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Showing posts from May 14, 2007


Gujarat Painting Row and Hinduism

For more than two decades there is a highly active Hindu morality brigade in India . Although they represent a miniscule Hindu population, they are able to get their voices around the world through violence. The latest being the Gujarat Institute of Fine Arts painting row and the arrest of Chandra Mohan, an art student. M F Hussain has been the target of the morality brigade for quite for a while now. The morality policing is not confined to Hinduism in India . Islam and Christianity have from time to time come out with protests against artists and entertainment forms. The protests against Da Vinci Code and Discovery channel’s Jesus Tomb are the latest from Christian community. From Islam it was the famous Danish cartoon episode. The so called defenders of Hinduism often forget that we live in a democratic country. Each and every person living in India has a right to protest when his/her religious sentiments are hurt. But it should be done through methods that are agreeabl

Veda Vyasa – the editor of Hindu Scriptures

Veda Vyasa is popularly known as the author of the epic Mahabharata. And perhaps even more popular as the author of Bhagavad Gita, a part of Mahabharata, which has gained independent status sheerly through its immortal philosophical content. Most Hindus associate him with the Mahabharata and do not realize that majority of the Holy Scriptures in Hinduism was edited by Veda Vyasa. The present day form of many Hindu scriptures is primarily due to the tireless work done by Veda Vyasa and his students. In the initial stage, the philosophical thoughts of Santana Dharma (Hinduism) remained scattered. Veda Vyasa is said to have collected all the Vedic passages and edited them and complied into four parts – Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. It is believed that he taught the four Vedas to his four disciples. The division of the Vedas into four sections – Mantras (hymns), Brahmanas (rituals), Aranyakas (modes of worship) and Upanishads (philosophic revelations) – was don