Love and relationships never run smooth, regardless of how you might think they do for some people. Everyone in their relationship at some time has challenges and the love gets put into question. It's then people need to seek out advice and help in their relationships to re-discover new ways to keep their relationship alive, or perhaps simply recreate that spark that may have become absent from what was once a loving relationship.
Don't worry; there is plenty of relationship advice available and there are many different approaches one can take to improving his or her relationship. However, sometimes it is difficult to identify what's required to be fixed on your own. That said, don't think all advice is 'good advice' - advice is very personal and subjective; what works for some folks does not necessarily work for others. A key factor to consider when seeking advice is be guided by what others' opinion is of the person giving the advice. Always try to 'take advice' from someone who has been recommended by someone you trust and respect - even better if it's from someone who too has had to seek help in solving their relationship problems.
Here are some quick ideas from us about what we've learned about relationships:
Idea #1: If an argument occurs, avoid negative statements such as, "You never.." or "You always...". These type of statements are unfair and will get you nowhere with your partner. You should think of positive ways to voice your concerns, and use "I" statements.
Idea #2: Never forget a successful relationship takes the effort of both partners. Relationships are always a work in progress.
Idea #3: One really satisfying trick is to write down all the wonderful things that you love about your partner. Then, pull it out and read it when you are having a difficult time. Reading about the positives will help motivate you to put more effort into your working positively on the relationship.
Idea #4: Whether you use text messaging or email, learn! Taking a little time to send a text message or an email to your partner that simply says, "I love you" can be highly impacting in a good way - it's the smallest gesture that can often mean the most.
Idea #5: Pick your moment wisely to talk through serious issues with your partner. Things will go much more smoothly if your partner is not irritated, tired or generally low.
Also, look around your family and friends and see if there's any couples you know in a successful relationship or marriage, who may be able to offer you advice on relationships. Yes, you might hear similar advice as we're offering here but that will just reaffirm the importance of these little ideas. Obviously you will need to decide which pieces of advice you think will work for you and your partner, and then apply them.
And remember that if your partner respects and loves you, and seriously is committed to overcoming any and all hurdles in your relationship, he or she will likely follow your lead and begin to be more positive, loving and communicative. It's then it becomes a win-win situation for both parties.
David Liong is an accomplished Marriage Celebrant, who provides wedding service to help you get married with peace of mind on your special wedding day. Want to learn more about this
Showing newest 18 of 34 posts from March 2009. Show older posts
Showing newest 18 of 34 posts from March 2009. Show older posts
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Celtic Wedding Bands: Knowing More About Them
The wedding bands are among the most important things that any couple needs to look into once they decide to get married. However, shopping for these wedding bands is not a simple feat because there is now a great deal of types and designs that deciding on which one to buy could be such a chore.
If you are having a hard rime choosing your wedding rings, then you must know first what you want in a wedding ring. If you want a wedding band that comes with a long tradition and history, then why don't you go for Celtic wedding bands? These gold or silver Celtic wedding bands are not only among the most beautiful wedding rings that you can find, they also hold a great deal of meaning that you might find significant for your marriage.
The Styles of Celtic Wedding Bands
Celtic wedding bands are available in a number of styles and each of these has its particular meaning, tradition, and history. These styles are the Claddagh and the Celtic Knot, which comprises the Trinity and the Triskele Knots.
- The Claddagh. Claddagh wedding bands are among the most well-known Celtic wedding bands. These rings, which have a crowned heart held by two joined hands, are known for symbolizing friendship, loyalty, and love. It is named after Claddagh, which is a fishing village in Ireland. The legend of the Claddagh ring goes back to the seventeenth century. Its creation was said to have started with Richard Joyce, who was a fisherman that got separated from his love when he was captured by pirates and sold as a slave. Joyce, who was under the training of a goldsmith during his slavery, was able to make a ring that he gave to his love when he was released. They were married thereafter and Joyce made a shop where he made rings that he engraved with his initials.
- The Celtic Knot. The Celtic knot is quite well known when it comes to Celtic wedding bands because it is a very famous symbol that can be seen in old Celtic artworks. The knotwork that can be seen in most of these artworks and on the rings are said to represent everlasting life because it shows a cycle that has no beginning and no end.
- The Trinity Knot. There are also a number of representations to the Celtic knot that is commonly used in Celtic wedding bands. One of these is the Trinity Knot, which has three points that have a triangular interconnection. There is both Celtic and Christian symbolism to this knotwork. For the Celts, it represents the Triple Gods and Goddesses of their ancestors, while for the Christians, it stands for the Holy Trinity. Also known as the Love Knot, the Trinity Knot in Celtic wedding bands are said to symbolize eternal life, everlasting love, and spiritual growth.
- The Triskele. Another pattern commonly used in Celtic wedding bands is the Triskele, which is made up of three spirals that are interlocked with each other. There are a number of symbolizations for this pattern and these include reincarnation, fertility, the phases of the moon, and the three existential domains, which are creation, preservation, and destruction. Also representing love that never ends, the Triskele in silver or gold Celtic wedding bands can also have the initials of a couple on either side. If the initials are done on a Triskele ring, it is said to symbolize eternity and commitment.
So if you want to own one of these Celtic wedding bands, you must make it a point to visit Irish Indeed! Here, you will be able to choose from a number of beautifully designed Celtic wedding rings that would match your preferences and your budget.
If you are having a hard rime choosing your wedding rings, then you must know first what you want in a wedding ring. If you want a wedding band that comes with a long tradition and history, then why don't you go for Celtic wedding bands? These gold or silver Celtic wedding bands are not only among the most beautiful wedding rings that you can find, they also hold a great deal of meaning that you might find significant for your marriage.
The Styles of Celtic Wedding Bands
Celtic wedding bands are available in a number of styles and each of these has its particular meaning, tradition, and history. These styles are the Claddagh and the Celtic Knot, which comprises the Trinity and the Triskele Knots.
- The Claddagh. Claddagh wedding bands are among the most well-known Celtic wedding bands. These rings, which have a crowned heart held by two joined hands, are known for symbolizing friendship, loyalty, and love. It is named after Claddagh, which is a fishing village in Ireland. The legend of the Claddagh ring goes back to the seventeenth century. Its creation was said to have started with Richard Joyce, who was a fisherman that got separated from his love when he was captured by pirates and sold as a slave. Joyce, who was under the training of a goldsmith during his slavery, was able to make a ring that he gave to his love when he was released. They were married thereafter and Joyce made a shop where he made rings that he engraved with his initials.
- The Celtic Knot. The Celtic knot is quite well known when it comes to Celtic wedding bands because it is a very famous symbol that can be seen in old Celtic artworks. The knotwork that can be seen in most of these artworks and on the rings are said to represent everlasting life because it shows a cycle that has no beginning and no end.
- The Trinity Knot. There are also a number of representations to the Celtic knot that is commonly used in Celtic wedding bands. One of these is the Trinity Knot, which has three points that have a triangular interconnection. There is both Celtic and Christian symbolism to this knotwork. For the Celts, it represents the Triple Gods and Goddesses of their ancestors, while for the Christians, it stands for the Holy Trinity. Also known as the Love Knot, the Trinity Knot in Celtic wedding bands are said to symbolize eternal life, everlasting love, and spiritual growth.
- The Triskele. Another pattern commonly used in Celtic wedding bands is the Triskele, which is made up of three spirals that are interlocked with each other. There are a number of symbolizations for this pattern and these include reincarnation, fertility, the phases of the moon, and the three existential domains, which are creation, preservation, and destruction. Also representing love that never ends, the Triskele in silver or gold Celtic wedding bands can also have the initials of a couple on either side. If the initials are done on a Triskele ring, it is said to symbolize eternity and commitment.
So if you want to own one of these Celtic wedding bands, you must make it a point to visit Irish Indeed! Here, you will be able to choose from a number of beautifully designed Celtic wedding rings that would match your preferences and your budget.
Empire Style Wedding Dresses
Elizabeth Bennet, in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, eventually married her Mr Darcy in an empire style dress, and he certainly fell in love with her when she was wearing one. It was the favoured style of the regency period. It stands up today because it still has a fresh and contemporary feel to it. Empire dresses create a slim line and they boost the bust. No wonder it was so popular. No wonder it continues to be so so many years later.
For the Elizabeth Bennet of today, the Empire line wedding dress is ideal.
But does it suit everyone, and is suitable for different climates or environments? Is it really such a good all rounder when it comes to a choice of style?
Whether you're getting married in the country or the city, New York Bridal Shops will have the ideal dress for you, even if you want something a little old fashioned.
A popular style of dress in the Regency period, Empire Style or Empire line wedding dresses are still favoured today. They are one of the world's miracles, as they fit and flatter pretty well every body type. And beautifully hid a multitude of sins!
The high waist of an Empire line wedding dress sits just below the bust; the flare of the skirt is subtle, with the fabric falling in a gentle line from underbust to floor.
Empire style dresses are romantic, and while they have a rather innocent look to them, they are also a flirtatious dress, boosting the bust line as they do. Think Elizabeth Bennet in the famous TV adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice – that's empire line for you. And if such a dress style is handsome enough to tempt the eligible Mr Darcy then no self-respecting groom of today will be able to resist his bride in an Empire line wedding gown.
In terms of seasonal wear the Empire line dress is suitable for all weathers. It can be made up in the lightest of muslins or the heaviest of velvets. It also lends itself to accompanying wraps so for weddings that take place in uncertain weather, it's perfect and the bride can keep her shoulders warm with an attractive accessory.
When you're shopping for the perfect empire line dress in New York, you won't lack choice. This style of dress, and adaptations of it, has been around for years. So if you're looking to shop in the city, New York Bridal Shops will be able to help you find that perfect romantic Empire line dress New York City Bridal Shops.
.articlesbase .com/marriage-articles/empire-style-wedding-dresses-834962.html
For the Elizabeth Bennet of today, the Empire line wedding dress is ideal.
But does it suit everyone, and is suitable for different climates or environments? Is it really such a good all rounder when it comes to a choice of style?
Whether you're getting married in the country or the city, New York Bridal Shops will have the ideal dress for you, even if you want something a little old fashioned.
A popular style of dress in the Regency period, Empire Style or Empire line wedding dresses are still favoured today. They are one of the world's miracles, as they fit and flatter pretty well every body type. And beautifully hid a multitude of sins!
The high waist of an Empire line wedding dress sits just below the bust; the flare of the skirt is subtle, with the fabric falling in a gentle line from underbust to floor.
Empire style dresses are romantic, and while they have a rather innocent look to them, they are also a flirtatious dress, boosting the bust line as they do. Think Elizabeth Bennet in the famous TV adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice – that's empire line for you. And if such a dress style is handsome enough to tempt the eligible Mr Darcy then no self-respecting groom of today will be able to resist his bride in an Empire line wedding gown.
In terms of seasonal wear the Empire line dress is suitable for all weathers. It can be made up in the lightest of muslins or the heaviest of velvets. It also lends itself to accompanying wraps so for weddings that take place in uncertain weather, it's perfect and the bride can keep her shoulders warm with an attractive accessory.
When you're shopping for the perfect empire line dress in New York, you won't lack choice. This style of dress, and adaptations of it, has been around for years. So if you're looking to shop in the city, New York Bridal Shops will be able to help you find that perfect romantic Empire line dress New York City Bridal Shops.
.articlesbase .com/marriage-articles/empire-style-wedding-dresses-834962.html
Ten “Can’t Miss” Wedding Gift Ideas
Today's wedding gifts can go far beyond the personalized key chains and his and her towels. Although customization is still popular, wedding gift ideas are no longer just for the bride. Here are ten "Can't Miss" wedding gift ideas.
Messenger bags are a hot wedding gift idea because they are practical, affordable, and highly customizable. In addition, messenger bags make great gifts for men and women. Therefore, wedding messenger bags make great gifts for the bridesmaids and/or groomsmen. The majority of wedding messenger bags can be customized with either a name, initials, or anything else usually up to a specific number of characters.
A similarly hot wedding gift idea is a tote bag. Tote bags are a practical and affordable gift idea for your bridal party. Wedding tote bags can be made of regular fabrics, mesh material, or organic material. You can choose colors to match those of your wedding, a bright colorful tote, or one that is a solid color. Tote bags make great gifts for brides, bridesmaids, and mothers of the bride.
Personalized T-shirts and tank tops have increased in popularity due to the ever-increasing number of funny sayings, quotes, and T-shirt styles. Like messenger bags, T-shirts and tank tops are excellent for both men and women. The ability for each person to create their own shirts, or shirt saying to be chosen by the bride and/or groom makes the popularity of personalized T-shirts and tank tops only increase each year.
However, there may always be new wedding gift ideas available. Sometimes, the best wedding gifts are simple variations or an improvement on a classic gift idea. Picture frames are a lasting trend when it comes to choosing a gift for a wedding. They are one of the hottest gift choices, because of the variety of picture frame styles that are available. Picture frames have always been a classic wedding gift idea, as they allow the receiver to capture that special day with a memory of their choosing. In addition, with the ability to personalize this gift, picture frames are a wedding gift idea that is here to stay. Picture frames are fun and festive and they can be wacky and creative or traditional and classy. They also make great gifts for anyone in the wedding party.
