Tag: Religion

The Ramcharitmanas is one of the most popular and celebrated devotional texts in India. It’s cultural and traditional significance stands even today.

Composed by the poet-saint Tulsidas in the sixteenth-century during a period of religious reforms, this text was instrumental in making the story of Ram, his feats against Ravan, and the values he stood for accessible to the common people as opposed to just the priestly class.

Rohini Chowdhury’s latest translation of the magnum opus makes it even more accessible to a new and wide readership. The story and its teachings are as relevant as ever in the world today.

Read on to find an excerpt from Rohini Chowdhury’s introduction, in which she conveys the enduring significance of this text and why she decided to translate it:

My own engagement with Tulsidas began one crisp autumn night fifty years ago in a small town by the banks of the Ganga, when I saw my first performance of the Ram Lila. The sky was sprinkled with stars but I had eyes only for the drama unfolding upon the crude wooden stage before me, where the story had reached a critical point: Hanuman’s tail was to be set on fire. The sets were crude, the costumes garish, the acting unsophisticated— but the story transcended all such concerns, such was its magic and power. I did not know it then, but that was also my first intimate encounter with the Ramcharitmanas, upon which the Ram Lila is based. Growing up, Tulsi’s poem was always around me—chanted in the homes of friends or neighbours, sung on the radio, or the theme of plays and dance dramas. So when the opportunity came to translate it into English for Penguin India, I accepted it with alacrity—and the last five years that I have spent walking behind Tulsi, one of the greatest literary minds of all time, have been a pleasure and a privilege. My translation does not do justice to Tulsi’s extraordinary poetic genius. His use of wordplay, his rhymes and alliteration, and the sheer musicality of his poem I have found impossible to capture in English. I have therefore contented myself with being as clear and accurate as possible in my translation, and to convey, to the best of my ability, the scale and grandeur of his great poem.

The Ramayana tradition

For at least the last two and a half thousand years, poets, writers, folk performers, and religious and social reformers have drawn upon the story of Ram as a source of inspiration. It has been told again and again in countless forms and dozens of languages, making it one of the most popular and enduring stories in the world. More than any other hero, Ram has been upheld as dharma personified, the epitome of righteousness, and his actions as the guide for right conduct. In recent times, the story has provided inspiration for films, novels, and in the late 1980s, a weekly television series watched by more than eighty million viewers.

The oldest and most influential surviving literary telling of the story of Ram is the Sanskrit epic called the Ramayana. Composed sometime during the first millennium bce, and consisting of some 50,000 lines in verse set in seven kands or books, it is attributed to the poet Valmiki, and is widely  regarded as the ‘original’. The influence of Valmiki’s Ramayana has been so profound that the title of his epic has come to denote the entire tradition, from oral and folk performances to literary texts and translations. Within this rich and varied tradition also lie the Ramayana songs from Telangana, the folk performances of the Ram Lila in northern India, the eleventh-century Tamil Iramavataram (‘The Incarnation of Ram’) by Kamban, and Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas.

Published across three volumes, this translation brings alive the story of Lord Ram like never before!

The vision of Guru Nanak, the fifteenth-century founder of the Sikh faith, celebrated the oneness of the Divine that both dwells within and transcends the endless diversity of life. Guru Nanak’s immaculate vision inspired the rich and inclusive philosophy of Sikhism, which is reflected in this exquisite and highly acclaimed translation of poems,Hymns of the Sikh Gurus, from the religion’s most sacred texts: the Guru Granth Sahib, the principal sacred text of the Sikh religion, which consists of poems and hymns by Guru Nanak, his successors and Hindu and Islamic saints; and the Dasam Granth, a collection of devotional verses composed by the tenth Sikh Guru.

Here are 6 things you learn about Sikh hymns from this book:

JAP, respectfully known as Japji, was composed by Guru Nanak. It is the first prayer in the Guru Granth, and encapsulates the fundamental philosophical and ethical beliefs of the Sikhs.

