In Indian classical music, a raga is the totality of a set pattern of notes acting as a template that provides a structure for improvisation. When improvising on a raga, the performer is free to change the pitch, volume, tone, timbre, tempo and number of notes but must always begin and end on the same note, as stipulated by the particular raga.
Although ragas are regarded as vehicles for spiritual meditation, they also recall, in an abstract and condensed form, epic stories and actual events from Indian history–e.g. the archetypal motif of arriving home after a lengthy war and finding that one’s lover has died.
Accordingly, many see the raga as a tool for transcendence; for others it is also sublimely emotional.
A religious and cultural movement based on the teachings of the Indian Guru Nanak (1469-1539 CE).
The teachings of the Muslim Kabir and the spread of mystical Sufism in Northern India laid the groundwork for this new religion, which originally hoped to synthesize Islam and Hinduism.
Sikhism currently emphasizes the oneness of God and unity of all faiths.
It is believed that a succession of 10 gurus (Nanak and his nine successors) has spread the word of the true guru–namely, God.
The 10 Sikh Gurus by Larry Miller
The last Sikh guru died in 1708.
The sacred scripture of the Sikhs is called The Adi Granth, itself often referred to as a “guru.”
Sikh culture is highly distinctive; most choose to wear a turban within and beyond the borders of their Punjab homeland.
As with other world religions, the noble ideals of Sikhism are at times undermined by extremists, as evidenced by clashes at the holiest site of sacred pilgrimage, the Golden Temple.
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Indian renaissance man born in Calcutta, W. Bengal.
Tagore is known throughout India and the world for his paintings, folk songs, verse, short stories, plays and novels.
In 1901 Tagore founded a unique open-air school at Santiniketan, West Bengal.
Sometimes referred to as the ‘asram’ at Santiniketan, Tagore’s school integrates Eastern and Western approaches to education and has flowered into Visva-Bharati university, offering a diverse curriculum in the arts, sciences and humanities while hosting international students from around the world.
The school is fully recognized by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission which funds exceptional foreign students, particularly for graduate studies at the M.A. and Ph.D. levels.
In 1913 Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In his Presentation Speech Harald Hjärne, Chairman of the Nobel Committee, said
Amra Kunja by Paul Ancheta (Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, W. Bengal, India)
Tagore’s Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), a collection of religious poems, was the one of his works that especially arrested the attention of the selecting critics.
Tagore’s worldly acclaim and societal impact didn’t stop there, however. Knighted in 1915, he shocked India and the British Empire by resigning his knighthood in 1919 in protest over the British colonial presence in India.
On the Web:
“This was a school project in which we had to do a biography of a major poet. I chose to make an interview video with my poet, Rabindranath Tagore. Both are acted by me. Btw, I got an A+. Inspired …”
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The ancient and contemporary belief that there is an intimate connection between numerical quantity and the workings of the universe.
Numerology has roots in India, China and Greece.
Hindu culture was the birthplace of the concept of zero. The base-10 number system we use today was invented by the Hindus and brought to the West by the Arabs, who further refined the decimal system.
The Mayans also used zero in a base-twenty numeral system.
The Chinese allocated numbers on a sacred board, the Lo Chou, and believed that even and odd numerals represented different objects and conditions (e.g. day and night, white and dark, hot and cold, fire and water, sun and earth).
The Greek philosopher Pythagoras advanced number theory to new heights, applying it to the study of ratios and geometry without precluding the idea of cosmic interrelations.
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Sanskrit blogging on the rise by Debashish Chakrabarty
Sanskrit (samskrta = cultured, perfected, in contrast to prakrta = uncultured, popular)
One school of thought believes that an early form of this ancient Hindu language originated with Aryan invaders and their Vedic hymns around 2,000 BCE.
Another view suggests that an early form of Sanskrit existed within the Indus valley.
Regardless of its disputed origins, the speakers of Sanskrit believed, as do many Hindus today, that the correct pronunciation of this language elevates individuals to higher levels of spiritual awareness.
In Hinduism the Vedas, Shastras, Puranas and Kavyas were composed in Sanskrit.
Although Pali is the primary language of Buddhist scripture, some Mahayana texts were composed in a hybrid Sanskrit.
Sanskrit has also found its way into Jain scripture. The earliest surviving character of its unique Devanagari (language of the gods) script is dated at 150 CE.
Not unlike Latin in the Catholic Church, Sanskrit remains sacred and prestigious among teachers and students throughout India and beyond.
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The community founded by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother (Mirra Alfassa) lying just outside of Pondicherry, India, which seems to be a curious hybrid of the old and the new.
