Swadhyaya: The Anti-Krishna

One day at home, I was looking at the Diwali 2008 booklet put together by the Association of United Hindu-Jain Temples, which comprises of 14+ organizations in the Washington DC area. One name was conspicuously missing - The Swadhyay Parivar. Why didn't it participate? Do they not celebrate Diwali? Of course they do? After it's leader received countless awards received from world-wide organizations ranging from Padma Vibhushan to the Templeton Prize, why was the organization so "small-potatoes". Swadhyaya founded by Pandurang Shastri Vaijnath Athavale AKA Dadaji in the 1950s.

In the DC area, for over 20 years they have been renting schools cafeterias/classrooms to conduct their teachings. Why haven't they established their own building? One could argue they are saving money to do good elsewhere?

One could argue, but one could also state the facts as they are.

Reincarnation

Reincarnation, literally "to be made flesh again", is a doctrine or metaphysical belief that some essential part of a living being survives death to be reborn in a new body. This cycle continues until the soul receives moksh.

Having stated this, my cousin, Krishna, and I were pondering about a particularly cheesy pick up line/scenario about having known someone in a previous life time (meeting in a pichla janam). While no guy has ever come up to me and said they knew me from a previous lifetime - if they had, as cynical as I am I probably wouldn't believe them. I'd have a laugh it off and move on. What if someone I knew from a previous life with whom my soul is connected to is out there somewhere?

Which brings on an experiment. I’ll try to connect with a random subject as their girlfriend/love interest from a previous life. Does this pick-up line work on guys? My subjects should only be flattered, I only consider guys that I think are attractive. Keep you posted.

Update 1:
Here's message sent to subject 1 - ", you probably don't remember, but we laid eyes on each other during a sunset at the Mela in a past life in an eastern Gujarati village. Our eyes met and there was an instant spark, a deep connection. We briefly spoke and you had to return to the neighboring village where you resided. You vowed to come again to the Carnival the next day, but star-crossed as we were, it didn’t happen. My then sister, Mangi, hypothesized it was due to those pesky ‘gaon vallons’ [our villages feuding and all] or the village gunda that had an unnatural interest in me. I think destiny has brought us back to acquaintance with each other. “Tera Mujhse Hai Pehle Ka Nata Koi…”? Jog any memories??
--- Jagruti from a previous life/ Sheel in this one"

Hindola

Hindola is an important Hindu festival celebrated in India. The festival falls in the Hindu month of Shravan, which can be July to September depending on the year.
This is a festival of swings, wherein Lord Krishna is placed in a decorated swing and swung gently. The festival originates from 5000 years ago in Vrindavan when Lord Krishna was swung in a hindola by the Gopis to express their love and affection towards him. Hindola translates to swing, which is made in a variety of colors, shapes and forms. The hindola can be decorated with vegetables, leaves, flowers, earthen pots, fruits, dry fruits, beans, chocolates, steel dishes and cups, etc.

As this blog tries to be informative as well as controversial. I'm going to ask the question, why the deal with Swaminarayan mandir's celebrating the Hindola festival. It's not like Swaminarayan was ever swung on swing by gopis. And I don't want to hear any made up stories either of devotees swinging him.

Draupadi was a picky woman...

Draupadi was a very picky lady..Can you blame the gal..she just wanted the best. If a soul like her is that demanding, than leaves little hope for us.

Draupadi is the wife of the Pandavas. She had in a previous lifetime prayed to Lord Shiva to grant her a husband with five desired qualities (Strong, Intelligent, Sharp witted, Handsome and a great archer). Lord Shiva, pleased with her devotion, tells her that it is very difficult to get a husband with all five qualities that she desired. But she sticks to her ground and asks for the same. Then Lord Shiva grants her wish saying that she would get the same in her next birth. She got them all right(be careful what you wish for). She got each of the five qualities she wanted, but one quality was present in one of the five husbands. She got five husbands.

It's crazy that "handsome" was part of her requirements in a good husband. If it's in the Mahabharat..you know all girls think like that and are somewhat shallow.

Could you imagine -- five husbands -- I could. Bet she was satisfied in more ways than one.. I of course mean, 5 salaries from the 5 husbands...

The 'British Raj' Influence

The British Raj left many marks upon India and Indians. One of which is the English language, which has become one of the countries official languages. The language has so become intertwined with the daily language --that you can't tell what are Indian words and what are British words.

My study of the Influence in our language started when I was reading the book, A Passage to India, in high school. I learnt of words that could possibly be of British origin that I thought were Indian. Like the word, tiffin -- who knew that the container we refer to as a tiffin, originated from the Brits.

Lets take the food item, "Ragda Petis" or "Ragda Patties" as I have recently realized it could possibly be hinting to. I am simply amazed that the thing I call Petis, could be referring to a Patties.

Like the word "jungle" which originate from the Hindi word, 'jangal', which means a rough, waterless place. I recently heard the word jungle being used in a bhajan and thought that they started to use English words, when I checked dictionary.com and realized that the word I thought was English was actually of Indian origin.

Another word/phrase I theorized about recently was "phoot", which is slang in Gujarati and it means "to get out of here". When I said phoot, I thought of my foot and how the British were probably telling the Indians "phoot", meaning to get out. Possibly starting a slang term, that is still being used by me. Amazing. Or I just have a lot of time on my hands to wonder.

Update (12/31): The word "punch" orignates from "paanch" meaning five, the number of ingredients in the drink, punch.

Ads Vying for the Indian Spending Power

With nearly $254 billion in annual buying power, Asian Americans are a powerful force in the U.S. consumer market. Over the past decade, their spending power has increased 125%, from $118 billion in 1990 to $253 billion in 2001. Over the same time period, the buying power for the U.S. as a whole increased by only 71%.

Source

This is probably why I'm seeing a lot of Ads being geared towards the Desi viewer lately.

Before the K-Fed Superbowl ads, Nationwide Insurance had the South-Asian centric ads on Desi Channels...these are my favorites (meaning there are more).
My Fav: Uncle Ko Bye Bolo


Others-
Mirror Mirror On the Wall

Hi, Cutie, Hello, Beauty

Nationwide isn't the first, but they are better to watch than the ones I've seen done before by New York Life Insurance, Wal-Mart, or others.

Facts and Figures
More Asian-Indian Americans (58%) hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, versus all Asian Americans (47%) and the U.S. population (27%).