as the greatest revivalist Adi Shankara is believed to be the organizer of the Dashanami monastic order and the founder of the shanmata tradition of worship.

His works in sanskrit concern themselves with establishing the doctrine (nondualism). He also established the importance of monastic life as sanctioned in the upanishads and the Brahma Sutra in a time when the mimamsa school established strict ritualism and ridiculed monasticism.

The Zoroastrian Connection

Zoroastrianism is immensely ancient. According to the Hindu tradition, Zoroaster would have lived long before 40000 B.C.E. ( He is mentioned as an ancient renegade teacher several times in the Rig Veda, which was composed somewhere around 4000 B.C.E) Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher, confirms that the Persians of his time dated Zoroaster to around 6000 BC.E (Western scholars have been extremely reluctant to accept such ancient dates for Zoroaster).

Zoroaster is one of the most important figures in religious history. When he broke with Hinduism, he established a new set of beliefs which much later would work ideas include the linear nature of time with history ending on Judgment Day, the rest resurrection on the physical body, and the promised return of a savior to inaugurate a millennial period of peace on earth. He also taught the existence of the Devil, a malevolent being nearly as powerful as God.

Hindus accept a modified version of the history of the returning savior. None of Zoroaster's other ideas is accepted in Hinduism.

Breaking with Tradition

Buddha was disgusted by the Hindu priestly caste, in whose rituals he had little faith. He rejected the authority of the Veda, the value of worshipping deities, and the concept of an immortal soul. Most of Buddha's teachings and practices, however, retain a strong Hindu flavor.

Mahavira, who lived around the same time as the Buddha and whose life paralleled Buddha's in a number of surprising ways, also rejected the Veda. His spiritual tradition, which strongly nonviolence, is called Jainism.

The Sikh tradition started in the Punjab in the twelfth century C.E. It emphasized devotion to God and guru, and later to the Adi Granth, the collection of beautiful hymns that eventually took the place of a human guru. Combining Hindu and Muslim ideals, the Sikhs became known for their military valor.

Varanasi

The kashi Naresh (Maharaja of kashi) is the chief cultural patron of Varanasi, and an essential part of all religious celebrations. The culture of Varanasi is closely associated with the Ganges. The city has been a cultural center of North India for several thousand years, and has a history that is older than most of the major world religions.

Thaipusam

Thaipusam (Tamil: தைப்பூசம், Taippūcam ) is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community on the full moon in theTamil month of Thai (January/February). It is not only observed in countries where the Tamil community constitutes a majority, but also in countries where Tamil communities are smaller, such as Malaysia, Mauritius Singapore and Myanmar 

The word Thaipusam is a combination of the name of the month, Thai, and the name of a star, Pusam. This particular star is at its highest point during the festival. The festival commemorates the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a vel "spear" so he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman. There is a misconception among people that Thaipusam marks Murugan's birthday; however, it is believed that Vaikhasi Vishakam, which falls in the Vaikhasi month (May/June), is Murugan's birthday.

Skanda (or Murugan) was created during one of the battles between the Asuras (or to be more specific Soorapadman) and the Devas. At one point, the latter were defeated several times by the former. The Devas were unable to resist the onslaught of the Asura forces. In despair, they approached Shiva and entreated to give them an able leader under whose heroic leadership they might obtain victory over the Asuras. They surrendered themselves completely and prayed to Shiva. Shiva granted their request by creating the mighty warrior, Skanda, out of his own power or Achintya Shakti. He at once assumed leadership of the celestial forces, inspired them and defeated the Asura forces and to recognize that day the people created the festival.

in Palani, Tamil Nadu, India, Thousands of devotees flock to Palani and attend kavadi. According to palani.org, "The number of kavadis reaching Palani for Thai Pusam is about 10,000. For Pankuni Uttiram, 50,000 kavadis arrive. It is kavadi to your right, kavadi to your left, kavadi in front of you, kavadi behind you, kavadi above you and kavadi below you."