Young Indian artists migrate there to pursue careers in film and video production, while international seekers use it as a retreat center for meditation and alternative community living.
Lonely Planet’s TV host Justine Shapiro visited Auroville and seemed to imply that it was a haven for foreigners seeking enlightenment while exploiting local laborers. Whether or not this is a fair assessment remains unclear.
On the Web:
“Scenes from the documentary Journey To The City of Dawn based in Auroville, India produced by Paul Kakert of edpvideo.com and Storytellers International. Visit the film’s website at www.cityofdawn.com.”
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Traditionally, the so-called ‘untouchables’ are the social outcastes in Hindu India.
Untouchables have been marginalized to the extent of not belonging even to the lowest of the four recognized castes (Sudras).
Still loathed by many as ritually impure, untouchables are considered outsiders and physical contact is often avoided by members of higher castes.
Mohatma Gandhi decried this state of affairs, calling the untouchables harijans (“the children of God”). Likewise many bhakti (i.e. devotional) saints, such as the Bauls of West Bengal, protest through song and openly affiliate with and embrace into their inner circle the so-called untouchables.
In contemporary India general attitudes are evolving toward a more enlightened, inclusive view but caste-based discrimination still exists, just as class-based discrimination is alive and unwell in most corners of the word.
The practice of untouchability was made illegal by the Constitution of India in 1950 and the former untouchables, being a mixed population, now call themselves Dalit.
» Brahmin, Caste System, Kshatriya, Sudra, Vaisna
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Hindu holy man – originally Narendranath Datta – who advocated worldly action to overcome the severe poverty of India.
He was the favored disciple of the Hindu saint Ramakrishna.
Vivekananda complained about the “emaciated” populace in India, a nation which he believed had become falsely proud and hypocritical.
As such, he downplayed parapsychology and siddhis (spiritual powers) in favor of what he regarded as practical development, emphasizing the basic building blocks of food, uncontaminated water and personal hygiene.
He founded the Ramakrishna Mission and was the first Hindu to be received by major audiences in the West.
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In traditional Hinduism this is the third asrama(Vedic stage of life) in which the male, having fulfilled his matrimonial dharma as a householder, generally retreats to the forest to study the deeper meaning of sacred texts and become adept at meditation.
A difficult path to follow, especially today, within the changing face of Hinduism its contemporary translation is more a psychosocial rather than geographical withdrawal–that is, the Hindu meditator, whether he be male or female, may withdraw into the deeper aspects of the psyche (and perhaps beyond) without necessarily leaving the household as in former times.
This shift is made evident in Pauline Kolenda’s ethnographic study conducted in Khalapur, where she notes:
Jivan Mal was a Gandhian. Like Gandhi, he tried to live his life according to the four ashramas, and when we knew him, he was in the third ashrama; he was a vanaprashta one who had retired from ordinary life to devote himself to religion. He explained that he and his wife were “like brother and sister”; he had given up sexual activity. Consistent with his religiosity and his Gandhianism was his strict vegetarian diet, but inconsistent with his Gandhianism was his inability to consort with untouchables, to be near them or to take food or drink from them or with them.
Source » Pauline Kolenda, “Micro-Ideology and Micro-Utopia in Khalapur: Changes in the Discourse on Caste over Thirty Years,” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 24, No. 32 (Aug. 12, 1989: 1831-1838), pp. 1833-1834.
Of course, one may rightly ask how such unsavory snobbishness could be taken as sign of positive spirituality and in keeping with God’s will.
» Asrama, Dharma, Hinduism
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One of the former Hindu castes, characterized by merchants and businessmen.
Members of the Vaisya caste are traditionally associated with karma-yoga, the yoga of action, although it should be noted that in contemporary India a businessperson does not necessarily attach religious significance to his or her work.
The Vaisya caste was generally ranked as the third of four, along with a 5th unofficial group of “outcastes.”
By way of contrast, the merchant class in medieval Japan under the powerful Tokugawa military rulers (1600-1867) was regarded as the lowest class, not the second-lowest or, depending on how one looks at it, third-lowest.
The whole notion of caste was deplored by Gandhi in the 1930s and criminalized in India during the 1950s. Its power over the minds of people has diminished although some arguably backward families still look to ‘appropriate’ caste marriages.
Old Indian Castes by rank
Brahman caste (priests, thinkers)
Kshatriya caste (rajas, warriors, persons of action)
Vaisna caste (merchants)
Sudra (menial laborers, servants)
Unofficial group of Outcastes.
» Yoga, Karma-yoga
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