Paramapada sopana patamu

Paramapada sopana patamu

The game had its origin in India and was called Parama Pada sopana patamu or Mokshapatam. It was used to teach Hindu Dharma and Hindu values to children. The British renamed it as Snakes and Ladders.

The game was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with cowrie shells and dice. Later through time, the game underwent several modifications but the meaning is the same i.e. good deeds take us to heaven and evil to a cycle of re-births. There are certain references which take the game back to 2nd century BC.

Indian-snakes-n-ladders.jpg

Indian Snakes and Ladders game (1700’s AD)

In the original game square 12 was faith, 51 was Reliability, 57 was Generosity, 76 was Knowledge, and 78 was Asceticism. These were the squares were the ladder was found. Square 41 was for Disobedience, 44 for Arrogance, 49 for Vulgarity, 52 for Theft, 58 for Lying, 62 for Drunkenness, 69 for Debt, 84 for Anger, 92 for Greed, 95 for Pride, 73 for Murder and 99 for Lust. These were the squares were the snake was found. The Square 100 represented Nirvana or Moksha.

There are a hundred squares on a board; the ladders take you up, the snakes bring you down. The difference here is that the squares are illustrated. The top of the ladder depicts a God, or one of the various heavens (kailasa, vaikuntha, brahmaloka) and so on, while the bottom describes a good quality. Conversely, each snake’s head is a negative quality or an asura (demon). As the game progresses, the various karma and samskara, good deeds and bad, take you up and down the board. Interspersed are plants, people and animals.

The game serves a dual purpose: entertainment, as well as dos and don’ts, divine reward and punishment, ethical values and morality. The final goal leads to Vaikuntha or heaven, depicted by Vishnu surrounded by his devotees, or Kailasa with Shiva, Parvati, Ganesha and Skanda, and their devotees. In this age of moral and ethical degeneration, this would be a good way of teaching values to children who think they already know more than their parents.

The British took the game to England in 1892 and named it Snakes and Ladders and changed it according to Victorian values.

KNOWLEDGE

KNOWLEDGE

The bookish knowledge that many feverishly acquire is relevant only for the day of the exam. As you enter your professions armed with this knowledge, you will soon discover that you only have superficial knowledge on any subject and your general knowledge is almost zero. Without general knowledge and practical wisdom, you cannot discriminate. World today needs practical knowledge. Water is formed from two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen. You can prove this in the laboratory. But when you sit for lunch, do you mix two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen to drink water? By sipping just a drop, you can even comment on the purity of the water and its taste. Thus discrimination and general knowledge is very essential to make sure your daily life and behavior does not have any lapses. You must experience the enjoyable life in the right way at the right time.

CHERUKU RAMA MOHAN RAO

Why do we need a museum for colonial atrocities?

Why do we need a museum for imperial crimes?

I recently wrote to the government of India to propose that one of India’s most renowned heritage buildings, the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, be converted into a museum that displays the truth of the British Raj—a museum, in other words, to colonial atrocities.

This famous monument, built between 1906 and 1921, stands testimony to the glorification of the British Raj in India. It is time, I argued, that it be converted to serve as a reminder of what was done to India by the British, who conquered one of the richest countries in the world (27 percent of global gross domestic product in 1700) and reduced it to, after over two centuries of looting and exploitation, one of the poorest, most diseased and most illiterate countries on Earth by the time they left in 1947.

It is curious that there is, neither in India nor in Britain, any museum to the colonial experience. London is dotted with museums that reflect its imperial conquests, from the Imperial War Museum to the India collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum itself.

But none says anything about the colonial experience itself, the destruction of India’s textile industry and the depopulation of the great weaving centres of Bengal, the systematic collapse of shipbuilding, or the extinction of India’s fabled wootz steel.

Nor is there any memorial to the massacres of the Raj, from Delhi in 1857 to Amritsar in 1919, the deaths of 35 million Indians in totally unnecessary famines caused by British policy, or the “divide and rule” policy that culminated in the horrors of Partition in 1947 when the British made their shambolic and tragic Brexit from the subcontinent. The lack of such a museum is striking.