Possibly as homage to weddings in the past, an old wedding gift has recently reemerged as a true cannot miss wedding gift idea. The flask has made a strong comeback. Today's wedding flasks come in the classic and more vibrant colors. There are also smaller women's flasks that can be personalized.
Another popular gift idea, is wedding baseball caps. The wedding ball caps are a huge hit with younger wedding parties. These caps come in male and female variations and are customizable. The ball caps are practical, affordable, and fun.
Wedding figurines are quickly becoming one of the hotter trends in wedding gift ideas, and make great gift for the bride, groom, and their parents. The figurines are usually very affordable and similar to the picture frames convey the special significance of the occasion. The figurines are very popular among traditional wedding parties.
Compact mirrors and cosmetic bags are a trendy wedding gift idea among brides and bridesmaids. These trendy but practical gifts are popular, because they can be as classic or creative as you would like. Their affordability makes it easy to give to any woman in your wedding party. The compact mirrors and cosmetic bags are also a great way to stay prepared, in case someone needs a quick retouch right before the ceremony, which could be the link to their popularity.
Just as there are some gift ideas that are geared toward the women, this next "can't miss" wedding gift idea is predominately for the groomsmen. Cufflinks have become a big hit among men in wedding parties. The cufflinks are seen as a one of your classier gift ideas, with their cool traditional colors and designs.
In addition, no wedding gift idealist would be complete without jewelry. Nice earrings, pendants, and broaches may always be popular wedding gifts. Similar to picture frames, this is a classic gift that may never go out of style. Instead, the variations and selections should only continue to grow over the years.
If you have noticed anything among this year's trends in wedding gift ideas, it should be the theme of practicality, affordability, and customization. There is also a greater push to make more wedding gifts for men. Your wedding gifts are used to evoke powerful memories from your wedding, so regardless of whether you lean towards classic or creative, it should definitely be special. These are many excellent gifts to consider for both the bridesmaids and the groomsmen. If you are unsure of which gift to purchase, you can never go wrong with an attractive picture frame or baseball cap.
Jennifer Bailey is a freelance writer who writes about specific aspects of a wedding, such as bridal party gifts.
Messenger bags are a hot wedding gift idea because they are practical, affordable, and highly customizable. In addition, messenger bags make great gifts for men and women. Therefore, wedding messenger bags make great gifts for the bridesmaids and/or groomsmen. The majority of wedding messenger bags can be customized with either a name, initials, or anything else usually up to a specific number of characters.
A similarly hot wedding gift idea is a tote bag. Tote bags are a practical and affordable gift idea for your bridal party. Wedding tote bags can be made of regular fabrics, mesh material, or organic material. You can choose colors to match those of your wedding, a bright colorful tote, or one that is a solid color. Tote bags make great gifts for brides, bridesmaids, and mothers of the bride.
Personalized T-shirts and tank tops have increased in popularity due to the ever-increasing number of funny sayings, quotes, and T-shirt styles. Like messenger bags, T-shirts and tank tops are excellent for both men and women. The ability for each person to create their own shirts, or shirt saying to be chosen by the bride and/or groom makes the popularity of personalized T-shirts and tank tops only increase each year.
However, there may always be new wedding gift ideas available. Sometimes, the best wedding gifts are simple variations or an improvement on a classic gift idea. Picture frames are a lasting trend when it comes to choosing a gift for a wedding. They are one of the hottest gift choices, because of the variety of picture frame styles that are available. Picture frames have always been a classic wedding gift idea, as they allow the receiver to capture that special day with a memory of their choosing. In addition, with the ability to personalize this gift, picture frames are a wedding gift idea that is here to stay. Picture frames are fun and festive and they can be wacky and creative or traditional and classy. They also make great gifts for anyone in the wedding party.
Possibly as homage to weddings in the past, an old wedding gift has recently reemerged as a true cannot miss wedding gift idea. The flask has made a strong comeback. Today's wedding flasks come in the classic and more vibrant colors. There are also smaller women's flasks that can be personalized.
Another popular gift idea, is wedding baseball caps. The wedding ball caps are a huge hit with younger wedding parties. These caps come in male and female variations and are customizable. The ball caps are practical, affordable, and fun.
Wedding figurines are quickly becoming one of the hotter trends in wedding gift ideas, and make great gift for the bride, groom, and their parents. The figurines are usually very affordable and similar to the picture frames convey the special significance of the occasion. The figurines are very popular among traditional wedding parties.
Compact mirrors and cosmetic bags are a trendy wedding gift idea among brides and bridesmaids. These trendy but practical gifts are popular, because they can be as classic or creative as you would like. Their affordability makes it easy to give to any woman in your wedding party. The compact mirrors and cosmetic bags are also a great way to stay prepared, in case someone needs a quick retouch right before the ceremony, which could be the link to their popularity.
Just as there are some gift ideas that are geared toward the women, this next "can't miss" wedding gift idea is predominately for the groomsmen. Cufflinks have become a big hit among men in wedding parties. The cufflinks are seen as a one of your classier gift ideas, with their cool traditional colors and designs.
In addition, no wedding gift idealist would be complete without jewelry. Nice earrings, pendants, and broaches may always be popular wedding gifts. Similar to picture frames, this is a classic gift that may never go out of style. Instead, the variations and selections should only continue to grow over the years.
If you have noticed anything among this year's trends in wedding gift ideas, it should be the theme of practicality, affordability, and customization. There is also a greater push to make more wedding gifts for men. Your wedding gifts are used to evoke powerful memories from your wedding, so regardless of whether you lean towards classic or creative, it should definitely be special. These are many excellent gifts to consider for both the bridesmaids and the groomsmen. If you are unsure of which gift to purchase, you can never go wrong with an attractive picture frame or baseball cap.
Jennifer Bailey is a freelance writer who writes about specific aspects of a wedding, such as bridal party gifts.
Free Effective Marriage Counseling Advice Online
In reality, marriage is one of the most difficult tasks to handle. Problems and quirks are normal things to encounter in marriage. However, couples still choose to stay in the bond of marriage so save the holy matrimony. But some couple are not able to handle things well, so they definitely have to seek help from the authorities. Who are these authorities?
One way to seek help is to ask advice from marriage counselors. They are considered the doctors in terms of marriage problems. As you know, marriage is very important especially when there are kids in the family. So it is important to hold on to the relationship.
One among though things to handle is marriage. If a problem arises between the couple, at least one should be concern about how to solve it. One should seek the solution and one among the most effective solution is to seek for advices from the marriage counselors.
It is good for someone in the relationship to be educated about how marriages are handled. One way to educate self is by attending the sessions about marriages. You can also open up you problems so the counselors will give you advices on how you can handle your marriage problem well. You should only listen carefully so you would know how to deal with it correctly.
Marriage counseling is a form of confrontation where in the topic is all about marriage. it is normal for couple to experience difficulties in marriages, this is why counselors are willing to help them with their concerns. Counselors can be a good help to these couples by listening to their problems and giving out advices in which the couple should follow in order to maintain a good and harmonious relationship.
You should also take into consideration the credentials and qualifications of the marriage counselors that you are going to relay your problems on. Of course, to convey trust you must know the background of your counselors. From this you will know that the counselor you will be handing over your problems are professional and will sure help you with your marriage problems.
You can also look for counselors that give free marriages advices. There are many marriage counselors online can help you with your concern but will not ask anything from you.
The online marriage counselors will also discuss to you the different traditional arguments about marriage. if you cannot afford to pay for a therapist, you can use online marriage counseling to solve your problems with marriage. the only problem with this is the lack of live activities.
Online marriage counseling is very new in the net, so regulation should be established first. However, it can be a great help for those who want to seek for help but do not have much budget to spend. Everyone with marriage problems can log on to the particular site and seek help.
Counseling is one of the effective ways to save marriages. Free online marriage counseling is made available for you so you do not have to worry about paying dollars on therapist just to help you seek solutions to your marriage problem. The important thing is the self involvement. You should have faith and be patience to live a happy married life.
Meaningful Presents You Can Give As Groomsmen Gifts
Gifts are means of displaying our affection and appreciation to our loved ones and friends. Choosing the right gifts to someone is not as easy as buying groceries for your household needs. You have to be specific and selective in picking the best gifts that you can give. But selecting great groomsmen gifts won't be that difficult, ideal gifts for this type of occasions should be consequential but uncomplicated and simple.
Preparing for a wedding is so complicated and hectic; there are conflicts, complications and bumps along the way when you are heading for a matrimonial ceremony. It would only occurred once in a lifetime for some couples (others have been married from time and time again due to divorce) and they would make it a perfect and flawless ceremony. For some it is most important day of their lives that's why they invest so much effort in making it as unblemished as it can be. Make your ideal wedding as perfect as it can be, pick the best wedding gifts that you can give to your endearing guest.
You can pick many great groomsmen presents for your wedding, select the best and right one for your guest. Show your acknowledgement to them, for everything that they have done for you. Express your foremost gratitude to your beloved guest. Treat them like royalty during your wedding day; let them have fun and enjoy their gifts during the ceremony.
There are various types of gifts you can chose from that you can give to them, there are unique and personalize gifts that you can give them. Some would even engrave their messages or names to their groomsmen gifts to make it memorable and special to their guest. Great groomsmen presents can vary from cufflinks, glassware, bar accessories, flasks, pocket knives and even sports equipments. Always remember to choose the best fit of gifts to your distinguished gentlemen. Don't pick up a certain set of gifts just for the sake of having gifts for your wedding, take time to think and asses what could be the best set of gifts you can have on your reception.
It would be better to engrave your gifts to them. I've attended several wedding in my young life and wedding gifts would be more meaningful if you display your sincere and wonderful way of saying thank you. I've been a groomsman before and I've received several great groomsmen presents and I always keep them in a safe storage to remind me of how I was vital to the lives of a few married couples. Most of the gifts that I've received were engraved gifts like an engraved high polish pocket watch, some were personalized and others were simple but very essential in your daily life. A plated business card case would be a classic example of simple and essential gift, I've received this type of gift once and it is very fitting to a businessman like me.
Finding unique set of presents would even be better. Gifts that are uncommon could give a good vibe in your wedding reception. One of childhood buddies got married a couple of years ago and we are a diehard sports fans and an avid collectors of sports memorabilia, and guess what he and his wife gave us. What he gave us was one of the most unique great groomsmen presents that I've received. He gave us a flask with our favorite baseball team, it was an excellent gift set since most of his groomsmen were sports fanatics.
Always think before buying a gift set for your groomsmen make everything perfect in your wedding including your presents
Jerry is an expert in the field. For engravedgiftcreations .com/giftsunder25.html'>groomsmen gift ideas and or more details on engravedgiftcreations .com'>groomsmen gift Please visit: engravedgiftcreations .com
Preparing for a wedding is so complicated and hectic; there are conflicts, complications and bumps along the way when you are heading for a matrimonial ceremony. It would only occurred once in a lifetime for some couples (others have been married from time and time again due to divorce) and they would make it a perfect and flawless ceremony. For some it is most important day of their lives that's why they invest so much effort in making it as unblemished as it can be. Make your ideal wedding as perfect as it can be, pick the best wedding gifts that you can give to your endearing guest.
You can pick many great groomsmen presents for your wedding, select the best and right one for your guest. Show your acknowledgement to them, for everything that they have done for you. Express your foremost gratitude to your beloved guest. Treat them like royalty during your wedding day; let them have fun and enjoy their gifts during the ceremony.
There are various types of gifts you can chose from that you can give to them, there are unique and personalize gifts that you can give them. Some would even engrave their messages or names to their groomsmen gifts to make it memorable and special to their guest. Great groomsmen presents can vary from cufflinks, glassware, bar accessories, flasks, pocket knives and even sports equipments. Always remember to choose the best fit of gifts to your distinguished gentlemen. Don't pick up a certain set of gifts just for the sake of having gifts for your wedding, take time to think and asses what could be the best set of gifts you can have on your reception.
It would be better to engrave your gifts to them. I've attended several wedding in my young life and wedding gifts would be more meaningful if you display your sincere and wonderful way of saying thank you. I've been a groomsman before and I've received several great groomsmen presents and I always keep them in a safe storage to remind me of how I was vital to the lives of a few married couples. Most of the gifts that I've received were engraved gifts like an engraved high polish pocket watch, some were personalized and others were simple but very essential in your daily life. A plated business card case would be a classic example of simple and essential gift, I've received this type of gift once and it is very fitting to a businessman like me.
Finding unique set of presents would even be better. Gifts that are uncommon could give a good vibe in your wedding reception. One of childhood buddies got married a couple of years ago and we are a diehard sports fans and an avid collectors of sports memorabilia, and guess what he and his wife gave us. What he gave us was one of the most unique great groomsmen presents that I've received. He gave us a flask with our favorite baseball team, it was an excellent gift set since most of his groomsmen were sports fanatics.
Always think before buying a gift set for your groomsmen make everything perfect in your wedding including your presents
Jerry is an expert in the field. For engravedgiftcreations .com/giftsunder25.html'>groomsmen gift ideas and or more details on engravedgiftcreations .com'>groomsmen gift Please visit: engravedgiftcreations .com
Groomsmen Wedding Gift Ideas: How About Personalized Gifts?
