Podcasts about shivaratri

Abhishekam means “sprinkling” or “wetting,” and refers to the ritual of pouring water or other sacred substances on a Linga while chanting Vedic mantras or shlokas. Whatever is offered in abhisheka gets charged with powerful vibrations of the chanting and the touch of the Divine symbol. Of the items that are offered, the sacred water and other substances which are edible, like sugarcane juice, coconut water, Panchamrta-Milk, honey, curd, ghee& sugar are then distributed as Tirtha or Prasad. Haldi, Kumkum, chandan, bhasma etc. are poured for gardening. Nothing is wasted.Why is Abhisheka done?1. To express our love and gratitude to the Lord2. To pray to the Lord to purify our mind and bless us with more devotion, knowledge and selfless service.3. It represents continuous flow of thoughts to the Positive& Divine. 4. Helps one to invoke Divine Grace for fulfilment of material and spiritual desires. 5. The best of substances - chandan, kumkum, haldi - are poured in devotion on Him. The best in us must be poured in HIS seva. 6. The greatest and the highest Abhisheka is to pour the waters of pure love on the Lord in one's heart. External abhisheka leads to internal abhisheka eventually and unites one with the Lord.#Shivaratri #mahashivaratri #abhisheka #shiva

Shivaratri is made up of two words – Shiva & Ratri.  The word Shiva means – “Shete tishthati sarvam jagat Yasmin sah shivah shambhuh vikararahitah”  Shiva is the One in whom the entire universe rests, who is changeless and brings auspiciousness to everyone.  Shiva is Pure Consciousness or the very life-spark in our heart.  Consciousness is Sat-Chit-Ananda or Satyam Shivam and Sundaram.  Shiva means auspicious, beautiful. Consciousness alone is truly beautiful because true beauty never fades, is eternal and changeless. Our Body, Mind & Intellect are inert. They appear to be sentient and beautiful only because of reflection of Consciousness.   Ratri is formed of the samskrit root – Raa, which means to give. That which provides happiness and bliss is one meaning of Ratri.  Parvati is one who is born to Parvatraj Himalaya. She signifies Prakriti or Shakti. She is the source of all matter, energy and diversity. In Samskrit, Shiva is masculine gender word. Ratri is feminine gender, is symbolic of Prakriti or Shakti. Maha-Shivaratri is the union of Shiva & Shakti(Parvati).  It is also the night which provides illumination and bliss when Jiva unites with Shiva.   May we do tapasya like Mother Parvati, with single-pointedness, subtlety, purity and persistence to discover our oneness with Bhagawan Shiva and truly celebrate Mahashivaratri.  #shiva #shivaratri #shivarathri #hindu #hindufestival#parvati[marriage, shiva, festival, celebration, fasting, penance, union, wedding]

In this special Satsang in honour of Shivaratri, Swamiji shares from the teachings of the great sage Baba Muktananda.  This podcast was recorded live at The Ashram in Mount Eliza on the 22nd of February, 2025. Watch the full Satsang program with Swamiji and Devi Ma at The Ashram with a weekly subscription to The Ashram Online! This subscription will give you access to a library of over 100 hours of Swamiji's talks, meditation and chanting programs, hatha yoga classes and more. Click here to learn more.

Have you heard about the ‘energies of March 2025?' There is a LOT of info about this month, and for good reason… there is a LOT going on! Mercury and Venus will be retrograde, there are two eclipses, there are at least four major religious holidays… What does it all mean? In this episode, I will share the hidden meanings and symbolism behind the cosmic events of this pivotal time, and how YOU can harness its energies to elevate your spiritual growth!   Holy days, eclipses and planetary energies are all aligning for YOU! Get ready to awaken to new possibilities and tap into the transformative power of this extraordinary month. Ps- If you want some reassurance and intuitive guidance to navigate this time, click here to schedule an Intuitive Coaching session!  Key Learnings: The energy of March 2025 is a continuation of the end of February, where we experienced Shivaratri, the night of Shiva, the beginning of Ramadan and the New Moon in Pisces. What do all these have in common? Compassion. We also have the energy of Lent beginning in March, along with Ramadan, the focus is on compassion again. With Venus and Mercury going retrograde, we have the opportunity to reflect on our beliefs and our values. Are we in alignment? The eclipses in March, on the 14th and the 29th, amplify ALL the energies of this month, including the feast of the Annunciation. Will you say YES to your heart this year?   “In March 2025, even the planets are asking us to reassess our beliefs and values.”    Click here to schedule a Miracle Meeting with me Click here to join the Magnify Your Miracles Membership Seeking a metaphysical coach? Click here to schedule a Miracle Meeting with me If you love the image on the wall behind me of Mother Mary Blessing the World, you can order your own museum quality copy at www.deepaliu.com

26th Feb 2025In this Satsang, Sanjay discussed the significance of Maha Shivaratri and the importance of self-realization, emphasizing the need for inner silence, self-reflection, and dispassion in spiritual growth. He spoke of energy in the body, the dangers of ego addiction, and the importance of observing thoughts and emotions without attachment. Sanjay concluded by encouraging the audience to seek truth, practice contemplation, and embrace their true identity as pure awareness. These are teachings and pointers from ongoing NDA(Non-duality awareness)/Advaitic Satsangs held at Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Arunachala Ramanaya !

March 2025 is a month of profound transformation, cosmic resets, rebirths, fresh starts and quantum leaps. I'm calling it one of the biggest months of 2025, some are saying it will chaotic and crazy. There is nothing to fear - You are in the know my love with me! With eclipse season kicking off, major planetary movements and multiple collective energetic shifts, this is a time to shed outdated versions of yourself and leap into the unknown with trust. In this episode, we explore:✨ The themes of March's eclipse—what's ending, what's beginning, and how to navigate the in-between

Join me for a deep dive into the Pisces New Moon! Originally recorded live in my Thirteen Moons digital astrology membership this transmission explores Pisces season, the energy of this New Moon, and the Vedic Astrology of this moon being in Shatabhisha Nakshatra. I also touch on Shivaratri, suggest crystals, essential oils, and other tools to support your manifestations, and offer a collective Tarot reading for past, present, and future guidance. Want to experience these moon circles live?! Join Thirteen Moons for exclusive live moon circles, personalized card pulls, manifestation rituals, and full-length unedited replays of every event. Start your free trial today at veenalenae.com/store #PiscesNewMoon #AstrologyPodcast #VedicAstrology #NewMoonManifestation #ShatabhishaNakshatra #SpiritualGuidance #TarotReading #ThirteenMoons

Shivaratri was celebrated on Wednesday, 26 February this year, drawing a large annual gathering of devotees to Kathmandu's Pashupatinath Temple. Among them were holy men, known as 'baba', who traveled from various places, including India. Nepal correspondent Prayas Dulal spoke with Gopal Baba and Kirant Yogi, who shared insights about their journeys. - बुधवार, २६ फेब्रुअरीमा महाशिवरात्रि मनाइएको छ। हरेक वर्ष यो समयमा काठमान्डूको पशुपतिनाथ मन्दिरको देखिने भक्तजनहरूको ठुलो भिडमा शिवरात्रिकै लागि भनेर, भारत लगायत विभिन्न स्थानबाट बाबाहरू पनि पुग्ने गर्दछन्। शिवरात्रिको आकर्षण पनि मानिने बाबाहरू मध्ये किरात योगी र गोपाल बाबासँग नेपाल संवाददाता प्रयास दुलालले गरेको कुराकानी सुन्नुहोस्।

Sanjay Dixit delves deep into the essence of Rudra, Shiva, and the profound significance of Shivaratri. Discover how Shiva's wisdom, cosmic dance, and meditative stillness can guide you toward inner strength, clarity, and transformation. From ancient traditions to personal growth, this enlightening discussion unravels the timeless power of Shiva in shaping our lives.

In this new episode of Mohanji Speaks, Mohanji explains the true essence of Shivaratri—going beyond rituals to awaken higher consciousness. Learn about Shiva, Shakti, and the eternal stillness within, guiding you to deeper self-awareness.

What‘s your take on Shivaratri? Here's Nepali poet Prem Oli‘s modern-day view on the festival, titled ‘Kaliyugko Shivaratri'. This is an edited version of the original “Chatyang Gita” segment by Chatyang Master Krishna Murari Gautam. Its first broadcast on SBS Nepali was on Saturday, 12 March 2016. - शिवरात्रि बारे तपाईँको के धारणा छ कुन्नि, नेपालका एक जना हाँस्य कवि प्रेम ओलीको बिचार चाहिँ उनले “कलियुगको शिवरात्रि” शीर्षक रहेको कविता मार्फत उजागर गरेका छन्। चट्याङ्ग मास्टर कृष्णमुरारी गौतमले आफ्नो चट्याङ्ग गीता सुनाउने क्रममा उक्त कविता एसबीएस नेपालीमा प्रस्तुत गर्नुभएको थियो जुन आज हामीले आफ्नो आर्काइभबाट झिकेर फेरी यहाँहरू माझ ल्याएका छौँ। यो सामाग्री पहिलो पटक एसबीएस नेपालीमा शनिवार, १२ मार्च सन् २०१६ मा प्रसारण भएको थियो।

Maha Shivaratri : Une marche spirituelle vers Grand-Bassin pour offrir l'eau sacrée au dieu Shiva

This week, the energy is deep, transformative, and undeniably potent in February 2025. With Maha Shivaratri, the Pisces New Moon and intuitively the archetype of The Tower from the Tarot; woven together, we're stepping into a space of dissolution, surrender, and necessary rebirth. In this episode, we explore how Shivaratri, the great night of Shiva, invites destruction of illusion and devotion to truth. The Pisces New Moon amplifies this by dissolving what no longer serves, asking you to trust the unseen currents of your soul. And The Tower? It arrives as the catalyst—shaking the foundations you thought were stable, clearing the way for something truer. Expect reflections and a practical guide on letting go, trusting collapse, and allowing the unknown to guide you forward. Because sometimes, the breakdown is the breakthrough. Resources from today's episode Work with Phi Learn more about 1:1 Coaching with Phi here. Apply for 1:1 Coaching with Phi here. Book a Human Design Reading with Phi here. Phi's book; The Great Unlearning: Awakening to Living an Aligned and Authentic Life. Flow - Vietnam Retreat May 2025 Recharge and Renew - Bali Retreat August 2025 Message Phi on Instagram Email Phi A big energetic week end of February 2025 Hello my love, welcome back to the Grow Through It Podcast. We have a big week energetically coming up ahead with two significant things happening. First of all it's Shivaratri, Shivratri is a Hindu festival honouring Shiva, an Indian deity, celebrated with fasting, prayers, and night-long vigils to seek his blessings for transformation, inner peace, and spiritual growth and we have the Pisces New Moon. So what does this actually mean for you? I'm going to translate this energy for you as a practical guide to the week. What is Shivaratri and what's it got to do with The Tower in Tarot? For those listening to where I'm based in Sydney, Australia, Shivaratri takes place Wednesday February 26th 2025 4:38pm to Thursday 27th February 2025 2:24pm. Shivaratri means Great Night of Shiva. Shiva is the Hindu God that represents destruction which says a lot about the energy that is taking place this week. This time last year I was blessed enough to be in India during Shivaratri and it truly activated a of necessary destruction in my life including within my previous relationship and living situation - the cracks, what was not working really started to show leading to the ultimate demise 6 months later. Cyclical truly! Now this is not something to be scared of but aware think of it like when you see the tower card pop out when doing tarot (more on that later). I know you know, who hasn't seen that card and put it back in to reshuffle or have fear and wish you didn't pull cards haha I certainly have an am really practicing this year not to jump to conclusions with the cards I see coming out. Who is Lord Shiva? Shiva the deity In India at one point there was a celebration or significant spiritual moment everyday because I guess they wanted to celebrate every day of life and the different purposes of life which is a fun fact. Nowadays truly it Shivaratri is one of the most significant events in India's spiritual calendar. In Hindu tradition, Lord Shiva represents destruction and renewal—the force that clears away the old to make way for the new. He is often depicted as sitting in deep meditation, symbolising inner peace and awareness. Shiva's Origin Story Shiva's origin story is vast, layered, and deeply symbolic, woven into Hindu mythology as a representation of transformation, destruction, and divine stillness. He is known as the supreme yogi, the lord of time, and the force that dissolves what is no longer needed so that new creation can emerge. Unlike other deities, who are often depicted in palaces or adorned with riches, Shiva is an ascetic who meditates in the mountains, covered in ashes, with matted hair and a third eye that sees beyond illusion.

Fluent Fiction - Hindi: Cracking the Code: A Shivaratri Mission in the Himalayas Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/hi/episode/2025-02-21-23-34-01-hi Story Transcript:Hi: हिमालय की बर्फ से ढकी चोटियों के नीचे एक सैन्य प्रशिक्षण शिविर बसा हुआ था।En: Under the snow-covered peaks of the Himalaya, a military training camp was established.Hi: ठंडी हवा चल रही थी और चीड़ के पेड़ों की खुशबू वातावरण को महका रही थी।En: A cold wind was blowing, and the fragrance of chir trees was enchanting the atmosphere.Hi: शिविर में आने-जाने वाले सैनिकों की हलचल से वातावरण सजीव था।En: The hustle and bustle of soldiers coming and going made the camp lively.Hi: शिवरात्रि का पवित्र त्योहार नज़दीक आ रहा था, और सुरक्षा के खास इंतजाम किए जा रहे थे।En: The holy festival of Shivaratri was approaching, and special security arrangements were being made.Hi: आरव, एक अनुशासित और जिज्ञासु कैडेट, शिविर के कोने में स्थित अपने तंबू में बैठा था।En: Aarav, a disciplined and curious cadet, was sitting in his tent located at the corner of the camp.Hi: अचानक, एक रहस्यमयी पैकेज उसके सामने प्रस्तुत किया गया।En: Suddenly, a mysterious package was presented to him.Hi: पैकेज के अंदर एक गुप्त संदेश था, जिसे खोल पाना आरव के अकेले के लिए संभव नहीं था।En: Inside the package was a secret message that Aarav alone could not decipher.Hi: किंतु आरव ठान चुका था कि उसे इस संदेश को समझना होगा।En: However, Aarav was determined to understand this message.Hi: शिविर के लिए यह अत्यधिक महत्वपूर्ण था।En: It was extremely important for the camp.Hi: उसने सोचा कि इसे वह इशिता के साथ साझा करेगा।En: He thought he would share it with Ishita.Hi: इशिता, जो संचार अधिकारी थी, पहेलियों और कूट संदेशों को समझने में माहिर थी।En: Ishita, who was a communications officer, was an expert in understanding puzzles and coded messages.Hi: हालांकि, आरव थोड़ा सशंकित था।En: Although, Aarav was a bit apprehensive.Hi: उसने सोचा कि ऐसा करने से शिविर के उच्च अधिकारियों में भय और असमंजस फैल सकता है।En: He thought that doing so might spread fear and confusion among the camp's higher officials.Hi: फिर भी उसने साहस जुटाकर इशिता के पास जाने का निर्णय किया।En: Yet, he gathered courage and decided to approach Ishita.Hi: "इशिता," आरव ने धीमे स्वर में कहा, "मुझे तुम्हारी मदद की ज़रूरत है।En: "Ishita," Aarav said in a low tone, "I need your help.Hi: यह संदेश बहुत जटिल है।En: This message is very complex."Hi: "इशिता ने उसकी आँखों में देखते हुए आत्मीयता से सिर हिलाया।En: Ishita nodded with warmth, looking into his eyes.Hi: "हम मिलकर इसे सुलझा सकते हैं," उसने विश्वास से भरे स्वर में कहा।En: "We can solve it together," she said with a voice full of confidence.Hi: दोनों मिलकर काम करने लगे।En: They began to work together.Hi: धुंधलके की ऊंचाई कम हो रही थी और घड़ी की सूइयाँ तेजी से चल रही थीं।En: The twilight was diminishing, and the clock hands were moving quickly.Hi: अपनी चपल सोच का उपयोग करते हुए, इशिता ने संकेतों को जोड़ना शुरू किया और आरव ने कागज पर बिन्दुओं को जोड़कर एक चित्र तैयार किया।En: Using her agile thinking, Ishita started piecing the clues together, and Aarav drew a diagram by connecting the dots on paper.Hi: रात के बारह बज चुके थे और शिवरात्रि के आगमन का शंख बज चुका था।En: It was midnight, and the conch of Shivaratri had sounded the festival's arrival.Hi: उसी वक्त इशिता और आरव ने संयुक्त रूप से कोड को सुलझा लिया।En: Just then, Ishita and Aarav jointly cracked the code.Hi: संदेश में एक संभावित खतरे की बात की गई थी, जो शिवरात्रि के दौरान हो सकता था।En: The message mentioned a potential threat that could occur during Shivaratri.Hi: आरव और इशिता ने जल्द ही इस जानकारी को वरिष्ठ अधिकारियों तक पहुंचाया और समय पर आवश्यक सुरक्षा उपाय किए गए।En: Aarav and Ishita quickly relayed this information to senior officials, and timely security measures were taken.Hi: शिविर में सक्रियता बढ़ गई थी, लेकिन सबकी सुरक्षा सुनिश्चित हो चुकी थी।En: Activity in the camp increased, but everyone's safety was ensured.Hi: आरव ने सीखा कि सहयोग और विश्वास के बिना कोई भी चुनौती पार नहीं की जा सकती।En: Aarav learned that no challenge can be overcome without cooperation and trust.Hi: अब वह भविष्य के लिए ज्यादा आत्मविश्वास से भरा हुआ था।En: Now he was filled with greater confidence for the future.Hi: हिमालय की ठंडी हवाओं के बावजूद, आरव और इशिता के बीच की ये साझेदारी उनके दिल में गर्माहट और दोस्ती की मिठास छोड़ गई।En: Despite the cold winds of the Himalaya, the partnership between Aarav and Ishita left a warmth and sweetness of friendship in their hearts. Vocabulary Words:peaks: चोटियोंestablished: बसाfragrance: खुशबूenchanting: महका रहीhustle and bustle: हलचलcadet: कैडेटmysterious: रहस्यमयीpackage: पैकेजdecipher: खोल पानाdetermined: ठान चुकाimportant: महत्वपूर्णcommunicate: संचारapprehensive: सशंकितspread fear: भय फैलconfusion: असमंजसcourage: साहसapproach: जानेcomplex: जटिलconfidence: विश्वासsolve: सुलझाtwilight: धुंधलकेagile: चपलmidnight: रात के बारहconch: शंखsweetness: मिठासthreat: खतरेrelay: पहुंचायाsecurity: सुरक्षाcooperation: सहयोगtrust: विश्वास