Surprisingly, large sections of both Indians and British still remain unaware of the extent of these imperial crimes against humanity.

Shashi Tharoor

A Discussion between the Granddaughter and Grandfather

      A Discussion between the Granddaughter and Grandfather

There was a scholar of 75 years who used to give philosophical advices to those who are avid to know mostly with reference to Indian Philosophy. He had a granddaughter of 8 to 9 years old. She was keen to know about those things and hence used to be there but as a silent spectator. One day that group was not present as they went to a temple function. The granddaughter got the opportunity to clarify her small doubts, as she thought them to be. She went to her grandfather who was sitting as usual in his easy chair in the veranda, sat nearby and sought his permission to express her doubts. The grandfather felt happy and permitted her to ask questions.

The conversation went on as follows:

I represent the granddaughter with C (Child) and grandfather with G.

C: Can you define what a life is?

G: Life can move.

C: So, you and I have life. How about animals like rats, rabbits etc.

G: Yes, they too have life. They can jump hop run like us. Similarly birds can fly fish can swim and there are amphibians that can survive both on land and in water.

C: So anything that has movement is considered to have life. Can you tell whether a stone on the roadside has life?

G: No, stone has no life. It can’t move by itself.

C: Suppose somebody takes a stone that he can pick, and throws it. Then can we say the stone has life?

G: We have to, but as long as it travels.

C: Consider a handy fan made of bamboo? When it is swung while in the hand, have we to consider, it has life?

G: No. It was shaken by hand and the body to which the hand is attached has life.

C: That means a life can cause a non-life thing moving.

G: Yes.

C: We see waves are moving up and down in the sea?

G: True.

C: Can we say that waves have life as they are moving by their own?

G: No, waves have no life. They were blown by the wind.

C: As we have discussed in the case of hand fan the life can cause a none-living thing moving. So now can we say wind has life?

G: No, wind has no life. You can’t see it.

C: So, the living are to be seen.

G: Yes.

C: So far we drew a conclusion that a visible moving thing can be considered as living is it? If so can we say that a tree cannot have life?

G: Never we can say it. A tree has life. It has life within. I thought while you were sitting and calmly observing the proceedings I thought you were whiling away your time. It is great and I feel proud for all the inquisitiveness you have shown on the subject. Having come so long in our discussion let us enter into a little large space where we discuss about life in things of mobility and non-mobility.

G continues: First, life can grow. You eat and drink and then you poo poop and pee-pee out your waste. Thus, you grow up bigger and bigger up to a certain peak where from you will have to scale down. That is natural metabolism.

C: Anything else for life besides of metabolism?

G: Life can self-multiply. That is called reproduction. A hen lays eggs. And eggs after hatching turn out chicken. And chicken can grow up to become more hens and cocks. Generation may differ but it exists among the living.

C: Anything else for life besides reproduction?

G: There is variation, adaption and mutation. You see no leaves are of the same size and same shape. That is life’s characteristic called variation.

 The life is not exclusively confined to land it holds for both water and sky also like fish and birds. This is adaptation as the respective species get themselves adaptable to what they are meant for.

Life form can make its off spring alike, but a little bit different. This can ensure that some of its descendants could be better to adapt their surroundings and to become the winner in the natural selection. This is called mutation.

C: Can you tell me who has this discreet powers of classifying the life.

G: That is the super natural power who hold control of all these things. Knowing that is the ultimate. How to know it is vividly discussed in Bhagavad-Gita.

It is second to none to realise God and is never a book where from the excerpts are read near a corpse, like from the other religious books.

Swasti.

Importance of ringing bell in our pooja and also in temples

Importance of ringing bell in our pooja and also in temples

https://ramamohanraocheruku.blogspot.com/2017/03/importance-of-ringing-bell-in-our-pooja.html

At the outset I would like to bring to your notice that our tradition, culture and everything relate to them are set on the right path by our Rishis and Munis. Anything and everything is according to a genuine,

Reasonable and logical thesis and not as a dictum as the Holy Books of other Religions say. Unfortunately we do not evince any interest to go to the grass roots to find out reasons for certain of our rituals. One such ritual is ringing the bell while commencing Puja at Home or ringing the hanging bell in the temple.

