Indian Culture

In Tamil language, "Anbe Sivam", means "Love is God" meaning, being compassionate, loving and serving fellow human beings is considered akin to God.  Tiruvannamalai is a beautiful and ancient temple town dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is named after the central deity Annamalaiyar or Lord Arunachalam. Its in Tamil Nadu, about 200kms south east of Bangalore and 100kms west of Pondichery. It took me almost 8 hours to drive on my motorbike slowly from Bangalore in day and night through forested areas with lots of breaks. The temple complex covers an area of 25 acres, and is one of the largest temples in India. It houses four gateway towers known as gopurams. The tallest is the eastern tower, with 11 stories and a height of 66 m (217 ft), making it one of the tallest temple towers in India. How ancient is this location? It predates Lord Rama in Tretha Yuga. Conservatively speaking over 10,000 years old. Tiruvannamalai has been ruled by the Pallavas, the Medieval Cholas, the

All of us are fortunate to have daily food, clothing, and a roof over our head. Have you ever thought about the poor, old, homeless, and starving people on the streets?  Nara Seva is Narayana seva. Service to fellow human, is service to the almighty God. This was said by my Guru Bhagwan Sathya Sai Baba. More importantly he was the finest example in practice. The basic needs of man are access to good food, drinking water, affordable education and medical care. The work of Sathya Sai institutions, in the above 4 areas in building across the country, schools, colleges, basic to super specialty medical institutions, bringing Krishna river water to parched Chennai have stood the test of time and continues to provide immense benefit long after he left his physical presence on earth. Today August 4th 2024, we celebrated the 15th anniversary of Narayana Seva in Sai Gitanjali, in JP nagar Bangalore. Narayana Seva is the act of serving freshly made, home cooked food ALONG WITH LOVE to the homele

Fortunate to have visited another 108 Divya Desam - Thiru Neer malai in June 2023. Thiruneermalai, a suburb of Chennai, has a 2000 year old temple, dedicated to the Hindu deity Vishnu, regionally referred to as Neer-vanna Perumal and Ranganatha.  The mountain (Malai in Tamil) is surrounded by water (Neer in Tamil), this sthalam is named as "Thiru Neer-Malai" in Tamil. In Sanskrit its called, "Thothadri Kshetram" Thoya means "Water" and Adhiri means "Mountain" (malai).  It's a very unique temple, as Lord Maha Vishnu Perumal gives his seva in four different positions as below. Neervannar – Nindran - Standing  Lord Narasimhar – Irundhan - Sitting Lord Ranganathar – Kidanthan - Reclining Lord Thiruvikrama – Nadanthan - Walking  In this temple, Muni Valmiki, who wrote The Ramayana, worshipped Eari Kidantha (Aranganathan), Iruntha (Narasimar), Nadantha (Thiruvikraman) Kola seva of the Perumal. After worshipping all the 3 sevas, he came down from

Why Cholas, are among the greatest dynasties, of the world? We know the Mauryan and Moghul dynasties of India. There was a kingdom which ruled longer with a comparable area which many are not aware, including many Indians. We must learn and feel proud such a dynasty existed in India and contributed immensely to world leadership in arts science architecture engineering ship building mettalurgy, whose impact is STILL seen in Wootz steel used in Europe and China, democracy of self ruling villages, irrigation and dams, to Architecture of Angor Wat in Cambodia. THE CHOLA KINGDOM, was of one of Indias most powerful Kingdoms. From length of rule, size of area under their influence to sophistication in science, arts, engineering they were much ahead of any one else in thier era. I visited all the three great living Chola temples listed as UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE monuments relevant to all of humanity. More on that later. Cholas are among the longest ruling dynasties in the world, were in power fo