Groomsmen is an indispensable group of men during weddings. It is composed of men who are very close to the groom's heart. A groomsman can be a brother, a cousin, a friend or a colleague of the groom. Groomsmen have several responsibility to make the wedding as perfect as possible. Therefore to show appreciation to them, the groom may plan to give great groomsmen gifts.
If you are a groom and you want to present great gifts to your groomsmen, you may want to consider personalized groomsmen gifts. Any person would love to receive a gift that is made personalize, which is often well-appreciated than a common gift. The most significant thing that makes personalized gifts so special is that the gift was made with thought, and that you want to relate it to your groomsman's individual personality. With just enough ideas about your groomsmen, you will surely end up with ideal groomsmen gifts.
Personalizing groomsmen gifts come in several ways, you may have the gifts engraved, monogrammed, embroidered etc. Personalized gifts for men are also given away during other events or occasions, such as birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and recognitions. For wedding however, you may choose to have your buddies' names or initials engraved, monogrammed or embroidered to make special personalized wedding gifts for you groomsmen. You may even have the gifts more personalized by including your personal thank you message to your buddies. This is another thoughtful way to show how you really appreciate your groomsmen.
There are so many personalized gifts you can give to your groomsmen, such as beer mugs, sports bags, cufflinks, business card holder and money clips. Engraved barwares such as flasks, beer mugs wine stopper, bottle opener and shot glasses are one of the many personalized gifts you can give. You may opt to give them, really practical gifts they will surely appreciated. Barwares seems to be quite common, however, you can enhance them and make them look special by adding your own personal touch. Personalize mugs, flasks and other choices you may desire to give to make a better way for your groomsmen to enjoy various kinds of beverages using mugs made specially for them.
Another alternatives you may give to your groomsmen are sports bags or weekender bags. Just like other practical personalized gifts, a sports or weekender bag is also a very useful and practical gift to a sports enthusiast or a groomsman who is always on the go. With such gifts, your buddies will greatly enjoy their outdoor activities without worrying which bag should use to carry several essentials they will need while away from home.
The first stop you may consider when shopping personalized gifts for groomsmen are online stores. There are a wide variety of personalized groomsmen gifts available online, from engraved barwares, embroidered groomsmen bags, engraved cufflinks, monogrammed money clips to many others. Just always remember to think your groomsmen first. Make sure that what you are getting are the ones that fits their individual likes, tastes, interests and personalities.
Jnet is an author for a variety of lifestyle issues and topics. If you're looking for engraved groomsmen gifts, visit the website Mygroomsmengifts.com and choose from their products. Shop for best groomsmen gifts online!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Understanding Planetary Positions: What Is Vedic Astrology?
Vedic astrology is an age old astrological practice that originated in India in the vedic period. This astrology is even now prevalent in India and in fact it has experienced a renaissance in the last few decades. Millions of people are turning to Vedic astrology world wide to know about their fate. More and more Americans are showing their interest in Vedic astrology. This is also known as Hindu astrology. It is believed that this practice of astrology was introduced on the planet Earth by Hindu testaments called Vedas.
The astrology is basically rising sun astrology. And it lays great emphasis on studying all heavenly bodies to reveal about a person and make predictions accordingly. This astrology finds birth chart of extreme importance in order to get information about a person's life. The birth chart is known as Janma patri according to Vedic astrology. Moon and zodiac sign positions help draw birth chart as well as ascertain Janma Rashi of a person. Janma Rashi could be termed as moon sign. Similarly Vedic astrology ascertains sun sign by studying position of sun in relation to zodiac.
Ketu and Rahu are two planetary points that crucially determine a person's fortune according to vedic astrology. Different positions of Rahu and Ketu could tell a great deal about future as well. These points happen to be at geometric distance of one hundred and eighty degree.
The astrolger of vedic astrology is known as Jyotishi. A Jyotishi observes various planetary movements in order to make predictions. Like western astrology, vedic astrology also offers it's daily horoscope.
Vedic astrology strongly believes that fate of a person keeps changing with his/her actions or karma. Changing planetary positions reflect the same thing.
Planets existing in the solar system are termed as navgarha and along with rahu and ketu they are examined to make astrological statements.
The astrology observes movements of various astrological stars on imaginary path. Usually there are two groups of stars in this astrology. Stars are in twenty six clusters and each cluster has a name.
Despite a lot of fuss and skepticism the astrology is gaining popularity in America and Europe. In India this astrology is even now used for match making. The astrology also offers suggestions regarding future actions and plans.
The astrology is basically rising sun astrology. And it lays great emphasis on studying all heavenly bodies to reveal about a person and make predictions accordingly. This astrology finds birth chart of extreme importance in order to get information about a person's life. The birth chart is known as Janma patri according to Vedic astrology. Moon and zodiac sign positions help draw birth chart as well as ascertain Janma Rashi of a person. Janma Rashi could be termed as moon sign. Similarly Vedic astrology ascertains sun sign by studying position of sun in relation to zodiac.
Ketu and Rahu are two planetary points that crucially determine a person's fortune according to vedic astrology. Different positions of Rahu and Ketu could tell a great deal about future as well. These points happen to be at geometric distance of one hundred and eighty degree.
The astrolger of vedic astrology is known as Jyotishi. A Jyotishi observes various planetary movements in order to make predictions. Like western astrology, vedic astrology also offers it's daily horoscope.
Vedic astrology strongly believes that fate of a person keeps changing with his/her actions or karma. Changing planetary positions reflect the same thing.
Planets existing in the solar system are termed as navgarha and along with rahu and ketu they are examined to make astrological statements.
The astrology observes movements of various astrological stars on imaginary path. Usually there are two groups of stars in this astrology. Stars are in twenty six clusters and each cluster has a name.
Despite a lot of fuss and skepticism the astrology is gaining popularity in America and Europe. In India this astrology is even now used for match making. The astrology also offers suggestions regarding future actions and plans.
Article Source: .articlesnatch. com
About the Author:
The author writes about a number of different topics. For more information on astrology visit http://www.your-astrology.com/ and also visit the article pages: your-astrology .com/ astrology-readings/ and your-astrology. com/astrology-predictions/
Ideals of a Hindu Marriage
Why is a Marriage Sacrosanct? | |
| | |
In Hinduism, man and woman represent the two halves of the divine body. There is no question of superiority or inferiority between them. However, it is a scientific fact that the emotional side is more developed in women. This does not mean that intellectually, women are inferior. Hindu history is witness to the super-women, like Gargi, Maitreyi and Sulabha, whose faculty of reasoning was far superior to that of ordinary mortals. But owing to organic differences in their physical and emotional constitutions, women are temperamentally more emotional than men.
Duties of a Hindu Woman
Having recognized this fact, Hindu scriptures (Shastras) have allotted certain specific duties to Hindu women. These duties include maintaining domestic peace, adjustment of social relations and attainment of spiritual perfection.
The Idea of Marriage
The idea behind the institution of marriage in Hinduism is to foster, not self-interest, but love for the entire family. Practice of self-restraint is the ideal of marriage in Hinduism. It is the love and duty cultivated for the entire family that prevents the break-ups.
Men by nature are less capable of self-restraint than women. That is why, after marriage the Hindu women lead the men by keeping the lustful propensities under control. While married, thought of any other man does not enter the mind of a Hindu lady until she loses her faith in her husband due to his consistent misbehavior and 'don't care' attitude.
The Sanctity of Marriage
The present-day Hindu husbands fail to recognize the sacrifices and lofty ideals of Hindu wives, and thus compel them to follow the worst of the West. During the nuptial ceremony in a Vedic marriage, both the bride and the bridegroom take oath for the practice of self-restraint, to work together for the welfare of the family and to help each other to attain spiritual peace. This lofty ideal of sanctity is a great gift of Hinduism to the world at large.
Protecting the Institution
It should be a matter of great concern that we have begun to ignore the ancient and lofty ideals of Hindu marriage and are anxious to follow in the footsteps of cultures that do not value these ideals. No wonder, the number of divorce suits filed by Hindu couples is on the rise. Instead of strengthening the traditional ideals, which for thousands of years have helped us prevent marriage and family break-ups, we are misdirecting our energies towards promoting the ideal of sense-enjoyment and self-interest. In my opinion it is still not too late to be proactive to protect the sanctity of Hindu marriage.
More about this article can be found here: http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/aa111602a.htm
ABOUT THE AUTHORGyan Rajhans, M.Sc. (Eng.), P.Eng, CIH, ROH, is a pioneering scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Health, Canada. He is also the producer/broadcaster of Vedic Religion Radio Program since 1981 on CJMR 1320 AM every Sunday (6:30 - 7:30 p.m.). He partakes in volunteer work for the Hindu community every weekend, and delivers discourses on prayer and meditation every Sunday at various temples.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Indian Wedding Cards
India is a land of great diversity, it is full of colors. A multitude of religions exist under the Indian sky, they all have unique ceremonies and rituals associated with them. Wedding is one of the most important events of an individual, as well as a family's life. For Indians, wedding is extremely special. They celebrate it with great pomp and show. Most Indians try to make their wedding the most memorable event of their lives. They aim to make everything associated with the wedding special.
Wedding invitations form an important part of every wedding. People try to have wedding cards that are beautiful, creatively designed and one of a kind. Married couples preserve their wedding cards, so that they can refer to them in future and experience the nostalgia of their wedding.
Every religion has some unique features associated with wedding cards. The cards are different depending upon the region as well, for example a north Indian's wedding invitation card would differ from that of a south Indian's wedding card, or for that matter, the wedding card of a north easterner.
Indian wedding invitation cards can be divided into the following categories:
- Hindu Wedding Cards
- Muslim Wedding Cards
- Sikh Wedding Cards
- Scroll Wedding Invitations
- Multi-faith Wedding Invitations - Interfaith cards
- Designer Wedding Cards Non Religious wedding Cards and
- E-Wedding Cards
Indian wedding cards stand out prominently with their exquisite designing and intricate detailing. They offer a wonderful blend of style and artistry. They are filled with eye pleasing colors and distinctive textures. They are made on a variety of papers, from imported to hand made ones. Though earlier wedding invitation cards were solely made from paper, nowadays the card designers have been making creative use of a variety of materials to make the cards. Hindu wedding cards often come studded with Kundan stones.
Indian wedding cards also commonly feature quotes from the religious books, for example Hindu wedding cards, have quotations from the Bhagwad Gita, the Muslim wedding cards have quotes from Quran, while the Sikh wedding cards, carry quotes from the Guru Granth Sahib. These quotes are usually meant to bless the marrying couple with good wishes for their married life.
The variety in Indian wedding cards means that they are available in a very wide price range, from the extremely affordable ones to the exorbitantly priced ones. Those who can afford it, also get their cards designed from reputed artists and designers.
Ricky Lee is a writer for magazines featuring information on Indian culture and recommends Parekhcards for Indian Wedding Invitation.
Hindu Wedding
Talk about hindu weddings ,and the first thing that comes in to mind is the joy, charm, rituals and colourful ceremonies that extend for several days. The flamboyance and charm that is seen in hindu weddings is unparalleled and unmatched.Right from wedding attire to gifts, wedding venue to food , cards to accessories everything is a pefect display of grandeur .
Hindus attach a lot of importance with the wedding ceremonies . The ceremonies start days before the actual wedding day and last for many days after the wedding takes place.The pre-wedding ceremonies include enagagement where the groom's relatives are invited to bride's place and the lagna patra is written .Then comes the big day 'wedding day' followed by bride's welcome to the groom's place often called reception . others like mehndi, geet sangeet are few other very important and enjoyable ceremonies . Unlike the western marriages , hindu marriages are much more celebrated and talked about . One of the reason being ,that marriage is a good time when all family members, relatives and friends irrespective of physical or emotional distances get together for a common goal, wedding. They share their happiness together and enhance the beauty of the occasion by contributing in various ways like dancing and singing.
Hindu weddings are a perfect example of extravagance and flamboyance. From the heavily embellished and much too expensive attire and accessories of the bride and groom to the exotic wedding venues everything demands lot of money and resources. The preparation of a wedding is also a very challenging task. It involves everything from booking the wedding venue to arranging caterers plus the decoration, cards distribution and the list of tasks goes on , Therefore the preparation starts months before the wedding. But at the end of the day its worth spending that much amount of time and resources on weddings as for hindus marriage is a once in a lifetime occasion. A lifetime bond made in heaven and performed here by us.
On the wedding day the bride and the groom exchange garlands called varmalas infront of all the people attending the ceremony.And then after much of celebration and naach gaana the time to take pheras come. Hindu wedding ceremonies are conducted in Sanskrit. These are called mantras which are uttered by the holy priest in the presence of the auspicious fire, one of the panchkarmas.The bride and the groom are then asked to take saat phere around the holy fire. After completing pheras , bride and groom seek blessings from the god then the priest and then the parents. And then comes the time of "vidaai", when the bride finally leaves her parents house for her husband and in laws .This is the only time when the entire happiness and cheerfulness in the environment turns a little gloomy. But it is just a momentary emotional outburst and ultimately everyone from both the sides blesses the holy bond and enjoy and celebrate their happiness.
