Business to the Buddha

Tag: Mahabharata

  • Shanti Mantra







    I have always been very critical to Hinduism. When I was young, I used to feel – Ramayana and Mahabharata are well written novels. However, slowly my perception is changing. When I try to relate historical places (such as Panchavati, Nashik or Ujjain) and incidents around those places, you may call those incidents as stories, I think perhaps there is some veracity to these. The other thing I got to know about Sri Lanka tourism is places they show about the time of Ramayana Check Sri Lanka launches new product – Ramayana Trail – http://www.srilanka.travel/travel_news?news=267

    Those all points apart, I have always been critical of Hinduism. However, recently, I was listening to some hymns in Sanskrit. The hymn sounds so different and interesting. I could only understand a part of it when I heard it for the first time. Naturally the hymn is in Sanskrit so it was not straightforward for me to understand. The part which I could make out was – “Vanaspateya shanti”. The hymn speaks about peace of biological life or plant beings. It had stanza for peace for everything.

    I started searching for this hymn.

    I would relate this hymn to another Sanskrit shloka –
    ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः ।
    सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत् ।
    Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah Sarve Santu Nir-Aamayaah |
    Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet |

    In the above shloka and Shanti mantra, the scholars are praying for peace for every living being. When we see the kind of violence around us – terrorism or wars – this kind of philosophy fascinates me. The religion evolved in India have the concept of inner search, peace and renunciation. This is something whole world needs to learn from Indian religion.

  • The virtue of Truthfulness







    Rummuser, Ramana Rajagopaul, is my friend, mentor and uncleji. He recently felt that I should read a book and sent it to me. The book is titled – Yoga in day-to-day life. This book is published by Sri Ramkrishna Math. Still reading the book and thought to share a story of this book. Chapter 2 first para.

    The young Kauravas and Pandavas were learning their first lessons. The Acharya pronounced the vedic text: Satyam vada, dharmam chara, (सत्यम वदा , धर्मं चरा) “Speak the truth, follow the path of righteousness”, and asked the pupils to repeat.Every one repeated. The teacher asked them to memorize the text. Next day, he asked what they had learnt from previous day. All pronounced: Satyam vada, dharmam chara, except Yudhishthira. Surprised, the acharya asked why could he, the eldest and the brightest among the one hundred and give pupils, not learn such a simple lesson? What Yudhishthira said in reply was an indication of his future greatness as the exemplar par-excellence of truth. He plainly confessed that he had not yet learnt to speak the truth. Others might have memorized the few words, but that certainly was not the purport of this short but profound precept: Satyam vada – speak the truth. Unless one speak the truth in day-to-day life, what use was it merely memorize a few words?

    Do not we do this often in our life, present something heard somewhere as your opinion, thought or brain child. Perhaps this blog – where I am taking the story of Mahabharat (published in some book). Is it plagiarism? I think many things of Indian origin are beyond petty Intellectual Property Rights!