Miscellaneous Topics discussion - 2

[Bharatvarsh]

More likely aping white women look, especially in "Hindi" and English channels, not so much in other regional ones.

There is a positive side to that too, it identifies the sell outs to everyone watching.

[Guest]

Wow, I asked the same question @BRF
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->atching some of the Indian english media, I was puzzled by the lack of bindi on the female reports and anchors. I could not have seen all of them, but the majority of it is that the new style or some protocol by the owners? If it is a personal choice, then no problem. Hopefully it is not to show they are "secular"<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

If it is a personal choice, it is a different matter. But if that is necessary to get the job or be on the air, then it is another matter.

Interestingly, SUN TV - earlier friendly with DMK does not exhibit this trait.

I am going to stick out my neck and say, this trait is not prevalent in South India.

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I am going to stick out my neck and say, this trait is not prevalent in South India. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Swamy G, i would say that its mainly confined to the so called "Hindi" and English channels, i have not seen this trait in for example in Gujarati, Oriya, or Marathi news to the same extent as I have seen in "Hindi" and English channels.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-Bharatvarsh+Dec 5 2008, 08:51 PM-->QUOTE(Bharatvarsh @ Dec 5 2008, 08:51 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->More likely aping white women look, especially in "Hindi" and English channels, not so much in other regional ones.

There is a positive side to that too, it identifies the sell outs to everyone watching.
[right][snapback]91432[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->


Figures.. I have not seen that much in S. Indian channels either - not yet anyway.

Not sure about the positive side so much, BV. For the impressionable it makes it look normal to be doing that - not just bindhi of course, but overall psecism becomes normal and acceptable. For one who can differentiate, yeah, that's a positive. At any rate, interesting ....

[Husky]

<!--QuoteBegin-k.ram+Dec 6 2008, 07:22 PM-->QUOTE(k.ram @ Dec 6 2008, 07:22 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Figures.. I have not seen that much in S. Indian channels either - not yet anyway.

Not sure about the positive side so much, BV. For the impressionable it makes it look normal to be doing that - not just bindhi of course, but overall psecism becomes normal and acceptable. For one who can differentiate, yeah, that's a positive. At any rate, interesting ....[right][snapback]91492[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Don't know the origins of the broadcasts I'd caught which made me comment about the missing pottu/bindi - may have been N Indian - but the language was sadly (predictably) English. I started noticing it after encountering the same channels repeatedly when channel flipping. Back then I didn't draw the connection between English language news (that could make it the year 2000) and the conspicuously missing pottu and other annoying things.

But I do remember Tamizh news having Hindu female presenters: pottu (plus kungumam in the hair parting of many of the women), stating Vanakam/Namaskaram, wearing sari <i>of course</i> (it's Hindu dress), usually flowers in their hair, jewellery, mookuthi (sp?). IIRC some presenters in the news and/or some other Tamizh programs still had the Hindu traditional mardaani on their hands as well. In TN, traditional Hindus - like those of the previous generations even today - have mardaani on their hands and feet at all times and make sure to put it on again before the marks of the previous time are erased. There was even a time in history when Hindu men had mardaani on their hands and feet, at least during the wedding <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> Movies used to also bring this practise out. See for instance Sampoorna Ramayanam where not only Sita but Rama too had mardaani on their hands and feet throughout, as did Lakshmi and Mahavishnu (naturally) in the shots of Vaikuntam.
It's certainly always worn by Bharatanatyam dancers and of course mardaani is <i>always</i> applied to the padham of Bhagavan/Ishwara and Amman in Kovils.


Sorry, translation:
Pottu is Bindi
Mookuthi is nose stud
Mardaani is called mehendi in Hindi I think
Kovil is Hindu Temple

[ramana]

Deccan Chronicle, 15 Dec., 2008

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->‘Circling’ pig critical
 

<b>Penugonda,</b> Dec. 15: <b>The white piglet that began circumambulating the dhwaja sthambham of the Venkateswara Swamy temple on Sunday, collapsed at about for 4.30 pm on Monday. Thousands of people had watched the piglet which circumambuled the pillar well into the second day at Sidhantham village in Penugonda mandal in the West Godavari.</b>

The piglet had been continuously circling the dhwaja sthambham with occasional breaks, without accepting any food A veterinarian found that the animal had become weak and its pulse rate had fallen. As the piglet lay on the floor, devotees offered it dry grass, shifted it on to a gunny bag and covered it with a cloth.

