What religion has taught me in life.

I have told you about my trip to India, today I want to share what I learned on that trip. Earlier today I was talking to an old friend about why I had gone to India for two months. My response to her was "because India was the capital of my religion Hinduism." We had a pleasant conversation about spirituality, life and moving forward, the way we always had over the years. In the end when I thanked her for not forgetting about me, she said something very comforting to me "the important thing was not let a relationship ever die." I'm a thinker. This got me thinking. Why was India even better than just being Hinduism's biggest capital? India taught me something not just about Hinduism, but something much more important. It reminded me why religion was important to me in the first place.

This journey taught me lots of things. It made me believe in good again. Not through any acts of my own. Through the acts and generosity of others. Say what you will about India, but the truth is you will meet atleast one person on that trip that you would trust everything with. Because whatever you did, whatever you saw, there was always at least one place you saw positivity, in all the great and not so great situations - The Human Spirit was alive and well. People move forward in India regardless of their situation. They keep their religion, their families/friends, their spirit. While there regardless of where I went, I got to experiences festivals like Durga Puja in Bengal, or spend Eid in Jammu Kashmir or visit the some pretty holy places, within India such as Murudeshwara, The Golden Temple, The Basilica Of BomJesus, Spituk Gompa, Anjana Parvath, or Maitreya Statue built in 1 B.C. It wasn't that my trip was designed to visit those places. I was just in India backing packing and going to places that I or the group wanted. And on my journey I would just came about these places as waypoints of religion. Main reason is that the people of India are very, very religious. It actually  reminds me of my childhood, where religion was a part of everyday life . In all situations I saw I people moving forward with family and friends and making the most of what they had. I was a tourist and there was no getting around that. But I talked to the locals and enjoyed some very interesting things along the way, some a little flat our weird. But by interacting with all of those people I learned why they were so religious. All these people were from many different religions. But the fact of the matter is they all prayed to God and the words of God. The word of God - regardless of how it gets to you always has something profounding and uplifting to say to you. That's the power in the words of God.

What was the reason that I followed religion? The answer is simple: when life got tough, something that would inspire me to just move forward one step more were God's words. Didn't matter who said them or how they got there the important thing was they were words of God, and that was the positivity I needed. When all faith was lost, the positivity that I needed came from religion. Here's the funny thing, I grew in the United States of America, and I didn't just get my words from God through Hinduism alone, I got them from my friends, neighbors and business collegues for different faiths. What religion has taught me in life, what religion has always meant to me in life is positivity.

In my mind we spend so much time bickering about the details of religion, or whether other religious are right/wrong,  that we forget the simple message that each one trys to teach, Be Good and Think Positive. Good things and good people will gravitate towards you on their own. I had another wonderful conversation on Monday night where someone told me that by connecting with people that have positive thoughts you are able to send out more positivity in the world. So the next time you start thinking negatively about something ask yourself one question, "Has [insert name of your personal religion here] always taught me be a good human being, do good and think about things from a positive point of view?

DoGOOD in this world. Smile more often. And just respect every person you meet. Oh India you and I will meet again some day soon. . . .

Love all and let the light within shine bright.
@digitalhindu
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Meditation

Lets look at this from a scientific point of view first.  We have 5 senses, they are receptors that carry a signal to our brain where that signal is then translated and understood by us. That's why two people can experience the same event - but we can remember them completely differently. Our brain is what helps us understand the reality in front of us.

Now there is a spirtual context that we NEED to remember. According to many eastern religions this is an age, Kalyug in Hinduism, when the soul of mankind will be lost. We are born into this age to find the divinity, the true power of our soul. All of us are special, we all have the capacity to be great because at the end of the day we are all the same. We all have souls and each soul is interlinked to that master soul - call him God, call her Nature, call it whatever you want. The main reason in this age our souls are lost is because of the Maya or distractions that are put in front of us - money, material desires, sexual fantasies and each one of these takes away from fulfilling the Karm(a) that each of us is supposed to fulfill. The Bhagvad Gita - the greatest conversation known to mankind was God talking to one of his disciples about how mankind will survive and thrive in Kalyug. In one of its chapters Lord Krishna talks about how to meditate and the importance of it. To make everyone's life easier I have linked you to a video found on YouTube just in case you dont have access to the Gita.