Have you ever wondered why bells are there in temples? Also large bells, with higher circumference. These are not just hanging there for you to ring. It is an age old tradition to ring the bell of the temple upon entering its premises. Bell ringing is an ancient Vedic ritual and one can see multiple bells hanging over the domes in many Indian shrines.

There will be another big bell in ancient temples for a specific purpose.

In Tirumala, at the entrance of the front porch of the Lord Venkateswara, we find ‘Ghanta Mandapam’ which consists two bells. In general a temple will have one big bell. But it is not so in Tirumala. There are two such bells. One is called 'Narayana Ghanta' and the other 'Govinda Ghanta'. The reverberation of the bells reach as long as Chandragiri Where the Maharaja starts his lunch only after the sound stops. Each bell is set to ringing according to their timing. A critical and minute observation will enable the enthusiast to find the diminutive difference.
It is told, in Puranas, Lord Brahma, the angels and Maharshis like Sanaka, sanandana wait for the darshan of Lord Venkateswara at the golden gate. Opposite to the golden gate, there is Garuda Mandapam. The pavilion that links the golden gate and the Garuda Mandapam is called ‘Ghanta Mandapam’ or 'Tirumaamani mandapam' where the bells are situated. It was constructed in 1461 A.D. by Mallanna, a native of Chandragiri and minister in the Vijaya Nagara Empire.
The sounding of a bell resonates with a meaning in the Hindu religion, as it is considered a way of seeking God’s attention, within and the external. Also, it is often associated with the echoes of `Creation’.
The Omkaram is considered the source of every sound and scholars say that it was from the very essence of this sound that the Vedas, the foundations of Indian culture and tradition took birth.

It is said that the devotees knock God’s entrance to ask permission upon entering his holy sanctum. Making temple bells is a whole science. The bell is made up of a mixture of five metals – lead, copper, zinc, iron, and tin – to which it is measured based on ratio and specification.

The proportion at which each one of them mixed is the real science behind making a bell. Each of these bells is made to produce such a distinct sound that it can create a harmony between your left and right brains. The moment you ring that bell, it produces sharp but lasting sound vibration which lasts for minimum of seven seconds in echo mode — long enough to touch your seven healing centers (or chakras) in your body.

The moment bell sound happens your brain is emptied of all thoughts. Invariably, you will enter a state of trance where you are very receptive. This trance state is the one with inner awareness. The bell works as antidote to the chaos of your mind. Before you enter a temple it prepares you for the calming taste of spiritual awareness you are going to experience.

Bells had other reasons also, as most of the old temples never had doors and were located near hills and forest there would have been distinct possibilities for animals, Insects, birds to take shelter. But bell sound doesn’t allow any of the living creatures to sustain inside for a long time. Don’t be surprised if you find old temples still brimming with energy inside with less dust, no sign of insects or animals.

Bell worship is called as Ghanta Puja (Ghanta is bell in Sanskrit). The sound that comes out of the sacred bell is called Jaya Dhwani (Sound representing victory). This sound helps to drive away the demonic forces and brings in the auspicious and positive forces. This has a deeper and inner meaning as well. This will drive away the evil thoughts from us. The bell will ring from inside us giving us positive energy.

Cultural Beliefs:

As per the Agama Sastra, ringing a bell in temples will prevent evil spirits. The evil spirits namely Yaksha, Pisacha, Rakshasa and Brahma Rakshasa will not enter the temple.

God is attracted to the sounds of the bell and mostly the bell will ring in the temple during the Harthi for God, bathing of God and offering food.

The bell has symbolic meaning. The body represents Ananta, the tongue represents Goddess Saraswati and the handle represents Hanuman, Garuda and Nandi according to their following, and has prana Shakti (vital principle).

Mantra: In Hinduism, the mantra chanted while ringing the bell is:

Aagamaarthamtu devaanaam

Gamanaarthamtu Rakshasaam

Kurume ghantaaravam tatra

Devataahvaahna laanchanam

Meaning:

I ring this bell indicating the invocation of divinity, so that virtuous and noble forces enter; and the demonic and evil forces, from within and without, depart.

