July 15, 2014

July 15, 2014 By

Brahma as a God is a little different from the other two in the trinity. He is less often worshiped directly. Perhaps because he is preoccupied with creation. Perhaps because he was cursed to be worshiped less. Perhaps because creation is done and now preservation and destruction are closer to us and our experience. Brahma v.s. Brahman*Why Worship Brahma* Stories*Symbolism*Worship* Brahma v.s. Brahman This can get a bit confusing, but Brahman is the word for the concept of the universal God... Read more

July 14, 2014

July 14, 2014 By

I noticed something the other day that I think might be an issue almost unique to Hinduism. It is both an ancient religion and a current religion. That doesn’t happen very often! I read an article about bed sheets that were printed with Ganesha’s image and how offensive it was, but even the person speaking for those who were offended said that Ganesha was one of the most universally worshiped Gods in Hinduism. Was. But He still is! There’s a... Read more

July 13, 2014

July 13, 2014 By

The well respected Himalayan Academy and their guru Subramuniyaswami put out a book several years ago called How To Become a Hindu. Over the next few weeks I’ll be reading the chapters and discussing each one individually. Today we’re looking at the second chapter: Religious Loyalty and Commitment. This chapter is titled Religious Loyalty and Commitment. It explains how it is important to fully commit to Hinduism and formally sever ties with other religions. To me, that’s one way to... Read more

July 11, 2014

July 11, 2014 By

My husband, a bit of a comic book nerd, pointed this picture out to me yesterday… Looks like Ganesha, right? It’s actually an illustration of “brother Warth” a “blue lantern” character from the Green Lantern comic book series. No doubt he was based on Sri Ganesha, though. Check out the picture of him wearing Indian clothes… On the one hand, it’s nice to see Hindu influence in popular culture. On the other hand, there doesn’t seem to be much acknowledgment... Read more

July 10, 2014

July 10, 2014 By

Something that came up in our discussion group from a while back is that karma means only action and it is indifferent to good action v.s. bad action. All actions have karmic consequences, even the good ones. It is these natural results that keep us tied to this world because we must experience those results, whether good or bad. Karma attaches to us for both good actions and bad actions, but the goal is to have none of it attach.... Read more

July 9, 2014

July 9, 2014 By

In Hinduism there are 16 major life rituals called Samskars or Sanskars (संस्कार) and one of them relates to a husband and wife conceiving a child. My husband and I want to have children and so this is the perfect opportunity to fulfill a samskar (although, I think the samskar counts as part of the child’s life!) When I was in India I picked up a copy of this book… It has a lot of long-winded essays about why more... Read more

July 8, 2014

July 8, 2014 By

Vishnu (Vish-nuu or Wish-nuu) is another member of the Hindu trinity. It is Vishnu who represents preservation. He maintains the world and so he is very popular for woship. A branch of Hinduism views Vishnu as the ultimate Lord of all. That branch is called Vaishnava. Many people who follow Vishnu in particular are highly devotional, hence the people that you’ll encounter who lose themselves in singing Hare Krishna; Hare Rama! Those are manifestations of Vishnu, the God who comes... Read more

July 7, 2014

July 7, 2014 By

Perhaps home ownership is part of the “American dream.” Maybe there are places where owning your own home is not of that much import. To me, there’s really something about that sense of having your own tiny corner of the world that’s all yours. The idea of owning a home makes me think of security and having a place in this world, both literally and figuratively. Recently there was a conversation on A Practical Wedding about how many people my... Read more

July 6, 2014

July 6, 2014 By

The well respected Himalayan Academy and their guru Subramuniyaswami put out a book several years ago called How To Become a Hindu. Over the next few weeks I’ll be reading the chapters and discussing each one individually. Today we’re looking at the first chapter: Personal Encounters with Hinduism. I’m not sure why they chose to put this as the first chapter. It’s a lot of personal stories from people who went through Subramuniyaswami’s “ethical conversion” and how it helped them... Read more

July 4, 2014

July 4, 2014 By

Today is the day that we Americans celebrate our independence and becoming our own country (I say that as though I were there in the 1770s, but growing up in the birthplace of the Revolutionary War will do that to you). You know, it strikes me as interesting that so many places have an independence day and that day is nearly always independence from British rule. Europe in general did a pretty stellar job taking over the planet. But all... Read more

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