<b>Devotees, temple staff and a veterinary doctor are keeping an eye on the animal, whose condition is critical. Prominent vedic pandit Chirravuri Krishna Somayajulu said, "The piglet has taken up deeksha by observing fast in the presence of Venkateswara Swamy. On December 16, Dhanur Masam will begin and the doors of Vaikuntam will be opened." Devotees fear it may not survive that long.</b>

<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Strange are the ways of Vishnu. Only in India can such an incident happen. In Islamic lands the piglet would be killed. In Enlightened lands he would be taken to a farm and then killed after he grows.

May he get moksha and breakout of this cycle of life and death!

[acharya]

http://www.i-devotion.com/News.php

[Guest]

Folks, any worthy Charities in USA geared towards Hindu causes in India or USA? I already donated to CAPEEM and EKAL. Have little more to give. Suggestions welcome. I would like to donate online by the end of tomorrow. Thanks in Advance.

[Husky]

<!--QuoteBegin-Swamy G+Dec 31 2008, 06:23 AM-->QUOTE(Swamy G @ Dec 31 2008, 06:23 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Folks, any worthy Charities in USA geared towards Hindu causes in India or USA? I already donated to CAPEEM and EKAL. Have little more to give. Suggestions welcome. I would like to donate online by the end of tomorrow. Thanks in Advance.[right][snapback]92475[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Did you try Samskrita Bharati? Or maybe you can find out if there is a way to donate to Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, in case EV's donations don't already go there.

[Guest]

No. I did not know about them. I had Seva Bharati in the back of my mind, I will check out your suggestions. Thanks a bunch.

Looks like one can support Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram through these:

http://www.hinduweb.org/home/seva/vanvasi/

*************************************
How you can support Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram:

India

Sewa International, India
Keshav Kunj, Jhandewalla D.B.Gupta Marg
New Delhi – 110055 INDIA
Phone: +91 11 7779914
e-mail: shyam@del2.vsnl.net.in


The United States:
You can support a Vanvasi Child through the support-a-child program. The cost is $250/year.
The India Development and Relief Fund is a registered non-profit organization. You can support Vanvasi Kalyan Astram by sending a check to:

IDRF
4433 Othello Drive,Fremont, CA 94555
Ph: (510)-797-5601
Fax: (510) 797 3498
E-mail: idrf@aol.com

[Husky]

Another place to donate to show Hindu solidarity:
http://haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?P...857&SKIN=C
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->WE PAID OUR LIFE TO UPHOLD SANATHANA DHARMA, PLEASE HELP OUR FAMILY MEMBERS
02/04/2008 01:20:14  HK

AN APPEAL TO ALL HINDU SISTERS & BROTHERS

The CPI(M) terror in Kannur last week took the life of 5 dedicated Hindu activists. More than a dozen Hindu activists have been maimed and become handicapped in the violence. 40 houses of Swayamsevaks have been destroyed by the CPI(M) terrorists in this violence. As on date more than 70 Hindu activists killed by CPI(M) goons in Kannur district. The only allegation against these innocent Hindu brothers was, they believe in Sanathana Dharma which opposes CPI(M).

Victims of CPI(M) / Islamic terror in Kerala since 2000:
(lists 42 people, that was by April of 2008)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->We appeal to all Hindu sisters and brothers across the globe to help the poor family members of these victims in Kannur who have contributed their life to uphold Sanathana Dharma.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->For how to donate, see at link.

[acharya]

<b>
'Vasthu' craze grows in Kerala, experts sound caution note</b>

Kochi (PTI): As the craze for 'Vasthu Sastra', an ancient traditional architectural science, grows in Kerala, experts in the field are sounding a note of caution.

Cashing in on the ever-growing demand for 'Vasthu' are flat, apartment and villa builders, who are promoting their units as Vasthu compliant, even as followers of this ancient science find it difficult to accept.

"Vasthu does not mean mere changing of doors and windows and adding more rooms. It is more than that," says Manoj S Nair, consultant engineer at Vasthu Vidya Gurukulam in Pathnamthitta district. People are being 'misguided' by advertisements from builders, he claims, adding that Vasthu is being used as a 'tool' by promoters to commercialise their buildings.

Namboodiripad, whose family is associated with Vasthu since nearly 100 years, said builders do not necessarily follow guidelines given to them by Vasthu experts.

Several builders have told customers that their units are Vasthu compliant to capitalise on the Vastu craze. A private builder here has even developed a 'Vastu Gramam', claiming to be the first of its kind residential villa project in Asia, built incorporating the tenets of 'Vastu Vidya'.