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Hindu Weddings
Hindu sacraments are called 'sanskars' and the sacraments performed at the time of a wedding are called 'Vivah Sanskar'.
This sanskar marks the start of the second and the most important stage of life called the 'Grihistha Ashrama' which involves setting up of a new family unit.
Two individuals who are considered to be compatible form a lifelong partnership at this ceremony in which the responsibilities and duties of a householder are explained.
The main stages of a Hindu wedding are:
Firstly, the bride's parents welcome the bridegroom and his family at the boundary of the house where the wedding is taking place. A red kum-kum (kind of powder) mark is applied to their forehead. Members from both families are formally introduced, marking the start of relationship between two families. The bride and the bridegroom then exchange garlands (jayamaala) and declare: "Let all the learned persons present here know, we are accepting each other willingly, voluntarily and pleasantly. Our hearts are concordant and united like waters."
The bridegroom is brought to a specially decorated altar and offered a seat and a welcoming drink - a mixture of milk, ghee, yoghurt, honey and sugar.
Nowadays, the symbolic exchange of gifts, particularly clothes and ornaments takes place. The groom's mother gives a necklace, a Mangla sootra. to the bride. Mangla sootra is the emblem of marital status for a Hindu woman. The bride's father declares that their daughter has accepted the bridegroom and requests them to accept her.
A sacred fire is lit and the (Priest) recites the sacred mantras in Sanskrit. Oblations are offered to the fire whilst saying the prayers. The words "Id na mama" meaning "it is not for me" are repeated after the offerings. This teaches the virtue of selflessness required to run a family.
A sacred fire is lit and the (Priest) recites the sacred mantras in Sanskrit.
This is the ceremony of vows. The husband, holding his wife's hand, says "I hold your hand in the spirit of Dharma, we are both husband and wife".
Both husband and wife walk around the sacred fire four times. The bride leading three times and the fourth time the groom leads. He is reminded of his responsibilities. The couple join their hands into which the bride's brothers pour some barley which is offered to the fire symbolising that they all will jointly work for the welfare of the society. The husband marks the parting in his wife's hair with red kumkum powder for the first time. This is called 'sindoor' and is a distinctive mark of a married Hindu woman.
This is the main and the legal part of the ceremony. The couple walk seven steps reciting a prayer at each step. These are the seven vows which are exchanged. The first for food, the second for strength, the third for prosperity, the fourth for wisdom, the fifth for progeny, the sixth for health and the seventh for friendship. In some regions, in stead of walking the seven steps, the bride touches seven stones or nuts with her right toe. A symbolic matrimonial knot is tied after this ceremony.
The couple are blessed by the elders and the priest for a long and prosperous married life.
It is important to clarify two misconceptions about Hindu marriages: arranged marriages and child marriages.
The couple are blessed by the elders and the priest for a long and prosperous married life
Hindu scriptures prohibit use of force or coercion in marriages.
Arranged marriages are based on agreement from both the bride and the groom, and should not be confused with forced marriages.
In the Vedic period, child marriages were strictly prohibited. Later, due to political and economical changes, some new social traditions started which deviated from the Vedic teachings. Child marriages are now banned in India.
I have been in the bridal business for over ten years and currently run a high street shop and an online store selling accessories.
Bridal Tiaras
Hindu Wedding Rites
| Marriage is elevated to the level of a sacrament in the Hindu religion. A traditional Hindu wedding ceremony is performed according to the tenets prescribed over three thousand years ago. The rites and the rituals in the ceremony symbolize a union that is a spiritual partnership between two souls bonded in love, mutual respect and lasting commitment. |
| Varevetpu (Welcome): a Tamil Hindu wedding ceremony commences with the arrival of the groom and the tholan (usually the bride's brother). The groom is welcomed by two ladies waving lighted lamps and the bride's party garlanding the groom. The tholan sprinkles water on the groom's feet as a symbol of respect and is rewarded with a gift for this humble gesture |
| Ganesh puja (Invocation to Lord Ganesh): Once the groom and the tholan are seated in the manavarai (decorated dais) the priest starts the ceremony, with the worship of lord ganesh, who is the remover of all obstacles. A talisman in the form of a thread is tied around the wrist of the groom. Married ladies perform palikai ceremony, where they sow nine varieties of grain in an earthen pot, signifying a life of abundance for the couple. |
| Kanyadhanam (The giving away of the bride): Once the bride arrives with her retinue. After the priest performs Ganesh puja for the bride, her father or designee performs the rite of giving away the bride by placing her hand in that of the groom to accept, cherish and protect. The priest proclaims the lineage of the couple in keeping with the Hindu tradition of paying homage to elders. |
| Agni (Sacred Fire) is lit to represent cosmic energy and it is also a purifier. Offerings are made to the sacred fire during the ceremony, in a sprit of sacrifice and equal partnership. |
| Thali Ceremony: This is the highlight of a Hindu wedding. After the Thali (a sacred necklace) is blessed by the priest and the congregation, the groom places it around the bride's neck. Nadhaswaram (a wind instrument) and the drums which are played throughout rise to a crescendo; A family member breaks a coconut to reveal the inner white kernel that is said to represent purity. The priest invokes the Agni and the assembly to stand witness to the marriage. The bride and groom exchange garlands. |
| Saptapadi: having god as their guide, the couple walk seven steps together to pledge their commitment towards the seven goals: 1 st for health, wealth and prosperity. 2 nd to flourish through righteous means. 3 rd for physical, mental and spiritual strength. 4 th for happiness and harmony through mutual love and trust. 5 th for blessing of progeny. 6 th to remain in a lasting union with peace and tranquillity. 7 th for spiritual union and merger of souls. As they go round the Agni certain rituals are performed in keeping with tradition. The groom places the right foot of the bride on a grinding stone to remind her to be steadfast and strong as the stone. The priest points to the star Arundhathi who was known to be the ideal wife. The couple make offerings to the Agni, seeking divine blessings. |
| Asirvatham (Blessing): The priest, the parents, and the guests bless the couple by sprinkling them with grains of rice to wish them prosperity and happiness. The blessing is completed by the performance of Alathi – the circular movement of a tray with lighted wicks – by two ladies. A new era dawns in the life of the married couple. more details given on tamilweddingservices.co.uk/weddingarticles.asp |
How to Choose the Perfect Wedding Dress
Step1
Set a budget. This will depend on your total budget, but somewhere between 3% and 5% is usually appropriate. You can purchase a simple, but flattering dress for as little as $100, but most dresses range between $400-$700. Spending more than $1000 is unnecessary, but many women choose to splurge on their dress and save money in other areas. Step2
Decide on a color. Most gowns are either white or ivory, but nowadays, you can purchase a gown in almost any color you choose. (If you don't want a white dress, you can save money by shopping in a local department store for formalwear. Traditionally, women wear white if it is a first wedding, and ivory if it is not. But it is your wedding and your choice! Step3
Choose a style that flatters you. If you want to show off your bustline, opt for a v-neck dress or a halter-top style. These will draw attention to your "other" better half... the top.Many gowns are tight around the hips and show off an hourglass figure, but are considered liberal and non-traditional. If you want to be more original, this may be a great style for you.
Step4
If you prefer to display your shoulder line, choose a sweetheart neckline, strapless gown or an off-the-shoulder look. Beware of strapless gowns, which frequently have brides tugging them to stay up all night. Step5
Decide how fancy you want your dress to be. Dresses can be plain and simple fabric, or they can have ruching (bunching), ribbons, bows, sequins, crystals, brooches or just about anything else you can think of. Step6
Make a few sketches of what you have in mind before you go to the dress shop. Bring a couple of well-dressed females with you to help you determine which dresses look best and are the best value for your money. Happy shopping!Tips & Warnings
- If you fall in love with one of the first few dresses you see, write down the style number and try on more dresses. Don't choose a wedding gown unless you have tried on a wide variety of dresses.
- Choose a dress that allows you to easily walk, raise your arms, sit down, dance, and tie your shoes. You don't want to feel like you have a full-body cast on at your wedding.
- If a dress is uncomfortable in the store, you will be miserable by the time the reception starts.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
How to Plan a Hindu Wedding
Hindu weddings are steeped in important rituals and customs. Some couples choose to have the typical Hindu ceremony that spans several days, while others have a condensed version that lasts only a few hours
Things You'll Need:
- Astrology Charts
- Flower Garlands
- Gold Necklace
Step1
Arrange the proposal so that the whole family feels included in the event. In this way, you will receive approval from elders, and the family will also be able to determine whether they think you and your partner are compatible for marriage. Step2
Check with an astrologer to match your horoscopes and determine an auspicious date and location for the wedding. Many Hindu ceremonies take place at the bride's house or at a hall. Step3
Decide if you will have guests sit on the floor, as is typical at Hindu weddings, or whether you would prefer to go the more modern route and provide chairs. Step4
Include the 15 rituals that traditionally make up a Hindu wedding ceremony
. Or, if you prefer, select only those that have special meaning for you as a couple. Step5
Provide a sari bought by the groom for the bride to change into during the ceremony. (The outfit she arrives in will typically be bought by her parents.) The change of clothes is very meaningful, since it signifies the shift of responsibility from the parents to the husband. Step6
Offer food and alternate entertainment to occupy the guests during the wedding ceremony. (Eating, drinking and talking during the ceremonial events is accepted practice at Hindu weddings.) Step7
Order garlands of flowers that the bride and groom will exchange during the ceremony, often along with rings, to symbolize acceptance and welcome. Step8
Bring a gold necklace if you would like to include the "tying the knot" ritual, in which the groom ties the necklace around the bride's neck. Step9
Include a portion of the ceremony (known as the saptapadi portion in Hindi) in which the bride and groom take seven steps together toward a long and happy marriage, praying for blessings such as wealth, happiness, strength and devotion with each step. Step10
Prepare a mixture of honey and yogurt, which the bride offers the groom to ensure his good health and a sweet start for their marriage. Step11
Offer food to the gods during the ceremony to obtain their blessings. (In the Hindu religion, there is one supreme being, with all other gods being aspects of this one.) Step12
Provide a stone for the bride to stand on to signify her faithfulness and loyalty to the marriage. Step13
Ask the groom's brother to sprinkle puffed rice for prosperity and flower petals on the couple after they exchange vows, following an ongoing Indian tradition. Step14
Create a marriage mark on the bride's forehead with sedhu, or orange powder, to announce to the world that she is now married. After the mark is applied, the couple should touch each parent's feet and receive their parents' blessings. Step15
Prepare a large feast to serve the guests following the ceremony. Expect family and friends to help make the food. Tips & Warnings
- In the past, most Hindu marriages were arranged by the family. Today, though, it has become more acceptable for couples to meet on their own. Yet even in modern "love marriages," the family remains an important part of the wedding ceremony.
- Consider other rituals that take place before and after the wedding that you might want to perform.
- Prepare an edible dowry for the bride to give to the groom's family. This can include pastries and other tasty treats.
- Remember that a Hindu wedding is more of a community gathering or party than a quiet, serious event.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Importance Of Online Match Making In Indian Marriage
In India marriages are use to made in regular and festival type of events. They are all done in a good manner and the people in that enjoy from the both side. The marriages are done in some steps. First the mother and the father mostly goes to se the girl and then they decide if they want to marry both or not. If they agree then they both go for formal wedding and some further steps are taken in this regard. The "kundli" is taken and the "shub mohrat" (Best date to marry) is found by a Pandit. Then the pandit allows to marry them on a specified date.
They both are married in a regular hindu style be taking rounds about the fire and promising for some relations and all. Then the celebration of the marriage ends and both the men and women are then taken to a separate room. There they have sex to have a child. This is how an Indian marriage takes place. The parents and the relatives chose for the men and women to give their gifts for the marriage. All the ceremonies are celebrated in a good style and the environment is made as to rejoice both the parties. That is how a formal wedding ends in India. This was the formal, arranged marriage campaign. In love marriages mew and women find them by themselves and then gets married.
What was once understood as the norm amongst Indians: arranged marriage is starting to subside. Meeting through matrimonials sites is now the rage. The traditional Indian folk would find a partner for their sons/daughters by letting people in the community know that their child was available. Parents of other available children would get the word and try to make a match. Then things shifted a bit to where people post matrimonial advertisements in the newspaper. The problem that a lot of modern youth feel about it is that there is too much parental involvement in the matchmaking process.
Now people are taking it upon themselves to find partners via online matchmaking venues and dating sites. Online matrimonials sites have doubled and tripled in the past 3-5 years alone. As the web grows in popularity, the masses of individuals in India will be using online marriage sites. Right now, many marriage counselors and matchmakers in India are referring people to marriage websites. For people who do not have Internet access, they are able to still log in and join without worry and view profiles. They can make contacts without themselves being online.
