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Showing posts from April 4, 2019


Ugadi Pachadi - Bevu Bella: How To Prepare Ugadi Pachadi?

Ugadi Pachadi or Bevu Bella is an indispensable offering on Ugadi, the Kannada and Telugu New Year day. This unique Bevu or Neem leaf preparation symbolically represents the different facets of life – sweet and bitter experiences of life. Bevu Bella is just a simple mixture of fresh neem leaves and unprocessed broken jaggery. It is usually offered as a Prasad on the morning of Ugadi in many temples in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It is also prepared in almost all homes. Ingredients Handful of fresh neem leaves. ¼ cup or three spoon broken jaggery Preparation Clean the neem leaves Grind with a little water Add jaggery into the mixture. Some people to avoid the bitter taste of neem add banana, honey or grated coconut. Bevu Bella is eaten on empty stomach on the Ugadi day. Another popular Ugadi Pachadi using couple of other ingredients Ingredients 20 gm chopped raw mango A few neem flowers ½ of a chopped banana (optional) 10 gm grated coc

How to make Gudi Flag for Gudi Padwa?

Gudi Flag is raised on the Maharashtrian New Year Day and it is known as Brahmadwaj. Raising the Gudi Flag on the early morning hours of Gudi Padwa marks the beginning of the Marathi New Year. It is observed on the first day of Chaitra month (March – April) in the lunar calendar followed in Maharashtra . How to make Gudi Flag? The Gudi is made of neem leaves, gaathis (Sweet made of jaggery), a copper pot, a piece of cloth and a long wooden stick. A 5 to 10 feet long bamboo or any other wooden stick is taken and cleaned and a piece of silk or cotton cloth is tied at one end of the stick like a flag. A copper or silver or steel or brass pot is placed on top of the Gudi. A garland of flowers is placed on the top and is decorated with neem leaves. Some people tie jaggery sweet on the pole. In some regions sugarcanes are placed around the pot. You may also like to read Why is a Gudi Raised on Marathi New Year?

Symbolism - Vrishabha - Vahana of Lord Shiva

Vrishabha, or Nandi, is the carrier of Lord Shiva. The word Vrishabha has two meaning – the ordinary meaning is the Bull – the vahana of Lord Shiva. There is a hidden symbolism in Vrishabha. A shloka says ‘Vrsham Bhasyati iti Vrushabha – one who illumines right actions, their results and all dharmas. Vrishabha thus symbolizes ‘the best’ and the Vahana of Lord Shiva can be taken as the symbol of a realized soul or Jivanmukta. Vrishabha is also symbolically related to Lord Shiva’s role of destructor. Only a realized soul can easily understand the significance of death. Death is the beginning of regeneration and it is only a minuscule part in the great cycle of birth and death. On the concept of Vrishabha as the Vahana of Shiva, Swamini Sarada Priyananda writes: Shiva’s destruction comes every now and then whenever a man’s life-span is over. But it is not the final end, because we are born again and again to exhaust the ‘Vasanas.’ How to attain the final salv

Perumal – About Hindu God Perumal

Perumal is a term commonly used to refer to Hindu God Vishnu in Tamil Nadu. The word is widely used by Vaishnavites. Perumal is also used to refer to other deities worshipped in a temple. Kings in ancient times in Tamil land were also called as Perumal – a mark of respect. Some of the temples associated with Bhagavan Vishnu with the title Perumal are Sundararaja Perumal, Varadaraja Perumal, Lakshmi Narayana Perumal, Adi Narayana Perumal, Venkateswara Perumal etc. Perumal simply means ‘god’. Thus they use it along with Muruga, Shiva and Ganesha. Thus we have Shivaperumal. Currently the term Perumal is a synonym of Vishnu and His manifestations like Balaji or Venkateswara.   

Gaja Karani – Benefits of Gaja Karani Kriya in Hatha Yoga

Gaja Karani is a yogic technique of throwing out the contents of the stomach. Gaja means elephant and karni means action. An elephant sucks water and then, raising the trunk, throws the water out like a jet. In a similar fashion, a student of Hatha Yoga can pass water out through the mouth in spurts, which appears like the act of the elephant and therefore the name Gaja Karani Kriya. Benefits of Gaja Karani It is kind of a stomach wash. It has therapeutic value. It helps in remove all kinds of unwanted food items especially those stuck on the walls of the stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. It is a cleaning procedure. Gaja Karani  is described in Hatha Yoga Pradipika in the following words: It is an act of vomiting out the contents of the stomach, brought about by drawing up the apana to the throat. With practice, the nadichakras – the centers of the channels – are brought under control and then one can do the act like an elephant (II.38) Thus, Gaja K

Narada Smriti Quotes And Teachings

A small collection of quotes and teachings from Narada Smriti. The text is considered as a Dharmashastra in Hinduism. Truth is the greatest gift and the highest duty. If a human being follows truth all his life, then he is a living god. Following truth is great than performing hundred yajnas. Truth is the one mode of winning purity, truth the ship that bears men to heaven, truth weighted against a thousands-horse sacrifices outweighs them, truth is the highest oblation, the highest asceticism, the highest morality, truth is the summit of bliss, by telling truth man attains by himself the highest self which is itself truth. Truth is said to be the one unequalled means of purification of the soul. The truth is the ladder by which man ascends to heaven as a ferry plies from one bank of a river to the other.