tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875Sat, 09 May 2026 14:08:08 +0000IndiatravelphilosophyHinduismEuropean TravelogVedantatechnologycamerareflectionsocietyBangaloreculturemediareviewseconomyinnovationnaturepoliticsselfwritingbirdsbooksemerging marketsmindsciencewirelessworkKeralaMobilityblogsbusinesshttps://girishsv.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Unknown)Blogger136125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-7330440924377634187Sat, 09 May 2026 14:05:00 +00002026-05-09T19:38:08.826+05:30 Swami Ashokananda, one of the preeminent monks of the Ramakrishna Order was the editor of their journal, the Prabuddha Bharata in the 1920s before he went to San Francisco where he lived the rest of his life at the monastery there.In the editorial of the January 1927, he has a wonderful passage on the Himalayas which evokes not only the beauty of the mountains but the spiritual significancehttps://girishsv.blogspot.com/2026/05/on-himalayas-swami-ashokananda.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-8055156580706066604Tue, 12 Aug 2025 13:54:00 +00002025-11-06T18:21:13.467+05:30A manifesto typically puts out the the main points of belief of an organization or a movement.What this un-manifesto aims to do is to call out the things that Hindus do NOT believe in. Why is this relevant? Hinduism is a vast tree that has evolved over the millennia and it is embedded into every aspect - from education, arts, crafts, medicine, and statecraft. It is difficult to have a single bookhttps://girishsv.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-hindu-un-manifesto.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-942274277359734336Sat, 25 Jan 2025 17:08:00 +00002026-04-25T00:29:25.892+05:30European TravelogtravelThe Louvre is justifiably the most hyped museum in the world. It's got stuff, it's got history and it has an impeccable building to show off. Of course, many parts of the collection owe their origin to the Napoleonic looting of art that happened in the late 18th century, just as most of the British Museum in London was populated with loot from their colonies.The Louvre itself started life as a https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2025/01/european-travelog-d4e4-labyrinths-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-6565561591151942723Mon, 21 Oct 2024 07:14:00 +00002026-04-25T00:29:13.526+05:30European TravelogtravelToday's the big day - Monet's water lilies at the Orangerie in the morning and the ocean of history and art at the Louvre in the afternoon.It's a bright and sunny morning as we set out to Musée de l'Orangerie. Located on the bank of the Seine, to the west of the Tuileries Garden, this building was originally built in 1852 to store the orange trees of the Tuileries garden during the the winter.&https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2024/10/european-travelog-d4e1-lilies-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-9132980381597644350Sat, 21 Sep 2024 18:22:00 +00002026-04-25T00:28:58.190+05:30European TravelogtravelSaint-Chapelle's GlassAfter lunch our first destination is the historic Gothic cathedral of Saint-Chapelle. Built in 1248 CE on the orders of Louis IX, the future Saint Louis, it was to house what was believed to be relics of the Passion of Christ: the Crown of Thorns and the fragment of the True Cross. The cathedral is built with 1113 stained glass windows which depicts the story of the world, https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2024/09/european-travelog-d3e2-saint-chapelles.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-111942719637680879Mon, 26 Aug 2024 03:16:00 +00002024-08-27T13:24:15.548+05:30European TravelogtravelIt's Sunday morning and we leave at 8:30 AM to our first destination  - the Parisian suburb of Montmartre which, according to Wikipedia, is primarily known for its artistic history, for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur on its summit, and as a nightclub district.We board from the Metro station of Quatre-Septembre, named for the date of 4 September 1870, the date Napoleon III fell https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2024/08/european-travelog-d3e1-church-artists.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-1603952341028169289Sat, 17 Aug 2024 17:49:00 +00002024-08-26T09:54:38.488+05:30European TravelogtravelIt's our first full day in Paris and so far we've strolled through the Tuileries Garden, walked along the banks of the Seine, viewed the renovation work going on at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, seen the birth of Impressionism and art from 1848 to 1914 at Musée d'Orsay.We exit the museum and head to a cafe for some refreshments before continuing again. Our next destination is the Arc de https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2024/08/european-travelog-d2e4-arch-and-tower.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-3034322919989033230Sun, 28 Jul 2024 18:29:00 +00002024-08-26T09:54:38.489+05:30European TravelogtravelThe museum which holds most of the masterpieces from Impressionism, the greatest revolution in painting since the Renaissance, started life as a railway station.In 1900, when the Gare d'Orsay was inaugurated, it was the first electrified urban terminal station in the world. It included a luxurious hotel and a grand reception room. By 1939 it was too small for accommodating the long-distance https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2024/07/european-travelog-d2e3-impressions-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-6460661237858623953Sat, 13 Jul 2024 18:55:00 +00002024-08-26T09:54:38.489+05:30European Travelogtravel"A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of life."