Maha Shivaratri 2025 : des dispositions prises par les différentes organisations pour la sécurité des pèlerins by TOPFM MAURITIUS

Sadhguru speaks about how Yogis who attain mastery over the five elements can dematerialize their body. To elucidate this, he shares a fascinating anecdote of a family that found a pool of water on their Linga Bhairavi Yantra. He also looks at how being in the presence of Dhyanalinga and especially participating in the Pancha Bhuta Kriya helps one cleanse and master the five elements within the system. Designed by Sadhguru, Pancha Bhuta Kriya is conducted in the presence of Dhyanalinga. The process stabilizes the body and mind, balances out psychological instabilities, greatly helps those suffering from disturbed sleep and a constant sense of fear, and is particularly beneficial for people suffering from a weak constitution. Pancha Bhuta Kriya takes place every Shivaratri, one or two days before the New Moon. This process can be attended in-person as well as online. To register, visit https://isha.co/pbk-yt. Set the context for a joyful, exuberant day with a short, powerful message from Sadhguru. Explore a range of subjects with Sadhguru, discover how every aspect of life can be a stepping stone, and learn to make the most of the potential that a human being embodies.  Conscious Planet: https://www.consciousplanet.org Sadhguru App (Download): https://onelink.to/sadhguru__app Official Sadhguru Website: https://isha.sadhguru.org Sadhguru Exclusive: https://isha.sadhguru.org/in/en/sadhguru-exclusive Inner Engineering Link: isha.co/ieo-podcast Yogi, mystic and visionary, Sadhguru is a spiritual master with a difference. An arresting blend of profundity and pragmatism, his life and work serves as a reminder that yoga is a contemporary science, vitally relevant to our times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sadhguru speaks about how Yogis who attain mastery over the five elements can dematerialize their body. To elucidate this, he shares a fascinating anecdote of a family that found a pool of water on their Linga Bhairavi Yantra. He also looks at how being in the presence of Dhyanalinga and especially participating in the Pancha Bhuta Kriya helps one cleanse and master the five elements within the system. Designed by Sadhguru, Pancha Bhuta Kriya is conducted in the presence of Dhyanalinga. The process stabilizes the body and mind, balances out psychological instabilities, greatly helps those suffering from disturbed sleep and a constant sense of fear, and is particularly beneficial for people suffering from a weak constitution. Pancha Bhuta Kriya takes place every Shivaratri, one or two days before the New Moon. This process can be attended in-person as well as online. To register, visit https://isha.co/pbk-yt. Set the context for a joyful, exuberant day with a short, powerful message from Sadhguru. Explore a range of subjects with Sadhguru, discover how every aspect of life can be a stepping stone, and learn to make the most of the potential that a human being embodies.  Conscious Planet: https://www.consciousplanet.org Sadhguru App (Download): https://onelink.to/sadhguru__app Official Sadhguru Website: https://isha.sadhguru.org Sadhguru Exclusive: https://isha.sadhguru.org/in/en/sadhguru-exclusive Inner Engineering Link: isha.co/ieo-podcast Yogi, mystic and visionary, Sadhguru is a spiritual master with a difference. An arresting blend of profundity and pragmatism, his life and work serves as a reminder that yoga is a contemporary science, vitally relevant to our times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shivaratri ist eines der bedeutendsten Feste des Hinduismus und wurde 2024 in der Nacht vom 8. auf den 9. März gefeiert. In dieser Nacht wandelt Shiva über die Erde und nimmt alles Alte und Verbrauchte von seinen Verehrern. Zu diesem Anlass leitet Dich Sukadev durch eine 15-minütige Tiefenentspannung, bei der du vollkommen entspannen und loslassen kannst. Dabei wird das Mantra “Om Namah Shivaya” rezitiert, mit dem alle Hindernisse beseitigt werden können und ewiges Glück und Unsterblichkeit angestrebt wird. Erfahre so die Kraft Shivas und erlebe tiefe Erholung und Transformation. Das Video dazu findest du auf unserem Yoga Vidya YouTube Kanal Der Beitrag Tiefe Erholung und Transformation mit dem Shiva Mantra |15 Min Tiefenentspannung mit Sukadev | Yoga Vidya erschien zuerst auf Yoga Vidya Blog - Yoga, Meditation und Ayurveda.

Shivaratri ist eines der bedeutendsten Feste des Hinduismus und wurde 2024 in der Nacht vom 8. auf den 9. März gefeiert. In dieser Nacht wandelt Shiva über die Erde und nimmt alles Alte und Verbrauchte von seinen Verehrern. Zu diesem Anlass leitet Dich Sukadev durch eine 15-minütige Tiefenentspannung, bei der du vollkommen entspannen und loslassen kannst. Dabei wird das Mantra “Om Namah Shivaya” rezitiert, mit dem alle Hindernisse beseitigt werden können und ewiges Glück und Unsterblichkeit angestrebt wird. Erfahre so die Kraft Shivas und erlebe tiefe Erholung und Transformation. Das Video dazu findest du auf unserem Yoga Vidya YouTube Kanal Der Beitrag Tiefe Erholung und Transformation mit dem Shiva Mantra |15 Min Tiefenentspannung mit Sukadev | Yoga Vidya erschien zuerst auf Yoga Vidya Blog - Yoga, Meditation und Ayurveda.

Shivaratri ist eines der bedeutendsten Feste des Hinduismus und wurde 2024 in der Nacht vom 8. auf den 9. März gefeiert. In dieser Nacht wandelt Shiva über die Erde und nimmt alles Alte und Verbrauchte von seinen Verehrern. Zu diesem Anlass leitet Dich Sukadev durch eine 15-minütige Tiefenentspannung, bei der du vollkommen entspannen und loslassen kannst. Dabei wird das Mantra “Om Namah Shivaya” rezitiert, mit dem alle Hindernisse beseitigt werden können und ewiges Glück und Unsterblichkeit angestrebt wird. Erfahre so die Kraft Shivas und erlebe tiefe Erholung und Transformation. Das Video dazu findest du auf unserem Yoga Vidya YouTube Kanal Der Beitrag Tiefe Erholung und Transformation mit dem Shiva Mantra |15 Min Tiefenentspannung mit Sukadev | Yoga Vidya erschien zuerst auf Yoga Vidya Blog - Yoga, Meditation und Ayurveda.

Being blessed to come to Bhagawan way back in 1959 when he was just 19, Mr Suri Srivilas recounts the spellbinding Shivaratris of the yesteryears. His reminiscences are indeed unique because he not only witnessed these celebrations as a devotee but was fortunate to be His chosen instrument in the unfolding of many of these spectacular leelas. He had the matchless opportunity of serving Bhagawan at close quarters and basking in His physical proximity like very few devotees have been blessed with.

Mahashivaratri is one of the most significant festivals in the Indian calendar. This night of worship dedicated to Lord Shiva was given renewed life and a new dimension by Bhagawan through the very unique and profound event called the Lingodbhavam. Through this discussion, we explore the history and significance of the Lingodbhavam and ruminate on the concept of the Lingam itself. We also recall a few beautiful manifestations of the Lingam by Bhagawan. As we approach the festival of Mahashivaratri, may we turn our minds to the Lord and make the best use of this sacred opportunity.

✅ Get the Shiva Sahaaya Chant, at a 30% discount - https://mahakatha.co/shsahpod

In this Satsang honouring Shivaratri, Swamiji shares from the teachings of Kashmir Shaivism, including his 'Shavism says...' collection and his Notes from the Tea Shop. This podcast was recorded live at The Ashram in Mount Eliza on the 9th of March, 2024. Watch the full satsang program with Swamiji and Devi Ma at The Ashram with a weekly subscription to The Ashram Online! This subscription will give you access to a library of over 100 hours of Swamiji's talks, meditation and chanting programs, hatha yoga classes and more. Click here to learn more.

On this special day, (8 March 2024) the Vedic Astrology Podcast dives into the significance of Maha Shivaratri highlighting its astrological importance and how it connects to personal astrological charts. The discussion covers the festival's timing, its symbolism of the close connection between the physical and spiritual realms, and how this event is observed through fasting, meditation, and devotion to Lord Shiva. Fiona Marques elaborates on the concept of Tithi in Vedic astrology, the lunar days, and their impact on personal astrology, underlining the festival's deeper spiritual meanings with engaging stories from Hindu mythology. Additionally, the podcast touches on the current astrological climate including Saturn's starvation of Sun, Moon and Mercury in Pisces following a recent Venus-Mars conjunction in Aquarius.  And its implications for the collective, providing insights into how to navigate these times with grace and understanding based on the teachings of Maha Shivaratri. The episode also extends an invitation to the audience to engage further with the podcast community through Patreon.Watch this episode at https://youtu.be/iB043KIIfCgSupport the show

Subconscious Realms Episode 220 - Tantric Pantheon PT6 - Ferocious Time-Lord (Daath) - Mahakala-Bhairava - Jin The Ninja. Ladies & Gentlemen on this Episode of Subconscious Realms we welcome back Jin The Ninja for Tantric Pantheon PT6 - Ferocious Time-Lord (Daath) - Mahakala-Bhairava, Hayagriva. Matangi & The Ashtabhairavs. As expected Jin doesn't hold back with yet another addition of Mind-Blowing Episode's to this beyond fascinating Series. Absolute Killer Episode

Pancha butha kriya is a powerfull process which happens inside Dhyanalinga on every Shivaratri. Upcoming Date : 17th May Register on-line or Inperson : https://isha.co/PBK P.S Online registration is available only for Indians because Kit cannot be couriered outside India due to some restrictions

Shiva Mahimna Stotra is a Sanskrit composition in the devotion to Shiva that is believed to have been composed by a Gandharva named Pushpadanta. It lists Shiva's various achievements and qualities. Swami Sarvapriyananda speaks on these verses on the auspicious occasion of Shivaratri.

