Kishore Balakrishnan’s Blog

1. SimpleRadio – esp. The Good Life of Helen Nearing
2. TEDTalks
3. davidmaister.com > podcasts
4. Lage Raho Munna Bhai

harekrsna.com is beautiful – start @ the philosophy section site map

The ten primary vishnu incarnations are:

1. Matsya – invertebrate – fish
2. Kurma – testaceous or shelly – turtle
3. Varaha – vertebrate – boar
4. Narasimha – erectly vertebrate – man-lion
5. Vamana – mannikin – dwarf
6. Parasurama – barbaric
7. Ramachandra – civilised
8. Krishna – wise
9. Buddha or Balarama – ultrawise
10. Kalki – destructive

Found in the Hinduism Today RSS feed

KAUAI, HAWAII, December 24, 2006: An issue came up at the Hindu Mission of Canada in Quebec regarding the chanting of the famed Gayatri Mantra by the ordinary devotees. Some brahmins held the position that the mantra should be chanted by everyone only when a priest is leading the chant. The chairman of the mission, Dharam Pal Verman, asked Hinduism Today to research the issue.

We, in turn, asked our Delhi correspondent, Rajiv Malik, to consult with experts in India. He reported the following points:

1. The chanting of Gayatri Mantra collectively in large groups is something very common place in the temples and Arya Samajas all over India. It takes place everyday. No one ever objects to non-brahmins joining the priests and other brahmins in this chanting of the Gayatri Mantra.

2. In an earlier interview with Hinduism Today, the Shankaracharya of Puri said that mantras need to be chanted by common people in an extremely careful manner so that they do not get harmed by the high level of energy generated in the process of chanting them.

3. In consultation with Swami Pragyanand of Delhi, who is a big promoter of Gayatri Mantra, Swami said:
a. “Gayatri mantra is for everybody. Why I say this is because every mantra has a devata and in the case of Gayatri Mantra, the devata or God is the Sun God. Now the Sun God is for every creature in this world. therefore gayatri is also for everybody in this world. Gayatri is also known as mother and again mother is for everyone and therefore Gayatri is for every child of God. Anything which is created by God is for everybody, whereas if a man creates something it may be used for the benefit of some people only.
b. “In Bhagavad Gita lord Krishna said that among mantras I am myself the Gayatri Mantra. So how can anybody be deprived of chanting the Gayatri Mantra?
c. “The essence of Gayatri Mantra is that God may grant wisdom to all. Now wisdom is not a monopoly of any one person, state, religion or sect. Therefore as wisdom is for everybody, Gayatri Mantra is also for everybody.
d. “When I went to Surinam in South America for the first time, in some of the temples they did not allow chanting of Gayatri Mantra. But when I explained the meaning and essence of Gayatri Mantra to the people there, they got convinced and the things changed. Today, a few radio stations have a round-the-clock recitation of Gayatri Mantra.”
e. Asked about the point of view of the Puri Shankaracharya, Swami said that as the Shankaracharya was of orthodox views therefore he held this kind of opinion on this matter. In an earlier case, the Puri Shankaracharya objected to women chanting the Vedas. Others who wish to comment on this issue may e-mail ar@hindu.org.

disclaimer: am a hindu by birth and donot want to argue regarding who can and not chant !

But the statement “mantras need to be chanted by common people in an extremely careful manner so that they do not get harmed by the high level of energy generated in the process of chanting them” should be considered carefully

It is similar to handling fire i.e., like letting a child near/inside fire when the child doesnot understand/realise/sense the power of fire !

I was quite surprised to see that technorati doesnot know blog.del.icio.us

Text: There are blogs, and then there’s whatever you just typed in. If it’s a blog, we don’t know about it. Maybe you made a typo. Or maybe it’s a blog that doesn’t exist. Maybe you don’t exist. (In which case, please ignore this.)

What about adding “maybe there is a bug!” in addition to “maybe you don’t exist.”

that will be another bug in technorati in december..

A few days ago, I published a post titled the most interesting people on earth after coming across TED

Am recommending TED to anyone who cares to listen I avoid doing this and let people become ready for websites as in “When the student is ready – the teacher appears” – But TED is different and I digress!

How are you recharging for the new year ahead ?

Am pruning the feeds on bloglines to make sure that I read the most inspiring people first

Who are your inspiring people? – tag @ del.icio.us with people and inspiring – blog home page preferred or essays etc – this is where we learn from them most often and timely

Kishore Balakrishnan’s Inspiring People

For an ordered list, visit Namaste Netizen: inspiring + people ( I really wish for sort-able (rate-able) del.icio.us)

note: Am aware of the Technorati Most Linked to and Favorited Blogs. But these mostly contain information aggregated from other sources. Am looking for original material most of the time or atleast more of original material based on a current event e.g., Blake Ross on Firefox » GOOG down 1. (Tip: Trust is hard to gain, easy to lose.)

note 2: Sites like Trizoko most welcome too as long as there is original material.

mm.. maybe I should have titled the post “The most inspiring websites/blogs on earth” – But I wish to meet all these inspiring people in person one day and not their blogs/sites

trivia: 777 items have been posted to del.icio.us. The first link on Google for 777 is Boeing 777

Attn Amazon Prime

There is a bug in the “Amazon Prime” logic !

The Amazon Prime page states “Ship to any eligible address in the contiguous United States”

The shipping address is “Singapore”

So why did I see message “You qualify for a FREE trial of Amazon Prime”

Bribing Bloggers – Joel on Software : ..I’ve been thinking long and hard about this, and the only conclusion I can come to is that this is ethically indistinguishable from bribery..I’ve decided that from this point forward I’m not accepting anything, full stop. Even if my moral logic is faulty, and there’s nothing wrong with accepting gifts, I personally feel that it’s not worth the reduced credibility..

Well said !