Northeast corner (Ishan Kone) is of great importance in Hinduism. It is the corner associated with gods and goddesses and therefore holy and auspicious. The northeast corner should always be kept clean. No junk should be kept in this place. Shoe rack should not be kept in the northeast corner. Goddess Lakshmi resides in the northeast corner and therefore this spot should always be kept clean. It is best to leave the northeast corner of the house free. Avoid keeping heavy items in this corner.  There is a belief that if the northeast corner were to be occupied by heavy items then the family would face heavy debts. In a property with walled compound (properly demarcated), the northeast corner is ideal for water tanks. This will improve the financial situation of the house. If the northeast corner of plot is cut then such a plot should not be brought. There will be spiritual and worldly success. Factories, shops and houses should not be built in a plot havi...

Mudita is a term in Yoga which signifies blissfulness and happiness. The term is mentioned by Sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra as one of the four bhavanas (mental dispositions) to be cultivated within oneself to acquire peace of mind. Sage Patanjali states that serenity of mind arises from the cultivation of friendliness, compassion, joy (mudita), and indifference towards happy, suffering, meritorious and envious persons, respectively (Yoga sutra, I.33). Vachaspati Mishra comments with respect to the cultivation of joy on seeing others happy and through it the taint of jealousy ceases. Mudita is an important aspect in Buddhism and Jainism. There are four attitudes – friendliness, compassion, joy (mudita) and indifference – are called brahma vihara (the divine abiding), and the aspirant is asked to develop these attitudes with regard to all beings. So they are called aparimana (immeasurable). These four attitudes are discussed as the four meditation subjects by Budd...

Sri Aurobindo explains the significance of mantra in Hinduism. The teachings about mantra is highly beneficial to both novice and scholar.  Mantra is psycho spiritual means spiritual power, knowledge or Ananda. It is at once a symbol, an instrument and a sound body for the divine manifestation. The theory of the Mantra is that it is a word of power born out of the secret depths of our being where it has been brooded upon by a deeper consciousness than the mental, framed in the heart and not originally constructed by the intellect, held in the mind, again concentrated on by the waking mental consciousness and then thrown out silently or vocally — the silent word is perhaps held to be more potent than the spoken — precisely for the work of creation. The Mantra cannot only create new subjective states in ourselves, alter our psychical being, reveal knowledge and faculties we did not before possess, can not only produce similar results in other minds than that of the user, ...

The symbolic significance of lighting lamp in Hindu home is that it burns away all kinds of ego, desires, passion and lust. It purifies the mind and prepares it to realize true happiness. Here are the benefits of lighting Diya. The ghee or oil medium used to light the lamp symbolically represents our ignorance. It represents desires, ego, anger, hatred and all those negative qualities that stop us from self-realization. We use the wick to burn off all the negative qualities. That which is left after getting rid of all impurities from mind is bliss – Brahman realization. It is believed that a home, which keeps a lighted lamp in the morning and evening, will not attract negative energy. Diya lighted at home makes us realize we need to pause daily for a few minutes and do a postmortem of our daily activities. Just by merely lighting a lamp daily and offering prayers one will have one’s wishes fulfilled. Those who believe that they are not getting the desired results ev...

Meditation, also known as dhyan, is a type of tapas or sadhana in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Tapas and sadhana signify spiritual discipline, also known as penance and austerity. Meditation in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is more than merely closing eyes and sitting still. The largest Upanishad directly and indirectly asks humans to rise above the mundane living and to realize the Supreme Truth - Brahman. So, Meditation in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is Brahman realization. The man who sees all beings in himself and himself in all beings never suffers. When a person sees all creatures within his true self, jealousy, grief and hatred vanish. This self is then all pervading – it is without birth, deathless, pure and untainted by both sorrow and wrong acts. Realizing this, the person free himself from all bondage and transcends death. Transcending death means realizing the difference between the body and the soul and identifying oneself with the soul. On realizing our true nature, we ceas...

