Hoorray!

॥ श्री रामचन्द्र कृपालु ॥ श्रीरामचन्द्र कृपालु भजु मन हरण भवभय दारुणम् नवकञ्ज लोचन , कञ्जमुख कर कञ्जपद कञ्जारुणम् ॥ १ ॥ कंदर्प अगणित अमित छबि नव नील नीरज सुन्दरम् । पटपीत मानहुं तड़ित रूचि - शुची नौमि जनक सुतावरम् ॥ २ ॥ भजु दीन बन्धु दिनेश दानव दैत्यवंशनिकन्दनम् । रघुनन्द आनंदकंद कोशल चन्द दशरथ नन्दनम् ॥ ३ ॥ सिर मुकुट कुण्डल तिलक चारु उदारु अङ्ग विभूषणम् । आजानुभुज शर चापधर सङ्ग्राम - जित - खर दूषणम् ॥ ४ ॥ इति वदति तुलसीदास शङ्कर शेष मुनि मनरञ्जनम् । मम हृदयकञ्ज निवास कुरु कामादि खलदलगञ्जनम् ॥ ५ ॥ मनु जाहीं राचेउ मिलिहि सो बरु सहज सुन्दर साँवरो । करुना निधान सुजान सीलु सनेहु जानत रावरो ॥ ६ ॥ एही भांति गोरी असीस सुनी सिय सहित हिय हरषीं अली । तुलसी भावानिह पूजी पुनि - पुनि मुदित मन मंदिर चली गोस्वामी तुलसीदास Fortunate I am, to be born in this land! Fortunate I am, to immerse myself in Bhakti, and in the thought of Īśvara . And how c...

Serve We can get anything today for money. This bartering of money for objects and results has undervalued the value of both money and the thing it buys. The irony is calling that effort or result bought with money as a “service”. What then, is the real meaning of service? Expending one’s efforts with no expectations of any kind in return is service. It is done for the sake of the effort, for love, for the betterment of the person receiving it. To serve is to learn, to grow, to realize, and to enjoy. The act of serving helps the person performing the service more than the person receiving it. It clears the mind and purifies the heart. Such is the power of service, where even those who at first are not inclined to perform the act willingly, are soon touched by the joy of service. After all, they cannot escape the virtue of happiness and contentment when it spreads from their own hand. We “I” do not serve. “You” do not serve. “He, She, It” does not and “They” do not se...

अगजानन पद्मार्कम् गजाननम् अहर्निशम्। अनेकदन्तम् भक्तानाम् एकदन्तम् उपास्महे॥ agajānana padmārkam gajānanam aharniśam| anekadantam bhaktānām ekadantam upāsmahe||   What a beautiful verse to behold and listen! I heard it first when this verse was suggested as an invocation for our magazine Yuva Bharati by my brother a couple of years ago. (Yup! I promptly posted it on facebook - even social networks have been permeated by spirituality :-D) A couple of months back, I had the good fortune to sit at the feet of Swami Dayananda Saraswati and learn this same verse - how to say it and its meaning. Recollecting that experience from memory, I'll try to share the beauty and the brilliance of this verse here. ānana means face. Gajānana is the Lord who has the face of an elephant or gaja . On seeing the face of Gajānana , the face of Agaja , daughter of the king among mountains ( aga) , Himavan or Parvata , one who is called Himavati or Parvati , lightens up. This is so natura...

If I should start properly writing (including reviews) about books, which book should I start with? I thought it would be a tough hill to climb. That is until I saw the Bhagavad Gita. Or rather the few different commentaries of the Gita that I possess and I was no more bothered about finding a "first book" to write about. I have not read the Gita in full yet. Hope to do it some day. Gita is for a lifetime study. It cannot be read and imbibed completely in one stretch. Many of the ideas illustrated in the Gita can be understood only if you have the relevant experiences, maturity, as well as the ability to process those thoughts. The exact version of the Gita that I want to mark my beginning - auspiciously - is the Universal Message of the Bhagavad Gita - An Exposition of the Gita in the Light of Modern Thoughts and Modern Needs . It was transcribed and compiled from Swami Ranganathananda's "series of Sunday discourses, from 1988 to 1990, at the 1200-capacity Viv...