Shanmugam

@actualizing25 Yes..

Here are the interpretations of hell and heaven in Sufi Islam: The modern concept of 'religions' as a 'set of beliefs did not exist 300 years before.' So, when you are talking about Hinduism, you are talking about many scriptures with many interpretations. When you are talking about Islam, you are talking about one scripture with many interpretations. When you are talking about Christianity, it is more about what that one person Jesus taught and many interpretations of that teaching. The usual understanding of ‘hell’ as a physical place where people suffer was just a social tool created by Plato. It was exclusively for people who didn't listen to reason or can’t think. So if someone thinks he is not smart, he can continue believing in an eternal hell because the belief is meant exactly for him. This idea of Plato was adopted by Christianity and also used by Muhammad. But the spiritual interpretation of ‘hell’ in all mystic traditions like Christian mysticism, Sufism or many schools of thoughts in India (which has been now thought of as a single homogeneous religion) is just the temporary suffering that people go through in real life. I recommend reading the following two posts to better understand the confusion caused by modern concept of religions, which reduced ‘a way of life’ into a ‘set of beliefs’ : 12 Shocking Truths About Religions Did Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism Copy from Each Other?

You have chosen Prabhupada's commentary... I wouldn't recommend that at all.. His commentary is more about accepting Krishna as the only God so that you can later live with Him after death. It will sound more Abrahamic.. Go for the publications by Ramakrishna math. Here is one with three volumes: https://www.amazon.in/Bhagavad-Gita-3-Ranganathananda/dp/8175052198

Some links for additional information: https://nellaishanmugam.wordpress.com/2019/12/05/hinduism-and-dharma-the-distinction-between-a-religion-and-a-way-of-life/ https://nellaishanmugam.wordpress.com/2019/12/21/prophet-muhammad-exposed-a-different-perspective-that-everyone-should-read/ https://nellaishanmugam.wordpress.com/2019/12/26/why-is-there-so-much-hate-between-hindus-and-muslims-in-india/ Will be discussing more in the upcoming videos.

Dear friends, For the past two years I have been into indepth research and study of history of religions and I spend many hours a day going through academic journals. It has been an interesting ride and a fascinating work. There are some shocking truths that you can discover by recent publications and most of that knowledge is untold outside of academic circles. I have started a video series to make that knowledge about history of religions known. Because this will actually help understand spirituality and relationship between various religions. I will be updating the videos as I make them:

Sadhana Chatushtaya _ fourfold qualifications for a spiritual seeker

I just published my new book yesterday, September 11, 2019. The name of the book is ‘Discovering God: Bridging Christianity, Hinduism and Islam’. It is available in both kindle and paperback. Kindle version is live but the paperback version is still under review. I will add the link to it once it is ready. This book is a step towards bridging all religions. Out of 100 readers, I am sure that it will make a difference to at least 10 people. This book explains the central nerve, the essence of all religions. I have written this book hoping that it will contribute something towards religious tolerance, unity of mankind and the ability to really see that all religions lead to the same truth. I am a running a free promotion for the book from Thursday, September 12, 2019, 12:00 AM PDT to Friday, September 13, 2019, 11:59 PM PDT. During this time, you can download the book for free. You don’t have to have a kindle. You can download kindle app for android, create a free amazon account if you don’t have one, login and download the book for free during the period of promotion. Please leave your reviews after you read the book, to let the world know about this book. This book was possible only by Grace. Here is the book description as it is given in Amazon: ” God is the most misused and misunderstood word in the world. There are thousands and thousands of religions in this world but the major religions that stand out in the list include Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Do they have anything in common or they are completely different from each other? In this book, I will show you how all the major religions of the world have the same central core and point to the same truth. I have quoted numerous verses from the Bible, Bhagavad Gita and Quran and have given a detailed commentary on them in the process of explaining the truth about these religions. I have unraveled the secrets of Greek mystery schools, Upanishads, Kabbalah, Hasidism, Sufism and other mystic traditions in the book. But this book needs a complete open-mindedness and patience from your part. By buying this book and sharing it with your friends, you are contributing something to the world peace. I strongly believe that this book will bring a change. “ US readers, click here to get the book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XRJ3GWS Indian readers, click here: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07XRJ3GWS