First let us understand that our ancestors are great people, so great that they are beyond your imagination. Even a blind can have a hassle free walk on the path tread by them. Here though it is a little deviation from the subject, people who still believe ‘Aryan Invasion Theory’ for no proof what so ever can think on this ‘BELLS FACTOR’. If for any reason we believe that Aryans came from outside can their siblings, who are still there at the origin, I mean in the west, tell the significance of bells and their make.

First trust your own elders respect them revere them as the culture starts from there. However the DNA theory now proves we are all one and Westerners have nothing to do with us.

Swasti.

Ishwar Sharan

Ishwar Sharan

https://ramamohanraocheruku.blogspot.com/2017/03/ishwar-sharan.html

Ishwar Sharan is the pen name of Canadian author Swami Devananda Saraswati, a Smarta Dashanami sannyasi who took his Vedic initiation from a renowned mahamandaleswar at Prayag in 1977. His purvasrama family were middle class professionals and God-fearing Protestant Christians. He did not complete high school and is self-educated through reading books on all subjects, with a special interest in religion and history. He has traveled extensively in Canada, USA, Europe, North Africa, West Asia and India. His experiences during these wandering years include service in a communist kibbutz during the Six Day War in Israel and some months spent in retreat in a Franciscan hermitage near Assisi, Italy. Enroute to India by road in 1967, he visited the places that his child-hood hero, Alexander the Great, had visited on his expedition to India in the 4th century BCE. Later he tried without success to visit Babylon near Baghdad, where Alexander had died, and Ctesiphon on the Tigris where his beloved spiritual hero, Julian the Apostate, had been martyred by a trusted Christian officer.

The author’s experience of Christian institutions, West Asian Muslim society, and Israeli kibbutzim helped to turn him against the monolithic Abrahamic creeds which he saw as imperialistic, belligerent, and life-threatening. He came to India in search of spiritual direction and because Hindu civilization still gave an honorable place to the Mother Goddess. The fact that Hindu civilization had withstood centuries of Muslim and Christian aggression and survived where other civilizations had failed, was to his mind a very impressive cultural achievement. He is a great lover of Hindu culture and religion and is deeply saddened that Hindus today have become second class citizens in their own motherland because of a pusillanimous and weak-minded religious and political leadership. He says that as long as Christianity continues to wage a socially destructive war of aggression on Hinduism and take prisoners in the form of unsophisticated credulous converts, its curious theories and unique claims must be thoroughly investigated and challenged by Hindus of integrity and conviction.

Under the name Ishwar Sharan, Swami Devananda wrote the comprehensive study of the St. Thomas in India legend called The Myth of Saint Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple published by Voice of India, New Delhi. 卐 卐 卐

Please read his mind:

What Ishwar Sharan perceptively stated of the betrayal of Hindus to the Portuguese Catholic invaders by Syrian Christians applies to him in its totality: “… [The] Christian religion … harbors in its heart a demon that divides mankind into friend and foe on ideological grounds.”[2] The Qur’an, which is but the “Bible in Arabic” insofar as its basic contents are concerned, bettered the instruction by summarily and firmly reinstating the original Yahvist spirit by abolishing all hints of Jesus’ divinity and Mary’s phantom gestation that, according to Christians, resulted in a case of human parthenogenesis.

Hinduism in India

Hinduism in India

Today, Hinduism in India is standing like Draupadi,

in the court of the blind. When she was being insulted,

every one of them was laughing at it and enjoying it.

Today, anybody can insult Hinduism. Nobody says a word about it.

We have to think about these things. We have a vital role to play.
Only the youth can save this dharma if they are committed .

Bateshwar and K. K. Muhammad

Bateshwar and K. K. Muhammad

https://ramamohanraocheruku.blogspot.com/2017/03/bateshwar-and-k.html

It is a matter of surprise to know Bateshwar 25 km from Morena town, is an archaeological site comprising about 200 ancient shrines in Morena district, Madhya Pradesh. This site is located on the north-western slope of a range of hills near Padavali, a village about 40 km from Gwalior. The shrines in Bateshwar complex are dedicated mostly to Shiva and a few to Vishnu. The temples are made of sandstone and belong to the 8–10th century A.D. They were built during the reign of Gurjara-Pratihara Dynasty, 300 years before Khajuraho temples were built. (Google)

Bata is Vata a Sanskrit word meaning Banyan tree. May be there were Banyan trees aplenty in that area. Bhagwan Eswar being there as an idol would have been named as Bateswar.

