vedabhASya - Vedic Studies

sanAtana in samskrt means 'from old times'. Some people interpret it as same as 'nitya' which is not correct. Nitya means eternal and Sanatana means from old times. These two words have different meanings.  dharma means that is 'fixed' like laws of the nature.  Laws of nature are fixed and beyond our control. For eg. things flow from high concentration to low concentration or energy moves from hot to cold are laws of nature that arise due to entropy. Hence giving from those who have to those who have not, which is in tune with one of the laws of nature is called dharma.   Living by sanAtana dharma means living by the laws of the nature that exist from old times. mata means opinion. When that opinion gets strengthened, we get intoxicated by our opinion, it becomes 'madha'. Religions of the world from shaivism, vaishnavism, buddhism, jainism, christianity, islam and even hinduism are mata (ideas) or madha (intoxication).  varNa means paint or an external c

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong is murphy's law. That's Vigna, the disturbance in every work we do. How do we fail murphy's law, overcome Vigna that makes work go wrong..? Oothukadu venkata kavi's Sri Vigna Rajam Bhaje Oothukadu Venkata Kavi says all kinds of vigna (disturbances) submit to Vigna-rAjA, the elephant faced, who always manifests in our 'self', to overcome vigna, when invoked by us. Since he manifests, he is said to be the son of Shiva, the unmanifest witness. Even Indra and devas invoke this vigna-rAjA. He is the leader of the herd to the devoted, enemy to the 'terrible' who roam randomly at will (matanga). He destroys wandering, gives focus and peace to 'self', thereby helping to overcome vigna, the disturbances in our work. Tat tvam asi points to the unmanifest witness (Shiva, Atman) in us. Vigna-rAja is the manifest form of Shiva, in our 'self', who destroys terrible wandering, gives focus, peace to handle all t