A New Website

Just created a new website to help students with maths and physics questions. Feel free to ask any questions here .

http://sites.google.com/site/mathplusphysics/Home

Gayatri Mantra

The Gayatri Mantra, considered to be the holiest verse of the Vedas, has been paraphrased in different ways. The original Sanskrit is in the shape of a Vedic mantra and forms a formula for daily devotion of all Brahmins in the land.

The mantra:

(oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ) oṃ tat savitur vareṇyaṃ bhargo devasya dhīmahi dhiyo yo naḥ prachodayāt

Interpretation of the mantra by Arya Samaj :

"O God, Thou art the giver of life, the remover of pain and sorrow, the bestower of happiness; O Creator of the Universe, may we receive Thy supreme sin-destroying light; may Thou guide our intellect in the right direction."

General Interpretation :

We meditate on the glory of the Creator;
Who has created the Universe;
Who is worthy of Worship;
Who is the embodiment of Knowledge and Light;
Who is the remover of all Sin and Ignorance;
May He enlighten our Intellect.

The short preamble is simply these four words:

	om
	bhûr
	bhuvas
	suvaha

Om:

As you may have noticed, the preamble begins with Om, the first line of the Gâyatrî Mantra begins with Om and the closing ends with Om.

Om is in everything and everything is in Om. Indeed, the mantric repetition of this one syllable, Om, is of immeasurable value. It is often said that Om is the greatest of all mantras.

For clarification, here are quotes from various Upanishads describing the nature of Om:

I will give you the Word all the scriptures glorify and which all spiritual disciplines express, to attain which aspirants lead of a life of sense-restrain and selflessness. It is Om. This symbol of Brahman is the highest. Realizing it, one finds complete fulfillment of all one's longings. It is of the greatest support to all seekers.

Katha Unpanishad (I, ii, 15-17)

Take the great bow of the sacred scriptures, place on it the arrow of devotion; then draw the bowstring of meditation, and aim at the target, the Lord of Love. Om is the bow, the soul is the arrow, and Brahman is called its target. Now draw the bowstring of meditation and hitting the target, be One with It.

Mundaka Upanishad (II, ii, 3-4)

--------------------

The beautiful rhythmic patterns, soothing ancient sounds and powerful intent make the Gâyatrî Mantra a magnificent part of daily spiritual practice.

The Gâyatrî Mantra combines the effects of mantric sound with the effects of a deep and profound prayer, resulting in a combination which is exceedingly potent.

As with all spiritual practices, this is a vehicle for intent. The stronger and greater the intent, the stronger and greater the results.

Spiritual progress does not succeed merely by means of intellectual reasoning or theoretical arguments, but rather by direct experience. If you would like a deeper understanding of the Gâyatrî Mantra, it is well and good that you should begin with an intellectual understanding of the words and the intent, but that is only a preliminary step leading to your own direct experience of That Which is beyond words.

Check out my new math/physics blogsite!

I'll be posting some questions I've solved in math and physics on this site :
http://mathplusphysics.blogspot.com

Do visit it :)

Another fine essay by me :)

Do not plagiarize !

My views on God and religion

 

 

The existence of a Higher Being, whom we commonly refer to as God, has always been a highly debated topic. On one hand are the religious people, firmly believing that God is watching over us from the heavens. On the other hand are the nonbelievers, skeptics and rationalists, persistently stating the absence of any concrete evidence to ascertain that God is real. This causes me to ponder upon what Friedrich Nietzsche once said – “Which is it, is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s?”

 

The purpose of religion is to serve as a spiritual medium through which man can aspire to attain nirvana, to unite with the Almighty. Unfortunately though, it has indirectly become a major cause for strife the world over. A large number of people tend to misinterpret the norms of their religion, for the worse. This leads to misunderstanding between people of various faiths and communities. If a religion decrees to its followers to worship and believe in only one God, they turn hostile towards other religions. All the terrorists out there were just like you and me before being brainwashed by certain anti-social individuals into believing that it was their duty to fight, and even slaughter, to appease their God. As Blaise Pascal once remarked – “Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions”. What they forget is that their religion also preaches non-violence. In fact, every religion condemns hatred and violence. We fight over our Gods but fail to realize that all of us just have different names for the same universal God.

 

God, to me, is an acronym for Generator Operator Destroyer. I believe God is essentially all the unbalanced energy of the universe – the energy difference between what we do and what we get. And this is why all our deeds, good or bad, come around back to us in a full circle through some form or the other. We learn in high school physics that if we perform positive work on a body, energy gets stored in it, and it loses energy if we do negative work on it. This is somewhat similar to our situation. Do a good turn and you can expect one in return. A simple act of kindness or humanity sows the seeds of goodwill, just like performing positive work on something causes it to gain energy. All the energy of the cosmos is conserved, and all the unbalanced energy between our actions and the consequences we immediately face is what constitutes God – the driving force of the universe. God is the creator, preserver and destroyer of everything in this universe.

 

The world would be so much better and peaceful if instead of fighting over our religions, we learned to live with brotherhood and global harmony. It hardly matters whether or not you believe in God or religion. You might be an extremely religious person or you might be an atheist but, in the end, what really matters is whether you have been a good human being.