The Gramam, designed by well-known Vasthu expert, Kaanippayyoor Krishnan Namboodiripad, is spread over 10 acres at nearby Kakkanad and has 120 independent villas. It combines the best of traditional values and modern conveniences, Heera Group, developers of the project, say.

The whole project, including the roads, has been constructed based on the Vastu principles, the group sources claim.

[acharya]

<img src='http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/14/images/2009011454030401.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
<b>
Juxtaposed : A drama artiste dressed as a ‘Haridasu’, on his bike zooms past the real one after taking part in Sankranti celebrations in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. Haridasus sing bhajans and seek alms during this festive season. -
</b>

[ramana]

There would be no angst if Feng Shui was propogated instead of Vastu!

[acharya]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45404

RELIGION-INDIA: Reviving Buddhism Where It Was Born
By Kalinga Seneviratne

Ambedkar's bust beside a figure of the Buddha at the stupa in Nagpur.

Credit:Kalinga Seneviratne/IPS

NAGPUR, Jan 14 (IPS) - Over 50 years ago, the author of India’s constitution, B. R. Ambedkar, set in motion a Buddhist socio-political movement which many believe is now ready to fructify through Mayawati, chief minister of northern Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state.

Both Ambedkar and Mayawati come from India’s so-called "untouchable" caste, better known as Dalits (the broken people).

It was in this central Indian city that Ambedkar converted to Buddhism along with a million of his followers on Oct. 14, 1956. Mayawati has not publicly disclosed her religious beliefs, but as a follower of Ambedkar, Buddhists expect her to make his dream come true -- that of obtaining for Dalit Buddhists the right to be treated as equal citizens in the land of the Buddha.

Mayawati, who figures in the Forbes magazine’s list of 100 most powerful women in the world, has already declared her ambition of becoming India’s prime minister and is expected to make her bid in general elections due in the first half of this year.

"We were converted into Buddhists in 1956, but we still face a lot of discrimination, injustice and violence," said Devidas Ghodeshwar, talking to IPS in front of the impressive 'Deekshabhoomi Stupa' built here to mark the site of Ambedkar’s historic conversion, along with thousands of his followers.

The monument is built after the famous Sanchi stupa built in the third century by emperor Ashoka who renounced Hinduism to become a Buddhist. Thereafter, Buddhism flourished in India until the seventh century when it went into a slow but steady decline, mostly owing to a powerful Hindu revival.

Even as Buddhism spread to Tibet, the Far East and South-east Asia, its followers in India suffered persecution.

However, Buddhism has continued to haunt India through the remains of impressive stupas and monasteries, sculptural art, and through its many philosophical concepts and teachings such as non-violence. Other than Dalits (also called neo-Buddhists), sizeable communities of Buddhists continue to hold out in the Himalayan marches of the modern day states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh where they were pushed by advancing Hinduism.

In contemporary India, while attacks by Hindu militant groups on the minority Muslim and Christian communities have drawn the attention of the Indian and international media, atrocities on Buddhists go unreported, mostly because they fall into the lowest rungs of the caste ladder.

In September 2006, a family of Buddhist Dalits -- 45-year-old Surekha Bhotmange, her 18-year-old daughter Priyanka, sons Roshan and Sudhir -- was lynched by an upper caste mob in Khairlanji about 30 km from here.

On Oct. 24, 2008 eight people were convicted for the massacre and six of them awarded the death sentence. But Ghodeshwar says that was a rare instance of justice catching up on such atrocities perpetrated by upper caste Hindu fanatics.

Over the past few years, however, Buddhists have been quietly building up a political base from which to fight caste-driven discrimination. Their hopes have been raised by the rising political fortunes of Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which claims support from the poor and deprived in every caste and religious community.

Many Buddhists believe that her political movement -- which in many ways resembles U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s successful grassroots initiative -- could propel her to the prime ministership of India this year, at the head of a grand coalition of the poor and deprived.

"There’s a good number of Buddhist members of parliament and in Uttar Pradesh and [western] Maharashtra states there’s a vibrant Buddhist movement,’’ says Dhamma Viriyo Mahathera, spiritual director of the All Indian Bhikku Sangha.

"Mayawati is working for all the people. So now, Muslims and Brahmins, day by day, acept that the Buddhists are the people of this country. They are good hearted and they can rule this country well,’’ added the monk, himself a former member of parliament.

In this central Indian city of over two million people over 60 percent are believed to be Buddhists -- though most live in squalid and crowded neighbourhoods.