In the 2nd part of our Holi episode, we talk about the colours, issues, the images and the misconceptions with our guest Neha who is the founder of Shaktitva.org.General InformationSubscribers are requested to look for The Hindu Parenting notification emails for new podcasts/posts in their email promotions/spam tab and personally move these into the main inbox. Thereafter all posts will be delivered to their main inbox. Thank you!For questions that you'd like us to address, please use the form below:Hindu Parenting QuestionsFor comments and suggestions, please use the comments tab or write to us at contact@hinduparenting.orgPlease note that questions will not be answered on email.Do subscribe to our substack and follow us on our social media handlesTwitter: hinduparentingInstagram: hinduparentingTelegram: t.me/hinduparentingFacebook: facebook.com/groups/hinduparentingTranscriptRekha: Namaste! Welcome to the Hindu Parenting Podcast, Part 2 of the Holi Episode. Please join us as we continue the fascinating discussion about the Festival of Holi with some more stories from Neha ji, founder of Shaktitva and a Devi Upasaka.Neha: So, just to complete the story, eventually when all of these attempts to, you know, to kill Prahlad fail, and Hiranyakashipu decides to take the matters into his own hands and he finds this unarmed child. In a fit of rage, he tries to strike a sword with. So, he, you know, the child ducks and the sword hits a pillar. And from that pillar, Narsimha Avatar appears. And now Narsimha Avatar is the half-man, half-animal. So, it's not either, the boon was either animal or man. But this avatar is half-man, half-animal. And this is the most, you know, interesting element of the story.So, this Narsimha Avatar, Sri Vishnu takes him to the, at the, what we call dehleez , like the corner of the house. Yeah, the threshold of the house, exactly. He stands on the threshold of the house, takes this demon, puts him on his thigh, so that he's not on the ground or on the sky. He's on Sri Vishnu's thigh. And then he claws his heart out with his claws. So, it's not a known weapon. Yeah. And he does this at exactly a dusk when it is neither morning, day or night. Shalini: Sandhyakaal!Neha: Yeah, sandhyakaal, like the mixing when it's neither day nor night. So, he finds that exact combination that will defeat that very ingenious boon. And that's how, you know, Hiranyakashipu is defeated. Finally, Prahlad gets to witness his Ishta in the raw form, and he is blessed. And then Prahlad takes over the throne and continues the lineage of Sage Kashyap going forward. So, that Holika moment. Shalini: You said the story so beautifully.Neha: Awww! Thank you!Rekha: Nehaji, I love the part where the puzzle gets solved. I can see how kids can get absolutely fascinated by this, you know, if parents can just tell their kids, you give this puzzle; even if your kid doesn't know the story but tries to solve this puzzle.“Neither during the day nor night”. I mean, it's just too beautiful.Neha: It's ingenious. Yeah, absolutely. And see, the moral of the story is right, like you can, first of all, like I always wonder these people, they put hundreds of years of sadhana or many lifetimes of sadhana to get a boon from their Ishta, right? Like imagine, you're sitting in extreme penance, like Ravana's penance and then Hiranyakashipu's penance is not ordinary. This is like almost hundreds of years of extreme penance, even thousands of years by some accounts. They sit and you ask for such a stupid thing. I mean, your Ishta is standing in front of you deviate and you ask that you should not be killed. Why is that? I think that shows the nature of who we call demon is not by birth or lineage, you know, these are Kashyap rishi's sons, like these are the most exalted lineage you can find in all of Bharat Varsha. And that is evident because they have the capability to do this penance for eons. This is not ordinary feat in itself and the lineage is definitely blessed. So it's not by birth or by previous or whatever is the other ways of people understanding it. It's not about descent, it's not about race, it's not about caste, it's not about all of these things. It's about what you do with your abilities, right? What are your desires? Shalini:Yeah, absolutely. That is true.Neha: Yeah, as a Devi upasaka, when Ma comes to me and I ask something so stupid, I think like, you know, I should be banned from sadhana… do that if somebody does things like this. But you know, devatas are when they're happy, they're happy, they will give you what they want as long as it's within - as long as it doesn't defy the laws of nature. And so you can find several stories where Brahma is giving boons or Ma is giving boons or you know, Shiva is giving boons and these, depending on who is getting the boons, people do different things.Rekha: I'd like to bring up one point here. You live in the US. And I know that about three years ago, just pre-COVID, there was this thing in US universities about Holi against Hindutva, where Holika was painted as a Dalit woman. And you know, many people tried to spread this rumor in colleges that there's something very bad going on when Holika is burnt because she is an oppressed woman and she's a Dalit. And so I know that a lot of Indian children got swayed by this. I'd like you to weigh in on this because..Neha: yeah, absolutely. So actually, with the exact incident you're talking about, led me to write a two-part article on Holi on Shaktitva blog. The part where I explain what Holi is and the many colors of Holi is one article. And then there is a second article called “Let the Subaltern Speak”, in which I kind of explore exactly this point. So first of all, like logically speaking, you know, a lot of these claims are absurd to the point of ignorance. Like they, they rely on the fact that a lot of people don't know about these stories and the legends or all the meanings behind what we do as a culture. And that's part of colonialism, you know, just detaching us from our roots is definitely part of the colonial projects.So that now that, you know, the urban audience has already detached very few know the story of Holika or why we do this, you can twist the argument in your favor.So there are two main articles that led to this Equality Labs protest that were challenged by it. So basically this Equality Labs organization cited two main articles in their write up for Holi against Hindutva. One of them was from Pradnya Waghule, which said ‘Reading caste in Holi- the burning of Holika, a Bahujan woman'. And the second one is the Equality Labs, its own article, ‘why do we say no to Holi' In both of them, you know, I am not going to critique the whole blog, because it's ridiculous. But you can see a very clear indication that this is nothing but Hinduphobia. So Waghule herself says that she's only only ever lived in cities all her life. Right. So the what I'm trying the reason I'm trying to highlight that is because she has no in-first person knowledge of these traditions. Right. Whereas, you know, most of our families are just two generations ago, we were living in villages. So that's number one. Now this reading of Bahujan woman of Holika - Holika's existence comes from this story that I told you about. She is Hiranyakashipu's sister. Hiranya Kashyapu and Hiranyaksha are very clearly Kashyap Rishi's sons. So Kashyap Rishi is like, you know, one of the Saptarishis. So obviously he's the ultra ultra Brahmin, not even ordinary normal Shukla chukla or, you know, Pandya Brahmin is the ultra Brahmin, like he has an entire Gotra named after him.And he these are the first one, not first one, but he is like, yeah, these two are sons from Kashyap Rishi. So by caste, essentially, because it's a paternalistic tradition, it happens, they have become Brahmin. And so Holika is a sister. So that means she's a Brahmin woman, you know, by legend, which is where she's mentioned. Now, what the reality is, these people when they're mentioning these instances of Holika being worshipped in tribal areas, they are confusing Holika and Holi Mata. Now, Holi Mata is indeed worshipped in many parts of the country in many, many tribal traditions, including my hometown. Now, Holi Mata has nothing to do with Holika.What happens is many of us, many of our tribes are traditionally like the Kula Devi is a Devi, right? The Kula devatha is a Devi. And so usually anything auspicious, Devi has to be worshipped. So when you do that, and usually what the tradition goes that in specific instances, for example, if you're doing the Gauri Pooja, a specific form of Ma is being worshipped, that's why it's called Gauri Pooja. So in the same way, during Holi Mata, a specific form of Ma is being worshipped and a specific type of worship is being done, that ritual only happens around Holi. And that includes your offering, the same colors are offered, new clothes are offered, when the dahan is done, that bonfire is done, a part of that bonfire, ashes are brought to the Mata and so on. So like in the Prasad, this Naivedyam is first created. So that's why we make gujiya after the dahan, and then gujiya is first offered to the god. So if we were in the villages, we would offer it to the Kula Devi. And then eventually it will be distributed. So for that particular purpose, a Murti or a makeshift clay idol is created. And all of the village will gather around and offer the blessings over there, like they'll put the offerings in that on the clay idol.So that is that clay idol is called Holi Mata. So now confusing Holimata with Holika is silly because the same people also do the bonfire. So why would they do the bonfire if they were worshipping Holika later? Then why would you celebrate her death? Just two minutes before! They are not related. Now in other parts of India, you can actually see that Holimata, that makeshift idol, is also taken on a Yatra like Ganesh Chaturthi. So they also, the Visarjan happens and so on, like the same process, which is typical for us, like whenever we have a makeshift idol like in Ganesh Chaturthi or in Durga Puja, once the process is completed, it is done - Visarjan into some form of water body. So that also happens. So those processions will chant Holi Mata Ki Jai or something like that. And that's what these urbanites who actually want to speak for the subaltern without getting to know them, without getting to live their lives or understanding their tradition and faith systems, this is how they confuse people. So in this imagination, because she is the goddess of the tribal people, she becomes a tribal deity because they've already confused it and they're not familiar with these ideas of how Holi Mata is constructed, like on a makeshift thing and all of those nuances are not known. And so they will do this confusion and then they will suddenly Holika, the daughter of Kashyap rishi becomes the Dalit woman all of a sudden. And now nobody from the Bahujan parts of India is coming to read this English language article meant to be circulated in USA to correct it, right? Nobody's going to do that. And so and the rest of you are saying we hardly know anything about why things are happening. So we are not also correcting it. So that's how you get to circulate these, you know, false narratives. And it was actually very offensive, because targeting Holi like that. And here is the thing, you know, if you are, let's say, even if I were to imagine this concept of Brahminical Hinduism versus non-Brahminical, Brahminical tribal Hinduism, Holi is the least Brahminical of all, you know, celebrations of Hindus. Like, you know, if you see the typical hallmarks of what is what, how these people define Brahminism is - at least a Brahmin needs to be present, no? Usually all some festivals you require a priest to come and do some puja, but Holi requires the presence of no priest. Right. As I mentioned, in fact, it's a challenging of social norms and mores.Then the tradition inquires, like it requires no particular, like you usually offer it to your own gods, your own deities and a Kula Devi. But it does not require any elaborate temple visit or anything like that. Right. So how, why would, you know, if this were to be confused, check, if we were to put it in these two arbitrary criteria of Brahminical versus non-Brahminical, this is very fundamentally indigenous tribal and adivasi in origins. Right. So, so the entire basis of attacking an indigenous authentic tribal festival, which is like, in fact, one of the biggest festival for many tribes in India as a, you know, fascist thing and trying to disparage it this way and especially targeting American universities is insidious to say the least.Now, are we saying that Vedic traditions are not uninhibited? They are not, you know, connected to Mata or they are not connected to Kula Devi? No, it's a beautiful spectrum. Right.How, what happens now in a traditional, let's say, let's find a simple example in a traditional homa. Right. If you're doing Rudrabhishekam in your home and you are the Yajman and pundits have come and they're conducting it for you. What happens? Right. The starting is you'll do the cleaning of your hands. You'll remember Sri Vishnu for that. Right. Then you will start by remembering your Guru, your ancestors, your Kula Devi and Sri Ganesha. Right. Not, I messed up the order, but basically this is the, like, start with Sri Ganesha, then your Kula Devi, then your ancestors, your Guru. This is the beginning of every homa, every puja, everywhere.Right. Now, if you had, if you were in living in a place where you had access to your Kula Devi's murti, maybe you put it in your temple or maybe you are living in a place where your Kula Devi temple is nearby and that's where you're conducting it. When you are remembering them, it will involve an offering to them immediately. And this will be guided to you by the priest himself. Right. So he's not, there is no distinction between vedic gods and these gods, right.It's a beautiful spectrum. One cannot exist without the other. So the, now, whether you're reading it from the Shastras or the Puranas or you're telling folk stories, it does not matter. Right. That's just the ritual or how should I say levels of ritualism. If you were to do it at your home by yourself, you probably don't know all the Sanskrit verses. So you do it in your mind. Right. You remember the deity and you have, maybe you have a mantra or maybe you don't have a mantra. Maybe you have a Chalisa. For example, in North India, we have these avadhi verses, which serve as the mantras. So Chalisa is our collection of 40 verses or you have sometimes, you know, these, these arathis, for example, these songs that we have constructed for the singing the legends of our gods, Om Jai Jagdish hare being the most prominent one. So we have all of these different levels and ways of worship. Now, some people do it in a very elaborate way where sometimes you need a priest because it's actually too elaborate and it's not possible for some unless somebody is trained in that ritual for tens of years, which is what often priests do. It's hard for a normal householder to start doing it without training. And also it's not recommended to do it without training either. So depending on the level you're doing, for example, in Shivaratri that just passed, most people will do it in their homes. Right. If they have a lingam at home, they will do a simple Abhishekam at home. If they have, if they're going to a temple, then they'll, you know, put money for a Rudrabhishekam for the temple priests to conduct it. Or sometimes people will arrange for a priest to come and do a homa at their home. It's different levels of the same festival. All of them are valid. All of them are common.Rekha: So Neha Ji, you brought up this very, very important point of two traditions coexisting harmoniously. The universal story, the Pauranic story of Holika dahan, the Hiranyakashipu story, and also the Holi Mata Kuladevi local traditions, which are typically known as the Desi and the Margi traditions within Sanatana Dharma. So the interesting thing is that there is really no conflict. And this thing happens over and over again in our tradition, right, with the festivals, with customs, dance, music, and so many things. And I'd like to say here that I think this is not a bug, but a feature of Sanatana Dharma. Any thoughts on this?Neha: Thank you for that software engineering reference. And you're absolutely right. No, so exactly right. So I think, you know, sometimes I find myself browsing through an article that some colonial, you know, neo-colonial Indologist wrote, and they seem so confused, right? If you read the research papers that get published in Indology journals, they are just, you know, it's like it's impossible for them to parse the continuity of this tradition. So sometimes they will be looking at, you know, let's say they'll go to a rural Kuladevi Mandir, right? And they'll see, let's take for an extreme example, let's say they'll see a Bali ritual, right? And then a few, even in Tamil Nadu, let's just take the example of Tamil Nadu. If you go to the rural villages, there are still like some Kuladevi Kuladevata temples where Bali happens, you know, now with the colonial government banning it and then our modern government continuing colonial traditions, you know, officially it's banned, but still happens. Then you cross- Shalini: I think there is a temple in Kerala also, no? The Muthappan temple. Neha: Not just one, not just one temple. Shalini: Yeah, many, many temples.Neha: A lot of places where you have to secretly do this because, you know, our own government has turned against our traditions or, you know, some places where it's relatively open, but it happens. And then you cross a few kilometers and you come to the heart of, you know, say Chennai and you go to a Vaishnava temple or a Shaiva temple, like, you know, Iyengar temple or an Iyer temple and you're suddenly like, this is like very organized, you know, we have a lot of learned gurus who have given like volumes and volumes of very detailed documentary, like documented evidence of everything that they found. And, you know, somehow for these people who come from the West, it looks like these two traditions cannot coexist each other with each other. And the reason they think that is because they're bound with this Christian mentality, where paganism, which was a pre-Christian tradition of their lands, was considered or labeled as backward and, you know, not civilized by the Christians who came to dominate the space later on. So they see, you know, nature worship as uncouth, uncivilized or, you know, the thing that uneducated people do. And this has also been indoctrinated to us in our education, right? Because our education is also colonial. So every time like you have, I'm sure you have read somewhere that, you know, even in our own books that the people, ancient people worshiped Sun because they did not understand its power, right? And so the idea is that the only reason you worship something is because you don't understand it. And so it becomes a myth. And so therefore science becomes a way to dispelling that myth. And, you know, Christianity brought us to the light. And so the old gods lost the power. This is all very, very standard European Christian commentary. This is how they understand their own past. And their present, which is Christian and then eventually post-Christian. So now they use that same..Shalini: So they project that on our system.Neha: Exactly, exactly. So they project that on our system. Because for them, when they look at, say, Kanchi matham, right, it looks very organized. It looks a little bit centralized. The priests over there are learned. They talk in, you know, high philosophy. And so on, and they can, you know, hold themselves up to any debate. They are, you know, they're experts in science, math, whatever you want them to be. And so this is like, you know, high philosophy is revered, revered as, exalted culture, more civil. And so they see reflections of their Orthodox church in this. And then they look, few villages down, they look at the common villager, who is, you know, just showing pure Bhakti to the Devi. He is also following Tantra. Here is the thing, right, even these temples, the Kula Devi temples are also established as per Agama Tantra. So these, these are still very much rituals that have been told to us, passed down generations of generations through sadhakas, through practical, practical knowledge, right? But because in, in these, to these external observers, it does not appear connected, you know, because unless you are completely disconnected and you're doing some high-falutin philosophy, you're not like, you know, learned enough. So you have to talk in abstract. Suddenly, when you translate that to actual rituals, it becomes old and childish and, and, you know, superstitious and what not. So this dichotomy from their own society, they project on ours. And that's exactly what happens when they look at these traditions.So when they look at the grama traditions, and here is the thing, Dharma clearly says there are many, many acharams, right? There is Vedachar and there is Lokachar, right? And there is not, it is not like a hierarchy. It is not like Vedachar is better than Lokachar. Both are absolutely important. And it is the context that defines which, you know, acharam has to be used and in which circumstance. And so this is, you know, these, all of these interconnectedness is only understood, a lot of this, like even you and I, a lot of us understand this implicitly because we've grown up in this tradition. And, you know, one basic requirement of Indology is that if you've grown up in the tradition, then you're not qualified to speak on it. Because that's the, again, the colonial lens, right? Like, if you're a brown person, you can't possibly be objective in to look at your tradition correctly. Of course, white people can look at white, white culture correctly, but brown people, you know, we have some racial defect. And that's why we can never be objective about our culture unless we prove it to them by proving our atheism first.So all of this, you know, this is a very clever structure created so that their lens remains dominant. So even when a brown person enters these, you know, these academic institutions, you have to prove that your way of thinking has been whitened enough. And that is why they are completely unable to understand these traditions and the beauty of this, this continuity of this tradition, right? Like tantra, whether it's Agama Tantra or Dakshinacharya Tantra or whatever kind of Tantra is learned knowledge. It's practical learned knowledge, like some, you know, great upasaka did years and years and decades of sadhana, found like a point where equally in fact, it is said that there are many Tantric upasakas who have reached a stage where they can access their past lives upasana also. So all of the things that they learned in their past lives, they can collect, remember all of those memories, right? And then they have a bigger picture. And then they try to bring that bigger picture and they try to give you the rules of how to do that for yourself, right? Like they can't just disseminate the secret, you won't understand. So you have to kind of just, they can only show you a path that doing these things in this particular order through this method will lead you somewhere where you can see the truth for yourself.That's Tantra, right? So that's the marg, that's the path that has been given to you. Now it may or may not, Tantra basically distills all of this down to a process. Whereas the Vedanta and other Darshanas, they are more focused on the philosophical end goal. So there is a little bit more philosophy associated with these other paths and less with Tantra, but that does not make these local understanding that we have learned over and built up over generations and generations less valuable, right? And that is exactly how every Indigenous culture has it, right? There is a reason why North American Indigenous people and even Africans, they had so much importance to the elders, right? To the ancient ones, the wisdom of the elders.Why was it valued? It wasn't just a quality of age, that wisdom followed from generation to generation. It was imparted by the ancestors to their future generations when the people felt ready.Rekha: Now this dichotomy, maybe you can analyze the visuals of Holi using this dichotomy