The beauty of the Internet, making the world find love and romance. It is very common for individuals to be putting up a profile for themselves but parents, uncles, aunts, and siblings also post profiles for prospective brides and grooms.Not only parent,the relatives of boy or girl would also be entrusted the job. In India, where women are generally looking for love partners before officially graduating, they do not have time to look for partners while married. Therefore, others do it for them.James Gunaseelan writes for Leading matrimonial portal for Brahmins brides and grooms brahminsmatrimony.com/
They both are married in a regular hindu style be taking rounds about the fire and promising for some relations and all. Then the celebration of the marriage ends and both the men and women are then taken to a separate room. There they have sex to have a child. This is how an Indian marriage takes place. The parents and the relatives chose for the men and women to give their gifts for the marriage. All the ceremonies are celebrated in a good style and the environment is made as to rejoice both the parties. That is how a formal wedding ends in India. This was the formal, arranged marriage campaign. In love marriages mew and women find them by themselves and then gets married.
What was once understood as the norm amongst Indians: arranged marriage is starting to subside. Meeting through matrimonials sites is now the rage. The traditional Indian folk would find a partner for their sons/daughters by letting people in the community know that their child was available. Parents of other available children would get the word and try to make a match. Then things shifted a bit to where people post matrimonial advertisements in the newspaper. The problem that a lot of modern youth feel about it is that there is too much parental involvement in the matchmaking process.
Now people are taking it upon themselves to find partners via online matchmaking venues and dating sites. Online matrimonials sites have doubled and tripled in the past 3-5 years alone. As the web grows in popularity, the masses of individuals in India will be using online marriage sites. Right now, many marriage counselors and matchmakers in India are referring people to marriage websites. For people who do not have Internet access, they are able to still log in and join without worry and view profiles. They can make contacts without themselves being online.
The beauty of the Internet, making the world find love and romance. It is very common for individuals to be putting up a profile for themselves but parents, uncles, aunts, and siblings also post profiles for prospective brides and grooms.Not only parent,the relatives of boy or girl would also be entrusted the job. In India, where women are generally looking for love partners before officially graduating, they do not have time to look for partners while married. Therefore, others do it for them.James Gunaseelan writes for Leading matrimonial portal for Brahmins brides and grooms brahminsmatrimony.com/
Hindu God Ganesh's Family
Elephant-headed Ganesh, India's most renowned God, is a study in dichotomy. He is held in awe and reverence as a positive energy who removes problems in people's lives. But Ganesha also conjures a very down-to-earth warmth. Some of this benevolence emanates from his near involvement in our everyday lives and from the mythological stories about him and his family. The legends about Ganesha depict him as a committed son and a loving brother.
There's no Hindu grandmother who doesn't love sharing the story of Ganesh's parentage and birth. Many explanations abound, but here's the popular one. Officially, Ganpati's father is Lord Shiva the Destroyer, one of the holy trinity in the Hindu pantheon, a rather fearsome figure with matted locks and an ash-smeared body who spends eons meditating in the Himalayas. Parvati, his beautiful wife, presides over all of creation. Without her, the earth would be infertile and perennially cold. During her husband's prolonged absence, Parvati created a young boy for herself from a mass of clay - none other than Ganesha. When Lord Shiva, incognizant of his 'son's' existence, returned back, Ganesh barred him from access to Parvati, who was bathing and had told her son to guard against intruders. Shiv, whose temper could wreck the universe, chopped off the child's head. When he realized his misstep, he replaced the boy's head with that of an elephant. Shiva also granted Ganesh a boon - that he would be worshipped prior to the start of any earthly enterprise. Notwithstanding this dramatic event in childhood, Ganesh grew up to be regarded as the epitome of filial devotion.
Hindu mythology has many stories about Ganesh and his younger brother, Karthikeya. Where Ganesh is revered all over India, Karthikeya's influence is predominant in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, where he is also known as Murugan, Subramanya or Arumugham. You couldn't find two more different personalities. Ganesh is comfortably chubby, gentle, and patience personified; brother Karthikeya is all radiant energy and an impulsive lad. Ganesha has the lowly mouse as his vehicle while Karthikeya prefers the flashy peacock.
Like many Hindu myths, stories of the Ganesh-Kartikeya interactions are possessed of a innocent simplicity, yet imbued with lessons for mankind. One time, a mango infused with divine knowledge was brought to Mount Kailas in the Himalayas, where Shiv and Parvati hold court. Since only one individual could consume the fruit, a race was proposed between their two sons - whosoever circumambulated the earth three times and returned first would win the fruit. Convinced that his peacock would outrace Ganesha's mouse, Kartikeya went off into space. Ganesha, on the other hand, simply folded his palms in prayer and walked around his seated parents, returning to his starting point ahead of Kartikeya. His reasoning? Shiva and Parvati contain the world within them; walking around his parents is equivalent to actually going around the earth. He won the mango, but then magnanimously offered it to his sulking brother.
There are different views regarding the marital status of Ganesha. Some parts of India worships Ganesha as a bachelor while the rest of India worships him along with his two consorts. Ganesha is thought to be married to Siddhi (spiritual strength) and Buddhi (intellect) - the daughters of Brahma the Creator - one of the holy trinity in the Hindu pantheon. This is popularly taken to mean that where Ganesh is present, intellectual acumen and spirituality will follow. Legend also has it that Kartikeya grew up to marry Valli, a tribal maiden and Devayani, the daughter of Indra, the wind god. However, he is widely worshipped as a child-god possessed of a warrior's skills, one who protects his devotees against all harm.
There's no Hindu grandmother who doesn't love sharing the story of Ganesh's parentage and birth. Many explanations abound, but here's the popular one. Officially, Ganpati's father is Lord Shiva the Destroyer, one of the holy trinity in the Hindu pantheon, a rather fearsome figure with matted locks and an ash-smeared body who spends eons meditating in the Himalayas. Parvati, his beautiful wife, presides over all of creation. Without her, the earth would be infertile and perennially cold. During her husband's prolonged absence, Parvati created a young boy for herself from a mass of clay - none other than Ganesha. When Lord Shiva, incognizant of his 'son's' existence, returned back, Ganesh barred him from access to Parvati, who was bathing and had told her son to guard against intruders. Shiv, whose temper could wreck the universe, chopped off the child's head. When he realized his misstep, he replaced the boy's head with that of an elephant. Shiva also granted Ganesh a boon - that he would be worshipped prior to the start of any earthly enterprise. Notwithstanding this dramatic event in childhood, Ganesh grew up to be regarded as the epitome of filial devotion.
Hindu mythology has many stories about Ganesh and his younger brother, Karthikeya. Where Ganesh is revered all over India, Karthikeya's influence is predominant in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, where he is also known as Murugan, Subramanya or Arumugham. You couldn't find two more different personalities. Ganesh is comfortably chubby, gentle, and patience personified; brother Karthikeya is all radiant energy and an impulsive lad. Ganesha has the lowly mouse as his vehicle while Karthikeya prefers the flashy peacock.
Like many Hindu myths, stories of the Ganesh-Kartikeya interactions are possessed of a innocent simplicity, yet imbued with lessons for mankind. One time, a mango infused with divine knowledge was brought to Mount Kailas in the Himalayas, where Shiv and Parvati hold court. Since only one individual could consume the fruit, a race was proposed between their two sons - whosoever circumambulated the earth three times and returned first would win the fruit. Convinced that his peacock would outrace Ganesha's mouse, Kartikeya went off into space. Ganesha, on the other hand, simply folded his palms in prayer and walked around his seated parents, returning to his starting point ahead of Kartikeya. His reasoning? Shiva and Parvati contain the world within them; walking around his parents is equivalent to actually going around the earth. He won the mango, but then magnanimously offered it to his sulking brother.
There are different views regarding the marital status of Ganesha. Some parts of India worships Ganesha as a bachelor while the rest of India worships him along with his two consorts. Ganesha is thought to be married to Siddhi (spiritual strength) and Buddhi (intellect) - the daughters of Brahma the Creator - one of the holy trinity in the Hindu pantheon. This is popularly taken to mean that where Ganesh is present, intellectual acumen and spirituality will follow. Legend also has it that Kartikeya grew up to marry Valli, a tribal maiden and Devayani, the daughter of Indra, the wind god. However, he is widely worshipped as a child-god possessed of a warrior's skills, one who protects his devotees against all harm.
Chip is an artist, designer, and a devoted follower of Ganesha. His Ganesh inspired art can be viewed at Company website. Visit Hindu God Ganesha's Family.
Hindu Rituals - Facts
SOME HINDU RITUALS
Being a science graduate and a regular reader of scientific researches, it was hard for me to initially grasp certain concepts. But as I went more into my religion, the so called Hinduism, I realized that science has a very long way to go towards realizing life and death, before they outreach a Hindu ideology. I have tried to reason out some of Hindu rituals and these reasons are purely Vedic, put in my own words. I have honestly accepted the wrong that is practiced and more honestly elaborated the right that is there actually in the scriptures of Hindus.
OFFERINGS AND SACRIFICES
One year after my marriage, I along with my wife, went to a holy place of Lord Shiva, 'Baski Nath' in Bihar. We worshipped together, and when we came out of temple, to my surprise and dismay, what I saw was something I had heard from the critics. I saw, priests performing sacrifice of a goat. It was shocking for me as I saw them chopping off the creature and I saw such barbarism first time in around a temple. Hence, I was impacted deeply and my ideologies got challenged. I could not accept this as a part of my religion. I was never taught, at least, by my known ones about this. I always learnt that this religion suggested vegetarianism on top of everything. But this killing was done by the very priest, whom we believe. I told my wife, 'I don't feel like coming to this place again, unless I know the truth – the truth of the religion I believe.' And I opened the books of highest regards again for answers – 'Bhagwad Geeta' and 'Vedas'. I had been reading them earlier, but had never come across any text that said of killing in the name of God. I intensified my research on this – How did this happen then, if it is not in the religion? I went to various temples in various towns and met many priests. I interacted deeply with them and tried to understand their background as well in addition to their knowledge about the holy books. And soon, I understood where the mistake was.
First thing that I found was that not all priests were Brahmins by birth. They had acquired the profession as they found it easy to support the livelihood without any illegal means. This was religiously not challenged, as the religion described Brahminism (knower of Brahma or creator) only by deeds and knowledge and never by birth. This was confirmed by following scripture of Bhagwad Geeta, Chapter IV, Verse 13.
'The fourfold caste was created by the differentiation of Guna (knowledge and behavior) and Karma (actions and deeds).'
Second, I found that not all priests, Brahmin or non-Brahmin, had profound and exact knowledge as in Hindu texts. They learned some of the verses and some of the commonly known philosophies, some rituals and some behaviors following which they became unquestionable priests.
Third and most astonishing of all was intrusion of political activists and external religions to defame the whole religion in a planned manner. There were few instances of Political relations with the priests and criminal incidences attached in some manner at those places. Anyway, my purpose was not to investigate and help law, my intention was to derive information regarding causes of such inhuman acts that went against my understanding of Hindu religion.
Anyway, I would depict the texts of Bhagwad Geeta to show what the religion actually says about sacrifices and offerings; following are the quotes from Chapter IV.
'The process of Brahman, the clarified butter is Brahman, offered by Brahman in the fire of Brahman; by seeing Brahman in action, he reaches Brahman alone.' – Verse 24.
The book first establishes a reason behind those sacrifices and beliefs. It says – first important thing is to understand that we act as per our perception and attitude. The ultimate goal achieved is totally based on our own configuration of understanding, nature and actions. Brahman is a stage of ultimate knowledge about Life, God and Creation. And even the stage of Brahman is achieved by rendering ourselves, dedicating our desire (that burns as fire within us), our vision and actions towards the process of Brahman. Here, starts the concept of offering, offering the very self to a Brahman, if Brahman is the fire (desire) within to be achieved.
'Some Yogis perform sacrifices to Devas alone, while others offer the self as sacrifice by the self in the fire of Brahman alone'. Verse 25.
First part of the sentence starts talking about sacrifice to Deities, but do not clarify what is sacrificed. The second part reflect similar offering as in previous verse –the self sacrifice in the fire of knowledge (Complete dedication towards learning of truth).
'Some again offer hearing and other sense as sacrifice in the fire of control, while others offer sound and other sense-object as sacrifice in the fire of the senses.' – Verse 26.
It requires deeper knowledge to understand 'sacrifice of sense-object in the fire of senses'. Vedas describes five basic work-sense organs and another five knowledge-sense organs. It describes the objectives of these sense organs and also binds them to the mind and ego of a person. Above sentence, by using 'fire' as a metaphor, indicates that it requires huge effort and continuous practice to control our mind's motivation driven by the senses. In order to attain this control, a person has to sacrifice many desires and concentrate on the self, which is what the true meaning of Yoga is – as we will see ahead.
'Some again offer all the actions of senses and the functions of the vital energy, as sacrifice in the fire of control in Self, kindled by knowledge'. – Verse 27.
Again it requires understanding what the actions of senses are and how are they different from the senses itself. What is meant above by vital energy? I have already mentioned above about 'fire' being correlated to the power of control in self.
'Others again offer wealth, austerity, and Yoga, as sacrifice, while still others, of self-restraint and rigid vows, offer study of the scriptures and knowledge, as sacrifice' – Verse 28.
