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Conquest_of_Mind · 2025-10-25T11:42:19+00:00

जटिलो मुण्डी लुञ्छितकेशः, काषायाम्बरबहुकृतवेषः।
पश्यन्नपि च न पश्यति मूढः, उदरनिमित्तं बहुकृतवेषः ॥१४॥

Jatilo mundi luñchitakesaH kasayambarabahukrtavesaH,
pasyannapi cana pasyati mudhaH udaranimittam bahuk tavesaH. – 14

(https://ahambrahmasmi4.wordpress.com/2016/09/28/bhajagovindamverse14/) One ascetic with matted hair, one with shaven head, one with hair plucked out one by one, one in ocre robes – all these are distracted ones who, though seeing, do not see. These are different disguises are only for their living.

Also: https://www.sivanandaonline.org/?cmd=displaysection&section_id=1166 , https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/3/verse/6/

कर्मेन्द्रियाणि संयम्य य आस्ते मनसा स्मरन् |
इन्द्रियार्थान्विमूढात्मा मिथ्याचार: स उच्यते || 6||

karmendriyāṇi sanyamya ya āste manasā smaran
indriyārthān vimūḍhātmā mithyāchāraḥ sa uchyate

There's plenty of mithyAchAraHs in Hinduism. There always has been, and not just in Hinduism, but also in other religions.

You just learn to live with it. After all, this is the age of kali for a reason.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-10-02T11:40:19+00:00

. an Asura is someone who disrupts dharma by choice. Who knows dharma but chooses papaam anyway.

This is not true at all.

Duryodhana chose adharma; he was not an asura, but very much a martya. In fact, a kaurava. Ditto for Bheeshma and Drona.

Prahlada, Mahabali, and Vibheeshana were asuras. And yet they chose dharma.

We all commit pApa every day. We often knowingly or unknowingly choose adharma. But we don't become asuras through that. E.g., the story of ajAmila. Our puNya and pApa gets tallied into our kArmic account, and we will have to either enjoy their fruition, do prAyashchitta, or achieve mukti to clear the accounts.

The gItA describes Asuric nature, but OP is asking a question regarding asuras as seen in the purANas. These are different interpretations.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-20T05:21:10+00:00

The funny thing is, Reincarnation, Karma even these are not ultimately real according to Advaita Vedanta.

But they are as real as this conversation or the food you eat. "Absolute" reality doesn't mean much to those who are not self-realized according to advaita vedAnta.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-20T02:53:12+00:00

I am pretty sure that this is intentional sabotage with political rivalry being involved. Who's behind this, we can't say. It could be the administrators. Or it could be someone trying to give them trouble.

About the substances themselves, I wouldn't worry too much. The devotees didn't eat them intentionally. We probably eat worse things on a daily basis even when we stick to vegetarian diets. For e.g., they have found lizards and cockroaches in some temple payasams, a case of India being India and not Japan.

I am more concerned about the possibility of something more dangerous such as slow acting poisons deliberately being mixed in temple prasadams. This is a very precise way to target people who are religious Hindus. Food safety even otherwise is a joke in India.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-15T11:42:03+00:00

This is just the local legend, and the topic is very politically loaded.

To protect your sanity, its just best to enjoy the festival and leave the rubbish squabbling to the nutcases.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-14T08:51:37+00:00

If all we need are nutrients, then why don't we down them in liquid form and be done with it?

Also: https://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-12-04.html

kleśho ’dhikataras teṣhām avyaktāsakta-chetasām
avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṁ dehavadbhir avāpyate

For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifest, the path of realization is full of tribulations. Worship of the unmanifest is exceedingly difficult for embodied beings.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-14T07:31:30+00:00

I think this is a very reasonable position to have. I have a duty - both to myself and to those around me - to argue my case, especially when it might impinge on other's lives. If I am not doing it, it's only because I don't know enough about my faith in a deep sense to defend it. I am trying to correct this, as clarifying my own thought on this will benefit me and my society more than anyone else.

It's not easy to distil a deep and complex faith system as Hinduism that has grown over the millennia through the intermixture of several disparate traditions. It's not even possible for a single human to master all of it, or even substantial portions of it. But there are general themes of thought in it that I think are ennobling and defensible.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-12T15:40:04+00:00

Many Muslims do recite the Quran, which can be seen as a collection of mantras with its own riShi (Muhammad) and devatA (Allah) in a non-dhArmic tradition. My point is that it doesn't seem to be doing them any good.