too, right? Because Holi being so colorful and so visually appealing, I do know that a lot of photographers converge on Vrindavan just to take photographs of this spectacle and then publish it across the world. But I think a lot of this dichotomy comes into play there also and it has been commercialized quite a bit is what I hear. Neha: Oh absolutely. So you know, the dominant image in the mind of the West is when you are civilized, when you are wise, you are not, you behave a certain way, right? Like, you know, how British were, you were all stuck up and then you know, you behave like you have to act proper and whatever. And so if you're not doing that, right? If you're literally just having fun, that's lack of civilization, right? Lack of civility. And we've learned that even in our minds, we have at some point integrated that.So if somebody is behaving like they're just very, you know, acting very demure and very, you know, quiet and not letting their emotions out, all of that is a mark of manners or civility. And every time you let your hair down and like if you're angry, you're yelling, if you're, you know, happy, you're laughing boldly, all of that is, is, you know, lack of, you know, decorum. So we've learned those behaviors. Rekha: Nehaji, we often see pictures from Mathura and Vrindavan for Holi. Yeah. So is this like the center where it all started and what kind of celebrations are usually done in these places? Neha: Oh, actually, I mean, I don't know if it started there, but it's definitely a very important focal point of the Holi traditions in North India. And the part of the reason is because all of when you, when you listen to Shri Krishna's Rasleela stories, Holi actually plays a very interesting part there. In fact, it comes, the reference comes from his Balakanda to the time he is doing the Rasleela. Yeah. So in fact, because Krishna's birthplace and place where he grew up, are so central to the areas around Mathura, so Mathura, Vrindavan and NandGaon and all of these, they are very, you know, they celebrate the Krishna connection also during those Holi celebrations. So, in fact, when Vrindavan Holi is so very, very famous, in fact, if you just Google it as a most, you know, the most of the Westerners are fascinated by this particular Holi celebration. And I even know of people who try to visit Mathura specifically just to witness the Holi. And so it's actually fairly elaborate. And one of the, this is actually worth mentioning, Vrindavan's Holi lasts for seven days. And just the color playing part. So like the playing part lasts seven days. Everywhere else, we have one day of Holika Dahan, which is the bonfire ritual, and the next day is the playing colors part. But Vrindavan, the thing goes on for a week. And the first Holi in that day is called Laatmaar Holi, right, and translates to being beaten by a stick Holi. And there is, there is actually a legend behind it. So what happened is, it's part of Rasleela stories of Sri Krishna. So Sri Krishna, who hailed it from Nandgaon, he was visiting Radha in Barsana, which is where she used to live. So he was visiting her. Radha and her friends in Barsana on Holi. And he teased Radha and the other gopis so much, right, that they got really annoyed and they started hitting him, him and his friends with a stick and they chased him out of the city. So it's part of the whole like the Rasleela, the play, and he used to be like a notorious prankster, right. So you would run away with the clothes and whatnot. So he was here teasing them and playing pranks on them a lot. And so they got very annoyed. And so they chased him out of the city. So in sync with that legend, now men from Nandgaon will visit Barsana every year, you know, being acting like their Krishna story. And then the Barsana women will basically beat them up with lathis.Shalini: It happens to this day? It happens to this day?Neha: Exactly. So in fact, now this tradition has spread outside Barsana also, in many places they do this. But that is the, that is the role play that's happening, right. So they are Krishna's friends, the men act like Krishna's friends visiting the gopis and the women act like the women of Barsana act like they are the gopis. And so they basically, you know, reenact that scene. And this especially happens outside the Radharani temple in Barsana, like that's the specific part. And this is one of the most famous temples dedicated to Radha Ma in India. And then obviously you sing and dance and you know, we are very happy people. We drink thandai and all sorts of sweets are eaten and nuts and all of that fun stuff happens. But then one of the other days is Phoolon wali Holi where you play with flowers. Then there is another day where the people play with mud. It's not pleasant but it happens. And then the actual colors Holi. And in fact, Shalini: That makes it for three more. Three, four, one is flowers, one is the mud. Neha: Yeah. And one is colors four and I think the three more. Yeah, I don't remember exactly.Shalini: But these are very interesting, very interesting. Rekha: But but at the same time, there is a lot of shock value or, you know, some kind of an intrinsic value in all these visuals, right? You do see international media using a lot of the Holi and then, you know, coming to something like the widows of Vrindavan. You see that every year the media puts these very nice colorful pictures which I believe are actually sold by the international media. INeha: In fact, it's big, it's big money. Like a right picture can the copyrights can be translated throughout the world and it can actually make like quite a decent sum. So photographers from around the world gather around and then the, you know, they will just take captionless photos. And then the caption is added by the whoever is looking at the picture. So actually, you brought the brought up widows of Vrindavan. I actually have a Twitter thread where I analyze this! Ever since I joined Twitter. This was 2009. I've been noticing these headlines, right? “Widows of Vrindavan break taboo, break tradition and celebrate Holi!”. Now I actually did an analysis. I just take this phrase “widows of Vrindavan play Holi” and I append a year to it, right? And you can see these stories coming back from all the way up to 2012. So it's been 10 years and every year apparently, those widows break tradition and celebrate Holi and, you know, they break taboo and celebrate Holi. Every year they will announce it as if it's a new thing. So that just makes you question, was that ever a taboo in the first place or is just a myth that media has created that they just like to break because it's a catchy headline? Well, so this is absolutely like it makes a lot of money and from you can find those articles from, you know, they get sent through those news agencies like ANI and then they republished internationally. It's big money. Some of those photos can actually fetch you a very pretty penny, especially like there's so many aerial shots of those of Vrindavan Holi too these days, a lot of them like so. In fact, if you go to during Holi time, if you go to Vrindavan, you'll see a flock of international photographers over there just trying to get those pictures. Rekha: No concerns of privacy? I mean, I'm just wondering for the western world is so big on privacy, but is there no compunction in you know, preying on somebody's personal space. Neha: I very much doubt that they get these contracts like the privacy waiver signed. Exactly.Rekha: You know, let's talk a little bit about the colors. So these colors, there are some typical colors that are used predominantly. I see most of the people using a kind of a magenta color. Neha: So yes, so that pink is very common. The most common probably is pink. And then yellow is very common. Then nowadays, so almost every color on the spectrum, you can find you can find like light blue, powder blues. And even these days, pastels have come into fad. Also organic colors are appearing nowadays. This is interesting.Rekha: This is an interesting variation. So initially, I think we didn't need an organic color because because obviously all color was organic. Flowers and herbs is what I hear. And that specific bright colors that were made from the powder of certain dried flowers. Is that right?Neha: Yes, exactly. So the yellow was actually a mix of turmeric and marigold. And I don't remember the pink came also from a flower. But these days, so they could become a much brighter pink, at least that's what my nani used to say. But yeah, the definitely some colors are more predominant. Although nowadays, again, most of it is made being manufactured in factories. So you get pretty much every color there is. Shalini: Yeah, there's so much of talk about these being chemical colors and not very good for the skin and all. How much truth is there in that?Neha: growing up, I did have at least some like at least for a couple of years, there definitely was some sort of adulterated color coming into the market that was harsh on the skin. But these days, people are like too aware and especially depending on, but here is the thing, you can't control what color gets put on you. You can buy good colors. But then if somebody else buys whatever colors, then you're at the mercy of that person. But again, I think like cheaper colors as usual, you'll find some adulteration there. But mostly nowadays, there are big companies, just like the fireworks for Diwali, there are big companies dedicated to doing this. So if you buy like those brands or if you make at home, sometimes I've seen people starting to make themselves by grinding flowers. So those options are also there. But you find like very easy to find safe colors, to be honest.Shalini: Okay, so now you play with these colors, what do you do to take them off?Neha: That is this mystery thing called Ubtan. Yeah, I'm glad that you asked about removing the colors. So that's a whole entire exercise in itself. So basically, we make this very gooey paste made of all organic elements found at home. So you take either besan, which is ground chickpea flour, or you take wheat flour, your regular aata, and you mix haldi in it. And you put like turmeric, and you put oil, and you put water. Now, it should be a little bit more on the watery side, because you want it to be sticky. But the oil is there so that it removes well also, like when it comes up, all of it should come off. But if you have less oil, then it won't stick long enough. So the point is that you stick, and it's also used during the wedding ceremonies, by the way, after Haldi. So when you do the Haldi ceremony, it's actually Haldi and oil ceremony. So one round is done with Haldi, one round is done with oil, and then Ubtan is applied. And so the Haldi is, etc., is taken off by the Ubtan. And the idea is that obviously, it's very good for your skin, because putting turmeric is very, very nourishing for the skin. But also that consistency of the Ubtan, it brings out all the impurities of the skin. So in this case, that being colors. So colors come off very nicely with Ubtan, for the most part, unless you're, I'm talking about those my naughty cousins who actually pour that nasty chemical thing on my head, those ones don't come out easily. But the powder ones come off very easily, like with Ubtan, you know, between Ubtan and shower are fully covered, like you won't even, people won't even realize that you played Holi. Shalini: Okay, so I was just going to ask about that, you know, does it go in one day or it takes a few days to get rid of these colors? Again, powder? I can work with remnants of the color, you know, at the next day, it's not all good. Rekha: I call it a post-Holi glow, you know, you can always pick that on people. Neha: 100% there is a post-Holi glow, because you're so tired and you're so happy and you're so well fed by the end of this all, that you know, there's a post-Holi glow. But, but jokes aside, honestly, if you're playing only with powder or even with like, you know, diluted colors mixed in water, all of it comes out in one day for the most part. Unless you've been pranked with the thing on your head, then it will take a while. But I actually remember one of my best friends in school, she had like, you know, normal brown hair, but it's a slightly lighter color than the complete black hair that we usually have. So her hair was slightly brownish. And one time she came back after playing Holi and I kid you not, when she stood in the sunlight, her hair looked pink. This when we were not allowed to color our hair, because we were young children back then. So I think you got like a free hair color when there's not a lot of costs involved. But just things like that happen. Again, it completely depends on like the kind of Holi you play and you know, the type of people that, you know, come to your place to play with you. But for the most part, like, powder color 100% comes off with Ubtan. And it's also very good for your skin. So any kind of this harsh chemical or whatever, right? Like if you do the Ubtan treatment afterwards, it also kind of takes care of that. Like, and as I said early on, you have to be careful and put oil before you go out. And that way it will stain on your skin less if you have oil on your skin. Yeah, so for the most part, it comes out. Rekha: This is insider information.Neha: Absolutely. Shalini: So what a rollicking time we've had, you know, but I think now, I think you should speak about your foundation, Nehaji. What prompted you to start the foundation? What do you do? What are your projects, please? Neha: Yeah, absolutely. You know, that's a Shaktitva Foundation is a labor of love. It started around 2018, had to slow it down a couple for the last couple of years because of COVID and, you know, bereavement and family. But essentially, the original idea behind it, it's a decolonial, indigenous, feminist organization. And what I mean by that and this decoloniality and indigeneity approach from a Hindu perspective. So what essentially that means is this actually started around the same time when Shalini Ji you and I met for the first time. This was like the aftermath of Sabarimala. And, you know, we, I'm sure like all three of us were part of it in some way or the other. But one thing that became very obvious in the aftermath or during the Sabarimala protest for all of us Hindu women was that somehow our voice was being erased, right? This entire war was being fought in our name, right? Suddenly it was a Hindus versus women, you know, and the Hindu women were the least heard of all people. If you remember, like we were not allowed on TV debate, we were not, our opinions were considered, you know, fringe by some exactly some miracle, like, you know, majority of women were suddenly fringe. Anybody who basically did not agree with the five feminists of Delhi was fringe, right? So that that erasure is what led to the frustration that eventually led to the inspiration from my calling this Shaktitva Foundation. So the idea was that, you know, our voices need to have a place and not just the voice of a Hindu woman in India, but also this, the immigrant Hindu woman in growing up in America, right, or living in America. And the same thing that you know, because what happens is if we don't speak up, somebody else takes the mic and starts speaking for us, right? Whether we are the subaltern and whether we are an unrepresented group, if people don't speak up for their own groups, their names are misused and, you know, activists kind of take up that mantle of speaking on behalf of us, even if that is not the majority opinion, or even they forget the majority opinion, even if it is not even a minority opinion, then this will happen. And so we wanted to kind of set up a space where we can bring forth the lived experiences of a Hindu woman from the point of view of what we just did, right? Like we were talking about Holi from the lived experience of a person who has participated in it. And not just that, it's not just isolated to my personal experience, but also I try to kind of dive into the, when we do the research. If you see, a lot of people actually write for us, the articles and the work that we do focuses on bringing forth the original, authentic, indigenous meaning behind the things. And the reason is India and by extension, the South Asian activism circles is full of people who almost are kind of like the people who have been left behind by the colonialists, right? It's almost that they wanted to be taken with them, you know, ‘why did you leave us behind' sort of frustration that you see in these activists. And so they look at every time they sort of create this, you know, unnecessary rift in the society, it's because they're looking at things from a colonial lens, whether it is they're getting angry at Sabarimala tradition or it's not a concern for women that led to the creation of that controversy, right? It was that, you know, it is a colonial view. We must so that the colonial white man saviourism has appointed these brown saviours. And so they're now going to save Hinduism from Hindus, essentially. That's what's happening. So they're taking up for that, that colonial mantle of reform, and they're imposing all of these ideas on us in order to get some name and fame and they become those these heroes of who saved the women from oppressive Hinduism and so on. So whether it's the Sabarimala question, whether it is the Jallikattu again, no concern for actual animals or anything like that, whether it's the elephant controversy or whether it's in North India, the Kavadia controversy. Now they'll say these are rowdy men. Kavadiya men in Kavadia is the same when they become rowdy. 10 minutes later when farm laws happened, the same men who were actually doing Kavadia minutes before these are the oppressed category of farmers.So there is no rhyme or reason to it. So exactly that the point was that, you know, we wanted to create a space where Hindu women could find their voice and essentially take up that narrative and clear it up from their side. So we do a whole host of things. There's one is very important aspect is research driven articles like this one on Holi. I've done another one on Rakshabandhan and there's many more that are coming, not just on festivals, we also do on general issues and so on. And there is the other aspect of on-the-ground activism where we sort of try to help groups. So for example, we did a workshop with Bhutanese Hindu refugees who are living in America, especially the kids. And we did a workshop there about Dharma and specifically with the girls, about menstruation because menstruation is - like the menstrual restrictions are very strictly followed in Nepali and Bhutanese communities. And that becomes a very important propaganda point for missionaries to try to convert these kids. So we wanted to present the honest truth of why these rituals exist, like why are these menstrual restrictions are at all present in the culture and what are the significance, not prescribing them or, you know, or denying them, just presenting the truth of it. After that, it's up to you. Like as is always the case in Dharma. And similarly, we also did a project for to focus on the domestic violence survivors, Indian origin domestic violence survivors in America.That so we're trying to sort of create a space where we can dispel the fake issues and focus on the real issues and essentially, you know, move forward with that mindset.Shalini: So is this an initiative only driven only by you or is are you a team of a few people?Neha: No, we are a team of we're a team of a few people. We have few directors and after that, there is an advisory board. So the details can be found that also volunteers that work at different levels. Some of them are, for example, interested in conducting those workshops that I spoke about in their areas for a specific group. So we sort of arm them with the content and we help them and train those volunteers for those spaces. There's also like several other projects that are in the works just COVID kind of, you know, through a wrench and all of them. But but we're trying to sort of bring it up again. Hopefully this year, you should see a lot more action.Shalini: Sure. This sounds very empowering and well, such a misused word, but for lack of a better word, empowering our own women, you know, Neha: So we'll actually, I'll actually end with the quote. somehow it dawned on me while I was sitting in Sadhana. You know, I said, Hindu women are embodiments of Shakti and you do not empower Shakti, you bow before it. So that's why the name is Shaktitva, which is the essence of being Shakti. Now, this is not to be construed with this modern new agey idea of, you know, I am princess, I am a goddess type, you know, the wrong notions. No, we are talking about like a very sacred channeling of the divine energy that can happen when you are you know, when you are really devoted to your gods and your faith and to your culture and the indigeneity of it all. Like it's not, these terms almost seem to have become like negative terms, honestly, in the western space. But for, you know, as an indigenous person, it's all the same. It's a spectrum. These words are not disconnected at all. Rekha: Nehaji, I'm looking at your website. And there is a scheme, there is something called the Gayatri grants. Is that still operational? Is that something that can be used to encourage young people to write for you?Neha: Oh, absolutely. Yes. So Gayatri grants are not just even for writing. Even if there was a proposal that like that somebody wants to take up like a more elaborate research project towards anything, you know, towards something that brings together that aligns with the mission of Shaktitva. We are more than happy to sort of sponsor that activity because research itself, you know, is expensive. And, you know, so we want to encourage through this grant system, we want to encourage people to apply for, you know, proposals and come up with ideas because, as I said, like it's very difficult for one person to or a few people to cover the breadth of this issue. So if there is even if there's something very simple as you notice that there is a tradition that is unexplored, and it aligns with our mission, and you want to research it, you know, please submit a grant to us, grant proposal to us, the template is provided on the website. So you just have to fill that template up and send us a proposal and we'll evaluate it. And hopefully, like we can come up with a collaboration.Rekha: Can you tell us the name of the website for all the listeners? We will also be providing links to the website on our transcript. But can you just mention the name please?Neha: Yeah, it's Shaktitva.org. S-H-A-K-T-I, Shakti. And then, Shaktitva.org.Shalini: Great. Yeah, so I think we've had a one hell of a ride with you, Nehaji. It's been absolutely exhilarating, I would say. And I think this episode will not stay at 35, 40 minutes, but that's okay. But I think even our listeners will find it extremely engaging and beautiful too. So I think I'm absolutely floored by your quote. I would like you to end once more with the quote that you just mentioned and then we'll call it wraps. Neha: Absolutely. So the way we mentioned it is that Hindu women are embodiments of Shakti. You do not empower Shakti, you bow before it.Shalini: And with that, I think we come to the end of this edition of our podcast, and we will connect with our listeners in a fortnight's time. Thank you. Thank you, Nehaji. Thank you very much for spending so much time with us and giving us one grand experience of Holi. Thank you so much and thank you, Rekha, and we will meet with our listeners soon. Namaste. 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In honour of Shivaratri, Swamiji shares from his Shiva Hermeneutics program. He examines Shiva Sutra 1:16 from 9th century Kashmir Shaivism. Swamiji looks at the sutra through three different lenses; solid (intellectual), vital (practical) and peculiar (emotional). Swamiji also reads Baba's commentary on the sutra. This podcast was recorded live at The Ashram in Mount Eliza on the 18th of February, 2023. Watch the full satsang program with Swamiji and Devi Ma at The Ashram with a weekly subscription to The Ashram Online! This subscription will give you access to a library of over 100 hours of Swamiji's talks, meditation and chanting programs, hatha yoga classes and more. Click here to learn more.