And last of all, it has mentioned few of the practices performed in those days, when Bhagwad Geeta was written, some 5000 years ago. People at most offered wealth, austerity and rigid vows as sacrifice. Probably, this was the limit as further in the whole book; I never found anything about killing of animals as sacrifice. I have, thus every reason to believe that the practices has come into practice only after invasions.
It is also noticeable from the above texts, that no where does the texts tries to create boundaries. Unlike all other religions of the world, we never find Hinduism talking that you cannot do this or you are bound to do that. This is the first step towards creating a tolerant society. The detailed description of life, living styles, human, God and creations opens the mind of followers, leaving them in a positive mode of ever-growing knowledge and ever-improving attitude and life-style. This is the second important aspect of the religion that confirms peace in the society.
Anyway, what I found in the books was exactly what I had known about the religion. There was nothing about killing of animals and the knowledge was astoundingly of highest level, as I had always known.
Moreover, offerings and sacrifices as a culture inculcates a very positive attitude in individual and binds the society on ground of human values. I wonder how pure would be those days when people respected Brahmins and Brahmins would live upon the 'Dan-Dakshina' of people. The corrupted English version of 'Dan-Dakshina', is 'Donation-Commission'. Actually, now we find people criticizing Brahmins for asking 'Dakshina' and they immediately categorize them as greedy. Unfortunately, they have forgotten that it is our culture to look beyond the greed of holding more and more property and help growth of healthy society. The first attitude that builds with the practice of 'Dan' is that we get freed from the feeling of Greed and attitude of holding things. The west practices the pride to take and hold, while we practice the pride to give and get satisfied. The power to give ('Dan') immediately takes our attitude to build satisfaction with whatever we hold – this is the hardest thing we find in the world to be gained – and it was so easily achievable in the ancient Hindu culture. There are numerous examples of such powers, Raja Daksh, Raja Harishchandra are very well known names, for example. The power to give also confirms with one's ability to hold the power to build. Every individual, irrespective of their Varna, had the power to give 'Dan'. This practice had many indirect attitude build effect in disguise. Respect towards Brahmins and poor immediately killed individual arrogance and helped him to learn and earn more and live a satisfied life. Fortunately, it still exists in some shape – what is needed is to regain it with respect and in pure forms. This might look absurd to people brought up under western education style, but let them then come up with a suggestion of how would they evolve a culture of highly satisfied society, a society that knew to respect Worshippers of Lord, a society that knew to regard Guru and elders, a society that had every children free from diseases and mental illness.
COW WORSHIP
Hindus do not only worship Cows. They worship countless creatures and things around. Before commenting on this as an insane activity or meaningless act, one must first define what they exactly mean by worship. Having done that, they would end up in discovering a big gap between the meaning of worship in Hinduism and in other religions. For Hindus, worship is a shape of highest regard, love and faith. These three things are required by every individual irrespective of religion, region, beliefs, color or creed to exist. Thus, a Hindu would worship his parents, teachers, natural powers, and overall God with true understanding. The question remains – why cow?
According to Hindu philosophy, there are at least six kinds of mother:
1. Mother who gave birth
2. Mother who brought us up: Often mother who gave birth also brings us up, but is not necessary case and hence who brings us up is a mother.
3. Mother who is source of our life: Those natural powers which are feminine in nature, like power of a woman, love of a mother, etc., often worshipped as Deities.
4. Mother who holds us as we are: Our motherland, which has fed us without any condition
5. Mother who feeds us: The Cow who feeds us throughout our life
6. Mother who is seen as a mother by others: Our 'Guru' mother, our friend's mother, any woman who is a mother, any elderly lady, etc.
Thus, Hindus consider Cow as mother. Motherhood according to Hindus is the greatest relation and of highest regard – higher than the understanding of God. In fact, Hindu philosophy has proven that God cannot be realized without the love for mother. The very basis of our existence is our mother. Hindus respects and worships not only this relation, but also the responsibilities and feelings that this relation holds. A mother gives birth to a child, brings him up, feeds him, enlightens him, and supports him in all circumstances (good or bad). Cow is one among all animals who feeds us throughout her life. There are huge numbers of milk products that we consume throughout our lives. Children, who do not get their mother's feed, often are supported by cow milk. Hence, cow milk is one primary food that supports our life system.
And it is not just for the reason of feeding, Hindus worship cow. Cow is a natural power as well. Hindus used to wash their house with Cow Dung, a very healthy methodology to keep diseases away. Urine of Cow is used in curing many deadly diseases including cancer.
It is just not the usage for which Hindus worship cow. Cow is one of the most humble and harmless animal. Hindus are not brutal who would just overlook the suffering of these humble creatures for the sake of their dirty taste of tongue of which there is no end. Hindus realize that these creatures are as live as us, and they suffer as deep as us. Thus, if they are responsible in holding our life, they are worth worshipping as our own mother. This is a value for a Hindu, a value that helps a Hindu to deliver high contribution towards human society also. Such morality of social betterment starts developing from awareness of these things.
Unlike the west, where every human pet dogs and cats, Hindus used to pet cows. It is up to the thinkers to decide which is better – living with cats and dogs or living with cows. We very evidently find the result of reducing cows in the country in terms of consumption of contaminated milk and milk products. On 11th July 2007, India TV had released news related to Animal Fats being used in production of 'Ghee' in huge quantity all over the nation, and largely at 'Aligarh – Uttar Pradesh'. It is but obvious that demand of 'Ghee' and milk products ever remains as they are life supporting food in India. But to meet the demand, there are not enough cows left to provide sufficient milk – the alternative is ready – take out fats from killed cows and other animals, process it and present it to the nation as a Milk Product. It is up to the people of this nation to decide – they want to have pure Milk from Mother Cow, or they want to feast on Fat Milk from Dead Animal.
MARRIAGES, SEX AND DOWRY
The world knows that Hindu families are the strongest families, in the sense nearly all cases they do not break apart. What is the secret behind this? Is it because this is a mail dominated society? I do not think so – there is no society as much dominated by mails as Muslim society, but they are not stable in nature. Then is it because women are bound to worship and obey men? I do not think so, because women worshipping men is just one part of the coin, the other part containing men worshipping women. As I said earlier, worship in Hinduism is not bowing before an image, idol or human. Worship means realizing respect, love and faith all together. And it is this form of worship that existed in every Hindu family. Surely, this is one of the important fact that held Hindu families intact.
The natural reasons start from the way the partners start their relations. The two genders are created by nature to realize an important aspect of the same nature – Sex. Every creature had this capacity, but all other creatures than human practiced it only under natural influence and for the pure purpose of reproduction. And obviously, the act is momentary in nature. Thus, Hindus seriously believe that Sex as considered as physical enjoyment is temporary in nature and if practiced in an uncontrolled and unnatural manner takes away mental peace and strength required to hold family intact. Thus, premarital sex and extramarital affairs was not allowed and is looked at with disregard even today. Among the marriage partners too, sex was not a very important aspect and depended upon the moods of partners. For a Hindu woman what is more important is holding on the value of virginity (Virginity in natural terms means biological virgin, but in philosophical terms it meant holding the values of the family she belonged to, maintaining the reputation that she held a strong concern about her life and prestige of her family) and delivering all to one and only one man, a man who is a partner of life-time and not one time sex partner. Sex is the last thing to be given to the partner, as it is a power of a creature that can produce life. This power was not taken granted by Hindus, and they always were of the opinion that no scientific power can also achieve the greatness of producing life. And hence, proper utilization of this power was a necessary condition. And to make this act a respectable realization, the power was even attached to one of the deities. And this respect created an atmosphere where it was possible only after marriage and with husband alone. The relationship was further strengthened by the meaning of God attached to each of the partners, thereby making sure that no other individual proved to be superior to a woman than her husband and she ever remained committed to her husband. A similar meaning of Goddess was attached to the woman keeping the man in boundary of belongingness. Moreover, this had a very positive impact on the society in terms of health and morale of child produced. There used to be nearly no health hazards due to sex, forget about AIDS and other western world gift of sexual diseases. Children produced used to be of pure nature and were not impacted by the temptations of sex and other harmful manners.
The way Hindu marriage takes place play a very important role in keeping the family intact. Love marriage was there but not too common in practice and most of the times, it used to be arranged marriage.
There exists a difference between the two types of marriages. While love marriage takes place because partners know each other, as it seems to them for few years, and decides to get into the boundaries of marriage. And here lies the weakness of love marriage; the couple thinks that they should get bound by marriage, when actually they are already bound. Thus, they fail to understand the boundaries and its meanings as they have unknowingly already gone through it. Another drawback of love marriage is that in most of the cases love is not formed out of understanding; it is formed out of attraction. It is the attraction that binds two individual for some moment, at least till before marriage. After marriage the illusion breaks the two persons come to their reality. If they both are of same nature or either of them is adjusting, the relation persists, else they part. Thus, having an adjusting nature as one's own character is a necessary condition for the stability of love marriage, which is not realized during the illusion of attraction which always sees compromise to meet adjustment.
Unlike love marriage, arrange marriage starts with an understanding and adjustments preset in mind. Though it appears that this adjustment is done mostly by the girl, in reality both partners make this adjustment. The girl has to go and fit in the space of husband and his family, while the husband and his family have to create space for the girl to fit in. Love follows through the committed nature of the wife and this love is not an attraction, it is a responsibility and overall it is a relation that has started with the name of God and develops so deep that even if the partners are to extreme opposite natures, they do not depart and learn to live together in support of each other. Thus, there is no illusion, no preset conditions that is required for the stability of the family formed out of arranged marriage, it is simply out of high value process, and they live together life long.
The only concept wrongly introduced into arranged marriage is dowry. In fact, dowry was never a drawback in ancient Hindu society. To my knowledge, there was no concept as dowry at all or else I would have found the word 'Dahej' (the Hindi word for Dowry) many times in myths – I did not find it even for a single instance. Dowry is the name given by English historians and Long Leaders of this country to ensure that Hindus have one more criminalized practice in their religion. Hindus never knew Dowry. The practice of Hindus was based on 'Kanya Dan' meaning donating the daughter. This again looks bad – but it simply means the 'Daughter have to start a new life hereafter, her husband being her primary responsibility'. 'Kanya Dan' is a phase of change of life from being under parenthood to being a parent. Thus, this was an important stage of life, which if it was not deep routed; families in Hindus would have also seen the fate of Muslims and Christians. And hence there were ceremonies and rituals attached to this, ceremonies to cherish the start of a new life and rituals to start it with purity and firmness and under the support of God. It is important to understand that woman after marriage goes to the husband's house and husband's house is her own house thereafter. She dedicates the rest of her life towards the benefits of her husband and does all that is within her capacity to see that it flourishes to the maximum. And hence, woman is called as 'Goddess Laxmi' of every house.
Indian societies, as per law, had the practice of dividing parental properties only among the sons and not daughters. And thus, daughters enjoyed property of her husband and no of her brother, keeping in view that a balance was required as her brother would also have a family to hold and her share in it would reduce his strength. Even today, this is a general culture and not a necessary religious law. And hence, as a parenthood out of love for the daughter, parents used to furnish their daughter with as much richness as possible so as to make sure it did not effect son's share, though in Indian families of high values brothers were ever ready to sacrifice everything for their sisters. And the offerings were taken as gift of love by the parents of husband side. Nothing seems to be wrong by now, as all is happening by mere feeling of love and sacrifice.
Slowly in modern India, this offering took shape of demand from the husband side. How, when and where it started – no one knows. But it started only in recent centuries during late British invasion. Probably, seeing this high culture of love and sacrifice, English Historians through their devastating imagination, first gave it a shape of dowry on papers, which passed on as information down to the societies rich and poor who were fighting for their own existence and had little to ponder on their original values. Anyway, what is given a name of dowry was simply an instance of love within a family.
No doubt, this has taken to somewhat a bad shape now days in some of the families. But even now, dowry is not a hard and fast rule followed during marriage by all families – it is still a gift without demand. Government and law, if finds it wrong, they are themselves incomplete to implement the equality practice of parental property being distributed to the girls as well. And many times, the media makes a hype of events that are occasional and impose it to the whole community practicing it.
DEATH RITUALS
Hindu science has realized that every creature is composed of five basic elements (Panch Mahabhuta): Sky, Fire, Air, Water and Earth (Described in detail in Chapter 'A Hindu God'). The science says that death is a phase of transformation, which cannot take place effectively unless the composing elements are disintegrated back to its originality. If the body is cremated, it would be a process of submission of body only to the earth. And hence, the process of burning was accepted which allows the Sky, Air and Fire part of the body to disintegrate to their respective elements immediately during burning. The remnant thereafter is earth, which is then allowed to be submerged in River, disintegration to get further back into Water and Earth elements.
Moreover, the long process of Ritual brings in the families together, helping the effected family to complete the process, which goes on for at least 10 days. One of the major reasons of having a long phase ritual was to allow the family under the coverage of other relatives, settle against the setback. Though the pain remains, but the family learns to live further and live without any negative attitude developed due to the incidence.
TEMPLES – IS IT JUST FOR WORSHIP
It first appears to people that Hindus go to temple just for worship, and worship idols. The perception is one of the many threads that bind a Hindu to the temple.
