As most will know, Hindu originally referred to a region, and was derived from the name of the river Sindhu. In ancient Iranian languages, the sanskrit ‘s’ was often converted to ‘h’, so the Sindhu region became known as Hindu. This Iranian form of the word was then transmitted to Hebrew, where it became Hodu,…
I want to make one last post on Kasturi to talk about the possibility of Kasturi having originally been a plant based fragrance. There is a kasturi deer, and there is also a kasturi plant (known as ambrette or musk mallow). This kasturi plant, and its seeds, called as kasturi beeja, have been in use…
Following up on the post where we touched on the topic of Kasturi (musk), one of the five famous fragrances often mentioned in the scriptures, alongside sandalwood (chandana), agarwood (aguru), saffron (kunkuma) and camphor (karpura), here we will demystify the fragrance for those who have never smelt it.
Continuing from the theme of yesterday’s post on Ambergris, let us talk about another fragrant secretion used traditionally in some temples called as “civet oil” (also called as punugu in South India).
Humans will touch filthy things if they think they are valuable. Ambergris passes through the intestines and is expelled as feces, yet people hold it freely with their hands because they think its valuable.
It is a fact that the deity known as Hamsa Vahana in Mayapur is not a deity of Lord Shiva nor that of a Hamsa. It is the remains from a destroyed temple and was originally a water spout carved in the shape of a Makara (half elephant, half crocodile). Its very clear if you…
Over the years I have heard countless stories in ISKCON about how Srila Prabhupada loved Charlie Chaplin. ISKCON guru Satsvarupa Das Goswami once even went so far as to call Charlie Chaplin as a representation of Lord Krishna: “In the Tenth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna shows how anything great comes from Him, so of…
The NFL kills 3,000 cows a year to make footballs, totaling over 300,000 cows since 1920. If you include the official regulation footballs sold to the public its 35,000 cows a year.
I recently saw these nice photos of Haridwar posted by a devotee, which reminded me of a few random things about Haridwar and the coin hunters.
The name of this country “India” is a word with no meaning. We have accepted the name given by foreign invaders, and consider that fine. But if someone says we should restore the ancient name of this land, people will say it is “communalism” (religious fanaticism).
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