Pushtimarg and Modern Science

The Spirit Molecule

2011-02-17T19:51:00.003Z

Society, Science and Spirituality - these are the three fundamental building blocks of human existence. Society : We are social animals. We long to interact with and serve other human beings and enrich our lives. Science : We have the curiosity to understand the nature and its elements and make best use of it to advance our existence. Spirituality : We have experienced at some point in time the

Great Books on Shuddhadwait Philosophy available online

2010-12-02T12:06:00.000Z

It is very important for any philosophically inclined person or a follower of a school of thought to revise the fundamental knowledge from time to time. There are a number of books written on the Shuddhadwait philosophy in the past 5 centuries. However many of them remain in the confines of private libraries of some individuals, temples or trusts of the descendants of the original founder of

Upvaas

2010-04-09T13:09:00.002Z

Tomorrow is Vallabhacharya's appearance day as it happens on the 11th called Varuthini Ekadashi. So if you are doing a fast, by all means do it, but most importantly do an Upvaas by either visiting one of his 84 Baithaks or studying his books and feeling close to him. It should be interesting to understand how this Upvaas (उपवास) phenomenon came into existence and then decide what is its

Compatibility of Religion and Science

2010-02-15T00:01:00.001Z

Religion and Science have been at odds since long in Europe. We know from the medieval history about the famous Galileo controversy where the Catholic Church prosecuted him and forced him to disown the heliocentric theory. To counter the brutal persecution of scientists by religious groups, some illuminati(enlightened) retaliated violently as depicted in the movie Angels and Demons starring Evan

Meet Shree Vallabh, the Microblogger, er the Twitterer of the medieval period

2010-01-07T12:27:00.007Z

The advent of the 21st century saw the rise of social media, the so-called web 2.0 which facilitated anyone with a computer and internet to publish their thoughts instantly for the entire world to read and comment. However, not everyone is interested or gifted to write a detailed articles or blog posts, that's where the microblogging phenomenon comes into picture. Twitter is an example of it as

Buddhi < Atma < Science

2009-07-05T11:00:00.026Z

The "Science-as-a-Saarathi" (Saas, different from Software-as-a-Service :) model) verse that I blogged about in the previous post, seems to be favorite to both Vallabhacharya and Yogi Gopeshvarji, as I came across another Brahmsutra 1-4-1-1 commentary where it is quoted.Ok, a little bit of background won't hurt. The first chapter of Brahmsutra/Anubhashya is concerned about learning the Swaroop (

Science as a Saarathi

2008-12-23T17:19:00.015Z

While reading Brahmasutra-Anubhashya-Prakaash-Rashmi, I came across this nice segment in the commentary on the Sutra 1-2-4-12 "विशेषणाच्च |" within the "गुहां प्रविष्टौ आत्मनौ इति" adhikaran 4 of the second section of volume 1.यस्त्वविज्ञानवान भवति अयुक्तेन मनसा सदा |तस्येन्द्रियाण्यवश्यानि दुष्टाश्र्वा इव सारथेः ||यस्तु विज्ञानवान भवति युक्तेन मनसा सदा |तस्येन्द्रियाणि वश्यानि सदश्र्वा इव सारथेः

Vitthaleshwar's Stay at Adel

2008-12-11T11:44:00.001Z

Some time back, I had posted a poll on "How many years did Vitthalnathji (Gusainji) live in Adel?" And the correct answer to that is 47 years. We also know that he had lived for a total of 70 years (1516-1586 AD) which includes around 5 years in Gadha near Jabalpur and the rest in Gokul and Vraj. Surprisingly, almost all the literary references that we normally come across are for his time in

Ujjain Baithak

2008-12-10T09:49:00.012Z

Ujjain or Avantika as known in the ancient times is one of the 12 sites in India that has a natural Jyotirlinga of Lord Shiva. It was home of the great Sanskrit poet Kalidas and the king Vikramaditya after whom the Vikram Samvant calendar system is based. It was also an active research center in mathematics and astronomy as exemplified by the contributions of Varahmihir, Bhaskar and Brahmgupta

Google Sightseeing of Baithaks

2008-05-15T03:00:00.005Z

Have you ever wished to visit a Baithak of Vallabhacharya but couldn't do so because of other engagements? Well, look no further as you can visit them right now. That's right, you can take the virtual tour through the Google Sightseeing on Wikimapia or Google Earth on your computer. Here are the latitude and longitude information of some of the Vallabhacharya's Baithaks : No. Place Latitude

Hajipur Baithak

2008-05-12T14:41:00.020Z

Today I am taking you to a tour of one of the most beautiful, enlightening, historically important and still one of the least visited places of Vallabhacharya's 84 Baithaks (seats of Shreemad Bhagavat recital). It is called Harihar Kshetra or presently Hajipur near Patna in Bihar and is easily approachable by any transport means. The Baithak provides a reasonably good facility for vaishnavs to