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SHABAD HAZARE, literally ‘Thousand Words’, is recited in the morning, along with the Jap. It is a combination of poetic pieces from different Gurus in different rags or melodic frameworks, which are therefore found in different sections of the Guru Granth.

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JAAP (with a long a) is a poetic offering to the Ultimate Reality. It is the obeisance to the Transcendent One by the Tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, and is from the Dasam Granth (Book of the Tenth Guru).

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SAVAYYE means quatrains. The ten Savayye that have been included in the Sikhs’ morning prayers are from Guru Gobind Singh’s Dasam Granth. They underscore devotion as the essence of religion.

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RAHIRAS is part of the evening service. It consists of hymns by Guru Nanak (including, with a slight variation, stanza 27, Sodar, from the Jap), Guru Ram Das and Guru Arjan.

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ARDAS (‘Petition’) is the basic prayer of the Sikhs which evolved as an anonymous composition within the community of the eighteenth century. It is recited while standing up.

Poetry from this highly revered texts is heard daily and at rites of passage and celebration in Sikh homes and gurudwaras, carrying forward the Sikh belief in the oneness and equality of all humanity.Read Hymns of the Sikh Gurus to know more about these.

When the Dalai Lama’s inner circle is set the task of providing His Holiness with a book that he can give his visitors, an unexpected volunteer stretches out her paws. The Dalai Lama’s Cat and The Four Paws of Spiritual Success summarises the four key elements of Tibetan Buddhism and, more importantly, communicates how it feels to be in the profoundly reassuring presence of His Holiness. And who better to do this than his much-loved feline?

Read on to know about what these four paws:

First Paw:
Without suffering there was no motivation to seek transcendence.

Our thoughts are like claws. They can be helpful when we turn our mind to things. Develop ideas. Set goals. Express emotions. But if we aren’t careful, these same thoughts can turn on us and become the sources of our greatest pain. They no longer help us take purposeful action, but instead become the cause of self- inflicted misery.

Second Paw:
Compassion has a calming effect on all those that it touched.

‘I am pleased she is offering love and compassion,’ the Dalai Lama continued. ‘Motivated by bodhicitta, this is one of the most important elements of our practice, is it not?’

Third Paw:
Wisdom eliminated the darkness of ignorance.

‘Wisdom is different. It involves the transmission of insights that have the capacity to change us.Only when we understand an insight deeply enough can it create change.At that point, knowledge becomes wisdom.’

Fourth Paw:
Everyone has the capacity for enlightenment.

 ‘Just to be born human is exceptional.’

If you have ever sought a summary of Tibetan Buddhist wisdom, albeit, from an unusual and whiskery source, The Dalai Lama’s Cat and the Four Paws of Spiritual Success is just the book to get you purring!

In his third book in the Spiritual Power series, author Gian Kumar delves deep into questions that bother us throughout our lives on the fundamental existence of God.  He unravels the complex issues that we remain entangled in till we become aware of the power of spiritual awakening. Gian Kumar writes, ‘To be spiritual is purely an internal relationship with oneself. It is how to make the mind consciously experience, realize and transform from one level to another.’

Spiritual Power: God and Beyond answers some of the most intricate and elusive questions known to man and in the process offers deeply meaningful life lessons that will enable you to unshackle your mind.

Read on for 5 lessons from the book that can change your perspective towards life:

Duality is the essence of life

An enlightened being has the power to rise above the eternal pursuit of desires and accept all that is good in life with the bad.

Can attitude alter our perception of life?

‘A positive attitude should be developed not by choice or selection in self-interest, but by an effortlessly balanced approach under awareness in any situation. A sense of appreciation settles, and you understand that the basic cause of all fears is nothing but your thoughts rising from your attachments and the means taken to attain those desires.’

Awareness is a weapon against negativity

The human mind is vulnerable to negative forces such as lust, greed, envy and jealousy that raise their ugly head in our relentless quest for more and better material pleasures.

