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Can you name five of your favourite guru's/prophets/gods/teachers/etc.?

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
If those that had the most direct personal impact, no particular order:
  • Adi Sankara
  • Vivekananda
  • Sarvapriyananda
  • Sadhguru
  • Don Miguel Ruiz
Of course, I have admiration for those that inspired them, for without those listed below, they would not have had the impact mentioned above, such as:
  • Shiva
  • Krishna
  • Ramakrishna
  • Buddha
  • Kali
 
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blü 2

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Can you name five (or less or more if you like) of your favourite teachers etc. that you admire or feel inspired by in descending order of importance to you?
In Primary School, Kitty Inman ─ she has my heart forever. In High School, out of many, Messrs Dasey (English), Wheeler (French) and West (Latin) were exceptional.

I started to write out lists of my heroes in literature, philosophy, science, and maths, but they're all pretty familiar, so I'll just mention ─

Sam Loyd, who was one of those who taught me, by brute force, to think, and

Robert Massie, about the best blend of intelligence and readability of historians writing for the public though Ian Toll comes close, and

I've always felt that the genius of James Clerk Maxwell, though he's hardly ignored, is undersung.

Oh, and Vincent van Gogh ─ capable of astounding.
 

RestlessSoul

Well-Known Member
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
John Milton
William Blake
Percy Shelley
John Keats
Emily Dickinson
Mikael Bulgakov
Matsuo Basho
Ryokan Taigu
Bill Wilson
 

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
1. Sai Baba
2. Jesus
3. Nisargadatta
4. Pappaji (Lucknow)
5. Saint Anthony
6. Muhammad


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MonkeyFire

Well-Known Member
Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso is a friendly jolly man (who also practises tantra).
I read some days ago that the word dalai is derived from dalapati which is the Sanskrit equivalent for ganapati or ganesha which is the word for the group leader or clan leader (group = gana).

Ganapari and Ganesha is the Hindu God with the elephant head.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
CORRECTION: On my post #27, I made an error [brain fart], thus the Buddhist monk I listed is actually Matthieu Ricard, not his father Jean-Francois Revel. They co-wrote an excellent book, thus my confusion [aka a "senior moment"].
 

Marcion

gopa of humanity's controversial Taraka Brahma
Ganapari and Ganesha is the Hindu God with the elephant head.
Yes, according to the teachings of P.R. Sarkar Ganapati or Ganesha, the ancient symbol of the 'leader of the clan' was venerated as a god in India.
Like so many other figures he was absorbed into the Hindu pantheon and mythology and asigned a role as the "son" of Lord Shiva.

But the ancient habit of depicting powerful leader figures with heads of powerful animals (lions, crocodiles, elephants) and with stout bodies is not unique to India alone.
So yes, he did become a Hindu god, but he is much older than the vedic or puranic religions.
 
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MonkeyFire

Well-Known Member
Yes, according to the teachings of P.R. Sarkar Ganapati or Ganesha, the ancient symbol of the 'leader of the clan' was venerated as a god in India.
Like so many other figures he was absorbed into the Hindu pantheon and mythology and asigned a role as the "son" of Lord Shiva.

But the ancient habit of depicting powerful leader figures with heads of powerful animals (lions, crocodiles, elephants) and with stout bodies is not unique to India alone.
So yes, he did become a Hindu god, but he is much older than the vedic or puranic religion.

In fact the Dalai Lama is revered as a god to his people, including myself.
 

Clara Tea

Well-Known Member
Can you name five (or less or more if you like) of your favourite teachers etc. that you admire or feel inspired by in descending order of importance to you?
E.g. Adam, Moses, Lord Jesus, etc.

For me they are:

1. Lord Anandamurti (my personal tantric Guru whom I met in person several times)
2. Lord Shiva (the original tantric Guru)
3. Lord Krishna (the second of the great tantric Guru's)
4. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (who started the mystical devotional movement and invented the spiritual kiirtana and the collective Lalita Marmika dance, so very important in my path)
5. Lord Buddha (great reformer who created an interesting system for self realisation)
6. Patanjali (founder of classical yoga)

I also learnt a lot from Acarya Shraddhananda Avadhuta (1919-2008) with whom I worked in India for several weeks.

My American history teacher in high school said that he had wanted to grow a Hitler mustache when he was in high school. He loaded his 38 caliber gun with wax bullets, and shot a picture of Golda Meir (Prime-minister of Israel). When they fired him for shooting a gun in the classroom, he said that he wanted to go to Idaho where there are "right minded" (Nazi) people.

He was my inspiration. No, no, not his Nazi nuttiness. Quite the opposite. I realized that sane people also needed a voice, and he motivated me to speak up. I spoke up for Jews then, just as I do now (occasionally I make jokes about Jewish customs, but not ridiculing them). The more I learn of the torture camps of Hitler, and the more I realize that Nazism lived on long after Hitler died, the more I realized that we all must do our best to counteract the lunatics who seek to take the rights and lives from others. We must support and defend the underdogs.

Mark Twain once said that no one is so foul that they can't serve as a bad example. So it was with him (my history teacher).
 

Clara Tea

Well-Known Member
Education
Failure
Experience
Time
Me

ANAGRAMS (scrambling the letters to spell other words):

EDUCATION: Auctioned, Cautioned

FAILURE: Earful, Ferial, Ferula, Ireful

EXPERIENCE: Creepie, Epicene

TIME: Emit, Item, Mite

Putting them together:

Cautioned that it would emit a creepie earful.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
ANAGRAMS (scrambling the letters to spell other words):

EDUCATION: Auctioned, Cautioned

FAILURE: Earful, Ferial, Ferula, Ireful

EXPERIENCE: Creepie, Epicene

TIME: Emit, Item, Mite

Putting them together:

Cautioned that it would emit a creepie earful.

Deslixya rools, ko.

All words are scrambled to me. So anagrams are meaningless to me when out of context.

Sceince-Explain-Our-Reading-Brain1-768x432.jpg
 

PearlSeeker

Well-Known Member
God (inspiration)
Jesus
the desert fathers
Anselm Grün
Ram Dass
Ramakrishna
Meister Eckhart

And life/experience ofcourse.
 
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