Mulchandra Telivala, The Unparalleled Scholar of Pushtimarg

2008-05-09T08:47:00.002Z

If someone were to ask me to pick up one Vaishnav form the entire history of Pushtimarg, it would be Mulchandra Telivala and not Damodardas Harsaniji! Now that would definitely raise eyebrows of many vaishnavs, as such a comparison is uncalled for and would require a separate blog post to justify it. But here we focus on the erudite scholar of Shuddhadwait Pushtimarg who dedicated his life to

Purushottamji, the pillar of Shuddhadwait Pushtimarg

2008-05-07T13:02:00.008Z

In the history of Pushtimarg, if you want to pick up the next most scholastic personality to Vallabhacharya, it has to be Shree Purushottamji (1668-1726*). He was born in Gokul as a seventh generation descendant of Vallabhacharya and moved to Surat at the age of 13 along with his uncle Shree Vrajrajaji. There is an anecdote associated with how he achieved his scholarship early on, but without

Three Scientific Personalities of Pushtimarg

2008-05-05T16:22:00.000Z

As you know this blog is about the connection between Pushtimarg and the modern science - two quite orthogonal looking fields of human endeavor. Well, what I am going to write today is about the individuals across the last five centuries who shared an interest in both these fields and exhibited it in their works.Based on my limited understanding of the vast literature and historical evidences of

530th appearance day of Vallabh, the Professor

2008-05-02T11:15:00.006Z

The medieval time is full of great figures who appeared on this planet and sowed the seeds of our knowledge and well-being that we cherish today. There were some great people across the Europe doing great work in Mathematics, Astronomy, Mechanics, Arts, Philosophy etc. Some of my favourites are Cardon, Ferrari (who were the first to solve the qubic and quartic equations), Magellan (who discovered

Gyan or Knowledge acquisition

2005-11-14T17:22:00.000Z

Today, i am gonna draw a parallel between the Ancient and Modern methods of knowledge acquisitions. In the Vedic disciplines, the knowledge is acquired through this quadruplet : Praman, Pramey, Sadhan, Fal. Praman is the basis of the process, Pramey is the object of knowledge, Sadhan is the means of acquiring the knowledge and Fal is the result of following the process. First the Pramey is

Which Bethakji's pictures are these ?

2005-10-14T21:52:00.000Z

Let me see if some of you have visited this superbly beautiful Bethakji of Shree Vallabhacharya Mahaprabhuji. For those who do not know, Bethakji is a place where Shree Vallabhacharya stayed on for some time during his tour-de-world 500 years ago and recited the nector of divine love as described in Shree Subodhini as well as participated in debates, solved problems of local saintly persons and

Balancing the act : Philosophy and Devotion

2005-10-01T20:33:00.001Z

Shree Vallabhacharya had taken a very systematic approach to exemplify the socio-sciento-spiritual advancement of an individual. In his early childhood and youth, he studied all the major disciplines of then-existing knowledge (Vedas, Upnishads, Darshans, Vedangs, other philosophies like Baudh, Jain, Charvak etc). And soon after he set off to tour whole Indian subcontinent to strengthen his

Krushnah Sevyam

2005-06-28T21:01:00.000Z

Shastram avagatyam mano-vak-deheih Krushnah sevyahIt is very important to understand the purpose of understanding the scriptures - ancient and modern. One can understand them for several reasons - to satisfy one's personal, social, business or academic or even military needs. However the most important purpose that Shree Vallabhacharya instructs us is to serve Krushna - the Supreme Lord of the

Shastram definition

2005-06-16T17:21:00.000Z

In the Anubhashya, Shree Mahaprabhuji defines Shastram while giving commentary on the First Chapter, First Section, Second Sutra "Janmadyasya yatah shastrayonitvat" as :Shaastiti (Shaasti iti) shastram vedah |That which governs is the Shastram as per the Vedas.Shree Navneetpriya Shastriji in his book Pushti-Pulin, also quotes similar definition "shansati it shastram".As per this defintion, the

Shastram - scriptures

2005-06-03T02:46:00.000Z

Shastram avagatyam mano-vak-deheih Krushnah sevyah (Having understood the scriptures, serve Shree Krushna with mind, speech and body)This is the major premise of Pushtimarg according to Pu. Go. 108 Shree Shyammanoharji, from which all other minor premises are drawn. During the time of Shree Mahaprabhuji, shastram was referred to mainly of the Vedic texts which includes among others the four Vedas

Check your knowledge

2005-06-01T04:47:00.000Z

Shree Vallabhacharya's commentary on Brahmsutra of Vyasdev is known by Shastrarth Prakaran Tattvarth Dip Nibandh Anubhashya Subodhini

Society, Science and Spirituality

2005-06-01T01:23:00.000Z

Universal Vision :"The complete cosmic manifestation coexisting blissfully and harmoniously while relishing the divine Rasa"This is possible if we focus on "Socio-Sciento-Spiritual Advancement" i.e. social responsiveness multiplied by scientific inquisitiveness multiplied by spiritual understanding. Such a unique system of thought and practice was established by our great Acharya Mahaprabhuji