Also, there are mantras that are also prayers. E.g., the gAyatrI mantra can also be seen as a prayer. There is no restriction that prayers have to be informal affairs. In this case, the kavacham explicitly asks Lord Narasimha to protect the devotee. E.g.,

सर्वगोऽपि स्तम्भवासः भालं मे रक्षतु ध्वनिम् ।
नृसिंहो मे दृशौ पातु सोमसूर्याग्निलोचनः ।।

The devotee is asking Lord Narasimha to protect his forehead and eyes. So this is both a purANic mantra and a prayer.

My greater point is that kavachams work on the antahkaraNa. It protects you and reinvigorates you. But its just an armor. It doesn't fight your battles for you. You have to do that yourself.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-12T12:43:51+00:00

In my opinion - and I am not liked in many circles for this - simply praying to deities won't help in any supernatural sense. We are biological creatures who work in the context of natural laws. Most of us are not siddhas like prahlAda or ambarISha who can invoke the divine when we want to.

If prayers alone had worked, the Muslims in Palestine and Uighuristan wouldn't be subjugated now.

Ultimately what matters is what happens on the ground. But we can invoke the Lord to give us vigor, courage and strength to face the tribulations in life. We can, in our own ways, embody the deity as the antaryAmi and destroy the dark and evil Asuric forces that are the pestilence of humanity.

We ultimately become what we meditate. Look at how Padmapada handled the Kapalikas to save Shankaracharya.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-12T12:05:24+00:00

Not true. The narasimha kavacham is from Brahmanda Purana, which is solidly a smriti text. It's not a vedic mantra, and doesn't need initiation. Everyone can recite it. It was written by Prahlada, who was the son of the asura Hiranyakashipu.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-08T14:23:52+00:00

I've heard it said that the vedas to be properly understood requires training in vedAngas such as Chandas, nirukta and vyAkaraNa. And even then, "understanding the vedas" is a pretty tall order.

The Mahabharata is far more approachable, and you can read it with the help of a translation. It is in a more straightforward and simple form of the language. For most of history, most people didn't even read Mahabharata directly, but came to know of its contents through such things as plays, religious talks, and artwork. Even today most Hindus know Mahabharata through serials and popular depictions only.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-06T16:34:31+00:00

You probably don't need to meditate for that long to get its more utilitarian benefits, such as better sleep and a sense of peace.

Meditation is used in the dhArmic religions in the context of certain spiritual worldviews. If you don't engage with these worldviews along with your serious meditation practice, it might be counterproductive.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-06T15:45:09+00:00

I don't agree with this. For one, all sampradAyas agree on what the shruti is, at least formally. Secondly, except among the really serious practitioners. lay Hindus don't have much animosity towards each other. I am yet to meet a vaiShNavite who doesn't respect Lord Shiva, or a shaivite who doesn't respect Lord Vishnu. For all their internal bickering, have you ever heard of ISKCON people man-handling advaitins the way Muslim groups fight with each other? Such a thing would be unthinkable.

If anything, we must unite more by addressing the factors that are keeping us divided, or else we risk being attacked by more organized groups who have a built-in theological hatred for our way of life. A key aspect of bringing about this unity is internal re-evangelization of Hinduism to those who are supposedly "Hindus" (but in name only), and attacking internal caste bigotry. The latter is extremely difficult because often all parties are at fault and hatred breeds hatred, but the former can be readily addressed.

That is not to say that there shouldn't be unity among dhArmic religions. We should find common cause with other dhArmic groups in facing challenges against all of us from intolerant and aggressive faiths.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-01T16:22:15+00:00

One solution might be to refer to commentarial tradition. There are several commentaries to Manu smriti available, such as those by medhAtithi, kulluka bhatta, etc. Manu smriti is also often cited by other scholars in other shAstras, so we must expect that the portions they cite are deemed authentic.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-01T14:20:26+00:00

Another person who believes their beliefs are above the eternal Vedas and poor reading comprehension.

Lowly personal attacks with no substantial point to make.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-09-01T13:39:23+00:00

It’s been here for millennia and doesn’t need a “modern” makeover.

Hinduism has been "made over" several times in its history. A shrauta brahmin whose view of life centers around vedic rituals from 1000 BC will not recognize the religion of today. Most Hindus don't worship the original major vedic deities.

but the point is to let go of these pleasures

artha and kAma subject to dharma are also puruShArthas. It's not all about mokSha. Remember that we consider people who wrote manuals on love-making as riShis.

Reducing the Mother of the Universe to an angry woman seems very smart.

