Some clarifications:
Ishtha-devata is not only a smarta concept.
Not only smartas consider Shiva and Vishnu intimately connected.
The three deities are connected in all post-Vedic schools without exception, although this interplay gets sometimes recast - both Vaishnavites and Shaivites will...
His rudraksha? Improperly done, as there's supposed to be 40 placed head to tail directly, and sometimes looped. I don't know why it would be improper, it's possible he has some other agama telling him otherwise, but I doubt it.
Aside from that, I had mixed feelings about it. I can't...
Why would you do this to yourself? What is the point?
Do you think you'll have anything more than a corpse of the truth after you've finished beating the ink out of it?
A strong opinion for the day: it is worthless to select a philosophy because it agrees with our preconceptions about self and god. This is pasha, bondage to ignorance.
Our interpretation of vedanta - or the philosophies outside of vedanta - should deliver us out of our preconceptions, take us...
Yes.
This is only superstition, and had more to do with mistaken concepts of ishtha-devata, in a thread hopelessly choked with misconceptions.
People are hierarchically obsessed so their gods must be; in reality it is more like a division of labor among the devas.
Are you higher than...
Dvaitins probably outnumber advaitins in India. In the West, Advaita is much more attractive, although mostly neo-advaita.
Most modern Krishna-worshipers take much of their doctrine from Madhvacharya, as gaudiya vaishnavism stems partially from the Brahma sampradaya of Madhva.
Have you read...
Because ink and paper can't move shakti the way an embodied, organic being can. I mean no disrespect for the Guru Granth Sahib. I've read sizable chunks of it, and keep a copy of the Jaap Sahib handy, and some other hymns of Nanak. I have no doubt that the abhaangs collected from the various...
You may find the observing Shaivas of India more stringent about observing Shaiva holidays which are many and outlined in the puranas - Vayu, Linga, etc., and also the more exoteric agamas such as the Ajita.
This is one of the most problematic interpretations that has plagued the transmission of Hinduism to the West.
Actually, Hinduism is very precise in stipulating rituals, practices, observances, etc., generally without succumbing to the excessive moralistic legalism one sees in Abrahamic...
Thanks Gursikh. I became aware of udasis & Baba Siri Chand in particular visiting Gobind Sadan in Delhi quite by accident. Baba Virsa Singh ji was very much a living guru - and still is, even in death, and was a disciple of Baba Siri Chand through dreamlike emanations.
But this seems quite...
Alcohol, in moderation, is fairly benign. It's the social stigmas that are usually more problematic than the effects - repression in society creates a countertrend - people end up using alcohol and other substances for the wrong reasons, in the wrong environments, with the wrong approach, etc...