VAHANAM VRISHABHOYASYA

VASUKI KANTA BHUSHANAM

VAME SAKTHI DHARAM DEVAM

'VA' KARAYA NAMAO NAMAH

This is quoted by Mr. Muhammad while narrating about the restoration of the said temples. What a great man he is!

Bateshwar is a place as surreal as it gets, not only because of the sheer artistic achievements of those unknown sculptors but so due to the story of resurrection associated with it. But what actually add to the surreal part are the peacocks. The jungles are full of them, and various other birds are also there including parakeets and kingfishers.

It was not one temple but a whole complex of 200 small temples dedicated mostly to Shiva and some to Vishnu. It cannot be authentically told when the decay began but it had been reduced to a pile of rubbles by the 20th century. Local people knew of it and probably preserved some of the folklores through generations but it never received any attention from anyone including scholars and archaeologists.

This situation of hopelessness persisted till 2004 when KK Muhammad, an official from Archaeological Survey of India arrived on the scene and was fascinated by the ruins. Morena happened to be the epicenter of infamous Chambal bandits. Although by that time this menace had been curbed to a large extent, there were still a few operating gangs. Muhammad met and convinced some of them to allow the restoration and offer protection. The process continued and Mr. Muhammad started his work with all his Archeological Survey of India followers along with the help of the bandits. However this chemistry of bureaucracy could not continue for a long. The government slain them for reasons best known to them. By that time the work was in progress and the fragment from the ruins were scouted and matched fragments were united with steel and araldite. 80 of the temples have been faithfully restored after a lot of painful research before the dacoits were shot dead by the Special Task Force (India).   Rest of the artefacts are still lying around the compound. For those who are wondering about the dissipation of bandit gangs were no longer happy as the area surrounded by the hillocks had been overtaken by stone mining mafia. It is us are who are greater enemies of our heritage, whether it is the casual tourists littering and defacing walls or the mafia here bent on obliterating the hills. Hills shake and reverberate with the sounds of explosives.  It was the same place where an IPS officer was run over and the collector shot at. According to Muhammad, several reminders to MP Chief Minister elicited no response forcing him, though being a government officer, he wrote to RSS Chief Sudershan. It was then that the government woke up and created a buffer zone of 750 meters around the site instead of the usual 200 meters. Of course we would never know if other obscure temple sites have already been wiped out before the government gets wise. It is now told that 100 temples are resurrected. Mr. K K Muhammad also retired. Here I shall try to introduce Mr. Muhammad very briefly, He, I opine is a monumental figure in the dense forest of selfish religions for his unflinching gratitude and fidelity for his nation viz. Bharat and its heritage.

Born to illiterate parents in a conventional Muslim family in the village of Koduvally, it was a long and arduous journey that finally led him to international acclaim, national awards and prestigious positions. He wrote a book about himself which is not preeminent as a personal record of the laurels won and the triumphs achieved that this book is significant, but as the memoirs of a road less travelled by, of the conviction and conscience necessary not to stray away from a total commitment to one’s professional ethics, of the loneliness of bold decisions and the joy of doing what is right despite reprimands and setbacks.

 In his own words he says “Sarve Bhavantu SukhinaH… has been my philosophy. I have always been inspired by the Upanishads,” explains the conservationist, who is fluent in Sanskrit and knows important texts like “Manasara Shilpa Shastra” and “Mayamata Vastu Shastra” by heart. “I must have been a Namboodiri in my previous birth,” quips Muhammad.

A big salute to that great man, who did not hesitate to tell to world that there was Ram Temple before the Babri masjid erupted and exhorted to the world about the plots of the leftists to tarnish the image of our culture and impede us to imbibe the legacy.

Swasti.