Why Hinduism is not becoming popular in the West?

 image by axinia

The British colonizers discredited Hinduism as being merely backward superstitions, and even today, whereas Buddhism is very much in fashion with American and European intellectuals, Hinduism is largely ignored.

Given that all the essential premises of Buddhism are already contained in Hinduism, including how and why it is helpful to be able to control the senses, it is a shame that so few Westerners are interested in what it has to say…

The Victory Day or the forgiving power of Russians

 Фото AFP (© АФП

On May 9 Russia marks the victory over Nazi Germany and the end of World War II with a military parade on Moscow’s Red Square and celebration events all over the country. Victory Day is one of the biggest national holidays and Russians commemorate the 27(!) million victims the Soviet Union suffered in the deadliest conflict in history. Interstingly, most of the Western world is normally not aware of these numbers  - simply because Russian make no fuss about it. The history is the history.
The point I want to make here is that despite the horrible sufferings and the truly huge number of victims, presently Russia and Germany are probably the best friends internationally seen. Apart from the personal friendship beween H.Kohl and B.Eltzin, G.Schröder and V.Putin, the trade turnover figures achieved between Russia and Germany last year were 33 billion dollars, according to Russian estimates. Are there many examples of other countries who had been in such a deadly fight before getting close friends? Unfortunately this is a rare example in the human history if we look at the war map of today… In the international friendship survey 2000 over 60% of Russians speak of their “friendly” attitude to Germans, although almost every family has lost its beloved members in the war. And many of the war generation (like my grandmother) are still there. How could they forget so fast?

My second secret weapon: forgiving

 photo by axinia

I wrote about my first powerful weapon several times, for example here and here. It is the power of innocence. The power of a child in a person. This power lays in the base of a human being as a “childness”, manifested through innocence, wisdom, spontaneity and living in the present. In a daily life full of competition and performance pressure I naturally use this quality to act according to my own principles and - actually - for the benevolence of everyone around. That makes my life very easy and enjoyable in every moment. But there is another trick that makes my life even more comfortable and colourful. In my way I would call it my second secret weapon - the power of forgiving.

Since the message of forgiving was given by Jesus Christ two millennia ago, not much has happened in the human awareness in that direction. Luckily recently the word “forgiving ” is getting some shape in the modern human minds. After 2000 years! Better later than never, indeed.

Amazingly, people find it extremely difficult to forgive. I remember one Christian (!) lady proudly told me ” there are things in life one CAN NOT forgive!” - interesting, isn´t it?  Let`s see how it works and why forgiving is actually a very easy thing.

No more lonely yogis! - the benefits of the collective spiritual evolution.

paint by Vitalia Stupak

Normally I prefer colourful photos for my blogs, as my readers know But to pass by this absolutely amazing painting was above my preferences and blogging style…

This wonderful paint by Vitalia Stupak (Ukraine) shows that the personal ascent is in fact depends on much loving support of the others… The times of a lonely ascetic yogi meditating in Himalayas have passed. Now, when the mankind has discovered the common spirituality as a way of living, it has become much easier to ascent and  - what is the most important! -to enjoy this ascent in a company

Do you see it same way? Any experiences?

LOVE, axinia

A question about spirituality

photo by axinia

The Google Search gave me 61.400.000 results for the word SPIRITUALITY, with the top reasult of Wikipedia, explaining to me what Spirituality is:” Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit, a concept closely tied to religious belief and faith, a transcendent reality, and God. Spiritual matters are thus those matters regarding humankind’s ultimate nature and purpose, not only as material biological organisms, but as beings with a unique relationship to that which is beyond both time and the material world”;

and some more: “Many spiritual traditions, accordingly, share a common spiritual theme: the “path”, “work”, practice, or tradition of perceiving and internalizing one’s “true” nature and relationship to the rest of existence (God, creation (the universe), or life), and of becoming free of the lesser egoic self (or ego) in favor of being more fully one’s “true” “Self”.

Although I agree with the most of it,  I still  wanted to add something based on my personal experiences.

Why people like to travel

 

photo by axinia

Why do we travel? To see new places? To get new experiences? To meet new people? To get way from the daily routine? All that and more are the reasons for the traveller-mood, which is well known to many of us. But these are the obvious reasons. Is there any hidden one? 

Travelling is the first step of seeking the truth. Seeking the truth is the ultimate aim of that seeking for something feeling (or call it wanting something I don`t know what). When we visit foreign countries, it is - deeply seen – not the outer impressions we are looking for. It is the power, the energy, the vibrations of the place we feel. For it is what is truly behind the cladding! 

There are countries we want to visit at any rate. We feel attracted and affected by its mystery, beauty, danger or uniqueness… There are lands we never want to visit – even if they seem to be same mysterious, fascinating or beautiful. What is the reason?

What is really so special about Russian women?

The topic I wanted to conver since long… There are so many myths and rather strange ideas about Russian woman - and this is my way to pay hommage to my Motherland.

The post is at my other blog Shaktipower and it covers the following points:

-Physical Beauty (figure, colours)

-Character

-The strength

-Intellect

-Spirituality

Happy to read your comments at What is so special about Russian women?

LOVE, axinia

Mental Silence is the essence of Sahaja Yoga Meditation

(picture of me, meditating )

LOVE, axinia

What is really wrong with capitalism? Or Why I believe in communism.

 photo by axinia

 Capitalism, Neo-Liberalism, Corporatism - call it whatever, I personally have a big difficulty with the kind of a system I live in. One of the reasons for that difficulty can be that I spent my childhood and youth in a society that was not driven by money and consumption (at least not to that extend like in the West). It seemed to me that people  - because they were not that stressed to make money and to spend them - lived happier, enjoyed more and appreciated the human values like friendship, family, creativity.

When I came to live in the West 10 years ago I was most of all shocked by the concept of profit, which seemed to be very natural for people here. Profit, copy-right, interest… It took me years to comprehend the ways and methods of this system. And now, while working as a Sales Manager in the Marketing and PR business (!)  - imagine what I think about all that machine. Day by day, the more I can penetrate into the depth of the capitalism, the more I understand that my personal belief lays somewhere else. May be I am a communist?

The river and its waves are one

  

photo by axinia

The river and its waves are one surf:

where is the difference

between the river and its waves?

When the wave rises, it is the water;

and when it falls,

it is

  the same water again. 

Tell me, Sir, where is the distinction?

Because it has been named as wave,

shall it no longer be

considered as water?

Within the Supreme Brahma,

the worlds are being told like beads:

Look upon that rosary with the eyes of wisdom.

 

poem by Kabir (1440-1518), Indian poet