10 downloads so far. It will be available for free until Friday, September 13, 2019, 11:59 PM PDT, so invite you all to download and read it for free. I am posting a Quora answer that I just wrote which is related to my book. The question was "I have tried all 5 major religions and still not convinced by any of them. I believe in God and I am desperate to know that God. What should I do now?" Answer: This is a beautiful question. This question doesn’t come from the typical mind of a believer who is following the religion simply because he or she is conditioned by it from birth. This question comes from the mind of a seeker, who wants to know God. I was also a seeker like you once, exploring different religions and still couldn’t get those questions answered. But I did find God in my own experience and in the light of my own experience I also understood that all the three major religions, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam have the same central core. They speak different languages and their crests are different, making them look like different religions. All religions have three aspects: 1) A system of faith for everyone 2) A system of practice for everyone. A system of truth and the systematic path to truth for seekers. You may be surprised to hear that the only religion which makes this distinction clearly is Islam. The three dimensions in Islam are Islam, Iman and Ihsan. Islam deals with the five pillars and gives the basic code of conduct. Iman is the domain of faith, this is intended mainly for people who are inclined to believe rather than seek. But the third dimension is unknown to the majority; it is ihsan, the path of union with God, apart from whom nothing has a separate existence. God is not a person. It is the essence of life and universe. God is personified just for convenience, as a psychological device. While Islam preserves the skeleton of a religion and also has a suitable name to it, (Islam means peace and surrender), Hinduism preserves the vast scriptural knowledge written by thousands of people who has known God not by belief but through experience. So Hinduism preserves the flesh of the religion. Without flesh, there is no life. So, Islam preserves the skeleton of the religion and Hinduism preserves its flesh but Christianity gives it life. The central message of Christianity is nothing but love and love only. And love and meditation are two ways to realize God in one’s experience; and love is an aspect of God Himself. If religion is a human being with its skeleton, flesh and life in tact, science is its reason. If we have to explain God purely by reason, we have to do it through science. So, I wrote my first book connecting science and spirituality which is, “The Truth About Spiritual Enlightenment: Bridging Science, Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta”. The missing piece of the Bhagavad Gita is in the Bible; the missing piece of the Bible is in Quran’ and the missing piece of religion is in science. It is probably a test of nature. I have explained how Hinduism, Islam and Christianity share the same essence in my latest book, ‘Discovering God: Bridging Christianity, Hinduism and Islam’. Major religions seem contradictory to each other by appearance; but they compliment each other in essence. The last book has been written to promote religious tolerance. People mistake their attachment to their own religion as some kind of devotion to God. They think that they are doing some service to God or please God by trying to prove that one religion is better than the other. The pride and intoxication of pride in one’s own religion, aversion and prejudice towards other religions and its followers and obsession with one’s religion are totally against what the religions claim to teach in the first place. But if we all know the truth, all the religious difference and arguments will become meaningless. Maha Upanishad says ‘vasudha eva kutumbakam’ which means ‘The earth is a family’. Religions preach love towards God and love towards human beings. But they also give a clearcut path to end your suffering too. This second benefit of religion is hugely untapped by the majority because they do not know the truth about the major religions. I have revealed that truth in the book

Yes.. each domain has a different link Try this link for the UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07XRJ3GWS

@SoonHei @Nahm thank you

For a detailed commentary of these quotes, read this post: https://nellaishanmugam.wordpress.com/2019/08/09/kshetra-kshetrajna-vibhaga-yoga-bhagavad-gita-13-2-with-animated-ying-yang-images/

@Preetom @Hsinav Doing great, thanks.. Working overtime in job and also posting in my blog..So not getting time to be here..Hope you guys are doing good.

