Meaning: Liberation of oneself and service to humanity

This is also the Motto of Ramakrishna Mission which is based on the philosophy of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa. The main aim in the life of an individual is the liberation of oneself as well as to serve others. Each human being is gifted with enormous moral and spiritual potential. The only thing one has to do is work towards the discovery and development of that potential.

“When total freedom (liberation) is kept as our goal, and attempts made accordingly, values of pure love and selflessness are generated as positive side-effects of this sadhana. Welfare of the world, though not an aim in itself, is a natural fragrance of this endeavour. Seeking liberation is not ‘all or none’ phenomenon; it is a gradual process of realizing the blissful essence of everything in and around us.”

Meaning: One has to work for one’s own upliftment.
This should be your approach to understanding spiritual philosophy. Always do your duty and perform sacred acts. Your spiritual evolution is your own responsibility.

Though this word is used in the context of spirituality, it can be applied to our material world as well. Only with self-will can one accomplish his goal. Through this self-effort, one can make even the weirdest of his dreams come true. But it requires a display of courage, discipline, perseverance and hard work to be a winner. Help yourself!

Below is an abstract from The Gita to provide context to the word Uddharedatmanatmanam…

“Let a man lift himself by his own Self alone, let him not lower himself;
for this self alone is the friend of one self and this self alone is the enemy of oneself”
(Ch-VI-5 from The Gita)

For many, God is a magician who grants boons on request. But, thats not true! We have read about the great Kurukshetra, where Sri Krishna demonstrated the essence of Life. He delivered the Bhagavad Gita, and showed the way to Arjuna. He never took up arms, but gave the required clarity and stood by the side of righteous effort.

Sri Krishna makes it very clear that we are the ones who should perform the action, and the fruits will bear in time. There can be no results if there is no effort!

‘Santana Dharma’ means The Eternal Law

Santana Dharma is the traditional name for the Hindu religion. Santana means eternal, and the word Dharma is one that holds society together from disruption and disintegration.

The Hindu religion is traditionally referred as ‘Santana Dharma’ – The eternal religion. Here is an excerpt from ‘Hindu Blog‘…

It must be noted that the term ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hinduism’ is not found in any of the important ancient religious texts associated with Hinduism. The word ‘Hindu’ came into being with the arrival of Muslims invaders. They called the people who lived along the Sindhu River as ‘Hindu’ and the place ‘Hindustan.’ The term Hindu and Hinduism was first widely used by the British.

An impressive article on why we should thank Sanskrit has been well written on LifeDivine. Check it out sometime…

Meaning:
Oh God! Thou art the Giver of Life,
Remover of pain and sorrow,
The Bestower of happiness,
Oh! Creator of the Universe,
May we receive thy supreme sin-destroying light,
May Thou guide our intellect in the right direction.

This is a Rig Vedic mantra in the gayatri meter invoking the solar powers of evolution and enlightenment.

The Vedic concept of Saraswati was three-fold: First, she is like the sacred river which gave birth to the Aryan civilisation. Second, she was vak or speech personified, as expressed in the Rig Veda’s Vak Sukta . ‘Speech’ basically refers to the sacred-word or the Vedas themselves.

The third and most important aspect is Saraswati’s identification with Gayatri, although the Gayatri mantra is worship of the Sun-god, Suryanarayana. The Sun-god symbolises three female deities: Gayatri, Savitri and Saraswati, to be invoked in the morning, noon and evening respectively.

Ref: Experience Festival

# Andhra Pradesh: Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Tirupati.

# Bihar: Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University, Kameshwar Nagar, Darbhanga.

# Delhi:
– Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan (Deemed University), 56-57, Institutional Area, Janakpuri, New Delhi.
– Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi.

# Gujarat: Somnath Sanskrit University, Somnath Trust, BITCO Building, Prabas Patan, Somnath, Junagarh.

# Kerala: Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Sree Sankarapuram, Kalady, Ernakulam.

# Maharashtra: Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya,Baghela Bhawan, Sitalwadi, Mouda Road, Ramtek.

# Orissa: Shri Jagannath Sanskrit Vishvavidyalaya, Srivihar, Puri.

# Rajasthan: Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Rajasthan Sanskrit University, Vill – Madau (Muhana), Bhankrota, Jaipur.

# Uttar Pradesh: Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, Varanasi.

A page on “Academic Sanskrit Studies around the World” is available at myweb.uiowa.edu/pjai/Sanskrit/SanskritStudies.htm . It has been posted by Pankaj Jain.

Ref: Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan

Researchers believe Sanskrit and computers are a perfect fit. In 1985, Rick Briggs, a researcher for NASA, published a paper on the potential uses of Sanskrit as a machine language. Natural languages are basically too imprecise for use as machine languages, thus programmers have been forced to create artificial languages.

However, Briggs hailed Sanskrit as an exception. “Among the accomplishments of the [Sanskrit] grammarians can be reckoned a method for paraphrasing Sanskrit in a manner that is identical not only in essence but in form with current work in Artificial Intelligence. A natural language can serve as an artificial language also, and that much work in AI has been reinventing a wheel millennia old.”

Ref: Amritapuri

“No one is superior (ajyeshthasah) or inferior (akanishthasah). All are brothers (ete bhratarah). All should strive for the interest of all and should progress collectively (Saubhagaya sam vavridhuh)”.

Ref: Rig Veda

Meaning: Greed is the cause of sin.

Just as fire dries up a vessel of water, greed dries up the contentment of mind. When greed enters the mind, contentment is pushed out and when contentment comes in, greed has to beat a hasty retreat.

There is no limit for greed. It thirsts for more and more, and does not hesitate to snatch what belongs to others. The only way to remove greed from the mind is to cultivate the virtue of contentment.

Meaning: Entertain yourself with the wealth earned by your own hard-work through righteous means.

Ref: Tapovan Prasad (May ’07)

Namasté is an Ancient Sanskrit Blessing that means ‘The Divine in me, honours The Divine in you’

In other words, Namasté means ‘I bow to you.’ According to Hindu religion, the Brahman (Supreme Soul) exists in all living things. The folded palms placed before the chest symbolizes that the divinity in me and you are the same. The bowing down of the head and closing the eyes is worshiping the divinity in you.

Ref: Hindu Blog