Promote Indian Culture

[acharya]

Mahabharata retold - tweet by tweet!
Agencies Tags : Mahabharata, Twitter Posted: Wednesday, Aug 05, 2009 at 1504 hrs New Delhi:


The epic of Mahabharata is getting a makeover on Twitter - 140 characters at a time.

Chindu Sreedharan, a UK-based lecturer, is retelling the Mahabharata using the micro-blogging service, hoping to lure readers with creative snippets posted in chronological order.

"This is not quite about capturing the philosophical richness of the original Mahabharata - but presenting a version that will, hopefully, suit the medium," Sreedharan, 36, told Reuters in an e-mail interview.

The Sanskrit epic, one of Hinduism's crucial texts, deals with a dynastic struggle for power that ends in victory for the righteous. It is regarded as an allegorical lesson in righteous living integral to much of India's cultural consciousness.

While the original Mahabharata has a main narrator, Sreedharan's version (twitter.com/epicretold) is told from the point of view of Bhima, one of the five Pandava brothers who triumph over their hundred Kaurava cousins in battle.


Such was the appeal of the Mahabharata that when it was first adapted for television in the 1980s, it managed to empty city streets, forced changes in train timings and got actors elected as members of parliament.

Which is also why Sreedharan turned to the epic for an experiment in social media.

"My hunch was, to keep the follower hooked, you needed a tale that provided for plenty of dramatic tension. Mahabharata does that."

Since its launch on July 29, epicretold has gone through 33 tweets, each less than 140 characters - a journey that has already seen the young Pandava brothers leave their jungle abode for the royal palace.


Sreedharan has no idea how many tweets he will eventually take to make good triumph over evil. But he says he has no illusions about the literary merit of the Mahabharata's Twitter avatar.

"It is simply twiction, nothing more."

[acharya]

Vegetarian religions part one, Hinduism
August 6, 11:04 AMSeattle Vegetarian ExaminerKristen Acesta
http://www.examiner.com/x-16122-Seattle-Ve...rt-one-Hinduism



Annapura, Hindu Cooking Goddess, dollsofindia.com

What would you eat for faith? Rather, what would you not eat? Vegetarianism although sometimes taken lightly almost as if it were a form of food allergy, can often be closely tied into a religious belief.

There are many religions that stem from an Indian origin that request vegetarianism as a form of purity.

Hinduism, the world's third largest religion, has a strong tie to vegetarianism, although certain sub practices have changed over time. Among other principles that define the religion, the predominate ideology is that of nonviolence, with an intention to avoid negative karmic energy and influences. One of the Hindu scriptures describes their belief in the relationship between our environment and our spiritual life.

"Those sinful persons who are ignorant of actual religious principles, yet consider themselves to be completely pious, without compunction commit violence against innocent animals who are fully trusting in them. In their next lives, such sinful persons will be eaten by the same creatures they have killed in this world." (Bhagavata Purana 11.5.14)

In the historical Vedic religion, in which the Vedas was the primary religious script, vegetarianism was not completely banned, but highly restricted with various religious laws and included the sacrifice of animals to their Gods as seen in the spiritual scripts of the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana, and the Chandogya Upanishad. Later on with the progression of Hinduism, virtually all animal sacrifice has ceased

Those practicing Hatha Yoga within the Hindu religion are required to be strict vegetarians in order to maintain their spiritual progress in a state which they term sattvic. They follow teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and belief that meat promotes ignorance and an undesirable mental state known as the tamas.



Here's some great cookbooks that follow the Sattvic Ideology:

-Ayurvedic Healing Cuisine by Harish Johari

-Diet, Shatkarmas and Amaroli - Yogic Nutrition & Cleansing for Health and Spirit by Yogani

-Sattwa Cafe: Simple and Delicious Recipes to Enhance Your Health and Well-Being Based on the Traditional Healing Science of Ayurveda by Meta B. Doherty

-Eat-Taste-Heal: An Ayurvedic Cookbook for Modern Living by Thomas Yarema, Daniel Rhoda, and Johnny Brannigan

-Heaven's Banquet: Vegetarian Cooking for Lifelong Health the Ayurveda Way by Miriam Kasin Hospodar

Try some recipes out, and call upon Annapurna, the Hindu goddess of food and cooking, to help you out!

[HareKrishna]

Now Husky,
Vedanta schools like Shankara advaita,Ramanuja visishtadvaita and Chaithanya Bhedaabheda are all prone to missionarism and prozelitism.The same is for Shiva siddhanta and buddhism.
This schools are salvation(from suffering) doctrines hence is their duty to missionarise all over the eatrh.
Buddhism have being very succesful and also advaita(smarta) neohinduism and bhakti vedanta.
Is not about folk traditions here but about methods to escape from misery of earthly existence.

[shamu]

One wonderful classical filmy dance performed by a young pair in Malayalam channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo5Cxy6GcYI

[agnivayu]

Did the British PM join ISKCON?


Downing Street holds first Diwali celebrations

(AFP) – 1 day ago

LONDON — Gordon Brown donned a garland Friday as the British prime minister's Downing Street office hosted its first Diwali celebration.

Brown also lit candles at the event attended by prominent members of Britain's Hindu and Sikh communities.

Brown told the gathering it was "a great day for Downing Street".

"For centuries Diwali has been celebrated," he said.

"This is the first time we have had such a celebration here in Downing Street."

Two years ago the prime minister took the name <b>Govardhan Brown</b>, during a Diwali ceremony.

The festival of light celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains, is becoming more widely marked in Britain. Indians make up the largest proportion of people of South Asian origin.

In the last census in 2001, 1.1 million people, or 1.8 percent of the population, said they were of Indian ethnic origin. Some 559,000 said they were Hindus, while 336,000 said they were Sikhs.

[HareKrishna]

Unless devotees of God broadcast His message, the ignorant living entities can never know that the ultimate purpose of life is liberation from material bondage
The idea of preaching about God in a missionary spirit is not part of India’s religion. That’s something the Christians introduced into India a few hundred years ago…
And self-styled yogis sometimes say to me, “People should be left alone to realize God in their own way, in their own time. You can’t go out and preach about inner life.” I have also heard seemingly devout Hindus say, “Why are you teaching of Krsna in America? To follow the Vedas you have to be born in India.” Is Krsna’s message, then, just for a few?

No. Both the Vedic literatures themselves and the living examples of India’s greatest saints disprove that idea. Moreover, such disdain for preaching Vedic truths reveals a sad lack of compassion for fallen humanity.
http://krishna.org/krishna-consciousness-a...-not-to-preach/

[HareKrishna]

<!--QuoteBegin-Shambhu+Jan 25 2008, 08:30 PM-->QUOTE(Shambhu @ Jan 25 2008, 08:30 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->2. Belief in Reincarnation Spreads Hinduism in America
www.newsweek.com

NEW YORK, USA, January 24, 2008:ack inone 30 years ago: they believe their souls are eternal, not their bodies. "Americans," Prothero says, "are becoming more Hindu."


http://www.hinduismtoday.com/hpi/2008/1/24.shtml#2
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many religious westerners are what is called pseudo-sikh ,meaning they have ,just like sikhs ,a monotheistic approach to God and share belives such reincarnation and karma.
Probably this is a reason that sikhism have such a fast growth rate.