In Vadalur (Cudalore dist.) near Neyveli, Saint Vallalar (1823–1874) (Ramalinga Adigalar)21-01-1872 Established Sathya Gnana Sabai,(Lotus Temple) inside he kept 7 Screens and Camphor lighted Jothi, every thaipoosam day early morning 6pm then 10pm,afternoon 1 pm then,evening 7 pm, then night 10 pm, and next day early morning 5.30,am like six time full screen Jothi Darisan showing,in this temple. and every monthly Poosam day evening 7 pm half screen Jothi Darshan performing.This was established in the year 1872,the Arutperumjothi Darshan. can be seen monthly once and Yearly six times only, The state Government Declare local Holiday for the cudalore district.

In Haripad Subramayawsami Temple, Alapuzha, Kerala is famous for Kavadiyattom.Almost 5000 kavadis coming to the temple from many temples in the locality. garga

In Vaikom, Kerala, India, Thai Pusam festival is conducted with Kaavadis at Udayanapuram Subramanya temple. Devotees take panchamritha kaavadi, paal kaavadi, bhasma kaavadi, etc.

In Karamana, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, Thai Pusam festival is conducted at Satyavageeswara temple. The utsava moorthy is taken in procession on a vahanam (mount). There is nel(Paddy)parai alappu or Nel alavu, as a ritual performed for good luck and prosperity.

In Nallur, Jaffna, Sri Lanka, Thai Pusam festival is conducted at Nallur Kandhasamy Temple. Many Tamil devotees irrespective of religion take part in celebrations. Even Tamils from Roman Catholic faith and Muslims take part in Thai Pusam celebrations and take Kavadis.

Hindu Spin-offs

From time to time, great spiritual masters left the Hindu fold to start their own traditions. Hindu policy is so liberal, Hindus are allowed to believe just about anything, so what do you have to do to be excluded from Hinduism? Refusing to accept the Veda as divinely inspired and breaking with the caste tradition entirely will do the trick.

A number of important Hindu sects splintered from the Vedic fold to form their own faiths. Hinduism has no less than four world-famous stepchildren.

The Lousy Accountant

One of the most famous Shakta saints of recent was Ramprasad Sen, who lived in Bengal in the eighteenth century. He was passion for the goddess Kali and neglected his work as an accountant so badly his boss fired him! But when his boss read the beautiful lines of poetry Ramprasad had scribbled in the account books, the businessman was astute enough to realize his clerk was a burgeoning saint. He encouraged Ramprasad to give up accounting and devote his life to spiritual practice. And he sent a generous stipend home to Ramprasad every month so that his employee could actually afford to do so!

Ramprasad is famous for poems in which he approaches the Mother of the Universe like an innocent child. Or like a petulant child at times! Speaking of his meditation practice he writes.

Mother Kali, you dwell in cremation grounds

so I've made my heart a burning pit

where you can dance.

One desire burns in the conflagration of my life:

To watch your blazing dance!

I sit here still as death in my funeral pyre,

looking for You with eyes closed.

God or Goddess?

Philosophically Shaktism is very close to Shaivisim. In fact the two are often considered brother-sister tradition. Their doctrines are essentially identical. However Shaivisim emphasizes the consciousness or Shiva aspect a little more. Shaktism emphasizes the energy or active facet of the divine slightly more.

In the end, Shaivities admit Para Shiva, the highest form of Shiva, contains both Shiva and Shakti. Shaktas says Sadakhya, the highest form of the Goddess, contains both Shiva and Shakti, consciousness and energy. Some difference. Consciousness is energy-living self-awareness.

Thai Pongal

Thai Pongal or Pongal is a thanksgiving or harvest festival celebrated in south India at the end harvest season. It is one of the most important festivals celebrated by the Tamilians in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the Indian Territory of Pondicerry and Sri Lanka. Pongal marks the beginning of the northward journey movement traditionally referred to as uttarayana. It concides with the festival Makara sankranthi celebrated throughout India as the winter harvest, and is usually held from January 13-16 in the Gregorian calendar i.e. from the last day of the Tamil Month Maargazhi to the third day of Thai. The second of the four days or the first day of the month Thai is the main day of the festival which is known as Pongal or Thai Pongal. This also represents the Indic solstice when the sun purportedly enters the 10th house of the Indian zodiac i.e. Makar or Capricorn.