If one sees the shape of the temple and the way it is build nearly always with stone, one would surely develop some meaning out of this. The shape and the use of stone together keep the temple cool at all temperatures. Moreover, use of water inside it by the worshippers further cools it. Thus, Hindus also go to temples during day hours, particularly in summer to find naturally cool and peaceful place.
Temple in India has always proven to be the best Stress reliever. People undergoing to whatever level of stress, simply visit the Temple, render some prayers with their heart and faith and find peace by staying there for some hours. Thus, we have seldom found people in India committing suicide, barring for those who have adapted to western philosophies. As the stress gets controlled, many more unsolved health problems, emerging in modern world are yet absent among Hindus.
HINDUISM – THE TRUE WAY OF LIFE
Truth is simple and eternal. Truth does not require any cosmetic to show off itself. Truth is what is holding the world. But, when truth requires another truth to prove itself, when truth is not accepted as simple as it is, we find people adding the word 'True' before the fact truth. Thus, when western people didn't know that Earth was spherical and some notion of it being spherical developed – people were found to be saying 'The earth is truly spherical'. Thus, to falsify a false belief that was truth in the mind of people, we use the related words of truth in order to emphasize upon the reality. The earth is spherical is enough to say that it is simply spherical. But the usage of word 'truly' enforces knowledge upon ignorance. Many times the emphasized usage of such words becomes a habit and this is well understood by people then. Thus, Hinduism is a way of life – was simple enough to speak about its truth. But, when other religions repeat this for their religion also, it seems like the say 'way of life' is stolen or made common. And hence, it now requires differentiating Hinduism again on the same ground. Thus, the topic here has to be now 'The True Way of Life'.
The life-style of Hindus is configured more as per the rules of Vedas, as propagated to them through saints. As the world of chemistry and biology are secrets of nature unfolded in the world of materialism, so are the Vedas facts of nature unfolded in the world of both material and non-material. While it becomes meaningless now to remember who found which Chemical element and compound, and the whole focus remains on understanding the Chemistry world, so do the Vedas overall focus is to develop humans to the heights of God. The saints in India undergo years of studies and Yoga practices in places like Himalayas, before attaining to saint hood. They then come back to the normal life stream, with the single idea of making people healthier in understanding and leading their life. Thus, unlike all other religions and societies of world, Hindu saints run trusts purely for the purpose of promoting a healthier life-style, among the Hindus particularly. Unlike all the trust of Muslims and Christians, who use their fund for conversion, these trusts of saints help poor and ill section of the society to come up to normal life-stream. They do not teach anything that goes against Islam or Christianity or against any other religion of the world. They even do not talk anything about Hinduism. They are the greatest philosophers of the world and they teach only life-styles.
Thus, the societies of Hindus are formed by these saints and the saints in turns are formed by Vedas. The society practices Vegetarianism, at least by the knower of Vedas or true followers of these saints, they believe in God, they believe in peace, they believe in humanity, they have pity for animals and other creatures of earth, they understand the importance of life of all existence on earth. Hence, they prove to be the most peaceful and tolerant society on earth.
No other religion on earth has such unbiased existence, and this makes Hinduism as a way of life. It is not a statement, just for say. The statement has its presence in every house of a Hindu.
And this is the reason, highest personalities like Sri Aurobindo and Swami Vivekanand, had to say that if India has to rise again, it has only option to take shelter of Vedas. Because, Vedas are books of highest values, and greatest natural science and no other religion or book in the world can bring in identity or leadership to Hindus than Vedas. Vedas are our originality and we can lead the world only in our original foundations. In all other methodologies, we would simply be the followers. Our identity remains in retaining and promoting what we have. We lose ourselves in order to follow the faiths and practices of other countries, which actually stands far immature in contrast to Vedic formulations.
I do not say that a Hindu should stop learning of western cultures. I simply say that Hindu should not let western culture indulge in their culture. Under the modern education system, as already in practice a Hindu should additionally go ahead to learn Vedic science so as to realize the better part of modern education. For Hinduism is all about eliminating ignorance with the light of knowledge and the highest knowledge of all sciences, the deepest and the purest is the knowledge of Supreme for a Hindu, that can be realized by direct perception, endowed with immense merit and of imperishable nature.
Being a science graduate and a regular reader of scientific researches, it was hard for me to initially grasp certain concepts. But as I went more into my religion, the so called Hinduism, I realized that science has a very long way to go towards realizing life and death, before they outreach a Hindu ideology. I have tried to reason out some of Hindu rituals and these reasons are purely Vedic, put in my own words. I have honestly accepted the wrong that is practiced and more honestly elaborated the right that is there actually in the scriptures of Hindus.
OFFERINGS AND SACRIFICES
One year after my marriage, I along with my wife, went to a holy place of Lord Shiva, 'Baski Nath' in Bihar. We worshipped together, and when we came out of temple, to my surprise and dismay, what I saw was something I had heard from the critics. I saw, priests performing sacrifice of a goat. It was shocking for me as I saw them chopping off the creature and I saw such barbarism first time in around a temple. Hence, I was impacted deeply and my ideologies got challenged. I could not accept this as a part of my religion. I was never taught, at least, by my known ones about this. I always learnt that this religion suggested vegetarianism on top of everything. But this killing was done by the very priest, whom we believe. I told my wife, 'I don't feel like coming to this place again, unless I know the truth – the truth of the religion I believe.' And I opened the books of highest regards again for answers – 'Bhagwad Geeta' and 'Vedas'. I had been reading them earlier, but had never come across any text that said of killing in the name of God. I intensified my research on this – How did this happen then, if it is not in the religion? I went to various temples in various towns and met many priests. I interacted deeply with them and tried to understand their background as well in addition to their knowledge about the holy books. And soon, I understood where the mistake was.
First thing that I found was that not all priests were Brahmins by birth. They had acquired the profession as they found it easy to support the livelihood without any illegal means. This was religiously not challenged, as the religion described Brahminism (knower of Brahma or creator) only by deeds and knowledge and never by birth. This was confirmed by following scripture of Bhagwad Geeta, Chapter IV, Verse 13.
'The fourfold caste was created by the differentiation of Guna (knowledge and behavior) and Karma (actions and deeds).'
Second, I found that not all priests, Brahmin or non-Brahmin, had profound and exact knowledge as in Hindu texts. They learned some of the verses and some of the commonly known philosophies, some rituals and some behaviors following which they became unquestionable priests.
Third and most astonishing of all was intrusion of political activists and external religions to defame the whole religion in a planned manner. There were few instances of Political relations with the priests and criminal incidences attached in some manner at those places. Anyway, my purpose was not to investigate and help law, my intention was to derive information regarding causes of such inhuman acts that went against my understanding of Hindu religion.
Anyway, I would depict the texts of Bhagwad Geeta to show what the religion actually says about sacrifices and offerings; following are the quotes from Chapter IV.
'The process of Brahman, the clarified butter is Brahman, offered by Brahman in the fire of Brahman; by seeing Brahman in action, he reaches Brahman alone.' – Verse 24.
The book first establishes a reason behind those sacrifices and beliefs. It says – first important thing is to understand that we act as per our perception and attitude. The ultimate goal achieved is totally based on our own configuration of understanding, nature and actions. Brahman is a stage of ultimate knowledge about Life, God and Creation. And even the stage of Brahman is achieved by rendering ourselves, dedicating our desire (that burns as fire within us), our vision and actions towards the process of Brahman. Here, starts the concept of offering, offering the very self to a Brahman, if Brahman is the fire (desire) within to be achieved.
'Some Yogis perform sacrifices to Devas alone, while others offer the self as sacrifice by the self in the fire of Brahman alone'. Verse 25.
First part of the sentence starts talking about sacrifice to Deities, but do not clarify what is sacrificed. The second part reflect similar offering as in previous verse –the self sacrifice in the fire of knowledge (Complete dedication towards learning of truth).
'Some again offer hearing and other sense as sacrifice in the fire of control, while others offer sound and other sense-object as sacrifice in the fire of the senses.' – Verse 26.
It requires deeper knowledge to understand 'sacrifice of sense-object in the fire of senses'. Vedas describes five basic work-sense organs and another five knowledge-sense organs. It describes the objectives of these sense organs and also binds them to the mind and ego of a person. Above sentence, by using 'fire' as a metaphor, indicates that it requires huge effort and continuous practice to control our mind's motivation driven by the senses. In order to attain this control, a person has to sacrifice many desires and concentrate on the self, which is what the true meaning of Yoga is – as we will see ahead.
'Some again offer all the actions of senses and the functions of the vital energy, as sacrifice in the fire of control in Self, kindled by knowledge'. – Verse 27.
Again it requires understanding what the actions of senses are and how are they different from the senses itself. What is meant above by vital energy? I have already mentioned above about 'fire' being correlated to the power of control in self.
'Others again offer wealth, austerity, and Yoga, as sacrifice, while still others, of self-restraint and rigid vows, offer study of the scriptures and knowledge, as sacrifice' – Verse 28.
And last of all, it has mentioned few of the practices performed in those days, when Bhagwad Geeta was written, some 5000 years ago. People at most offered wealth, austerity and rigid vows as sacrifice. Probably, this was the limit as further in the whole book; I never found anything about killing of animals as sacrifice. I have, thus every reason to believe that the practices has come into practice only after invasions.
It is also noticeable from the above texts, that no where does the texts tries to create boundaries. Unlike all other religions of the world, we never find Hinduism talking that you cannot do this or you are bound to do that. This is the first step towards creating a tolerant society. The detailed description of life, living styles, human, God and creations opens the mind of followers, leaving them in a positive mode of ever-growing knowledge and ever-improving attitude and life-style. This is the second important aspect of the religion that confirms peace in the society.
Anyway, what I found in the books was exactly what I had known about the religion. There was nothing about killing of animals and the knowledge was astoundingly of highest level, as I had always known.
Moreover, offerings and sacrifices as a culture inculcates a very positive attitude in individual and binds the society on ground of human values. I wonder how pure would be those days when people respected Brahmins and Brahmins would live upon the 'Dan-Dakshina' of people. The corrupted English version of 'Dan-Dakshina', is 'Donation-Commission'. Actually, now we find people criticizing Brahmins for asking 'Dakshina' and they immediately categorize them as greedy. Unfortunately, they have forgotten that it is our culture to look beyond the greed of holding more and more property and help growth of healthy society. The first attitude that builds with the practice of 'Dan' is that we get freed from the feeling of Greed and attitude of holding things. The west practices the pride to take and hold, while we practice the pride to give and get satisfied. The power to give ('Dan') immediately takes our attitude to build satisfaction with whatever we hold – this is the hardest thing we find in the world to be gained – and it was so easily achievable in the ancient Hindu culture. There are numerous examples of such powers, Raja Daksh, Raja Harishchandra are very well known names, for example. The power to give also confirms with one's ability to hold the power to build. Every individual, irrespective of their Varna, had the power to give 'Dan'. This practice had many indirect attitude build effect in disguise. Respect towards Brahmins and poor immediately killed individual arrogance and helped him to learn and earn more and live a satisfied life. Fortunately, it still exists in some shape – what is needed is to regain it with respect and in pure forms. This might look absurd to people brought up under western education style, but let them then come up with a suggestion of how would they evolve a culture of highly satisfied society, a society that knew to respect Worshippers of Lord, a society that knew to regard Guru and elders, a society that had every children free from diseases and mental illness.
COW WORSHIP
Hindus do not only worship Cows. They worship countless creatures and things around. Before commenting on this as an insane activity or meaningless act, one must first define what they exactly mean by worship. Having done that, they would end up in discovering a big gap between the meaning of worship in Hinduism and in other religions. For Hindus, worship is a shape of highest regard, love and faith. These three things are required by every individual irrespective of religion, region, beliefs, color or creed to exist. Thus, a Hindu would worship his parents, teachers, natural powers, and overall God with true understanding. The question remains – why cow?
According to Hindu philosophy, there are at least six kinds of mother:
1. Mother who gave birth
2. Mother who brought us up: Often mother who gave birth also brings us up, but is not necessary case and hence who brings us up is a mother.
3. Mother who is source of our life: Those natural powers which are feminine in nature, like power of a woman, love of a mother, etc., often worshipped as Deities.
4. Mother who holds us as we are: Our motherland, which has fed us without any condition
5. Mother who feeds us: The Cow who feeds us throughout our life
6. Mother who is seen as a mother by others: Our 'Guru' mother, our friend's mother, any woman who is a mother, any elderly lady, etc.
Thus, Hindus consider Cow as mother. Motherhood according to Hindus is the greatest relation and of highest regard – higher than the understanding of God. In fact, Hindu philosophy has proven that God cannot be realized without the love for mother. The very basis of our existence is our mother. Hindus respects and worships not only this relation, but also the responsibilities and feelings that this relation holds. A mother gives birth to a child, brings him up, feeds him, enlightens him, and supports him in all circumstances (good or bad). Cow is one among all animals who feeds us throughout her life. There are huge numbers of milk products that we consume throughout our lives. Children, who do not get their mother's feed, often are supported by cow milk. Hence, cow milk is one primary food that supports our life system.
