Governance and Indian Nationalism (GAIN)

We have already discussed Karma and Luck in the first two parts of this three part series of articles. Now is the turn of Destiny -  As per Free dictionary, Destiny is a predetermined course of events that are considered to be beyond the control of human beings.  It is this predetermined course of events that we have to understand in order to understand our destiny. A lot of people understand destiny as fate; however, it is not an appropriate and sufficient condition. Because, people confuse or substitute destiny as fate which is not true. To be more precise, let me elaborate on the following: "Our fate decides our destiny but our destiny does not decide our fate."   Clearly, our fate is something which will take us closer to our destiny but fate is not the same as destiny. Then, the more important question that comes to everyone's mind is -  "If fate is different than destiny, then what is destiny." I will not hesitate to say that Destiny is our destination - i...

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare. Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare. Krishna took birth in Dwapar Yuga to destroy the evil forces and to start a new chapter in Hinduism's history. Krishna had a dark complexion which later changed to sky blue. This happened when Krishna dived into the Yamuna river to teach Kalia (Kaliya) naag  a lesson. The naag  was poisoning the entire river due to which many innocents were getting killed. Initially, the naag threw venom on Krishna in order to kill him; however, it didn't impact Krishna (just changed his complexion). Not just Kaliya Naag , Krishna   also killed many other powerful demons, such as Trunavarta, Keshi, Aristhasur, Bakasur, Pralambasur and others.  While eliminating such negative personalities, Krishna was eventually preparing to dethrone Kansa (the evil king); however, this was not the main objective of his birth. Kaaliya finally accepted defeat and left Yamuna so that people of Gokul and ot...

Lord Ganesh, the son of Lord Shiva  and Goddess Parvati, is one of the most popular Gods in Hinduism. He holds a  prominent place amongst all Hindu Gods as he is one of the five main Hindu  deities (other than Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Durga) who are worshipped in the  panchayatana  puja . Worshipping Ganesh is considered essential for new beginnings, removing obstacles, attaining education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth. Many Hindus seek blessings of Ganesh before starting any ceremonies & rituals or before venturing into a new business. Also, Ganesh is very popular among students and kids because he helps them to attain knowledge and education. Ganesh is easily recognized because of his distinct physical features such as elephant face, big belly and broken tusk. The physical attributes are indicative of Ganesh’s various qualities because of which he is worshipped among Hindus. The elephant face signifies wisdom, understanding and a sharp intellect where...

In the Part-2 of this article, we will focus on Luck which is a highly overused word. A lot of times, people blame the results of their karmas on luck; however, such a blame is not justified because everything is a result of your Karamas. Even your Luck is an outcome of your Karmas.   Now, the main point of contention is if LUCK is more significant than KARMA. In this post, I will actually prove that Luck is nothing but a result of your good Karmas. Consequently, we can safely say that a person who works hard eventually gets luckier. Given the above points, a more potent question is How Luck is an outcome of Karmas? I am sure most of you guys have heard or read the following sayings somewhere: "The harder you work, the Luckier you get". OR "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity". Most of us love these statements; however, we don't study our own culture, identity and its roots to understand how Luck was viewed in the Hindu culture. I think the most o...

Lord Ganesh is the God of new beginnings, education, knowledge, wisdom, wealth and advancement. In Hinduism, Ganesh holds a significant place because Ganesh puja is mandatory before any religious function, ritual or activity. Students and businessmen worship Ganesh for education and wealth respectively. Ganesh's Family and some interesting stories Lord Ganesh is the son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. Kartikeya (God of War) is Ganesh’s younger brother. Ganesh loves to eat Modak and Ladoo. When Ganesh grew up, he married Prajapati’s two daughters namely Siddhi and Riddhi. Anyone, who worships Ganesh gets the blessing of his wives.  Ganesh is well known for his wisdom, knowledge and sacrifice. The wise one Once, Shiva asked his sons to make three rounds of universe to assess their wisdom. While Kartikeya rode his peacock around the universe, Ganesh simply took three rounds of Shiva and Parvati (and stated that Shiva and Parvati are his universe ). Ganesh won the race due to his wi...

Karma, Luck and Destiny  These three words have shaped the past, present and future of the mankind. And will continue to do so. However, it is important to understand each of these words distinctly and their inherent correlation. As, each word is quite vast in its nature, we will discuss each of these words in different posts and then conclude in the last post. Karma Simply put, Karma is action. As Lord Krishna says that each human being is bound to perform some action whether he/she likes it or not OR whether the Karma is under his control or not. For example, your senses, that is, eyes, nose, skin, tongue and ears will perform their duties. If a person walks in a park, he will naturally smell the fragrance of the flowers and he cannot stop his nose from smelling. Similarly, each human being is bound to do Karmas and his senses are his horses which need to be regulated according to the wishes of his Soul.  Considering the practicality of the matter as on today, it is indeed q...

Oh My GOD! -- Akshay Kumar's home-production that tried to highlight the so-called evils that exist in our religious life (especially HINDUISM). The entire movie revolves around one Kanji Lal (Trader) who runs a business of selling IDOLS to devotees. I did not like the movie due to the following reasons: While Kanji Lal created false stories on Idols to increase his sales and rip the pocket of innocent devotees; He had no qualms about disbelieving and openly challenging GOD.  The irony is that Kanji uses GOD to make money but does not believe in him because he cannot see it. If he doesn't believe in GOD, it is fine but he has no right to claim that devotees worship a stone which has no power. The movie portrays that doing good for the needy is most important but why does it need to connect with the religious beliefs of a particular community. We can obviously focus on SOCIAL SERVICE. Kanji Lal kept a record of each and every donation that he made to GOD and then asked for retur...