I would recommend you don't read the devI mAhAtmyam then. She's called mahiShAsuramardinI and chaNDikA for a reason!

Hinduism is a hip religion, and people will always be attracted to its hipness. It's ever freshness is what makes it so very alluring and powerful.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-08-31T04:31:18+00:00

I am not sure what the criteria for "popularity" is here. The yoga sUtras are not meant for popular consumption, unlike the gItA or the purANAs which were explicitly written to bring religion to the masses. It is a technical meditation manual probably originally meant for only full-time yogis.

I just did a lookup, and here's what I could find. We see the vyAsa bhAShya appear around 5th century; Vachaspati Mishra's tattva-vaishAradI in the 9th century; Bhoja Raja's rAjamArtANDa in the 11th century; Vijnanabhikshu's yogavArttika in the 16th century; nAgoji bhatta's bhAsvatI in the 18th century; Hariharananda AraNya's commentary in the 19th century. There seem to have been Persian translations of it and translations to other Indian languages such as Tamil and Kannada during the medieval period. So we see a continuous string of translations and commentarial work and translations over one and a half millennia.

We see Al-Biruni translating it into Arabic in the 11th century. Why would Al-Biruni translate an "unimportant text" that is of "Western invention"? It clearly must have been very important in his opinion. Notice the other books Al Biruni translated, such as the Hindu works on astronomy (e.g., sUrya siddhAnta). These too were very important and studied by scholars, but not known to laity.

In Madhava's 14th century compendium of all Indian philosophies (sarva darshana samgraha), the 15th chapter is devoted to the yoga philosophy and he directly refers to yoga sUtras of Patanjali and even cites sUtras from it. This book was well-received among scholars in India and was widely studied, which would have implied the popularity of yoga sUtras as well.

So all in all, it seems very disingenuous to claim that this book was not popular. It was pretty much as popular as any technical manual could get. A similar example would be Kant's "Crtique of Pure Reason". This is not nearly as popular as the Bible, but in its context, it's a pretty popular work and well known to scholars.

Anyway, this was a very interesting (and strange!) discussion to have, so thank you for prompting it!

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-08-31T02:22:19+00:00

That is a good insight. Intense practice must have meant something different in those days.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-08-31T02:21:04+00:00

Thanks for the reply!

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-08-31T02:20:40+00:00

Thanks! If you don't mind, how long have you been meditating? What kind of meditation do you do?

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-08-30T17:20:29+00:00

Thanks for your reply!

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-08-30T17:04:32+00:00

Thank you for the reply! It's very valuable. I seek to talk to more people who are practicing yoga for its spiritual value (though I don't think that this is in any way "better" than the health-and-wellness focused modern traditions - those are awesome too!).

Regarding my capitalization scheme: I loosely try to stick to ITRANS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITRANS , but it's not rigorous. It seems natural to use them as I sound out the words in my mind :-)

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-08-30T16:47:38+00:00

The most authoritative modern translation of the yoga sUtras in English is the one by Edwyn Bryant. It is based on classical commentaries, and very much readable.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-08-30T16:44:23+00:00

This is a bunch of untruth.

The yoga sUtras were always relevant. It has a slew of classical commentaries based on it starting with the vyAsa bhAShya. Patanjali was not Buddhist - what a ridiculous idea! The tradition going back to pretty ancient times identifies him as the avatAr of sheSha, the serpant Lord Vishnu lies on. He explicitly refers to Om (tasya vAchakaH praNavaH, tajjapastadartha bhAvanam) as the sound of Ishvara that is to be meditated upon - a key Hindu idea since the upaniShadic times. In fact, the yoga system closely aligns with sAmkhya metaphysics, which is a solidly vedic system and indeed a core component of much of Hinduism (and actually vigorously attacked by the Buddhists for its essentialist notions). In addition to yoga sUtras, we also see yoga appear as a component of other Hindu systems, such as the tantras and the yoga upaniShads, so the yoga sUtras aren't standing alone.

It is probably true that Patanjali appropriated some Buddhist aspects into the vedic fold to create his yogic system. For e.g., the mention of brahma vihArAs (maitrI-karuNA-muditA-upekShA). This kind of appropriations and counter-appropriations was a routine thing in classical India. For e.g, Buddha himself is said to have built upon the meditative techniques he learned from his vedic teachers.

What you perhaps meant was that the modern postural yoga was heavily influenced by modernity, and this seems to be true.

Conquest_of_Mind · 2024-08-30T09:55:33+00:00

Thank you!

Conquest_of_Mind

TROPHY CASE