My friend Venkat shared on Facebook about this challenge that is being run by Oprah and Deepak Chopra. It’s aim is meditation for better health, but I think there are multitudes of benefit to any meditation. I know not everyone is a fan of the slick, media-focused spiritualism, but I do think this challenge is worth doing. It started March 11th, but you can still sign up. Check it out here: 21-Day Meditation Challenge Worth it for hearing Oprah try... Read more
I am a religious person. That’s part of my identity and how I navigate life. Yet, apparently, some people think that if you call yourself a religious person, it means you think you’re better than everyone else. Either that or you really ought to be better than everyone else. This came up for me based on a comment I made on another blog. I won’t link to it, since the person who got upset with me did so because of... Read more
I’m surprisingly excited about having a wedding cake. It has never been in my plan just because it seemed like an unnecessary expense, yet given the opportunity to get one, I am totally thrilled! It seems like one of those quintessential wedding experiences. Brad’s friend, Kee, at GotteGris Bakery, is creating our cake and she’s going to Hindu theme it! Maybe like one of these cakes that I think I saw on Pinterest (Also, I have a Wedding Pinterest board... Read more
The followers of Swami Chinmayananda founded the Chinmaya Mission. Background The Swami was a Vedantic teacher who, like Easwaran, got a degree in English literature. He met Ramana Maharshi (there will be a post on him later) in college and was inspired to begin thinking about the meaning of life. Chinmayananda was involved in the movement to liberate India and spent several months in jail, coming very close to death. Eventually he studied Vedanta in a school in the Himalayas and... Read more
The “great night of Shiva” was this past weekend: Saturday overnight into Sunday. Because Shiva is a God of meditation, austerity, and contemplation, this festival is much less about frolicking than many others. This is a night for dedication and discipline. It is traditional to fast during the day and then stay up all night praying to Shiva. Interestingly, even though Shiva is very monk-like, he is also the God that women pray to for good husbands and a happy marriage. Some say... Read more
Dance is my favorite kind of exercise. It doesn’t even feel like exercising! I love moving to music. I’ve tended to lean towards learning formal classic dances like Ballet and Bharatnatyam, but I think it would be really fun to learn some Bollywood style dance moves. More useful at parties! Bollywood is mostly a blend of classical dance with folk dances. Here are some videos I found: http://www.monkeysee.com/play/16415-steps-to-the-verse-of-the-song-desi-girl And one with more of a bhangra emphasis: Read more
I’m not about having answers. I’m all about having questions. I’m not going to claim that I understand everything. Of course I don’t! And I’m not sure that I want to have all the answers. Because what I see is that when people feel like they’ve got it all figured out, they stop growing and they stop learning. It reminds me of when I was young and I was watching some TV program about math. I told my mom that... Read more
On a lot of the wedding sites I like to read I hear complaints that it’s hard to find examples of blended Hindu ceremonies or really any interfaith ceremonies. It can be hard to get inspiration and figure out how to integrate your wedding into a cohesive whole when you are planning an interfaith or intercultural ceremony. For me personally, I always saw a wedding ceremony as the blank canvas, or maybe a new iPhone. You just add in your... Read more
There is something about the animal aspect Gods that seem easier to relate to and feel comfortable with. I wonder why that is. Ganesha is so beloved and Hanuman is as well. I’m not sure whether one can really call Hanuman himself a God. He is said to be an incarnation of Shiva, so I guess he’s a God in the sense that Krishna and Rama were Gods (human manifestations of Vishnu). The God Vayu of the wind was instrumental... Read more
I thought it would be nice to read along through some scriptures and discuss the passages. I have a translation of the Upanishads done by Eknath Easwaran, a teacher whom I deeply trust and love. In this book there is an introduction before each translation with some insight from Easwaran. Here is a link to the Amazon page for the book I have: The sixth verse of the Easwaran translation of the Isha Upanishad is… Those who see all creatures... Read more
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