Each person's expirence is different with meditation but here's what I know: 
1) You get better at it with time - there are lot of thoughts that cross your mind every second, a majority of them are sub-conscience. Try to meditate for 5 minutes in the real beginning. Over the course of practicing and doing this on a consistent basis you will notice that you will start losing track of time.
2) As you meditate thoughts will come into your mind, dont focus on them just let them go crazy without giving it any attention, this is the Maya of Kalyug - this is what makes your soul lost.
3)You will know you are at peace, trust me - during my earlier days of meditation I would freak out because i would realize that I stopped breathing and come out of my meditation earlier than I should have. Dont worry! As you meditate you will slow your heart rate and the feeling of not breathing is your body is relaxed and at peace therefore not needing as much oxygen as it does when its moving. Look at it this way Meditation is the opposite of running, literally.
4) Focus on the tip of your nose. Meditation lets you sense/see with your 3rd eye, know to many of you as your Sixth Sense. Its there trust me. By focusing on the tip of your nose you are aligned to that third eye and eventually once you find your 3rd eye will not need to focus on the tip of your nose.
5) When all of the noise(thoughts) are gone and only one thought remains just listen. You will get the answers you are looking for because honestly from where I stand - that's god talking to me. Telling me how to move forward. I started writing this blog because of that one thought.


I hope you all find this useful and if you do please join us on Facebook as well as tell your friends. My goal is simple with this blog and everything that I do,  I look to DoGOOD and help pass along information to make this world a better place. There is so much good in this world but evil has overshadowed it with its greed and deceit. So if you are with me then stand - and show for once and for all that power of Good will always be stronger than the power of evil.

LOVE. PEACE. HAPPINESS. FOR ALL.

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2012 - And Lord Krishna's Connection

What a better way to start this off than talk about a topic that is probably on everyone's mind. 2012. December 21st, 2012 to be exact. A day that a hollywood movie portrayed as the end of mankind, to a large extent. Not going to lie it takes stupid things like movies to freak me out. Like most people when we freak out we look for answers. For my fellow Generation Y'ers we usually start with Google. But sometimes there is too much there to really get what you want. But the reality is when we think of mortality, death and catastrophe, like most people in my generation we turn to the religion that we know. For me its Hinduism - and when thinking of 2012 I really wanted to know what the oldest religion in the world had to say about it. The more I searched the more positive things looked like. Seems like the oldest religion in the world has a much more positive look on 2012 than most of the western world.

One thing that I did realize while searching was that my generation for most part is not well intuned with Sanskrit or even reading Hindi. We are a generation that knows who we are and where we come from, but in times when we need answers we are tied down to whatever search links lead us to. For me that's a problem. Hinduism is based on the concept of love, peace, and prosperity for all. There is a lot we can learn from it and as the saying goes knowledge is power. So from here on out I will sit and write. Anything I can find, any thing that I can comment on, anyway that myself and any of the contributers of this blog can spread the word, we will. In the coming weeks I plan on creating content for this blog, it will be a work in progress but we are going to give it a shot. I would love for this to be a resource for anyone in my generation that needs more answers.

So to start this blog as all things start in hinduism with three words Om Namah Shivaya. I say it, you probably say it but do we really know what it means? We'll here you go:

An explanation that sounded good to me from: http://healthywealthyandreallysmart.blogspot.com

The six syllables of the full chant refer to the first six chakras that run from the root of the spine to the ajna chakra (3rd eye.)

While there is no direct translation it can mean "I bow to God" and repetition should be done with full awareness of its meaning, rather than simply repeating it for repetition's sake.
Om refers to the universal Energy, or sound of God
Nama, as two syllables, na ma, can mean "I bow before you."

The trinity of syllables of Shi va ya refers to Shiva, or God and asks that all God's energies be directed to you to bless you and lead you to the highest state of peace and meditation, which we refer to as Bliss.

Shiva is also the image of God which is said to bring to a close the trinity cycle of Creation, Destruction, and Rebirth.
Some people think of the mantra and God as the destroyer of our illusion (maya) and ignorance that stands in the way of perfect union and enlightenment.

Oh by the way - there is a significat connection between 2012, the Mayan calendar, Hinduism and Lord Krishna.