Good Books on Hinduism And Indian History

Recently I came across this site which contains good books on hinduism and indian history. The way in which different attacks/colonolisation and other factors influenced the hindu culture. Hinduism is not a religion, a common misconception people have. It is a way of life, the way in which you treat others/yourself. The way you realise your self or understand others. The way in which you live in total harmony with nature and its belongings.


There are some misconceptions which are perpetrated by the media of India. That makes some western journalist wonder what is wrong with them that they are not appreciating the greatness of the hindu culture, its past, its present. Why they want to bring down the pilliars on which secularism of India is built. Like the other day one of my good friend said you are all soaked in hindutva (the remarks sounded sarcastic to me) hence I had to quote François Gautier here.. a western journalist working in india...

why does the Indian press always reflect a westernised point of view ? Why does India's intellectual "elite", the majority of which happens to be Hindu, always come down so hard on their own culture, their own religion, their own brothers and sisters ? Is it because of an eternal feeling of inferiority, which itself is a legacy of British colonisation ? Is it because they considers Hindus to be inferior beings - remember the words of Claudius Buccchanan, a chaplain attached to the East India Company : "...Neither truth, nor honesty, honour, gratitude, nor charity, is to be found in the breast of a Hindoo"! Is it because the Indian Press is still deeply influenced by Marxist and communist thoughts planted by Nehruvianism

Most of the hindus do not appreciate their culture, their way of life. They always looks towards west for inspiration. (May be that is what god wants else how will kalyug come... just kidding here :-)...). I believe as a hindu I should and I must spread the knowledge of hinduism's greatness to others. Like it is truly said in sanskrit.

न चोर हर्यम न राजहर्यम न भत्रुभाज्यम न च भारकारी
व्यवये कृत्यम एवमे वर्ध्यम विद्याधनं सर्वधन प्रध्नाम

अर्थार्त, ना चोर चोरी कर सकता हैं ना राजा जीत सकता हैं, ना भाइयों में बँटा जा सकता हैं और जो बोझ भी नही हैं । खर्च करने पर जो बढ़ता हैं, विद्या धन सभी धनो में सर्वोत्तम हैं।

In English it means, burglur cannot steal it, king cannot win it, it cannot be divided between brothers, neither it is heavy. If you spend it, it increases, knowledge is the best wealth then any kind of wealth.

Thats it for today... do take time out to read the books...

यह क्या हो रहा हैं????

मैं सच में हेरान और परेसान हो रहा हूँ...

मैं यहाँ USA में तक़रीबन ६ साल के आस पास रह चुका हूँ, और अभी मुझे लग रहा हैं यह क्या हो रहा हैं... यह सोच मुझे तब आय्ही जब में अपना पिछला ब्लॉग हिन्दी में लिखने की कोशिश कर रहा था... मेरा दिमाग भी हिन्दी में सोचता नही हैं... वह अभी अंग्रेजी में ज्यादा सोचने लगा हैं...

उसी बात पैर अगर ज्यादा गौर करता हूँ तो मुझे समझ में यह आता हैं की हिन्दी में तो मैं कभी सोचता ही नही था... या तो वह गुजराती में होता था (तक़रीबन मेरे जीवन के २१ साल)... फिर इन्फोस्य्स में आने के बाद वह अंग्रेजी में सोचने लगा... फिर भी मुझे गुजराती में लिखने का इतना मन नही करता जितना की हिन्दी में... और एक बात अभी भी मैं जब भी कुछ गणित करता हूँ जैसे की भागकर, गुनाकर, जोडो वगेरा वगेरा तोह मेरा दिमाग उसे सिर्फ़ गुजराती में ही करता हैं पता नही क्यों... अगर में वह अंग्रेजी में करना चाहता हूँ तो बहुत देर लगती हैं...

तो मेरे दिमाग का जो cpu हैं वह हर बार आंकडो को फेले गुजराती में परिवर्तित करता हैं और उसेक बाद वह जो भी गणित करना होता हैं वह करता हैं और फिर वह जवाब को फिर से अंग्रेजी में परिवर्तित करता हैं.... कितने अचम्भे की बात हैं की मेरा दिमाग क्या क्या नही करता हैं सिर्फ़ एक 1 + 1 करने के लिए...

चलो अभी फिर से अलविदा... लगता हैं आज कुछ जायदा ही वेल्ला बैठा हूँ॥ :-)....

क्या आप यह जानते हैं?

मुझे हिन्दी अतिप्रिय हैं और मुझे हिन्दी में लिखना भी बहुत अछा लगता हैं... आप सोच रहे होंगे के यह भाई को क्या हो गया की अचानक आज वह हिन्दी की बात कर रहा हैं :-)...