A collection of quotes and teachings on Desire by Swami Vivekananda. When we seek enjoyment, we become objects of enjoyment for others. Desire thus enfolds both the subject and the object in its ambit, uses and wears both down. We came here to sip the honey, and we find our hands and feet sticking to it. We are caught, though we came to catch. We came to enjoy; we are being enjoyed. We came to rule; we are being ruled. We came to work; we are being worked. All the time, we find that. And this comes into every detail of our life. We are being worked upon by other minds, and we are always struggling to work on other minds. We want to enjoy the pleasures of life; and they eat into our vitals. We want to get everything from nature, but we find in the long run that nature takes everything from us—depletes us, and casts us aside. (Source of above quotes - Prabuddha Bharata Magazine September 2013) There is no misery where there is no want. Desire is ...

A verse, attributed to a scholar from the North, describes thus the glory and greatness of Sri Appaya Dikshita, and the great merit of his patron king Chinna Bomma (A.D. 1549– 1578): ‘When there are number of kings who are waiting for an opportunity to pay obeisance to Sri Appayya Dikshitar and become purified by it, can we, by any chance, count the greatness of (Chinna) Bomma, who is in the fortunate position of hearing every day from the master himself, the great verses full of the greatness of Lord Shiva.’ This verse reveals the great respect that Appaya Dikshita commanded as a scholar among the learned circles of the royal courts of the country, his immense contribution to the promotion of Shaivism, and the patronage extended to him by Chinna Bomma, the Nayak ruler of Vellore. Khandadeva, the great authority on ‘Mimamsa’ and author of Bhatta kaustubha, Bhatta-dipika and Bhatta-rahasya, refers to Appaya Dikshita as ‘Mimamsaka Murdhanya.’ In the religious history of South I...

Srikovil or the sanctum sanctorum at Sannidanam - Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple is plated using gold. The life story of Ayyappa from His birth on earth to His disappearance at Sabarimala is written on copper sheets and is superimposed on the Sreekovil. The punar pratishta or murti reinstallation was performed in 1951. The gold plating of the sreekovil was completed in 1997 – around 32 kilograms of gold and 1904 kilograms of copper were used for the purpose. The murti of Ayyappa worshipped at Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple is that of Brahmachari. He is also referred as Shasta. There is a belief that the murti was created by Parashurama and Ayyappa merged in it.

A collection of quotes and teachings from Vakya Vritti of Adi Shankaracharya  I bow down to that Pure Consciousness Divine – a shoreless ocean of happiness, which is All-pervading (Vishnu), the Beloved of Shri, the all-knowing Lord of the Universe, assuming endless forms and yet ever-free, having an inscrutable power to become (apparently) the Cause of creation, maintenance, and dissolution of the universe. Who else can be the individual Self (Jiva) other than yourself, that asks me this question, “Who am I ?”. There is no doubt about it. You alone are the Brahman. Just as the perceiver of a pot is ever distinctly different from the pot and can never be the pot – so too, you, the perceiver of your body, are distinct from your body and can never be the body – this you firmly ascertain in yourself. Similarly be sure that you are not the complex of the gross and the subtle-bodies, and intelligently determine, by inference, that you, the ‘seer’, are entirely distin...

Duswapna Nivarana Suktam is the hymn or sukta in the tenth mandala of Rig Veda Samhita. This is a very powerful Rig Vedic hymn for getting rid of bad dreams. The main theme of the hymn is the nashanam (destruction) of unpleasant and horrifying dreams, i.e. duswapna. Duswapna Nivarana Suktam consists of five verses or mantras; apart from this, there is only one other verse on bad dreams. Pracetas Angirasa is mentioned as the seer, i.e. rishi of the sukta. In Vedas, Varuna Deva is often invoked by the name Pracetas. It is noteworthy that in this sukta he is also referred to as a deity. This concise and interesting hymn from Rig Veda is of particular importance, as it highlights the hidden powers and manifold nature of the human mind. It concerns the psychological aspects of bad dreams that result from sinful acts and thoughts. It clearly states that bad or unpleasant dreams are the result of man’s own evil deeds and sinful acts done during the time he is awake. ...