Rajiv Malhotra explains why most Westerners/leftists are more comfortable with Buddhism rather than Hinduism. Rajiv Malhotra addressed the gathering at Indian Institute of Science on his latest book the Battle for Consciousness theory and also reflected upon his journey in the field of philosophy and science. In an engaging question-and-answer session, Rajiv Malhotra answered some curious and intriguing questions put forth by the audience.
Rajiv Malhotra was trained initially as a Physicist, and then as a Computer Scientist specializing in Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s. After a successful corporate career in the US, he became an entrepreneur and founded several IT companies in over 20 countries.
Rajiv Malhotra website
He exited all for-profit activities in the early 1990s and founded a non-profit – Infinity Foundation (in Princeton, USA), through which he has , on a full-time basis, been researching civilizations from a historical, social sciences and mind sciences perspectiv.
Sistla Janaki (born 23 April 1938) is an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer from Andhra Pradesh. She is widely referred to as "Janaki Amma" and "Nightingale of South India". She is one of the best-known playback singers in India. She has recorded over 48,000 songs in films, albums, TV and Radio which includes solos, duets, chorus and title tracks in 17 languages including Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Sanskrit, Odia, Tulu, Urdu, Punjabi, Badaga, Bengali, Konkani and also in foreign languages such as English, Japanese, German and Sinhala; the highest number of songs in her career were in Kannada followed by Malayalam. Started in 1957 with the Tamil film Vidhiyin Vilayattu, her career has spanned over six decades. She is referred to as Gaana Kogile in Karnataka, Gaana Kokila in Telugu States and Isaikkuyil in Tamil Nadu.
Srisaila Mallikarjuna Suprabhatham Part II · S Janaki · M Ranga Rao · P B Sreenivas ·
About ten years ago an Australian man at Ramanasramam asked if I would meet with a group of Australian devotees and talk to them about Ramana Maharshi. I agreed, but when I turned up, I discovered that it was going to be a formal interview with him, with the Australian devotees as an audience.
Our dialogue covered a wide variety of topics. Because the interviewer, John David, seemed to have very little knowledge of Bhagavan’s life or teachings, much of the interview was spent correcting many of the wrong ideas he seemed to have. When I read the transcript later, I realised that, serendipitously, this format of going back to basics and correcting his erroneous beliefs had turned the interview into an ideal presentation of the life and teachings of Bhagavan for people who knew little or nothing about them. For years I had it posted on my old site as a recommended read for people who were new to Bhagavan.
When the interview was over, John David told me that he didn’t accept my explanations of Bhagavan’s teachings on the mind. He wanted me to debate them publicly with a western vedantic scholar he knew, but I refused. Instead, I expanded the edited transcript of our conversation by several pages in an attempt to convey a more detailed presentation of what Bhagavan’s teachings on the mind really were.
At Afforestt, we went open source in 2015 and released textual documentation for all our forests creation projects worldwide. However, soon we realised that not everything could be covered and communicated in text alone. So in 2020, we decided to run a Kickstarter campaign to create video documentation of the methodology in different languages. We are incredibly grateful for the wholehearted support we got from people across the globe. This is the first video tutorial out of the many we will be making and publishing in the future. We have explained the generic methodology of creating forests in these tutorial videos. We believe that if there is any evidence of a forest ecosystem having existed in a particular region, even before humans inhabited it, then we can recreate the same forest ecosystems using this methodology. We hope you like these videos and find them helpful in bringing back our lost forests.
Chapter 2
This video talks about forest surveys and reading the natural landscape. We record natural patterns found in nature and understand the structure of forests, terrain, vegetation types, microhabitats, guilds and species combinations. A forest survey helps us better understand the region and make sense of how they can be mimicked and recreated in the most authentic way while recreating these forests.
Forest survey is not a one-time process. It needs to be a continuous process by visiting the forest in different seasons and building and updating our database. For example, we did this forest survey in August to get a glimpse of how the forest appears during this season.
Chapter 3
This video talks in-depth about how to procure seedlings for our forest by developing seedlings, procuring them from authentic nurseries, or setting up a small nursery ourselves.
We made this video at the Edible Routes foundation Nursery based in Delhi and run by our friends Somil Daga and Fazal Rashid. For more details, visit www.edibleroutes.com.
The procurement of healthy seedlings of various species is vital to creating healthy forests. It is critical that the seeds we procure to grow seedlings are from different mother trees growing in old-growth forests. This will ensure genetic diversity in our forests while making them more resilient and biodiverse.
Chapter 4
This video talks in detail about how to have preliminary checks and to know if our site is ready for creating a forest or not. Before starting any execution and bringing our seedlings on-site, we must do a site readiness check. If followed correctly, execution and ground implementation becomes much smoother.
Astrology is a pseudoscience that claims to divine information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the movements and relative positions of celestial objects. Astrology has been dated to at least the 2nd millennium BCE, and has its roots in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications.