And it is not just for the reason of feeding, Hindus worship cow. Cow is a natural power as well. Hindus used to wash their house with Cow Dung, a very healthy methodology to keep diseases away. Urine of Cow is used in curing many deadly diseases including cancer.
It is just not the usage for which Hindus worship cow. Cow is one of the most humble and harmless animal. Hindus are not brutal who would just overlook the suffering of these humble creatures for the sake of their dirty taste of tongue of which there is no end. Hindus realize that these creatures are as live as us, and they suffer as deep as us. Thus, if they are responsible in holding our life, they are worth worshipping as our own mother. This is a value for a Hindu, a value that helps a Hindu to deliver high contribution towards human society also. Such morality of social betterment starts developing from awareness of these things.
Unlike the west, where every human pet dogs and cats, Hindus used to pet cows. It is up to the thinkers to decide which is better – living with cats and dogs or living with cows. We very evidently find the result of reducing cows in the country in terms of consumption of contaminated milk and milk products. On 11th July 2007, India TV had released news related to Animal Fats being used in production of 'Ghee' in huge quantity all over the nation, and largely at 'Aligarh – Uttar Pradesh'. It is but obvious that demand of 'Ghee' and milk products ever remains as they are life supporting food in India. But to meet the demand, there are not enough cows left to provide sufficient milk – the alternative is ready – take out fats from killed cows and other animals, process it and present it to the nation as a Milk Product. It is up to the people of this nation to decide – they want to have pure Milk from Mother Cow, or they want to feast on Fat Milk from Dead Animal.
MARRIAGES, SEX AND DOWRY
The world knows that Hindu families are the strongest families, in the sense nearly all cases they do not break apart. What is the secret behind this? Is it because this is a mail dominated society? I do not think so – there is no society as much dominated by mails as Muslim society, but they are not stable in nature. Then is it because women are bound to worship and obey men? I do not think so, because women worshipping men is just one part of the coin, the other part containing men worshipping women. As I said earlier, worship in Hinduism is not bowing before an image, idol or human. Worship means realizing respect, love and faith all together. And it is this form of worship that existed in every Hindu family. Surely, this is one of the important fact that held Hindu families intact.
The natural reasons start from the way the partners start their relations. The two genders are created by nature to realize an important aspect of the same nature – Sex. Every creature had this capacity, but all other creatures than human practiced it only under natural influence and for the pure purpose of reproduction. And obviously, the act is momentary in nature. Thus, Hindus seriously believe that Sex as considered as physical enjoyment is temporary in nature and if practiced in an uncontrolled and unnatural manner takes away mental peace and strength required to hold family intact. Thus, premarital sex and extramarital affairs was not allowed and is looked at with disregard even today. Among the marriage partners too, sex was not a very important aspect and depended upon the moods of partners. For a Hindu woman what is more important is holding on the value of virginity (Virginity in natural terms means biological virgin, but in philosophical terms it meant holding the values of the family she belonged to, maintaining the reputation that she held a strong concern about her life and prestige of her family) and delivering all to one and only one man, a man who is a partner of life-time and not one time sex partner. Sex is the last thing to be given to the partner, as it is a power of a creature that can produce life. This power was not taken granted by Hindus, and they always were of the opinion that no scientific power can also achieve the greatness of producing life. And hence, proper utilization of this power was a necessary condition. And to make this act a respectable realization, the power was even attached to one of the deities. And this respect created an atmosphere where it was possible only after marriage and with husband alone. The relationship was further strengthened by the meaning of God attached to each of the partners, thereby making sure that no other individual proved to be superior to a woman than her husband and she ever remained committed to her husband. A similar meaning of Goddess was attached to the woman keeping the man in boundary of belongingness. Moreover, this had a very positive impact on the society in terms of health and morale of child produced. There used to be nearly no health hazards due to sex, forget about AIDS and other western world gift of sexual diseases. Children produced used to be of pure nature and were not impacted by the temptations of sex and other harmful manners.
The way Hindu marriage takes place play a very important role in keeping the family intact. Love marriage was there but not too common in practice and most of the times, it used to be arranged marriage.
There exists a difference between the two types of marriages. While love marriage takes place because partners know each other, as it seems to them for few years, and decides to get into the boundaries of marriage. And here lies the weakness of love marriage; the couple thinks that they should get bound by marriage, when actually they are already bound. Thus, they fail to understand the boundaries and its meanings as they have unknowingly already gone through it. Another drawback of love marriage is that in most of the cases love is not formed out of understanding; it is formed out of attraction. It is the attraction that binds two individual for some moment, at least till before marriage. After marriage the illusion breaks the two persons come to their reality. If they both are of same nature or either of them is adjusting, the relation persists, else they part. Thus, having an adjusting nature as one's own character is a necessary condition for the stability of love marriage, which is not realized during the illusion of attraction which always sees compromise to meet adjustment.
Unlike love marriage, arrange marriage starts with an understanding and adjustments preset in mind. Though it appears that this adjustment is done mostly by the girl, in reality both partners make this adjustment. The girl has to go and fit in the space of husband and his family, while the husband and his family have to create space for the girl to fit in. Love follows through the committed nature of the wife and this love is not an attraction, it is a responsibility and overall it is a relation that has started with the name of God and develops so deep that even if the partners are to extreme opposite natures, they do not depart and learn to live together in support of each other. Thus, there is no illusion, no preset conditions that is required for the stability of the family formed out of arranged marriage, it is simply out of high value process, and they live together life long.
The only concept wrongly introduced into arranged marriage is dowry. In fact, dowry was never a drawback in ancient Hindu society. To my knowledge, there was no concept as dowry at all or else I would have found the word 'Dahej' (the Hindi word for Dowry) many times in myths – I did not find it even for a single instance. Dowry is the name given by English historians and Long Leaders of this country to ensure that Hindus have one more criminalized practice in their religion. Hindus never knew Dowry. The practice of Hindus was based on 'Kanya Dan' meaning donating the daughter. This again looks bad – but it simply means the 'Daughter have to start a new life hereafter, her husband being her primary responsibility'. 'Kanya Dan' is a phase of change of life from being under parenthood to being a parent. Thus, this was an important stage of life, which if it was not deep routed; families in Hindus would have also seen the fate of Muslims and Christians. And hence there were ceremonies and rituals attached to this, ceremonies to cherish the start of a new life and rituals to start it with purity and firmness and under the support of God. It is important to understand that woman after marriage goes to the husband's house and husband's house is her own house thereafter. She dedicates the rest of her life towards the benefits of her husband and does all that is within her capacity to see that it flourishes to the maximum. And hence, woman is called as 'Goddess Laxmi' of every house.
Indian societies, as per law, had the practice of dividing parental properties only among the sons and not daughters. And thus, daughters enjoyed property of her husband and no of her brother, keeping in view that a balance was required as her brother would also have a family to hold and her share in it would reduce his strength. Even today, this is a general culture and not a necessary religious law. And hence, as a parenthood out of love for the daughter, parents used to furnish their daughter with as much richness as possible so as to make sure it did not effect son's share, though in Indian families of high values brothers were ever ready to sacrifice everything for their sisters. And the offerings were taken as gift of love by the parents of husband side. Nothing seems to be wrong by now, as all is happening by mere feeling of love and sacrifice.
Slowly in modern India, this offering took shape of demand from the husband side. How, when and where it started – no one knows. But it started only in recent centuries during late British invasion. Probably, seeing this high culture of love and sacrifice, English Historians through their devastating imagination, first gave it a shape of dowry on papers, which passed on as information down to the societies rich and poor who were fighting for their own existence and had little to ponder on their original values. Anyway, what is given a name of dowry was simply an instance of love within a family.
No doubt, this has taken to somewhat a bad shape now days in some of the families. But even now, dowry is not a hard and fast rule followed during marriage by all families – it is still a gift without demand. Government and law, if finds it wrong, they are themselves incomplete to implement the equality practice of parental property being distributed to the girls as well. And many times, the media makes a hype of events that are occasional and impose it to the whole community practicing it.
DEATH RITUALS
Hindu science has realized that every creature is composed of five basic elements (Panch Mahabhuta): Sky, Fire, Air, Water and Earth (Described in detail in Chapter 'A Hindu God'). The science says that death is a phase of transformation, which cannot take place effectively unless the composing elements are disintegrated back to its originality. If the body is cremated, it would be a process of submission of body only to the earth. And hence, the process of burning was accepted which allows the Sky, Air and Fire part of the body to disintegrate to their respective elements immediately during burning. The remnant thereafter is earth, which is then allowed to be submerged in River, disintegration to get further back into Water and Earth elements.
Moreover, the long process of Ritual brings in the families together, helping the effected family to complete the process, which goes on for at least 10 days. One of the major reasons of having a long phase ritual was to allow the family under the coverage of other relatives, settle against the setback. Though the pain remains, but the family learns to live further and live without any negative attitude developed due to the incidence.
TEMPLES – IS IT JUST FOR WORSHIP
It first appears to people that Hindus go to temple just for worship, and worship idols. The perception is one of the many threads that bind a Hindu to the temple.
If one sees the shape of the temple and the way it is build nearly always with stone, one would surely develop some meaning out of this. The shape and the use of stone together keep the temple cool at all temperatures. Moreover, use of water inside it by the worshippers further cools it. Thus, Hindus also go to temples during day hours, particularly in summer to find naturally cool and peaceful place.
Temple in India has always proven to be the best Stress reliever. People undergoing to whatever level of stress, simply visit the Temple, render some prayers with their heart and faith and find peace by staying there for some hours. Thus, we have seldom found people in India committing suicide, barring for those who have adapted to western philosophies. As the stress gets controlled, many more unsolved health problems, emerging in modern world are yet absent among Hindus.
HINDUISM – THE TRUE WAY OF LIFE
Truth is simple and eternal. Truth does not require any cosmetic to show off itself. Truth is what is holding the world. But, when truth requires another truth to prove itself, when truth is not accepted as simple as it is, we find people adding the word 'True' before the fact truth. Thus, when western people didn't know that Earth was spherical and some notion of it being spherical developed – people were found to be saying 'The earth is truly spherical'. Thus, to falsify a false belief that was truth in the mind of people, we use the related words of truth in order to emphasize upon the reality. The earth is spherical is enough to say that it is simply spherical. But the usage of word 'truly' enforces knowledge upon ignorance. Many times the emphasized usage of such words becomes a habit and this is well understood by people then. Thus, Hinduism is a way of life – was simple enough to speak about its truth. But, when other religions repeat this for their religion also, it seems like the say 'way of life' is stolen or made common. And hence, it now requires differentiating Hinduism again on the same ground. Thus, the topic here has to be now 'The True Way of Life'.
The life-style of Hindus is configured more as per the rules of Vedas, as propagated to them through saints. As the world of chemistry and biology are secrets of nature unfolded in the world of materialism, so are the Vedas facts of nature unfolded in the world of both material and non-material. While it becomes meaningless now to remember who found which Chemical element and compound, and the whole focus remains on understanding the Chemistry world, so do the Vedas overall focus is to develop humans to the heights of God. The saints in India undergo years of studies and Yoga practices in places like Himalayas, before attaining to saint hood. They then come back to the normal life stream, with the single idea of making people healthier in understanding and leading their life. Thus, unlike all other religions and societies of world, Hindu saints run trusts purely for the purpose of promoting a healthier life-style, among the Hindus particularly. Unlike all the trust of Muslims and Christians, who use their fund for conversion, these trusts of saints help poor and ill section of the society to come up to normal life-stream. They do not teach anything that goes against Islam or Christianity or against any other religion of the world. They even do not talk anything about Hinduism. They are the greatest philosophers of the world and they teach only life-styles.
Thus, the societies of Hindus are formed by these saints and the saints in turns are formed by Vedas. The society practices Vegetarianism, at least by the knower of Vedas or true followers of these saints, they believe in God, they believe in peace, they believe in humanity, they have pity for animals and other creatures of earth, they understand the importance of life of all existence on earth. Hence, they prove to be the most peaceful and tolerant society on earth.
No other religion on earth has such unbiased existence, and this makes Hinduism as a way of life. It is not a statement, just for say. The statement has its presence in every house of a Hindu.
And this is the reason, highest personalities like Sri Aurobindo and Swami Vivekanand, had to say that if India has to rise again, it has only option to take shelter of Vedas. Because, Vedas are books of highest values, and greatest natural science and no other religion or book in the world can bring in identity or leadership to Hindus than Vedas. Vedas are our originality and we can lead the world only in our original foundations. In all other methodologies, we would simply be the followers. Our identity remains in retaining and promoting what we have. We lose ourselves in order to follow the faiths and practices of other countries, which actually stands far immature in contrast to Vedic formulations.
I do not say that a Hindu should stop learning of western cultures. I simply say that Hindu should not let western culture indulge in their culture. Under the modern education system, as already in practice a Hindu should additionally go ahead to learn Vedic science so as to realize the better part of modern education. For Hinduism is all about eliminating ignorance with the light of knowledge and the highest knowledge of all sciences, the deepest and the purest is the knowledge of Supreme for a Hindu, that can be realized by direct perception, endowed with immense merit and of imperishable nature.
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