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Showing posts from January, 2025

Whitewashing the Hindu Religion

Someone was saying today that the Sati system is being misinterpreted. They said the funeral hymn just said that the woman should mourn the death of their husband and then go back to their life. I don't know the truth. I have yet to read those hymns. But Sati was prevalent in India as was Jauhar. The Sati system started during the Gupta era and ended in the 18th century when Raja Ram Mohan Roy went against fellow Hindus. He also fought and ended polygamy. I feel we are trying to whitewash the evils of our religion instead of accepting and improving it. Hindu religion persists because it is adaptive to current circumstances. Of course, there have been people who intentionally wrote translations of Hindu scriptures to malign Hinduism. They succeeded too. The previous governments had textbooks written with misinformation so that they could adversely affect fresh brains. Also, many quote the Manu Smriti and believe its contents are set in stone. We should instead, bring it up to the cu...
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Best app for Android phones - Clean Master from Cheetah Mobile

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There are many apps for Android by the name of Clean Master on the Play Store. But this post is about the best app for Android, the Clean Master from Cheetah Mobile. After five years of testing different multipurpose apps for Android maintenance, I concluded that the  Clean Master from Cheetah Mobile  is the best maintenance app. Not only general maintenance, Clean Master offers you much more than you can expect from a single app. Earlier, it felt that the "All in One for Android" was the best app out there for Android. But it turned out that the "All in One" app leaves out add-ins even after you remove the main app. Features built into the Clean Master app are available as add-ins in the All in One app for Android. The add-ins are not uninstalled when you uninstall the All in One app. I could not find a proper method to remove them as they were not visible in any App Managers. I had to do a factory reset of my phone, and that was when I acknowledged Clean Master a...
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Significance or Meaning of Swaha and Ithi in Sanskrit Mantras

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You might have noticed that all mantras begin with the sound of "OM". What you might have ignored or failed to notice is that mantras in Sanskrit end with "ithi" or "Swaha". Some of you end mantras with just a "Namah". Not to scare you, but if you fail to use "ithi" at end of each mantra or at the very end of any Stotra (hymn), the mantra & related offering (sacrifice or prasadam) doesn't reach the god being prayed. The word "ithi" marks the end of the mantra and urges gods to accept whatever you are offering. The word "swaha" is used more in homams (rituals where you put offerings/prasadam directly into the fire). Since people put offerings into the fire while saying "swaha", many of us associate it with "destruction". When anyone says "sab kuch swaha ho gaya (everything became swaha)", it does and should not be concluded that they lost things. It is a wrong notion that as...
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Analysis of Mahabharata Characters - Bhishma

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Bhishma is one of the powerful characters of the epic, Mahabharata that contains and shows a pious way of life to the mortals living on earth. I am starting this Analysis of Mahabharata Characters with Bhishma as he is the oldest character in the epic/saga and has tremendous influence on the other characters of Mahabharata. Bhishma was the son of king Shantanu and Ganga (the river Ganges in female form). Bhishma was considered one of the eight Vasus (rishis) who had to take birth on earth due to a curse. Before we analyze the character, let us take a quick look at the story of Bhishma according to the Mahabharata. Background Of Bhishma Bhismha is considered one of the eight Vasus who stole a cow named Kamadhenu from a sage. When the sage cursed them to take birth as humans, all Vasus asked for his forgiveness. The sage, for seven Vasus who helped the main Vasu to steal the cow, reduced the curse to death just after birth. However, the main Vasu who actually stole the cow was ...
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