What is Jyotishya?
Jyotisha or Jyotishya is the traditional Hindu system of astrology, also known as Hindu astrology, Indian astrology and more recently Vedic astrology. The term Hindu astrology has been in use as the English equivalent of Jyotiṣa since the early 19th century, whereas Vedic astrology is a relatively recent term, entering common usage in the 1970s with self-help publications on Āyurveda or yoga.
Lakshmi or Sri Devi is the consort of Vishnu. She is the Goddess of wealth and prosperity. Wealth includes nobler values of life, power of mind and intellect, moral, and ethical qualities which constitutes the spiritual wealth. The eight forms of Lakshmi, called Ashta-Lakshmi are: Santhanalakshmi (wealth of progeny), Gajalakshmi (wealth of animals), Dhanalakshmi (wealth of gold and other material wealth), Dhaanyalakshmi (wealth of food grains), Veeralakshmi (wealth of valor), Vijayalaksmi (wealth of victories and success), Mahalakshmi (wealth of greatness) and Aadhilakshmi.
J Sai Deepak
Shri J Sai Deepak , an engineer turned litigator turned debating counsel who appears before the High Court of Delhi and the Supreme Court of India, has established himself as a specialist in intellectual property litigation, competition law, drug regulatory laws, indirect taxes, and technology law .
Annamalai Kuppusamy
Annamalai Kuppusamy, the Tamil Nadu state president of BJP is one of the sharpest young politicians in the country at present. An engineer who holds a master's degree in Business Administration from the Indian Institutes of Management, Annamalai enlisted himself in the police force in 2011. Not satisfied with what he had achieved after eight years in the Indian Police Service, he joined the BJP in 2020 and was named the state unit president a year later. In an engaging interview with Smita Prakash, Annamalai talks about Tamil Nadu politics, BJP’s inroads and the stature of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He explains the challenges and opportunities for BJP in Tamil Nadu and the way forward. He also slams the DMK and Chief Minister MK Stalin for creating a rift between Tamil Nadu and the rest of the country.
What was the culture of Indus Valley Civilization ? Was Shiva Rathri a known tradition in Indus Valley? Do we have a clue for Indus Valley script?
Maha Shivaratri is particularly important in the Shaivism tradition of Hinduism. Unlike most Hindu festivals which are celebrated during the day, Maha Shivaratri is celebrated at night. Furthermore, unlike most Hindu festivals which include expression of cultural revelry, the Maha Shivaratri is a solemn event notable for its introspective focus, fasting, meditation on Shiva, self study, social harmony and an all-night vigil at Shiva temples.
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, special pujas are held at Pancharamas - Amararamam of Amaravati, Somaramam of Bhimavaram, Draksharamam, Kumararama of Samarlakota and Ksheerarama of Palakollu. The days immediately after Shivaratri are celebrated as Brahmotsavaalu at Srisailam, one of 12 Jyotirlinga sites. Mahashivaratri utsavalu are held at the Rudreshwara Swamy's 1000 pillar temple in Warangal. Devotees throng for the special poojas at Srikalahasti, Mahanandi, Yaganti, Antarvedi, Kattamanchi, Pattiseema, Bhairavakona, Hanamkonda, Keesaragutta, Vemulawada, Panagal, Kolanupaka amongst others. Shivaratri yatras are held at Mallayya gutta near Kambhalapalle, Gundlakamma Kona near Railway Koduru, Penchalakona, Bhairavakona, Uma Maheswaram amongst others.
Rama Rao debuted at World Telugu Conference held in Hyderabad in 1975.
He became popular for his Telugu Version of Hanuman Chalisa. He also narrated Bala kanda,Ayodhya kanda and Sundara Kanda (some parts of the epic Ramayana) in form of Songs in Telugu. He gained fame for singing the devotional songs and was awarded the name of 'Sundara Dasu' in 1977.
He wrote Hanuman Chalisa and Sundarakandamu of Valmiki Ramayana in Telugu during 1972–74. He sang Sundarakanda in the form of Telugu songs.
Personal Life of M S Rama Rao
M.S.Rama Rao married Lakshmi Samrajyam in 1946 and had three children P.V.Sarojini Devi M.Babu Rao and M.Nageshwar Rao. He was inspired to write Hanuman chalisa because of his elder son Babu Rao who was a pilot in the Indian Air force whose whereabouts were not known for a long time during the Indo-Pak war in 1971, so he dedicated himself to lord Hanuman for his safe return and composed and sang the Hanuman chalisa in Telugu. His only lineage to carry his surname is capt Moparti Anil Rao (grandson) and then his son Moparti Aman Rao (great-grandson). All of them being three generations of pilots. M.S.Rama Rao's second grandson is taking forward his legacy by continuing to perform his songs.