- Thomas JeffersonParis is a city that easy on the eyes and the feet with most of the city being flat and no slopes or stairs to challenge you at the end of the day. However, we did a LOT of walking - my Fitbit regularly clocking over 20,000 steps daily with a peak of 34,000 steps. The city is divided intohttps://girishsv.blogspot.com/2024/07/european-travelog-day-2-walking-in-paris.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-3865237669196691796Mon, 08 Jul 2024 17:33:00 +00002024-08-26T09:54:38.489+05:30European TravelogtravelWe woke up to a cloudy and rainy day in Paris. It was drizzling on and off and we decided to step out with our raincoats, shortly after breakfast. Our first halt is the Tuileries Gardens. As we walk towards these gardens, the only other people we see on the streets at this early hour on a Saturday morning are other tourists like us wanting to make the most of their visit to Paris.The Tuileries https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2024/07/european-travelog-day-2-garden-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-7670377603411528701Fri, 05 Jul 2024 19:55:00 +00002024-09-15T22:36:00.859+05:30European Travelogtravel“Paris is always a good idea.” - Audrey HepburnOn Summer Solstice day in June 2024, when the world was looking east for the International Day of Yoga, we headed west to Europe. We had an ambitious plan of conquering Paris in three days, swinging by the sunny coastal town of Montpellier in South of France, hopping over to Marseille and then a flight to Rome where we would https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2024/07/european-travelog-day-1-winging-it.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-7009202545660078264Mon, 22 Jan 2024 16:16:00 +00002024-07-08T11:29:01.582+05:30cultureHinduismphilosophyThe one vital duty incumbent on you, if you really love your religion, if you really love your country, is that you must struggle hard to be up and doing, with this one great idea of bringing out the treasures from your closed books and delivering them over to their rightful heirs.- Swami Vivekananda, Lectures from Colombo to AlmoraThe occasion of the re-establishment of the Sri Rama temple at https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2024/01/learnings-from-ramayana-ethics-vs-duty.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-5374104800900687002Mon, 02 Oct 2023 07:11:00 +00002024-07-08T11:29:19.952+05:30HinduismVedantaThe Vishnu SahasranAmam describes the 1000 names of Lord Vishnu. Some of them describe the Lord, some his attributes and some his powers. As many spiritual masters have said, there is no difference between the name of the Lord and the Lord Himself. Sri Ramakrishna said, “There is infinite glory in God’s Name. The Name is the seed; the Name is the tree; and the Name is the fruit. God dwells in Hishttps://girishsv.blogspot.com/2023/10/sri-vishnu-sahasranamam-forms-of-lord.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-7988240038314944027Sun, 13 Mar 2022 10:42:00 +00002022-03-16T20:42:42.378+05:30booksIndiareviews For me, as part of a generation which had its education in the last quarter of the 20th century, Savarkar was not mentioned in any of the official study materials except for the insinuation that he was involved in the murder of Mohandas Gandhi. In the absence of viable alternatives to arrive at one’s own conclusion, the official position on Savarkar was the only one. Now with the arrival ofhttps://girishsv.blogspot.com/2022/03/book-review-savarkar-part-1-echoes-from.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-761999220805944436Sat, 12 Feb 2022 18:57:00 +00002022-02-26T22:13:07.265+05:30HinduismIndiaVedantaSwami Vivekananda proceeded to Jaffna from Colombo. He had to shelve his plan of sailing for Madras (Chennai) from Colombo as he was receiving numerous telegrams from various Tamil-inhabited towns of Sri Lanka to visit them. On January 19, he took the train to Kandy — the hill station inhabited by tea plantation workers from Tamil Nadu. He was welcomed at the Kandy railway station by a https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2022/02/lectures-from-colombo-to-almora-jaffna.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-1902796983818933605Sun, 16 Jan 2022 13:11:00 +00002022-02-13T16:28:57.342+05:30HinduismIndiaphilosophyVedantaOne hundred and twenty five years ago, to the day, on the evening of the 16th January 1897, Swami Vivekananda gave a public lecture on "India, the Holy Land" in the Floral Hall, Colombo, Sri Lanka.Swami Vivekananda had arrived in Colombo by the German steamer 'Prince Regent Leopold' on 15 January 1897. He was met on board by the reception committee comprising Swami Niranjanananda, Kanakasabai, https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2022/01/lecures-from-colombo-to-almora-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-4338827928831956748Wed, 17 Nov 2021 16:19:00 +00002021-11-18T13:25:02.489+05:30IndiatravelThe Hoysala Empire ruled most of what is now the state of Karnataka between the 10th and the 14th centuries. The capital of the Hoysalas was initially located at Belur but was later moved to Halebidu, both of which still have the remnants of the magnificent temples that were constructed.In the year 1258 CE, Somanatha Dandanayaka, a general of the Hoysala King Narasimha III built a temple to https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2021/11/an-afternoon-at-chennakeshava-temple.