Hinduism

Have you ever contemplated bringing your brain hemispheres into balance and why that would be beneficial? How about practicing yoga for the benefit of bringing harmony to your inner masculine and feminine natures?

For what are we living? What is the purpose of life? How does one live out life goals?

Rama is my new favorite Hindu deity to love. If you read up on Rama online you will see that he is depicted as the ultimate embodiment of truth, virtue, chivalry, honor—the “perfect human” so to speak.

I spent four months in a yogic immersion course in India. We chanted mantras for an hour every evening and then twice per month we chanted the entire Bhagavad Gita—which took 6 hours to complete. There were well over 100 people chanting together at any given time, and during the final month of the course we had the entire village assembled, chanting together for 8+ hours per day. I’ll tell you: the result of all this chanting was transformative to say the least.

The most popular story of Hanuman is that of Lord Rama (an incarnation of Vishnu) and his beloved wife, Sita—who was abducted by the demon king and rescued by Hanuman as an act of love and devotion.

Hari Krishna Hari Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hari Hari

Hari Ram Hari Ram

Ram Ram Hari Hari

I stood atop the first Vishnu temple I’d ever encountered in India, in the south, in Madurai. Upon entering the temple I was greeted by a priest who offered me leaves of tulsi and a few sugar cubes as an offering. I soon made my way up to the roof of the temple, after peering into the sanctuary. Though the inside was where worshippers gathered to “see the divine,” it was on the roof where I first encountered what I would call “Vishnu Consciousness” in me.

Hindu and Buddhist thought are based on a different set of assumptions than the Semitic religions. One major difference has to do with the meaning of rituals. A ritual in the Vedic traditions (Hindu and Buddhism) is spiritual because it demands mindfulness. In the developed world especially, rituals often lose their spiritual meaning and decay into meaningless routines.