Blog

Hera Panchami is a unique festival celebrated at the Gundicha Temple at Puri, Odisha in India. ‘Hera’ means to ‘see’ and ‘Panchami’ means the ‘fifth day’.

Historical Significance

On the fifth day of the Rathayatra Festival, Goddess Lakshmi becomes very worried and thinks, "Where has my husband gone? He told me, I am going for a change of environment for some days, and I will return very soon. It has been five days now, and still He has not come back." She becomes anxious because her husband does

'Netrotsava' - the Festival for the Eyes, originally celebrated at Puri Jagannath Temple in India is a sacred ritual performed before Rath Yatra: The Grand Festival of Chariots. After Snana Purnima - the royal bath of the dieties, Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra are believed to fall ill with fever and do not return to their pedestal in the main temple. The Deities are kept in a special room called the 'Ratan bedi' inside the temple. The dieties stay away from public view for

During one of my excursions to North India, I remember in the midst of our sight-seeing expeditions, halfway through the journey our cab driver halted to drink a cup of tea while all the passengers restlessly waited. The worst part was that there was a medical emergency wherein a young girl was feeling breathless and needed to be rushed to the hospital but the driver was derelict, simply due to his addiction to this intoxicant. He could not control his senses and lost his sense of responsibility

Our life is like a yatra – a pilgrimage, a spiritual journey towards the Divine. Our body symbolises the rath or chariot, through which we embark on the journey towards serving and attaining eternal love of the Lordships. Though we live in this material body or ‘rath’, the bonafide shastras and acharyas advise us to surrender its control to the all-merciful Lord Purushottama.  Thus, by sincerely following their instructions, we earn their blessings and eventually we are able to blissfully maneuv

The different modes of material nature — the mode of goodness, the mode of passion and the mode of darkness are subtle forces that influence our behavior as well as every aspect of our physical, mental, and emotional world.  They pull us to act in various ways, even against our better judgment. According to these modes, there are different living beings, who are known as demigods, human beings and hellish living entities.

The living entities individually are being conducted by a particular mode

In a fiercely competitive world, everyone is in an endless pursuit of ‘the dream’, a rat race which presents a mirage of success and happiness at the end. We are all either part of it or gearing up for it. How does one take part without getting bogged down or losing sight of what lies beyond and what really matters? How does one achieve the highest perfection?

We know that there are four classes of men—the karmis, the jnanis, the yogis, and the bhaktas—and each achieves a different goal.

The karmi

Love is a natural propensity of the soul. However, pure love can factually be experienced only in relation with the Supreme Lord and He alone can perfectly reciprocate our love. For the spirit soul to repose love on something non-spiritual, based on considerations such as bodily relationship, is superficial, incompatible, and therefore quite unfulfilling, often ending in frustration. In fact, God is the active principle of everything; thus whatever is lovable or attractive to us is only due to i

There are no hard and fast rules for chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. One can chant anywhere, anytime, in any situation. In fact, the Caitanya-caritamrta (Antya-lila, 20.18) describes that chanting the holy name at any time or place, even during sleep or while eating, brings one all perfection. However, there are different stages of chanting. The first stage of chanting is the offensive stage, the second stage is offenseless chanting, and then is the third or pure stage of chanting, which

Almost every living entity feels that there is something missing, something empty in their lives. Different people try to fill this emptiness in various ways. At the grossest level people try to fill their stomachs with varieties of foods and try to get rid of the emptiness within them. Others try to fill their houses with various gadgets and luxuries hoping that that will get rid of their inner emptiness. Still others try to fill their bank account with big, big figures with the same hope. At t

To truly let go of our resentment, it is important to understand the actual phenomenon taking place. The fact is, we are not these bodies; we are the soul. These bodies are temporary vehicles. We are the source of consciousness that animates the body and witnesses what happens to it. However, when we identify as this body, any physical or verbal harm directed towards it disturbs us.

Bhagavad Gita explains that the soul can’t be burned by fire, can’t be drowned by water and can’t be disturbed by w

Our mind is restless and fickle in nature. It is turbulent in its actions and tenacious in its selections. It is extremely difficult to control because it is strongly bound to desire for habituated sense gratification. It is also powerful and hard to withdraw once it is out in pursuit of desired sense objects. Trying to control the mind is like trying to control the wind. It is like trying to confine a violently blowing cyclone in a pot because our mind is the set of cognitive faculties that ena

At the supermarket, I bumped into a school friend after eons. My happiness knew no bounds when our eyes met and nostalgia overtook us, as we reminisced the good old childhood days. I invited her home for dinner. However, when she shared her unnerving experience on ‘love’ it left my flustered. She recounted, “I met him online. When we finally met in person a few months later, I fell in love with him. We dated for nine months. He was my first love. I thought things were going quite well, when he a

The other day while I was on my way to town, a speeding vehicle abraded past our car, partially damaging the right side rear view mirror. My chauffeur got infuriated and agitated. He started following the motorbike in a bid to confront the rash driver and hand him over to the police so that he could be punished for his offence. I requested him to calm down and forgive him. I reasoned that - possibly he was racing to the hospital; possibly he was late to an interview for a job that he really need

Amidst the joyous celebrations of my childhood buddy’s pre-nuptial ceremony, overheard a conversation between two senior ladies in their seventies, apparently from the upper-class society. The noblewoman was discussing the perplexities weighing her down. The elderly lady was frustrated due to the late-possession of a newly constructed 4 BHK apartment gifted to her by recently deceased husband. From their talks it was evident that she has initiated and is entangled in a nasty legal battle, since