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In this episode, we talk about the festival of Mahashivarathri.We converse with Sheela, a Shiva bhakta and a working mother and have a freewheeling discussion on not just Maha Shivarathri but a lot more.General InformationSubscribers are requested to look for The Hindu Parenting notification emails for new podcasts/posts in their email promotions/spam tab and personally move these into the main inbox. Thereafter all posts will be delivered to their main inbox. Thank you!For questions that you'd like us to address, please use the form below:Hindu Parenting QuestionsFor comments and suggestions, please use the comments tab or write to us at contact@hinduparenting.orgPlease note that questions will not be answered on email.Do subscribe to our substack and follow us on our social media handlesTwitter: hinduparentingInstagram: hinduparentingTelegram: t.me/hinduparentingFacebook: facebook.com/groups/hinduparentingTranscriptRekhaNamaste!Welcome to the Hindu Parenting podcast. As we pointed out in the previous episode, ours is a celebratory culture. Almost every day in our calendar is filled with a celebration of nature or episodes from our rich itihasas and puranas. Our ways of celebration are equally rich and diverse. Today, we will be talking about the festival of Maha Shivaratri. So, when does Shivaratri occur according to the Indian calendar, traditionally known as the Panchangam? The 14th day or chaturdashi of Krishna paksha just before the new moon marks Shivaratri every month, making it 12 Shivaratris in all, but the Shivaratri that falls on Krishna paksha chaturdashi in the month of Magha, or Phalgun, depending on the specific panchang is called the Maha Shivratri. To discuss this festival, we have Sheela, a Shivabhakta, and a working mother. Shalini and I will be talking to her about the festival and how she celebrates it as a person from the Lingayat community. Namaskara and welcome, Sheela.Sheela: Namaskara Rekha, Shalini. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast.Rekha: It's a pleasure to have you on our podcast. Shall we dive right in? First, can you help us understand the significance of the festival? And what are the stories behind Shivaratri?Sheela: Sure. As we all know, the Shivaratri is celebrated every month or there is a Shivaratri every month, or day before the amavasya is considered Shivaratri every month. But in the Magha maasa, we celebrate Maha Shivratri. It is believed that when the samudra manthana happened, there was amrita and visha that came out of the samudra manthan, after the churning of the sea. So when the poison had generated, it caused a lot of problems even to the God. So Shiva offered to consume this haalahala is what they call it. So it so happened that when he consumed it…Shalini: Sorry, what is called haalahala?Sheela: The poison or visha, what we say. Vish, that is called haalahala. Okay, so amrita and haalahala, is what it's called. Shiva is the Lord of the world, is what we call Jagaddodharaka. So for the uddhara of pruthvi or this sampoorna loka, he came forward and said that he would consume that and dissolve that so it doesn't affect the whole world. So when he consumes this haalahala, when it's flowing down his throat, Parvati comes and holds his throat so it doesn't enter his body system. So that's how his throat has turned blue. So if you if you see the picture of Lord Shiva, it is always shown that his neck is blue in color, that's the reason he's also got the name Neelakantha. We can relate this to a story like how in the villages, if a person is bitten by a poisonous snake, he is kept awake for 24 hours. So that is what happened when Shiva consumed the haalahala, all the devas and devatas and the devis kept him awake by singing and dancing and performing different activities. This kept Lord Shiva awake. So that is a reason that we perform pujas on Shivaratri. So in the same way they did not eat anything. It's it's also…you can think this way; like if the head of the family, okay is unwell, can we eat anything? We won't be in a mood to eat because he's unwell. So that was one of the reasons they did upavaasa. Upavaasa also has an explanation for the word. “Upa” was, it said that, “at the threshold of God”. Vaasa means “living”, right. So at the footsteps or at the threshold of God's presence is what is upavaasa, they say. So, that was one of the reasons why they do upavaasa. And why they do jaagarane. They stay awake with the Lord, to help him overcome this, this reaction of the poison, okay by keeping him awake, because once a person sleeps, it may damage the whole system. And that was one of the reason why they keep the person who consumes or who has been bit by sneak awake for 24 hours.Shalini: I think you should come again on that upavaasa bit. Because vaasa, as you said, That's understood that you're talking about the abode of somebody, or where somebody stays, what does upa mean?Sheela: Upa means near and vaasa means to stay.Shalini: Okay, you're staying near the God who has consumed this haalahala. And you're keeping vigil for that person, with him. Right?Sheela: Along with him. Yeah, any fasting is called upavaasa. So you're close to God, it means that you're close to God.Rekha: Okay, so the purpose of fasting is to be close to God, not just to simply abstain from food. The whole purpose behind any kind of fasting upavaasa that we observed for many of our rituals and festivals is to not eat and thereby stay close to God think thinking of our devi or devata? Whichever occasion.Shalini: Right. This is very interesting, what we use the term upavaasa is to denote fasting, but the word itself does not have that meaning at all. Actually, I think it's an interesting word. It just occurred to me when you said it.Rekha: Yeah, I'm thinking it may have something to do with the proliferation of two meanings. You know, Sanskrit is a language that, that has different meanings for every word. So when you say, yeah, so in some way, I think what we are referring to by using the word upavaasa must be its underlying meaning, not the on the surface meaning of just staying away from food, but the underlying reason for it. So that has become coming into usage.Sheela: I would like to add something to this is when you're doing something that you want to achieve, or something that you like to do, or enjoy doing it, you're focused on it. When you're focused on something; imagine a child that likes to play, okay, doesn't think of food or anything, who's enjoying doing the whole act of playing, will not think of food or anything to drink. The game. Shalini: Very interesting point that you know, because when all focus is on some activity, you really are not concerned about food, drink anything. You're concerned only about what you're doing. So I think that's a great point.Rekha: Especially all of us definitely know how hard it is to drag a screaming child away from play to eat.Shalini: That's, that's absolutely true. Yeah. Sheela: So all of us become children when it is the creator that the supreme energy, soShalini: That's very, very nice way to put it. Yeah. So, Sheela, Shiva is worshipped in many forms, okay. I mean, you see a picture of Shiva on on his vaahana which is Nandi. Sometimes you just see a picture of Shiva with Parvati and their children, but the most common one is the form in which he is worshipped as a linga. So, why do you think that Shiva is represented as a linga?Sheela: Okay. Like, we all know energy does not have a shape. So, Shiva himself has no shape is what they say.Shalini: Yeah, I mean, Linga also actually means just a representation no in Sanskrit? Linga is the sign,Rekha: Yeah, the representation of Shiva linga. Linga is the word in Sanskrit word for a sign. So Shiva is represented as a linga and a linga is column of light with no beginning and no end. And when you worship Shiva as a linga, it just means you worship him as this unending, infinite source of light and fire. It's supposed to be a column of fire with no beginning and end. And interestingly the Jyotirlingas are well known to all practitioners of Hinduism. So the Jyotirlingas are supposed to be manifestations of this column or pillar of light, it's also called as sthambh. So the manifestation of the stambh in 12 different locations across India is the story behind Jyotirlingas. And some of the Jyotirlingas, where Bhagwan is represented as a column of light is places like Kedarnath, Mahakal temple in Ujjain.Shalini: There is Trimbakeshwar in Maharashtra, also Bhimashankar in Maharashtra too, I think, yeah, then I think Somnath is also one of the Jyotirlingas right?Rekha: They say that these are all swayambhu forms of Bhagwan because the Jyotirlingas are swayambhus which means that they have manifested by themselves without installing. So that is the significance of the 12 Jyotirlingas.Shalini: So Sheela, Rekha has been saying that, you know, a column of light, fire. Actually, Shiva is always represented in this fiery form. There's always a kind of very intense energy associated with him, you know, why is that?Sheela: Yes, as I mentioned, in the beginning, Jagaddhodharaka. So, he is believed to take away all the negatives from the creatures of his own creation, right. So he has created this world is what we believe. So in this world, whatever negatives that are there and that's the reason we go to any temple, okay? To gain energy from them, we don't go there to ask for something, we just try to, it's like, we are recharging our energies, okay. So, every time when we talk, we always say, think positive be positive, okay. So, it is believed that Eeshwara or Jagadeeshwara or Jagadoddharaka draws all the negatives. So, when he is taking all of the negatives, like how he consumed the haalahala, he is considered to be you know, his system is they say that he's very hot. So, any shaivaite if you ask them… He is believed to be abhisheka priya is what they say. If you go to any Shiva temple, you will see that there are drops of water falling on the Shivalinga that is there in the sanctum. It is said that the Shivalinga always needs to be cooled down like, you said Agni or fire that he's holding in his system has to always… you have to cool it so, that's one of the reasons why these water drops keep falling on the Shivalinga. And even if you can connect that to your family as such, it is believed that eeshanya moole in vaastu is what they say, in a house where the north and east coincide is called the eeshanya corner Okay. So, in that corner, even now in certain houses, they follow this ritual of or custom of keeping a vessel of copper or any vessel that has water and so, it is believed that when you keep this water which has to be changed every day, and the vessel has to be clean, and you refill the water, this signifies that like every house has an owner, so to keep them calm or the whole setup of the house to be calm, it is believed that when you keep water there it keeps the whole house in a positive energy or positive environment.Shalini: So that vessel is supposed to absorb all the negativities that arise in that space and imparts the positivity. Sheela: Yes, because that corner is believed that is where Shiva is residing and that is one of the reasons they especially that corner if any house as that corner of it is good to make use of the space to keep at least a small vessel of water.Shalini: So what are what are the abhishekams that Shiva basically likes?SheelaShiva is as I mentioned is abhisheka priya and like how they say Vishnu is alankaara priya. So Shiva is abhisheka priya and you can just do abhisheka with water, nothing else. The least could be water otherwise, just panchamruta abhisheka is what they do normally. Or as we all know, he puts vibhuti, the ashes. So, since he's fond of vibhuti, so vibhuti is another thing but otherwise just by water. Me being a Lingayat, there were times when I used to not get flowers when I used to live in certain places. Even now when I do puja, since we have to do puja to our linga that we wear, every day it is said that we have to do thrice a day but with all the lifestyle that we have, I ensure that at least once in the morning, soon after my bath, I do the puja. I just apply vibhuti and the sandal paste and I just pour little bit of water and that is what is sufficient to keep him happy.Shalini: It's very interesting. All the things that you mentioned, they're all coolants also. Water is a coolant, vibhuti is a coolant, sandalwood paste is a coolant, panchamruta is a coolant. So, I mean it's very consistent. Okay, if they say that he absorbs all the negative energies and so gets heated up and needs to be cooled. All the things that you're using to do abhisheka with for him are also coolants you know, so there is really no inconsistency in our practices. It's really beautiful to see this.Rekha: Just as Sheela pointed out, abhisheka priya and alankaara priya! What are these two? You know, Bhagwan Shiva is known as abhisheka priya and Vishnu, any Avatar of Vishnu is supposed to like decoration, flowers, all the beautiful and aesthetic things. Whereas Shiva is more from an ascetic tradition. So Shalini, do you remember the discussion we were having when we discussed what it means to be a Hindu? And choosing one's ishtadevata?Shalini: Yes, absolutely.Rekha: What Sheela has just said, ties into our devis and devatas having different personalities, you know, one liking the decoration aspect, one being more ascetically inclined, and how beautiful, how naturally diverse the tradition is and how we can choose an ishtadevata, depending on what resonates with our personality..just wanted to point that out.Shalini: Exactly, exactly. That's what I'm saying. It's very consistent, you know, the theories, the practice, everything is consistent. It's for us to discover and appreciate it. It's really, every conversation that we have makes me more and more appreciative of the depth and profundity of our traditions. It's simply amazing. Okay, Sheela, while you were growing up, what was a typical festival day like? How did you celebrate the occasion of Maha Shivaratri?Sheela: Alright. And as a child, what I can remember is, we wouldn't get to eat anything that's made with rice or we wouldn't eat any cooked form of the rice. And my parents used to fast without having any grain. Okay, if we felt hungry, the food that we used to get would be fruits or anything that is made with wheat, and we would try our best to cooperate with our parents by not asking for any food because they are fasting themselves. So it wouldn't be right asking, demanding for something but then it was always a treat to have chapati because that was that is I'm sure even now, like my children, they like to eat chapati. It's not rice. And the whole day from morning till evening, they wouldn't eat anything. And again, they would have bath in the evening and all of us would have bath. And then they would do the abhisheka at home by chanting Rudra or simple Om Namah Shivaya is what we could chant. And then once the puja is done in the evening, around 6:30 or seven o'clock, I'm sure they used to even check for the right time when they will do the puja. And then once that is done, followed by phalahaara is what it's called. Any upavaasa they say phalahaara, it's phala, ahaara; you can have fruits if you want to break your fast or you can have a snack which is made of wheat. Normally in our house, my mom used to always make something with wheat, that would be upma. That was the common thing that would be made. And then we used to get to eat dry fruits and all with which we could eat any fruit if we feel hungry after we break the past. But there are some people who will not have anything at all. They may just have juice sometime, tender coconut is considered to be cooling. So they consumed a coconut and there are certain temples, like there's a temple near our house where I live. There on Shivaratri they have the tender coconut abhisheka. Elaneeru abhisheka is what they call it. So, they will be there they perform this on Shivaratri. And on that day, any temple that you go, a Shiva temple, they will serve you with prasada which will either be dates or it will be some snack which is made of wheat, like upma, is what they give in that temple also. So, there are a lot of devotees who contribute, they volunteer to sponsor the prasada on that day. So it is from morning till the next day morning that they keep, like, you know, puja keeps happening. But this elaneeru abhisheka happens till the evening, then there is another puja again, then there is a different alankaara of vibhuti that they do. And then it is followed by the bhajan and all that that they do.Shalini: Yeah, so you you stay up all night? Or that was the practice, maybe it's not so anymore, but people would stay up all night, right? Yes. And what what would you do? I think you mentioned why we stay up. Because we are also keeping vigil along with the Lord so that, you know, he doesn't fall asleep and swallow that poison, which could affect him. So I think that's why we stay awake. But what would you do staying awake?Sheela: So once you break the fast at home, when we used to break our fast, the next custom was to take us to the temple. So in those days, we had to walk a lot to go to a particular temple that my parents used to visit. So they used to be two, three Shiva temples that they used to take us to. So we used to walk after this, go visit… the farthest temple would be the first place that we would visit. So on our way back, we would go to another temple and then a temple that is much closer to where we used to stay then. Once we visit the temple, the next thing that would happen is to keep us awake for some time, they used to play a movie. So it was a standard movie. I remember two, three years, it would be the same movie. It used to be Shiva Purana story where, like Parvati is dreaming of being married to Lord Shiva, like all of us know the story, right? So the parvata raja story. And this was a movie that used to be played there. And that would go on for probably till midnight, till one o'clock, we used to stay in the temple. And then we used to walk back home. And you will see people all around that community moving around, so it wouldn't be like it is night. So we would come back and we would sleep. I really don't remember if my parents used to stay awake, but when we get up, they're awake again. So in the morning, that's how it used to be.Rekha: This also shows the importance of community right? But for having a community it would be much harder to motivate children to stay awake or to take part in these festivities. But having a connectivity makes it so easy.Shalini: Yeah, and you're right because there are plenty of families also who are taking advantage of big community celebrations in places like Sadguru's Isha plus, I think there is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living, they also have a whole night program for Shivaratri. So, I think there are opportunities to do things as a community. And then of course, there are the temples also, which always I think do full night programs on Shivaratri, yeah,Rekha: Yeah, there are so many temples that have all night programs. So, you know, even the littlest ones can be taken to these programs, there are cultural events. And I have noticed the very little ones who come to see, like a music performance or a dance performance done by the older children and they get fascinated and they they beg to they ask their parents, can I also start learning so you know, these kinds of things are facilitated when you start having them participate. In India it is actually quite easy to find a local Shiva temple that has all night programs.Sheela: In villages, normally they follow this jaagarane ritual very devotedly. There are plenty of temples which will have singing, there'll be some people who will be telling stories and be narrating stories. So they ensure that they are awake and there will be small children, they are the ones who will be the most energetic because it is believed on this day. They say that you can gain a lot of energy, especially for saadhaks who are looking forward to achieve something or to do some saadhana. They say that this is an ideal day to do your upavaasa and your jaagarane. So small children definitely enjoy the celebration, especially the jaagarane because it's, it's something unusual, they let them stay awake the whole night.Rekha: Speaking of all night activities, and jaagarane, we can see how the performing arts play a major role in the life of a practicing Hindu. Shiva in his form of Nataraja, the king of natya is just so relatable for kids, don't you think? It is just such an active beautiful, aesthetic image and that's one easy way for kids to connect this whole thing of performing arts and Shivaratri. And then performing in a festival, staying awake at night and performing in a festival..Shalini: dancing the night away with some rules and we cannot have any sort of dancing. ButRekha: That's true. Terminology is so important. Coming back to terminology which we touched in the very first or second podcast. So, dance is not simply dance for us. It is natya. Music is not simply music. It is sangeeta. Practitioners of classical dance, the gurus who make it a point to mention this. I remember meeting one of the renowned gurus and he had specifically said what is dance? Don't use the term dance. It is natya.Shalini: yeah, I think that's that's something that we have to consciously do every day, you know, shed a little bit of the English, start using our own words, then the associated meanings also will come to us. And I think we'll all be better for that.Rekha: Maybe we can also stop saying gods and goddesses and say devatas and devis, and..Shalini: yeah, devatas and devisSheela: I would like to add something to this devi and devatas, devatas and devis. When you're referring to a couple they will always say Srimati and Shri, they will never say Shri and Srimathi. Unlike in English, they'll say Mr. and Mrs, no?Shalini: Wow! That is something that's a very, very interesting point that you brought up.Sheela: Even if you see, when you see an invitation, a wedding invitation, it will always be Srimati and Shri. So, the importance of a woman or the respect that is given for a woman is shown from not now, but from the ancient days. So they always give a lot of respect for a woman in Indian culture. Everywhere.Shalini: Little things no, that we have not actually paid attention to but it makes a world of difference. You always write Srimathi and Shri. You will never write Shri and Srimathi. It even sounds wrong, you know.Rekha: That's because we've grown up hearing it said - Shrimathi and Shri, Devi and Devatha, it just flows so well. You notice that Shri itself means Lakshmi, right? Shalini: Correct. Correct. I was going to raise that too! Good, you raised that Rekha.Rekha: Can this word ‘Mr.' ever mean “Goddess"? Think of how preposterous that sounds!Shalini: ‘Mr.' can never have a feminine element in it, no? Rekha: Just like how Eve was fashioned out of a rib of Adam!Shalini: Correct! Very very interesting point. Things that we generally tend to not notice. Ok Sheela, as a Shiva Bhakta or a family of Shiva Bhaktas, how do you initiate a child into the practice?Sheela: In our community, we have a custom that we follow. Its a part of community rituals, when a child is born, we do a ritual called Linga dharna, which we do on the 11th day after he or she is born. And we call the pandit of our community to come and perform this ritual, where a child is tied a linga. In our house, my daughter also got this linga dharana done when she was born. As a child she used to always ask - you know children are curious, they like to always do and be a part of every ritual and later on it fades off.. but my daughter just a couple of years ago also used to ask, whenever she saw us doing puja. She used to ask, “even I want to do linga puja”. Even we as children were supposed to wear it every day, but because of our lifestyles and we move out and go to different places, we aren't allowed to wear this as there is a ritual that you need to follow and do puja everyday to the shiva linga. Shalini: Meaning that if you wear the linga you have to do the puja everyday. So if you are not able to do it, you should not even wear it - that's what you are saying, right?Sheela: I wouldn't say to not even wear it but you need two do justice right? It's called atma linga, it's close to your heart, so it's almost like the god within you. You are worshipping the god within you in the form of linga so you keep it close to your heart and that's how you wear it in the Lingayat community also. Not everybody wears it, but if you do, you should keep it close to your chest, and you have to perform the puja thrice a day - morning, afternoon and evening also. We used to get an opportunity to do the puja for this linga whenever we used to do rudrabhisheka for Shiva on Shivarathri day, so we used to also get to do the puja, apply the bhasma and the gandha and all that. So we tried the same thing with my daughter when she wanted to do the puja. We got her to hold her linga and we taught het to do the puja and she used to like do it even after Shivaratri for some days. Since she used to ho to school, I used to give her an option that she could do it on her holidays, so she would consciously ask for the Shivalinga to do the puja. That is what we do over here. Normally on Shivaratri as we keep chanting Om Namah Shivaya as we are reading the shloka or the Rudra or the different Stotrams that they read for Shiva. Each house follows each way of doing puja. We make her sit with us and put the bilva patra on the Ishwara. All the lingas are kept in a plate after the abhisheka is done and we start chanting Om Namah Shivaya and we get her also to put the bilva patra on the linga.Shalini: Bilva patra is the leaves of the bilva tree no? which is also something that Shiva likes very much.Sheela: Yes yes. Its called bilva patra or bilpatre or bel in Hindi so that's how we get to be a part of the puja. Somewhere even when they say, “I don't believe in all this”, slowly as they grow up, as the transformation happens, children will get drawn to it when it is inculcated in them as young, small children or even as teenagers. Children need to be told why this is done so once you get a justifying explanation you start believing.Rekha: Sheela, so if a child cannot do the ashtotram by himself or herself, they can chant Om Namah Shivaya 108 times right? As a way of worshipping the linga, isn't it?Sheela: Right, right. If you can chant 108 times, good. If you can't, you can keep telling how many ever times you can chant. So there's nothing that you have to count for 108 times. If you can chant when you are doing the shiv puja every day for how many ever times, good for you, because all of us have time constraints, right?Rekha: And this mantra is incidentally called the Shiva panchakshari mantra, right?Sheela: Yes.Shalini: I think we've had a very, very enlightening, interesting, enjoyable conversation and we have talked about more than just Shivaratri. I think our listeners would enjoy this podcast as much as we enjoyed putting it together, so with this we come to the end of this episode. Thank you Sheela. Thank you for joining us and sharing so many experiences, and thank you Rekha, and we will meet our listeners once again in a fortnight's time. It's going to be yet another festival, the festival of Holi and we will be speaking to another guest about Holi. Until then namaste. Keep well. Get full access to Hindu Parenting at hinduparenting.substack.com/subscribe