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-4858562855604001761Thu, 30 Sep 2021 13:51:00 +00002021-09-30T19:24:07.991+05:30booksThe outlines of the Mahabharta and the life trajectories of the major characters are well known to every Indian, whether or not they have read the epic. We've been exposed to it since our childhoods and B.R.Chopra's fantastic TV series influenced the entire nation - cities and towns across the nations would virtually go into what we now call lockdown when the series aired on Sunday mornings on https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2021/09/book-review-mahabharata-unravelled.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-2893948657442129518Tue, 07 Sep 2021 13:25:00 +00002025-03-09T21:33:35.075+05:30philosophyreflectionVedantaIn a letter that he wrote in 1789, Ben Franklin, one of the leaders of the American Revolution, wrote: Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.In spite of this, tax avoidance, tax deferral and tax evasion are common occurrences in today's world. However, there is no https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2021/09/preparing-for-death.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-5972784317998231414Thu, 12 Aug 2021 17:53:00 +00002021-08-13T17:00:30.466+05:30The village of Mookuthala, in Kerala's Malappuram district, is home to three powerful temples of the Divine Mother: The Mookkuthala Bhagavathy Temple (also known as Melekkavu), the Durga Temple (also known as Keezhkavu), and the Kannenkavu Bhagavathy Temple, the abode of Goddess Bhadrakali.Most of the content below is from a brochure published by the temple in the 1980s:The legendary and https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-temples-of-mookuthala-kerala.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-5528652275748259031Fri, 02 Apr 2021 09:23:00 +00002022-03-16T19:31:11.249+05:30cultureHinduismIndiaphilosophyreflectionsocietyVedantaDemocracy has spread into most aspects in our lives. What I mean by democracy is not just the form of government, but equal rights for all, no special treatment for anybody and equal access to opportunities. While this is not seen throughout the world and in all aspects of life, it is definitely a state towards which people everywhere are aspiring.The first change we have seen is of course in thehttps://girishsv.blogspot.com/2021/04/democracy-everywhere.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-8222901141177186599Mon, 08 Feb 2021 17:52:00 +00002021-12-05T07:53:38.986+05:30cultureHinduismphilosophyVedantaThe Art of Giving is based on knowledge compiled from the Gita, the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, the Ramayana and the Upanishads.Why giveSri Krishna says: They are verily thieves who enjoy their gifts without giving their share in return.What to giveSwami Vivekananda: In the world take always the position of the giver. Give everything and look for no return. Give love, give help, https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-art-of-giving.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-8797531006143993285Sun, 10 Jan 2021 10:26:00 +00002021-01-12T20:48:41.809+05:30mindIn the 17th century, Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher and scientist, wrote: "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." One of my goals for 2021 is the ability to sit down in a room and examine myself, for (continuing the European philosopher theme) as the Greek philosopher Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living".As I set down,https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-mind-owners-manual-sitting-down.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-2194077142207373803Sat, 14 Nov 2020 09:28:00 +00002020-11-14T14:58:42.816+05:30The greatest of all pep talks in India are the words Krishna tells Arjuna when he is dispirited about engaging in a civil war against his own relatives.Arjuna, is this hour of battle the time for scruples and fancies? Are they worthy of you? Any brave man who merely hopes for fame or heaven would despise them. What is this weakness? It is beneath you. Is it for nothing men call you the scorcher https://girishsv.blogspot.com/2020/11/pep-talks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770875.post-5087169258413123427Fri, 21 Aug 2020 16:47:00 +00002021-01-10T15:56:43.710+05:30In recent months, as the pandemic spreads and we have been forced to spend more time at home, with ourselves. It's given us a chance to get to know ourselves, our minds and it's innate wandering nature.The importance of the mind has been recognized from classical times. The Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, in his Meditations, says "The mind, unconquered by violent passions, is a citadel, for a manhttps://girishsv.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-mind-owners-manual.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)1