R. Radhakrishnan's Blog, page 8

Samaveda: The Veda of songs and melody.

The Vedas are divided into four main Vedas. The Samaveda is one of them. We, the Iyer community, may follow any one of the four Vedas in our worship and rituals. My family follows Yajurveda.

My wife’s family follows the Samaveda. I was not aware of the different Vedas and thought they were all the same. When I first attended an Upanaynam ceremony in my wife’s family. I noticed that the chanting of the Mantras was different; it was more of singing rather than just the chanting I was accust...

International Yoga Day. How can Yoga benefit you?

Yoga is a wonderful practice that can benefit your body, mind, and spirit.

Yoga is not a religious practice, but some people follow it religiously! LOL.

So, you don’t have to be a Hindu or leave your faith to practice Yoga. It is an exercise regime, which is easy to practice, requires very little equipment and anyone can practice. Of any age or gender. We are mainly talking about Hatha yoga, the physical practice of Yoga.

Yoga is one of the most popular and beneficial forms of exerc...

What are the Vedas and are they relevant today?

In an earlier blog, we looked at the terminology of Hinduism and the use of the term Sanathan Vedic Dharma. Let us now look at what are the oldest sacred literature of Hinduism. In fact, they are the oldest literature of India. They are the Vedas.

The Vedas are the oldest and most sacred scriptures of Hinduism, dating back to the 2nd millennium BCE.

They are composed of four collections of hymns, rituals, theologies, and philosophies that reveal the spiritual knowledge and wisdom of an...

How Parasurama created Kerala.

Parasurama was tired in both mind and body. Vidyudabhi, his axe was heavy in his hand and his heart heavier still.

He glanced at the blood-stained axe in his hand, whatever he did the blood could not be removed from the axe.

The great God Shiva had given him the axe and reluctantly taught him how to use it. Lord Shiva had warned him that giving in to emotions and searching for revenge would not soothe his grief or bring back his father, cruelly murdered by the Kshatriyas.

With Vidyud...

The Baby in the Basket, Karna

*Note for those who have come to my blog recently. This is one of the draft chapters from my book. Suggest and request that you read the earlier chapters before reading this.

The baby slept as Kunti let the basket float and the gentle river Ashwa carried him away.

The river carried the sleeping baby in the darkness of the night and handed him over to her sister, the river Charmanwati (present-day Chambal River).

Just before dawn, the basket reached the river Yamuna and the swift-flow...

The geography of the Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, along with the Ramayana. The epics, called Ithihasa (which means @” how it happened”), are a treasure trove of details about ancient life in India.

Some people have a tendency to disregard everything that is there in these epics as mythology or fantasy, not understanding the deep faith and meaning it has to multitudes in India. Much of our history is oral and when it is written also there are bound to be some exagger...

My new book.

This is based on my own experiences in using artificial intelligence. An overview of what is possible and what is not possible.

The Khazrana Ganesh Temple at Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

A long, long time ago as a young man, I landed up in Indore in one of my postings. To me, a Mumbai man, Indore, was a hick town. As they used to say in the pulp westerns I used to love, it was a one-horse town. Those were my first impressions but Indore would soon take my heart and I would love it almost as much as I love Mumbai.

But Indore was a gentle place, and the people were friendly and soon I was comfortable and at home in the small town in the heart of India.

I became one of t...

Artificial Intelligence for writers an overview.

The image above is made using the AI DALL.E of OpenAI.

It has become like a tower of babel, everyone is talking of AI and what it can do. They fill everyday social media, every day, with stuff and tall claims. Every day a new AI comes to the market and claims made and hyped till it seems AI is something new, a miracle that has just happened. There are fears and doomsday predictions that the human writer is now no longer needed.

Social media is full of people making claims to help you m...

A tale from the Adbhootha Ramayana

Narada goes to a Swyamvar as a suitor.

The Ramayana has many forms and versions. You may say just like Vishnu has many avatars the Ramayana also has many avatars.

The Adbhootha Ramayana is one such avatar and guess who the author is, it is Valmiki again.

We may say the Adbhootha Ramayana to be the female centric version of the Ramayana. They term it a Shakta text, one which gives prominence to Shakti, the female part of the cosmic power.

It is less well known, not as popular as the ...