10 things i am doing on Shivaratri tomorrow. Sharing with you here:1. See the form of Lord Shiva with the eyes and internalise it by staring intensely followed by visualising it with eyes closed. This is called Traataka. 2. Read Shiva Puran with the eyes and mouth loudly. 3 Hear the glories and stories of Bhagavan.4. Chant Shiva Stotrams and mantras like Om Namah Shivaya and Mrityunjaya Mantra. Loudly first and then softly. 5. Offer abhisheka and bilva leaves to the Shivalinga with the hands. 6. Walk to the Shiva Mandir with the feet. 7. Do Upavaas. If possible without water(Nirjal). If not, with fruits alone and no cereal. If that is also not possible, then eat cooked fasting food but once only. Fasting ensures that our pranas move upwards and help us in deepening our spiritual practices. 8. Remember Bhagwan throughout the day as much as possible. This is the true meaning of Upavaas. Upa- Near. Vaas - stay. Stay close to the Lord mentally. 9. Surrender to Bhagwan and accept HIS will. Prostrate with this bhaav or emotion. 10. Meditate on Shiva-Tattva as one's True Self - Chidananda Rupah Shivoham Shivoham and wake up. This is the deeper meaning of keeping awake on the Shivaratri night. It is to transcend all finitude and go beyond the BMI(Body-Mind-Intellect). One realises Shiva then. Which of these Sadhanas or any other sadhana will you do on Shivaratri? Share in the comments below? 