One problem for the Buddhists is that the Hindu establishment does not accept the fact of their conversions or even that Buddhism is a separate faith system. Officially, less than one percent of one billion Indians are listed as Buddhist, but most people agree that the majority of the 200 million Dalits of India follow the Buddhist faith.

"We have converted but still the Hindus aren’t accepting that we have been converted and they don’t understand that we belong to a separate group now. They refer to the Buddha as the ninth incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu and do not see Buddhism as a separate religion,’’ said Ghodeshwar.

"We are seen as part and parcel of Hinduism and this is also linked to our oppression and discrimination as Dalits,''Ghodeshwar added.

Yet, there is a palpable air of confidence among Buddhists here. Though they talk with bitterness about their treatment at the hands of high caste Hindus, they are also hopeful that change is on the way.

In the suburb of Kamla, which is a predominantly Buddhist community on the outskirts of Nagpur, though living in cramped conditions, a community leader introduced to IPS many Dalits who are lawyers, teachers, engineers and accountants.

Sadanand Fulzele, secretary of the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Smarak Samiti [founded to perpetuate the leader’s memory], agrees that Buddhist Dalits are now more confident than they were before. "I was myself converted to Buddhism along with Babasaheb Ambedkar," he told IPS. "Prior to conversion, those who were known as untouchables had an inferiority complex. But now, they feel they are no less than anybody. That’s a great change.’’

Yet, Buddhist communities, like the one in Kamla, rarely have a resident monk or a community temple. This is in contrast to most Buddhist countries where monks are housed and supported in monasteries or temples, because they are not allowed to earn a living.

"Buddhist communities here are still very poor," explains Fulzele, "We can’t build huge monasteries like in Burma, Sri Lanka or Thailand, where there follow centuries-old Buddhist traditions. We only converted 50 years ago".

Viriyo Mahathera is critical of Buddhist countries and organisations that contribute money to build grand temples in Buddhist pilgrim sites across India such as Bodhgaya -- the place of Buddha’s enlightenment -- but do not contribute to the upliftment of the Buddhists in India.

The monk, who resides in Bodhgaya, eastern Bihar state, says that while the provincial government has drawn up a master plan to attract investments from rich Asian Buddhist countries to develop the area, it has not associated Indian Buddhists with the plan.

"There should be a Bodhgaya development board where 50 percent of members can be drawn from the (Indian) Buddhist community," he argues. "Monks and Buddhist people can then take active part in the development of Bodhgaya and create a Buddhist environment there".

Sulekhatai Kumbhare, a former minister in the state government of Maharashtra and a Buddhist leader here, argues that the number of Buddhists in India is not large enough to effect political changes. ‘’We need to get the support of other communities. But Hindus think that because we left their religion we cannot be friends,’’ she says.

(END/2009)

[ramana]

Why do Hindus worship Lord Vishnu as Shaligram Shilas? Is it related to his Matsya Avtara?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaligram_Shilas

Shaligram Shilas are the fossilized amonites found in Himalayas. And amonites are the first form of life. How did Hindus understand that?

[acharya]

http://tedeboy.tripod.com/drmichaelwfox/id47.html

[HareKrishna]

Specism is older then racissm

http://www.ecomagazin.ro/video-cruzimea-oa...ale-earthlings/

[acharya]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNa5tvWhxEo

The things you hear from the experts on the TV if you eat this its not good for you then a couple months later they are saying the complete opposite.

Where I'am the grocery store sells steaks from new zealand or australia and they have a real funny taste to them.

You'll find the same 'funny taste' from organic, grass fed beef from over here too. The taste is actually the natural taste of the meat, the way it used to taste up until a few decades ago, before the advent of the feedlot industry. You and I are so used to eating meat that has been raised on grain, which is not the normal food for cows, that we don't even realize that our own tastes have changed to accommodate the loss of flavor that has occurred to the meat we purchase at the local market.

[HareKrishna]

If you cut the world population in tropical people versus temperate people you gona observ the next diferences:
Temperate people(european,chinese)-developed technical abilites ,not very religious,less developed artistic creativity,not very conservative.
Tropical people(orientals,indians)-less developed technical abilites,very religious,developed artistic creativity,very conservative.
This show that temperate people will lead the technological progress,while tropical people will be stuck in old-fashioned customs for a long time.Tropicals cant dominate temperates in science but they can rule in the fields of art or abstract thinking.

If we split the world in 4 then we have the next big civilizations and stereotyped defects:
-afro-asiatic(north-africa and middle east)-lack of abstract thinking
-indic(india and co.)-lack of practicability
-sinic(china,vietnam,japan)-lack of creativity
euro-lack of artistic sensibility