मुझे कुछ नही हुआ, मैं सिर्फ़ यह गूगल ब्लॉग का यह हिन्दी में लिखाई करने की कोशिश कर रहा हूँ... यह बहुत ही बढ़िया चीज़ बनाई हैं गूगल नैन... तुम लिखो अंग्रेजी में और वह उसको परिवर्तित करके हिन्दी में लिख देता हैं... वह क्या बात हैं...

तो इस प्रकार आप हिन्दी में लिख सकते हूँ अपना ब्लॉग... हिन्दी के इलावा वह और भी भासा इस्तमाल करने देता हैं जैसे की तेलगु, तमिल, मलयालम... आपको सिर्फ़ उसको चुनना हैं अपने ब्लॉग के सेत्तिंग्स में...

हाँ एक और चीज़, अगर आप को घर बैठे कुछ पैसे कमाने हैं तो आप बस google adsense को चुन लीजिये... फिर अपने ब्लॉग को थोड़ा बदल फेर कीजये और adsense को आप अपने ब्लॉग में रख दिज्ये... फिर जब भी कोई आपके ब्लॉग से कुछ क्लिक करके किसी और वेबसाइट पैर जाएगा तो आपको कुछ पैसे मिलेंगे.... आप करके तो देखिये आपको पता चलेगा के यह कितना लाभ दायक हैं...

फिर आपसे अलविदा लेता हूँ.... सुक्रिया... थोड़ा लिंक्स भी क्लिक कर दीजयेगा ;-)...

I have learnt swimming...

I can now say that I have learnt swimming... earlier I used to know how to swim.. but I was never able to take my head or mouth out and breath in... and those who swim can appreciate how difficult it is to take mouth out and breath in.. it took me over a year (well I was not swimming that often that is the main reason here) for learning this... now that I have got in some kind of haphazard movement which I call as rhythm :-) that I am able to stick my neck out for breathing.. I feel elated but not satiated with the my swimming...

I need to learn more... may be practice for some more time... before I try out different hues of swimming like back stroke, breast stroke, butterfly stroke etc etc... it will take time but some day I am sure I would be able to do it...

Right now my current focus is on losing some extra pounds of fat in all unnecessary regions of my body ... I know swimming can do that but I want to do some running and cross ramping to quickly loose as I am still not able to continuously swim for more than one lap...

So far so long... I am able to shed some couple of pounds.. will keep posting my progress...

Yog and Pranayam

Many of you would have wondered why it is not "Yoga" and "Pranayama"... well the reason is I am an Indian and I know how to pronounce "Yog" and "Pranayam" without the adjunct "a" as the suffix. To cut a long story short Englishmen tried very hard to pronounce Yog as Yog but were not finding it easy so they conveniently added a "a" after it. Now since it has become such a hot culture in west that every one now thinks it is "Yoga" but in pure sanskrit and hindi it is "Yog". Even I do say it as "Yoga" and not "Yog" some time but now I am consciously make effort to pronounce it correctly.

OK lets leave that aside for now, the reason I posted this is as I have again started doing yog. By yog I mean mostly paranayam and little bit of asans (see a below) also.

I was aware of the pranayam from the days when I did the "Art of Living" basic course. From that time I am aware of how to do pranayam. I do sudarshan kriya (see b below) on Saturday and/or Sunday. The reason being it takes atleast 30 to 45 minutes to do the kriya.

I saw some videos from Baba Ramdevji and tried to put that in my routine, I just do kapalbhati, bhastrika, AnolomVilom pranayam. And yes the best one I like is Bhramari pranayam. The kind of quietness and clarity which Bhramari gives daily I have never experienced except for after doing long sudarshan kriya.

I think it is starting to have its calming/soothing effects on me already in 3 days... I will let you know about the details later when I have followed for couple of weeks atleast just to make that it is not my new found love for Bhramari is having its effect.

Coming to asans, I do suryanamaskar, sirsasan, sarvangasan, viprit karni and ardhmatsyasan with bhujangasan as the finishing asana in the order. I used to do them regularly and do not remember from where I got this knowledge to do various asan, may be it is something in my gene or may be I have seen my dad doing it in the house during my childhood.

Hopefully this enthusiasm of doing yog and asan goes for some months if not years... I would prefer it to do it continuously for years to come but who knows what is instore for tomorrow... :-)

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a - Note the use of "asan" instead of "asanas" again same reason.
b - sudarshan kriya is also one kind of pranayam which was taught in Art Of Living classes.