Today is Maha Shivaratri celebrated all over the world where ever Shiva is worshipped. I have told the significance of this Mahashivratri through the story connected with it. And also the benefits of observing this Maha Shivaratri vratam through a story of king Muchukunta . please listen to the story and send your valuable feedback to me. Hari Om. this is Raji patti telling you stories..

Unpack and process Ayurvedic algorithms in order to apply them to modern actions like drinking coffee and alcohol, GMO food production and breathing exercises (pranayama).Dr Sumit K. in fact is researching and applying the medicinal benefits of coffee and single-malt whisky. For those who want to drink coffee and alcohol, this episode may guide you to refine your relationship with consuming substances. Dr Sumit also frequently hikes ruthless pilgrimages into the high Himālayas in search for Ayurvedic herbs, ancient village healers and to commune with the Vedic Energy of Lord Shiva: that Absolute untouched Silence and force of nature which removes irrelevancy.  This episode decodes some of Ayurveda's teachings around substances, the six tastes, and other more occult & rare Vedic technologies.After all, according to Ayurveda, EVERYTHING in the universe can be medicine when you know how to transform that substance.IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:

In this episode, we talk about celebrating Indic birthdays so that children feel the joy and excitement of personalised connection with Hindu history and culture. We converse with the founder of Janmatithi.com (also indicbirthday.com) to explore the differences between the Gregorian calendar and the Indic calendar. We also touch on the ways in which celebrating birthdays according to the Indic calendar will help us connect to Hindu dharma.Show Notes0:06 Why celebrate Indic birthdays2:00: Vasco da Gama and the Indic calendar5:00: The European calendar vs. the Indian calendar11:30: How to use the website and find your Janmatithi19:00: What is a tithi?23:11: The Indic lunisolar calendar, the male and female energies of Shiva and Shakti, eco-feminism as a movement.29:00: Indic calendar celebrations - the benefits and joy32:00: Midnight celebration - how did it start? GMT vs the ancient Ujjain Meridian34:24: What can a parent do everyday to enhance connection with the Indic calendar?39:50: Listener questionGeneral InformationSubscribers are requested to look for The Hindu Parenting notification emails for new podcasts/posts in their email promotions/spam tab and personally move these into the main inbox. Thereafter all posts will be delivered to their main inbox. Thank you!For questions that you'd like us to address, please use the form below:Hindu Parenting QuestionsFor comments and suggestions, please use the comments tab or write to us at contact@hinduparenting.orgPlease note that questions will not be answered on email.Do subscribe to our substack and follow us on our social media handlesTwitter: hinduparentingInstagram: hinduparentingTelegram: t.me/hinduparentingFacebook: facebook.com/groups/hinduparentingTranscript[0:06] Rekha: Namaste. Welcome to the Hindu Parenting Podcast. Today's topic is of particular interest to young parents and children. We are going to be talking of birthdays. Today we celebrate birthdays that sound like 21st December, or 3rd March. But as followers of Sanatana Dharma, we celebrate our gods and festivals on days that sound like Krishnaashtami, Ramanavami, Buddha Poornima, or Mahaveer Jayanti. So how do we reconcile these ways of arriving at birthdays and festivals? Was there a time when we used to calculate and refer to our birthdays differently? The question for us - do we know our Indic birthdays? Can we find our child's Janmatithi? To help us understand the difference and tell us some interesting anecdotes along the way, Shalini and I will be talking to Suraj-ji, founder of Janmatithi.in or Indicbirthday.in. Namaste and welcome, Suraj-ji.[1:11] Suraj: Namaste Rekha-ji. Namaste Shalini-ji, thank you for having me here. And thanks for hosting such a wonderful platform, especially for parents who are looking for a cultural connect for their kids.Rekha: It's a pleasure to have you. Let's start with - why should we bother knowing our Indic birthdays? What is in it for us and our children?[1:29] Suraj: Indeed. So, today if you go and ask any kid when is the birthday of Jesus Christ, he knows it immediately. He'll say it is December 25 from the top of his head, but ask the same kid, what is the birthday of Shri Rama or Shri Krishna? Do you know when they were born? They would not be sure about it, they will start scratching the head and wondering... they would not have an answer like...Sri Rama was born on Chaitra Navami and Krishna was born on Shravana Ashtami. These things are really a question mark for us. Why do kids not know this? One of the reasons is because we have lost our connect with the Indic calendar and the Indic calendar connects us with our culture. If we look back, even the ancient Indians, they excelled in astronomy, they devised astronomical calendar which is based on science and has undergone minimal change since millennia. If you look at the English calendar though, it is rather arbitrary, you know, it was not even standardized till 17th century. Only after 17th century they borrowed some techniques from India and synchronized their calendar. So what was the need for our ancestors to devise such a advanced calendar at such an early age? It was primarily for navigation. Those days, Indians navigated across the world. And the complex calculations and accurate calculations were needed for this. In fact, there's a story that goes that, you know, Vasco de Gama discovered India as per our books, but the story goes that he couldn't have reached India but for the help he received from an Indian called Kanha! Vasco de Gama, when he came, he actually came only through the shores, he did not venture into deep sea. He came to Africa and then from there on, an Indian called Kanha actually navigated him along with his boats to India. So Vasco de Gama documents this, he says that he could see boats which are much larger than his boats. And also, he incidentally says that the person there was navigating us through his teeth. So this was very weird.Shalini: What! [4:00] Suraj: Yeah, so the story is very interesting. So the teeth actually represents - it's represented by a word called kau. A kau is what Kanha was referring to. And his reference was a polestar, this local dialect, he was using a device and he was measuring the altitude of the pole star from the horizon using a wooden board, and the thread was held by his teeth. So when Vasco de Gama saw this, he also heard the word kau and he had a memory of kau being used for teeth, the word kau being used for teeth as well. So he presumed there is some relation between teeth and navigation. Shalini: How ridiculous![4:36] Suraj: While Kanha was going very advanced, he was looking at the pole star and he was measuring. So this kind of highlights the difference of understanding of the Indian perspective of astronomy and navigation, compared to that of a western mind. You know, the navigation and understanding of astronomy was defined by the calendar, the calculations of the calendar. That's why calendar is very important for for us in that context.[5:00] Suraj: And if you go back from the English perspective, as I said they had like no well-defined calendar before the 17th Century. They had a lot of errors, while Indians had this continuous calendar since millennia. And that's why going back into history, we can look at these lessons.[5:25] Shalini: So when was this calendar standardized? And why? And what was there before, before this calendar was standardized?Suraj: So if you really go back to ancient times in the European continent, they had a very harsh winter. So they actually did not count the days during the winter. They did not care about what happened outside, they were indoors, only the first 10 months were important for them after that they really did not calculate time.[5:55] Rekha: So timekeeping took a break for two months?! Is that possible? Suraj: That's right. And it was causing a lot of issues for them. They could not predict festivals correctly, they had trouble getting the winter solstice date correct. And they had nobody to tell them.[6:14] Suraj: So then, in those days, a lot of information came in from the Indian subcontinent, especially through the Arabs. So that's how they evolved their calendar over time, while India was already having all this knowledge. Indians were working off advanced trignometrics, right? This was the situation in India, while in the West it was much different. Now the calendars were then driven by the Emperors and the church. So like, Julius Caesar was dominating the Julian calendar. And Augustus also came in so Augustus kind of said, “Okay, August month should be mine!” That's how July and August have, you know, 31 days, because they are named after Emperors while February is deprived of two days, 28 days, because that there was nobody to..(laughs)[7:00] Shalini: So it was the whim and fancy of some Emperors that they decided to name months after them and use it, you know, in any which way they wanted - 31 days for each of them, and depriving poor February of two days. Suraj: Correct. Once in four years, he turns his head up. But that was much later. And then came in Pope Gregory. So Pope Gregory was the one who defined the Gregorian calendar in the 17th century, the kind we use these days.Shalini: This is what we use today, right? [7:37] Suraj: That's right, that came into practice in the West, in the western continent, around the 17th century, 15th to 17th century. So those days, if you announced the calendar, it doesn't happen immediately. It takes years and centuries to implement it across, for the knowledge to spread. So yeah, that was when the Gregorian calendar came in. And also a point to highlight here is that in Indian calendar, we have the concept of tithis, and the tithis are like the 30 tithis in a month. So the tithis are like days. And it's always 30. So it is consistent across months, it is not like some Emperor told I want something which is better, and it doesn't change. It is much more secular in that sense. While this is more religious, right? Even decisions are driven by the church, Pope Gregory announcing something. And also..[8:26] Shalini: So what adjustments did Pope Gregory make exactly? What did he do? Suraj: So initially, there were.. let me go back one step back as well, if you see, I told about the 10 months, right, so the 10th month was supposed to be December. That's why the year ends at December. And there is Nava. November is nine, Nava. And December is dasha - ten. So that's, that's where they ended the year. But much later on. when they did much more connections, and around the 15th - 16th century, Pope Gregory and with him it was basically some scientists and people who came together and then Pope Gregory announced that we should skip 10 days for the correct date to come in. So around 5th October to 15th October. So we've talked about 5th being one day, and the next day was 15th October! They skipped 10 days in between. [9:24] Shalini: Really?! This is so random and ridiculous and arbitrary. They just skipped 10 days? you know, those 10 days came and went came and went, but they never got recorded. The date changed from..what.. October 5 to 15th?[9:42] Suraj: That's right. That's it - 5th to 15th around that time. So after 5th, the next date was 15th, that's right. So they didn't have October 6, or 7th or 13th.[10:03] Rekha: you know what I find very interesting here? So we have the “secular” calendar that follows the planetary positions, the sun and the moon, you know, the heavenly bodies and everything. But what we are following thinking that it is secular is actually the Christian religious calendar. Is that correct? Suraj: That's absolutely correct. Yes. So we base in fact, the start of the calendar itself as AD/BC, that was based on the birth of Jesus, and every year starts around Jesus birthday. So you know our birthday i.e English birthdays today, are religious birthdays as it is based on Jesus Christ and his birthday.[10:45] Shalini: But today I think they have changed that no? Now, it's called the Common Era. But yes, you're right. While we were growing up, we called it AD and BC, which was, you know, after Christ and before, so, yeah, absolutely. But it's taken, this change probably happened in the latter half of the 20th century, perhaps, right, this movement from AD to CE common era. [11:14] Suraj: Yeah, they have tried to correct a lot of things. But I can come to that, at some point where many concepts of India were very, very advanced. And now the West is trying to catch up on that. So they are copying us still, but not giving the due credit. [11:30] Shalini: Okay, great. So we will, we will discover those by and by, you know, yeah, sure, sure. Maybe, maybe not in this podcast, but maybe in a future one. Because, you know, what we are diving into is a very vast subject. I don't think it will end with one podcast. Anyway, so now that we know how scientific and culturally important it is knowing our Indic birthdays, how can we find our Indic birthdays? You have your website, right? Maybe you can tell us a little bit about how to navigate your website and how to find our Janmatithi using your website. Suraj: Sure, so my website name is indicbirthday.com or indicbirthday.in . The other domain also which points the same website is Janmatithi.com or Janmatithi.in. You can go to any of these and it will bring you to the same website. So on the main page, you can enter your English birthdate, that is your current, whatever birth date, the year of your birth, and then you need to put in the time of your birth then you can if you are born in India, the default timezone is the Indian timezone. You can choose a different timezone if you are born somewhere else, but remember, it's a place of your timezone of your birth, not the timezone of your current place. So, if you're born in India, it should be and currently in US you have to put the timezone as India, because it refers to the birth time and year.Shalini: And suppose one doesn't know the exact time of birth, how important is that?Suraj: It is okay to have an error of about a couple of hours, the reason being we are calculating janmatithi which has a range of around 24 hours - 20 to 24 hours. So it is okay to have that error. So, once you have put this in three inputs, you just say get janmatithi and it will throw you the detailed timings of your birthday for the current year. So it will tell you when to celebrate it in the current year based on the English date reference. And it will also tell you the Indian calendar Indic month and Indic tithi, Indic day that is - and the paksha. So these details will also come up so it can then be saved. And it will go into database in your login. You can log in and then save that birthday and you can share it to your family. They click on the link and it will reopen for them. So it is quite elaborate. We have done a lot of features there to be able to save and share the Indic birthdays.Shalini: I see. So how long have you been working on this website? [14:28] Suraj: It has been a few years now. It's been four or five years, and I have a regular job. So we have been evolving it over time. And with the help of some freelancers. And amazingly, I've got a lot of help from very cooperative freelancers, friends, my family and also there was this help I got from a German collaborator. He was working in a university in Germany. In fact, he was also connected with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at some point. That's where he was knowledgeable as well. And he can give me a lot of knowledge on the Swiss ephemeral data library, the software library, which gives the planetary positions used for calculating the Janmatithi and Nakshatra, Rashi all those things.[15:23] Shalini: Okay. So you have put in a lot of effort into building this website. So, I think we should encourage our listeners to definitely visit this website janmatithi.in or janmatithi.com or the same thing as Indic birthday.in or Indicbirthday.com. So I think we should, you know, support really hardworking people like this who are putting in time and effort apart from a steady job otherwise to make things like this. Rekha: Wonderful. Thank you so much. Suraj ji![15:57] Suraj: I would like to also add that you know, this tradition is, it is I'm sure this is meant to happen. That's why I'm just the means it's happening. It it is a very living tradition of Janmatithi in many cultures - if you go to Gujarat, they celebrate, they call it tithi anusaar birthday. If you go to Kashmir, it is call koshur - they have a name for this. They call it koshur birthday. In ISKCON, they have this tradition very actively followed. Art of living has their Ayush Homas. Ramakrishna Mission celebrates Vivekanandji's and a list of saints birthdays (janmatithis) published and so it is a very living tradition, even today, and just that we did not have this information out there. So I was really searching for it and decided to develop it myself.[16:42] Shalini: Very nice to hear this. Yeah, really. Okay, so how did you first develop an interest in this concept of Indic birthdays? [16:52] Suraj: Yeah, that's a very interesting story for me. It is a very personal story as well. My father, his name is Krishna. And he was born on September 2, that is his birthday. And that particular year, apparently, it was Janmashtami when he was born. Now, we didn't know this for a long time. But recently, just before we started on this exploration of the website, we had a few years before that, we had this discussion that you know, that will celebrate your birthday, it was a special some anniversary, and he told that okay, but let us do it on on Janmastami because that is very special for me. So we asked why, you know, why is Janmastami special? So then he said that Okay, I was born on Janmastami. And we had this celebration at home, when I was a kid that I ended up, you know, asking him then that “oh, your name is Krishna and you're born and Janmashtami that is a very nice coincidence!”. [17:45] Suraj: But actually, the story is that he since he was born on Janmashtami he was named Krishna, I didn't realize it because of I myself was so disconnected from this concept of Indic dates and months that it didn't strike to me. So then the second question came in “Oh you were Krishna”. So, my grandmother's name is actually Sita and since he was born on Krishnaashtami, she felt it relevant that we should keep his name as Krishna and that was her basis for naming him Krishna. Now, subsequently, the first part was answered that his name is Krishna for that, but what is ashtami? Krishna Ashtami is as it is commonly known. So delving into that we got that it is the name of the tithi on which it is celebrated. So Ashtami stands for ashta, which is eight in Sanskrit. So this was also a revelation for me because all the birthdays if you see Rama navami is based on a name-tithi combination. I found it very beautiful. And I extended the same to my website also. So if you actually add your name in the website along with that birthday, it will give you your personalized birthday name, which says- For example, my name would come up as Suraj Shasti, that kind of thing. [19:06] Rekha: That's a beautiful way to attract children to make them feel special, I would say. Shalini: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So Suraj ji you've been talking about tithi, tithi so many times and in the English calendar, I think the equivalent is a date, date versus tithi. Now, can you help us understand the difference between the two? [20:00] Suraj: Sure. So, when we say a date in an English calendar context, it is a Civil day. So it starts at around midnight of the Greenwich Meridian time, but whichever whatever we've studied. Now, in the Indian context, we start the day at sunrise - that is point one. And the other thing is, when we say tithi, what do you mean by tithi? Tithi is actually the 12 degree movement of the relative angle between the moon and the sun when you see it from the earth. Okay I hope you understood what I'm saying.Shalini: Maybe you should make it simpler for all of us.Suraj: Sure, a simple way to represent it would be a lunar phase, you know, when you say there is a full moon and then the moon slightly goes on waning and then when it goes waning, there is a shift of some amount and that shift is what is measured. So, that shift is due to the relative position of the moon and the sun. When we put it into when we put it into degrees, it is a 12 degree movement, which is called as one tithi. So, a New Moon is a tithi, then it is pratipada, which is the first tithi, then dvitiya, tritiya, chaturthi, panchami, sashti, sapthami, ashtami, navami, dashami, and so on till the next event, which is the new moon and then again the count starts - pratipada and so on. Shalini: full moon? you started with new moon. So, I think you mean full moon and then again..Suraj: Either way works. So, but an important thing to consider here is that in the month can be started with the new moon. And if you start the month with the new moon, you will have first the waxing phase, which is the Shukla paksha. So, it is becoming brighter, that's when the full moon comes in. And once the full moon is crossed, it is the waning phase which is the Krishna paksha till the new moon occurs again. From the first new moon to the second new moon is one Indic month and between this whole cycle from one new moon to other new moon, you have two pakshas, which is Shukla paksha and Krishna paksha, each paksha is divided into 15 tithis. So, these tithis is what we are representing by numbers, and that is the 12 degree movement Shalini: Does a tithi correspond to a 24 hour day? Suraj: Correct. Tithi is similar to a day in duration, it is about 20 to 24 hours. And as I explained, it is the 12 degree movement. So when you measure it, it will come more or less in the duration of a day, but not exactly. It's a complicated calculation. That's why we have the website, you can go there and you can check it out, but I don't want to put too much concepts right now. Shalini: Sure sure. Interested listeners are free to explore Janmatithi.in for more information. Okay. So, going by whatever you have spoken of before, it looks like our calendar is rather complex, takes into account the Sun, the Moon and the Earth's position with respect to that.[23:11] Shalini: Is there a name for this calendar and are there different calendars across the world? Can you throw some light on this? Suraj: Yeah, this the Indian calendar is called the lunisolar calendar. So, this not just belongs to India, it is the whole Indian subcontinent, which is based on lunisolar calendar, which lunar when we say it has like the moon and the sun combined energy, while the West, so I'm putting it into two cultural aspects here - the West and the East. So, the West has even culturally, if you see they have a dominance of the male god, there is only one God, which is a male god, there is no female God there in their cultures right? While the Eastern cultures have a concept of female divinity as well, this is very representative of the culture, we have the female energy also considered in all aspects, including the calendar. So the male is generally represented by the sun. So there is the Sun which is Shiva and the moon which is Shakti. Now even Dr. Sanjay Rath, who is a famous astrologer has spoken about this. He says, if you are following the body as per only the sun then you're a fool. Your real birthday is when[24:30] Shalini: Why? Suraj: (laughs).. He says the real birthday is only when the male and the female energies come together. Otherwise you cannot be born. So on the day of your birth, the sun and the moon formed the relationship so there is the male and the female Shiva and Shakti which came together to form the relationship and you are born. Now every year when you have the same relationship of the sun and the moon, only then you can celebrate your birthday. So, that is your real birthday. That is when you're cosmically aligned and anything you do - any poojas you do or any auspicious any, you know, blessings which come to you are more connected to you through the cosmos only on your real birthday, your lunisolar birthday. So, this is a very beautifully put by him. [25:20] Shalini: Oh, it makes it makes eminent sense. You know, you cannot, you cannot take birth with just one energy. Right? You need both. So, are you saying that Western calendar follows only the path of the sun and not the moon at all? [25:42] Suraj: Exactly. And it's just the solar reference, which is considered there. And as we discussed, just lots of discrepancies in terms of how the days are aligned, but also this aspect of and also is referring to the way the Western culture has adopted a lot of Indian concepts, right, we were talking about now, they are talking about, you know, correcting the mistakes. So, they are talking a lot about feminism now, while India was already a lot feministic in their outlook. We gave voting rights much before the west gave, right? [26:21] Shalini: That is true. I think after your explanation, I think Indian parents would really want to take a serious re-look at how they're celebrating their own as well as their child's birthday. No? you can't be celebrating just one energy, you need both. So, if if your birthday according to the English calendar is taking into account only one energy, you are not born, you know. So, I think Indian parents after this very enlightening point that you've made, I think would really take a look at celebrating Janmatithi, you know instead of birthday.[27:10] Rekha: Something that I had read before regarding the Somnath temple in the Dvaraka and how it brings together the male and the female energies. Suraj ji, would you know anything about that - it has something to do with the same Shiva Shakti that you talked about. Correct?[27:30] Suraj: Correct. So, in fact, Krishna, Bhagwan Krishna was a very early feminist. And he built this Somnath temple at Dvaraka. So Soma, when you say Soma, right, it means the moon, and it's a Shiva temple. So, it brings together both the energy of the moon and the sun, the Shiva and Shakti both together there. And it serves as a reminder for us not to forget this concept. In fact, only now in the West, there is this movement of eco-feminism which is coming up and they are lately adopting, co adopting these things and ecofeminism places a lot of importance on the moon also. And they would actually agree with what we are putting how we are putting the calendar and they would say yes, we should be more towards the moon giving also importance to moon equally since they are very patriarchally driven, and as well give importance to nature, which is again, something which we bring a lot from the from the east. So ecology and feminism comes together. And it's a developing concept there while we have been having it so why not we celebrate and cherish that right?Shalini: Absolutely, without a doubt. [28:52] Rekha: So Suraj ji, you're a parent, a father yourself. Do you think it's possible to incorporate this way of thinking in the daily life of young family? What has been your experience trying to incorporate Janmatithi into your you know, birthdays and daily routine?[29:16] Suraj: Yeah, absolutely. It is.It is very much possible and we have experienced a lot of evolution. I am a father of two daughters and my elder daughter was actually born on Vara MahaLakshmi and it was a dwadashi. So, we make it a point to celebrate both these days, it we celebrate it on Dwadashi as well as on Vara Mahalakshmi and apart from this my - after developing and studying about this concept, I realised my wife was born on Mahavir Jayanti. So Mahavir Jayanti has also become special and we started - my wife started reading up about Mahavir, about his teachings. And my mother in law we realised was born on Vasant Panchami. That is a festival which we usually overlooked, but we started celebrating it. It's become a special day for us as well, now. Shalini: Lovely, lovely.[10:05] Suraj: Similarly, like even the concept, you know, these names of days that we have given.. my friend called Pragya, she is celebrating her birthday on Pragya Dashami, she was born on dashami. She never knew about this Indian calendar concept, but she has been celebrating it, looking forward to double celebrations. So (laughs)..we make it a point to meet together and celebrate. This has been across my family and my friends. And they have been beginning to understand also. My wife was not so much aware of the Indian calendar now understands when the month changes, when that's how similarly, the seasons, the rutus, how they are calculated, we are all beginning to start to look forward to Indian festivals and celebrate our birthdays with that. And we are more aware of…[30:57] Rekha: Great point! Being aware of Indic calendar makes you really well connected to nature and the cycles of nature. So that's another important reason to keep in touch with the Indic calendar. Suraj: That's right, that's right. Yeah, I would like to bring one more point here this not just the calendar dates, it is also how we celebrate has changed. As you said now, we have more festivals, we are more aware of it. So we started doing on the Indic birthday, we do not blow out the candles like - mostly what you see kids today at midnight, they are blowing out candles and they are causing darkness. So an Indic birthday can be celebrated by lighting lamps, you know, or doing an aarti, for the birthday girl or boy, we can do even daanam you know, donation for the underprivileged. So these aspects also can be brought in into the Indic birthday. And we don't, you know, kind of blow out candles, we celebrate in our own way, which is auspicious to the Indian culture. [32:12] Shalini: Yeah, this this business about the midnight celebration. I think I read somewhere about you know, why this midnight celebration started. But I'm not able to recollect completely. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Do you have any idea of that? Suraj: Yeah. So the midnight celebration is actually a borrowed concept, if you see the Midnight is based off the Greenwich Meridian right, the Greenwich meridian, which is around near to UK, that is about five and a half hours behind the Indian meridian, the original reference of our ancient India was the meridian which goes through Ujjain, which is the center of India. And that is where the Mahakaal Temple is. So this was actually the original reference of the whole world. And the concept was then borrowed. And they back-calculated, okay, five and a half hours before Ujjain is Greenwich, so it's about know, some sometime before sunrise, so many hours before sunrise. So when it's midnight at UK or Greenwich, it is actually sunrise time in India. So it's 5:30-6:00 ish in India, which makes more sense that the start of the day for Indic cultures, we always say sunrise is a time when the day starts. So it's a colonized way of looking at things when you if you see only midnight as a start of the day. [33:46] Shalini: So actually, a person celebrating their birthday in in London is actually celebrating the Indic way, right? If we reconsider Ujjain Meridian as our primary meridian, then the person celebrating at midnight is actually celebrating according to Ujjain meridian, and it's the break of day. So that's that's an Indic way of celebration for a Londoner, but I don't think it's correct for Indians to do that way. Right? We have been adopting their style of celebrating at midnight.Suraj: We should do it in the morning. So then it's correct as per our timezone. Shalini: That is correct. Yeah. Yeah. This is very interesting.[34:24] Rekha: I was thinking it would be very helpful if we started thinking about the tithi every day of the week rather than just on birthdays. So do you have products like maybe a desk calendar or a wall calendar that parents can use to keep track of time so that it becomes a habit in the family?[35:00] Suraj: Thanks for bringing this point. So one of the problem which we face today is although we are interested in this information, most parents may be interested but the kids do not get this knowledge visible and clearly available to them in a physical way, we don't want them to go online all the time right? So, we actually wanted to we are putting together a view of the calendar, which is from Indic months perspective, and that is also available on our website, if you go to the monthly calendar and that would provide a much clearer understanding of the Indian months and the Indic days, this can be put, we will come up with our printed calendars and that can be put we also coming up with an app for the same for a website, it is under development and there can be many concepts whether it can be toys, so this the thing is that if we bring it into the physical world and we celebrate on a daily basis, then it makes more sense. For example, recently there was this birthday of a famous Emperor Krishna Devaraya, it was on Pausha Krishna dvadashi so nobody noticed it because it is on the Indian calendar, but not on the English calendar. So we are losing that connect to what's happening. But if somebody goes and realizes that Oh, I was born on Sri Krishnadevaraya birthday, I was also born on the same Indic birthday it'll create a connect! Kids you know, they will always pay attention when you say it's a birthday. Ask them “is your birthday important or is Diwali important”, they'll say “My birthday is more important, it is more special.” And if you are born on a historic day, then you would want to know more about it. So the kid will go and read up about the cultural aspect - who was Shri Krishnadevaraya, what is his history, it completely connects us to ancient times..say even from Ramayana, Mahabharata, which is getting disconnected, and it makes the day even more special. [37:00] Rekha: I would also like to see Indic birthday cards that maybe children can share, you know, if you have things - like you just mentioned Suraj Shashti for example. And just imagine how it would be if a child receives a special birthday card on that day connecting her to the culture and to the special day. There are so many possibilities, let's hope that this becomes a movement and we inspire all the parents to go ahead and celebrate two birthdays. We can continue to do the calendar birthday, but let's also celebrate the Indic birthday and let's remember to make that an extra special birthday for the child so that it stays in his mind for a long time. And it connects him to his culture in a very deep way. So another idea you know - I'd like to have your input on this - is to have a game of quiz with kids to make a list or to have them make a list of tithis. So much is in common, I mean, we commonly know all these things already. Like we know Vinayaka Chaturthi, we know Basant Panchami, we know Ratha Sapthami, Ramanavami, Vijayadashami..so any tithi that you can name like right from Ekadasi to different tithis, we have some festival or the birthday of a god associated with it already. So this can become an exercise for kids to play some kind of a quiz game or for parents to help children collect this kind of information and make it really interesting for them so that maybe in a few years, we can see a lot of knowledge about these aspects in Indian children. That's my hope. Suraj: Yeah, as Rekha ji said, every tithi has a festival associated to it. So there is you know, Vivaha Panchami in fact which is the wedding anniversary of Rama and Sita. It is celebrated. We have Vivaha Panchami, so anniversaries also can be added! Shalini: That is so nice! Suraj: There is Skanda Sashti (six) for Lord Skanda, Ganesh Chaturthi is four so you can have this quiz. Till Dashami Ekadashi trayodashi and Naraka chaturdashi is Deepavali.Rekha: That's beautiful! Suraj ji, we have a question from a listener, Shreya. She's asking us, “Is Sankranthi celebrated according to Hindu calendar? If it is, then why does it fall on the same dates in the English calendar -like the 14th or 15th of January - every year?”[40:00] Suraj: Yes. So, the concept of Sankranti is based on the solar cycle. So we have 12 Rashis covering 360 degrees of the movement of the Sun in relation to the earth and this 360 degrees is divided into 12 rashis. When the sun moves from one rashi to another it is called a Sankranti. Since we complete one whole solar cycle in a year, it is somewhat similar in terms of the calculations of the modern Western calendars, I say again emphasize ‘modern' because Indian calculations go much more back from ancient times. But the modern calculations have come closer to the same accuracy. That's why Sankranti dates kind of match with the English calendar dates. [40:25] Rekha: Okay, so Sankranti is calculated according to the solar movement. And that's why it coincides with the English calendar dates every year. Suraj: That's right. Rekha: Thank you. That was great information. Shalini: So I think we've had a wonderful time. And this is definitely not going to be the last of our conversations. I'm sure we will be getting in a lot of questions from listeners also, because I think we've spoken enough for our listeners to be excited and curious about this subject. And I'm sure many have a lot of questions. So we will definitely have you another time on the podcast Suraj ji. But for now, I think we must come to the end of this episode. Suraj: I would like to add one final quote, which I read somewhere in Singapore in a zoo, it makes sense here. Well, it says that, in the end, we will preserve only what we love. And we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught. So when we teach our kids these concepts only then can we take this and inculcate it in our daily life.[41:39] Shalini: That's a fantastic quote. And I think we will end with that. Thank you. Thank you, Suraj ji, and Rekha, thank you so much as always for being a wonderful host and we will look forward to meeting our listeners in another fortnight from now. It is once again the turn of a festival in the coming fortnight and we will be discussing Shivaratri with a parent. So until then, namaste and be well.Namaste. Get full access to Hindu Parenting at hinduparenting.substack.com/subscribe

