Translations

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/197353/ Date: 21-Aug-2024   "Indiraneelam" is the second creation in Venmurasu novel portraying the story of Krishna. That way, it is rooted in Bhagavatham, outside of Mahabharatha. The Krishna of Mahabharatha is not a god, rather a great king possessing wisdom and worldly intuition in equal measure. It is only via external addendums that the portions establishing Krishna as a god got integrated in Mahabharatha. Bhagavatham is a creation that happened post the time when Krishna became a god. Is is therefore Bhagavatham and not Mahabharatha, that stands as a primary scripture for many Vaishnavaite traditions. During the creation of Venmurasu, I had a conundrum on how to depict Krishna. In several re-creations of Mahabharatha, Krishna is depicted solely as a king. In some of the creations, Krishna is depicted as a mere political strategist stripping Him of any wisdom. Example is M.T.Vasudevan Nair's "Irandaam Oozham" (...

  Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/168299/ Date: 24-Jul-2022   Dear J, In recent times, whenever I visit the Iskcon temples established in various places, I feel that these temples will form, in future, the support structure of Hindu culture and the modern centers of Hindu worship. The important points that I observed were that these temples follow the same methods of worship in every country they are established, they have the same simple prayer slogan "Hare Rama, Hare Krishna" and anyone who joins that organization, irrespective of their caste, would've the privilege of performing pooja and delivering service. Most importantly, the aspects which we think as not possible anymore due to the apathy of the public and the government, like maintaining cleanliness in temple premises, eschewing from commercializing devotion by selling special tickets, forcing people to buy from the shops that have been setup at the temple entrance are not present in these Iskcon temple...

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/78988/ Date: 11-Aug-2022   Dear Jeyamohan, I started my literature journey with your short story collection "Aram". It was a good start. As a novice reader, the stories touched me a lot, especially stories like "Yaanai Doctor" (Elephant Doctor), "Nooru Naarkaaligal" (A Hundred Armchairs) and "Sotrukkanakku" (The Meal tally) disturbed me. Reading turns even an ordinary life into a cherishable one. I am grateful to you for providing me with a great start to my reading. I am into my early adulthood now. I am into the world's youngest domain - Software. The usual skepticisms of this age are impacting me a lot. There are a lot of questions on religion and rituals, especially in Vaastu and astrology. My family has deep faith in them. I have not got an unbiased responses to my doubts till now. The response is either 'At your age, your doubts are natural. With maturity you will be OK', or 'All the...

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/185101/ 28-Jun-2023 In the field of ideologies, the one thing we must realize is that any ideology is a product of its times. We must understand the ideology only through its origin, its logical methods etc. We must also be re-evaluating that ideology constantly through the contemporary perspectives. When European researchers arrived on our shores, they saw the caste system that was prevailing here. During their research, the proponents of caste system cited the scriptures that emphasized the Varna system. The researchers interpreted this to mean that the Hindu scriptures were propounding the Varna system. They theorized that the Varna system was the one that morphed into the Caste system Two centuries have elapsed whence this occurred. Several scientific studies like sociology and anthropology have since been developed. There are now myriad new principles. We now have the facility to collect and analyze on all information from around the world...

 Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/183585/ For the past month or so, readers have been asking me this question via email - Is there really a Hindu religion? Majority of them are youngsters, beneficiaries of modern education and are interested in culture. But all they listen to are social media and the politicians' blather only. I replied rather irritated, "Hindus have a uniqueness. It is only them, who learn about their religion from their enemies and from those who have vowed to destroy their religion." Just give it a thought. How many numerous philosophers and scholars have existed here. How many books have been written. Nobody reads those. But they form an opinion about Hindu religion listening to the hatred speeches of those who do not have even an iota of understanding on the history or the spirituality of Hindu religion. Is there any other religion that exhibits such a pitiful state? To form an understanding by reading books and placing the concepts within t...

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/183921/ One of the participants in the discussion on topic of 'Hindu religion and Castes' had sent two questions. He mentioned that these were raised by his atheist friend. Atheists are merely deniers who deny without understanding anything. It is just a mere stance. They do not understand whatever we state. First question, Within Indian religions, is it only the Hindu religion that has birth-based stratification? Second question, Is Hindu religion the only one in the world, where birth-based stratification exists? Both questions are being raised without any basic understanding. Indian religions like Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism etc contain castes and varnas. Scriptures of these religions prescribe these. People who have understood religion and history merely via public speech cacophony wouldn't know about these. Jainism insists on Varnas unconditionally. The scriptures of Jainism mentions that all the 24 Thirthankaras are Kshatriyas....

  original source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/184695/ Education on Hindu religion was prevalent in our environment till a couple of centuries ago in various forms. Arts, Story-telling and Lectures on topics regarding temples propagated religious principles among people in multitudes of forms. On the other hand, folk arts and story-telling forms explained these religious principles among people to no lesser extent. I have been observing the higher philosophy and religious details explained in TamilNadu's folk arts and stories recently. Its amazing that one can explain the complete Hindu spiritual traditions merely by citing the examples and sentences from the folk arts. Life in our Indian villages was marred in the last 2 centuries due to droughts and wars. When the Maratha and Nayaka empires waned in the 17th century, anarchy prevailed for half a century with no strong reign in the country. Europeans started capturing India. Under British's exploitation, India faced two great fam...