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Showing posts from August 12, 2020


Pala Tree Associated Yakshi – Ghosts In Kerala

Indian Devil Tree is known as Pala, Yakshippala, Daiva pala or ezhilam pala in Kerala. The tree is associated with ghosts, pretam, brahmarakshas, yakshi, goblins, elfs, demons and other malicious spirits. To walk under the shade of pala tree at night is considered suicidal. It is believed that people never return back after walking or taking refuge under a pala tree at night. The malicious spirits residing on the pala tree throw mud and round stones on passerby. The tree is a favorite spot of poisonous snakes as the sap of the tree is milky. A cobra after biting a person goes up to a bough of a pala tree and hangs its head down till the person is dead. The trunk of the tree emits a stinking smell and it is interpreted due to malicious spirits inhabiting it. Hindus never cut pala tree as it is believed to bring bad luck and ill health to the family. Pala tree is not grown in the household compounds. There are numerous stories associated with the pala tree. People say that t

Vishnubuva Brahmachari – Reformer Of Hinduism

Vishnubuva Brahmachari (1825 – 71 CE) was a revivalist and reformer of Hinduism in Maharashtra. He believed in the superiority of Hindu culture over all other cultures. Along with the British came Protestant missionaries to preach the Christian gospel in India. The intelligentsia behind British rule, like Macaulay, Mill and Bentham, wanted to inculcate Western ideals and values among the Indians. Consequently, the advent of the British became a religious, cultural and political invasion. The Indians felt the need to protect their culture, religion and society from this onslaught. Two types of movements emerged at this time in Maharashtra – reformist and revivalist. The former welcomed the advent of the British as an opportunity to transform Indian society into a progressive, democratic one; the latter, on the other hand, felt the need to protect the Indian tradition and Western attacks and to revive its past glory and worth that had decayed with the passage of time. Vishnub

Nasatya – Vedic God – A Negator Of Truth

Nasatya is a Vedic god and the name literally means a negator of truth. They are twin deities. According to Yasaka, “One is called Son of Night, and the other Son of Dawn.” Nasatya is another name of Ashwins who were born from the nostrils of Saranyu who, as a mare, had smelt the semen of Vivasvat, which had fallen on the ground. For this reason, in art, Nasatyas are generally represented as horse headed human figures. Nasatya corresponds to the ancient Iranian deity Nahalya and Na-sa-at-ti-ia of the Boghaz-Koi (Asia Minor) inscription dating to about 1400 BC. Nasatya are celebrated fully in more than fifty hymns in Rig Veda and in parts of several other texts. They are addressed, implored, invited and invoked together. The most constant feature is their duplicate nature. They are young, beautiful, agile, strong, powerful, mighty and are compared with the Greek Dioscuri. They promote fertility and in many legends they are closely associated with madhu (honey). Ushas

Faith In Ourselves Will Do Everything – Swami Vivekananda

You know but little of that which is within you. For behind you is the ocean of infinite power and blessedness. Let a man go down as low as possible; there must come a time when out of sheer desperation he will take an upward curve and will learn to have faith in himself. But it is better for us that we should know it from the very first. Why should we have all these bitter experiences in order to gain faith in ourselves? We can see that all the difference between man and man is owing to the existence or non-existence of faith in himself. Faith in ourselves will do everything. I have experienced it in my own life, and am still doing so; and as I grow older that faith is becoming stronger and stronger. We are the heirs of good and evil thought. If we make ourselves pure and the instruments of good thoughts, these will enter us. The good soul will not be receptive to evil thoughts. Evil thoughts find the best field in evil people; they are like microbes which germinate and incr