Have you heard the phrase ‘success leaves clues?' Miracles do too! You may think that miracles are random events, but if you know how to ‘read the signs' you can begin to expect miracles in your life. I have been studying the cycles and patterns of miracles and cosmic events for quite a while now and have my own system of interpretation. It's how I plan out my year, both personally and in my business. I have never shared this system with anyone before…until now  In this episode, I take you behind the scenes of my business and share the exact process and tools I use to plan for a miraculous year. My four favorite tools are listed below. I also share why I believe Archangel Michael's energy will be very strong in 2023! Once you understand the energy of the year by ‘reading the signs,' I always recommend checking with your own energy, as that is the best indicator for what is best for you.  If you want to know what YOUR energy says about 2023, click here to schedule an ‘Ask Your Energy' Session!    Key Learnings: Every year I purchase an erasable wall calendar, hang it up and look it over. I look to see if anything jumps out at me about the year, and I take note of that. Once I have an overall sense of the year, I start to look into specific things, like eclipse dates and feast days. The number one thing I look for are Mother Mary's feast days. When are they? Do they coincide with cosmic events, like new moon, full moon, or eclipses? Or any other phenomena?  Once I do that, I look into holy days from other traditions, such as Shivaratri or Guru Purnima, or Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. One of the things that 2023 is already telling me is that Archangel Michael's energy will be prominent, as there is an eclipse on 5/5, which is one of his power days. There is also a full moon on his feast day 9/29, so look for Michael's energy to be present in 2023. “Success leaves clues. Miracles do too. Once you know how to ‘read the signs' you can plan for a miraculous year.”   If you want to know what YOUR energy says about 2023, click here to schedule an ‘Ask Your Energy' Session!    Click here to purchase the Mary and the Saints 2023 Calendar Click here to purchase the Seasons & Cycles Moon Calendar 2023 Click here to purchase the Moonology Diary 2023 Click here to purchase the At-a-Glance Erasable Wall Calendar   If you love the image on the wall behind me of Mother Mary Blessing the World, you can order your own museum quality copy at www.deepaliu.com 

This episode of Guff Guff Pass starts off with a master class by Rishabh on the various mythologies that surround the hindu culture with special emphasis on the man of the evening- Lord Shiva aka the destroyer. After a few episodes without all three of us in the room together, the timing for this reunion seem impeccable. Beers bottles were drawn, the shades came off and with some smoke in the air, we indulged in some “seriously” hilarious conversations of which we are never short of. So sit back, tune out of all the clusterf*** of energy sucking affairs happening around us and have a laugh with us. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/guffguffpass/message

In this special satsang in honor of Maha Shivaratri, Swamiji shared from the teachings of Kashmir Shaivism on Shiva, Absolute Consciousness. This podcast was recorded live at The Ashram in Mount Eliza on the 26th of February, 2022. Watch the full satsang program with Swamiji and Devi Ma at The Ashram with a weekly subscription to The Ashram Online! This subscription will give you access to a library of over 100 hours of Swamiji's talks, meditation and chanting programs, hatha yoga classes and more. Click here to learn more.  

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Tucked away in the deep valleys of Himalayas is the mystical region of Siddha-ashrama. This is where some of the greatest sages and seers meditated and performed penance. For the first time ever, experience the pristine world of Vedic glory with Sadhana. Coming soon in both English and Hindi. ~ Unveiling on Maha Shivatrari 01.03.2022 ~ Don't forget to subscribe to the Sadhana channel for amazing and unique spiritual content to lift your spirits. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCclKtOFnrZSOywd0GJzX5cA #LetsdoSadhana