Can these forces be vanquished?

‘Even strong efforts to think positively will only suppress those inner feelings of negativity, without eliminating them. Spirituality claims that you only need to become constantly aware and conscious of both positive and negative, and you shall effortlessly disengage from your negative urges.’

Life affirming choices lead us to success

The imminent transition of the world of commerce, from a wholly material dimension towards a spiritually enriched corporate culture, can create a thriving work force.

How can we create a more evolved work space?

‘It is not your machines, stock, or computers that are your real assets; it is the people behind them who are the prime resource to drive them. It is your investment in social and environmental responsibility that enriches your material life, helping you to evolve and transform into wholeness, which in turn reflects your superiority over competitors.’

Life is all about this moment  

Seeking happiness in the future creates a distance from the ‘witnessing-self’ that lives and breathes in the present moment as the experiential mind. Looking inward to meet this self is a firm step outside the boundaries of the physical body.

Can we govern the wayward thoughts that disrupt our present?

 ‘If you wish to know how to be devoid of unnecessary thoughts, first get to know more about your own thoughts, because there is no such thing as a thoughtless mind. Awareness and consciousness both require thoughts to interpret their presence. Both insist that the mind be more in the present, rather than in the past or future.’

Change is essential to evolution

Blindly following outdated traditions can create a divide between man and God and in order to awaken to the essence of this relationship, man must find God, guru and the self within.

Can we awaken to our own God?

‘Nothing is fixed in the world. Everything changes, expands and evolves. We too need to evolve from antiquated religious scriptures and traditions into a more fluid and dynamic spiritual humanism.’

Reflected in this deeply insightful and informative volume is author Gian Kumar’s approach to the inherent confusion and chaos underlying religion.  Spiritual Power: God and Beyond details a life defining move towards spirituality which not only offers a sanctuary of peace but also empowers the seeker to move away from the rigidity of archaic practices.

Read Spiritual Power: God and Beyond to tap into the hidden power source within you!

Chaturvedi Badrinath’s Dharma, edited by his daughter Tulsi Badrinath, is a comprehensive study on the concept of dharma. In this book, Badrinath actively dwells on the questions of Indian civilization, components of dharma and the contentious origin of the words ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hinduism’. Central to the perception of what substantiates dharma is the differentiation between ‘dharma’ and ‘religion’. The author iterates the error in the identification of the two terms that has come about over a span of time and emphasises that the two concepts have no point of intersection.

Here are a few pointers that illuminate how the question of religion is entirely different from that of dharma, in order to give you a head start into the book:

The author defines religion as a central belief system, where God is understood to be the creator of the universe and where there are scriptures and commandments illuminating the teachings of God. Dharma on the other hand, is unique in its understanding. It is the Indian understanding of Man and the way of the civilization that existed around him.

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The terms ‘religion’ and ‘dharma’ are untranslatable as they both belong to different cultures. The concept of religion came with the Catholic missionaries of the sixteenth century whose minds were ingrained with the understanding that religion is a unified system of beliefs of a community. However, dharma carries with it, a comparatively freer flowing concept which is central to the Indian thought of exploring the identity of Man. The concept of a ‘Hindu’ religion and ‘Hinduism’ itself is a false one constructed by the western thought in an attempt to quantify the Indian way of life.

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In the Atharva Veda, dharma is described as the “oldest customary order”. Unlike the concept of religion, dharma does not relate to a divine revelation or faith, it concerns itself with the questions of human life and the reality possessing it.

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The concept of transcendence is quite central to the understanding of dharma as opposed to the understanding of religion. Following this principle, it is derived that dharma does not encourage the binaries of good and evil, natural and unnatural or even human or inhuman, as in the case of religion. All the binaries are transcended into the realisation that these are merely just experiences in the wholesome comprehension of human life.

Thought provoking, perceptive and challenging many long-held notions, Dharma is a must-read for anyone who is interested in India, the interaction of different religions over centuries in this land, and the underlying unity of all life.