Generally, I prefer movies which show reality as it is, like a mirror. A lot of Indian movies are usually anti-reality, but things are getting better. There are a few Tamil lyrics written by Tamil poet Vairamuthu, who is currently the top lyricist in Tamil Movie Industry. Let us start with a wonderful movie 'Anbe Sivam' (2003). The movie itself comes with a strong spiritual message and seems to be inspired by the Hollywood movie 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles '. You can compare the stills, they look alike: Now, let us see a song in the movie with its English translation: (If you do a search, you may be able to watch the movie online with English subtitles. I recommend watching both ''Planes, Trains and Automobiles ' and 'Anbe Shivam' if you are interested in both movies and spirituality. Then there is another song from the movie Padayappa (1999). Here is just a part of that song, which I like very much: Controversies on Vairamuthu People, especially politicians in Tamil Nadu have been trying to malign and defame Vairamuthu because of an absurd reason. Vairamuthu wrote a research article about a Tamil saint Andal, completely praising her Tamil poetry. He also quoted a researcher who said that Andal was a Devadasi who lived and died in Sri Rangam temple in Tamil Nadu. Devadasi literally means, a slave to God! A huge community called Devadasi community existed in South India and the women who belonged to this community were brought up in temples right from the young age and were taught fine arts. Women are usually good at fine arts like dancing, singing, painting etc. You can check out Sreeja Renganath from Quora for example: https://www.quora.com/profile/Sreeja-Renganath. For me, she seems to be the living manifestation of Goddess Saraswathi, the Goddess of wisdom. I am not being polite, I am being brutally honest. Read this answer of hers, you will know what I mean: https://qr.ae/TUhfF0 (an English name which represents wisdom is 'Sophia'. This can be said like the English concept of Sarasvathi.) Devadasis were wonderful women. Usually, they grew up to be extraordinarily devoted and consider God as the master and themselves as slaves. This is called Dasa Bhavana, the attitude that Hanuman is shown to have towards Rama in Indian epic Ramayana. These girls saw the Almighty as their husband. But later on, some people who were in charge of some temples started enslaving these Devadasis, took advantage of them and used them for prostitution. People who are so attached to the forms of deities (without realizing that all forms represent one truth), who claim that their 'God' can be insulted, should first realize that this tragedy that happened to Devadasi community was the actual insult to Goddess Saraswathi. Over the years, the word 'Devadasi' earned a bad connotation. The word 'Devadasi' can be very easily misunderstood nowadays as a synonym for prostitute. So, thousands of people who didn't even read Vairamuthu's essay started to verbally abuse him, threatened to kill him, forced him to apologize to Andal by coming to Andal's temple in Srivilliputtur and made his life difficult after that for no reason. Vairamuthu didn't do anything wrong in this regard! Recently, he also has been accused of sexual harassment by a singer Chinmayi in Tamil Nadu, via the METOO campaign. Chinmayi made an allegation on him and the poet denied it. Chinmayi says that it was something that happened more than a decade before. I have no idea who is saying the truth! But the impression that singer Chinmayi has made in general among the people of Tamil Nadu is not good. I sense a dominative character in Chinmayi and I suspect that she can lie or at least exaggerate something and make a mountain out of the molehill. Generally, after looking at the METOO issue, everyone gets this question: 'Is this campaign really helping common men and women or is it only targetting celebrities? Because I know very well that most of these common people in India do not use Twitter or have never heard about it. Also, what makes these people to think that a person is exactly the same as how he was more than a decade ago?' People change... But forgiveness, which seems to be the backbone of all the world religions is becoming an out of date concept these days! The truth will win one day! No matter what the truth is, it will win! I just wrote this post to help people see and focus the positive side of poet Vairamuthu. He is a legend.. For the sake of the argument, let us say that Vairamuthi was indeed guilty of things that he is accused of. We need to still realize the fact that every saint was once a sinner and every sinner has the potential to become a saint. A human being is not a static entity, it is a process! Even Valmiki, who wrote Ramayana is said to be a robber before he became a saint! This post is an expression of gratitude to Andal herself. The month of Marghazhi (16 Dec 2018 – 13 Jan 2019) which is considered to be special for Andal is also approaching. The name Andal reminds me of my English teacher at Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal Golden Jubilee Matriculation higher secondary school, Sankarnagar, Tirunelveli -627357. My English teacher in my seventh standard was a teacher named Andal. Whenever someone says my English is good, please understand the whole credit goes to her. These are the letters that she wrote to me many years before: Wow, the first one is dated on 24th of November, 1997. I didn't realize that the anniversary of this letter was over just a couple of days before until I began to write this paragraph... (I have already mentioned about this letter and a few other letters in my Quora answer here: https://qr.ae/TUhfPb ) Satyameva Jayate! Please feel free to share similar experiences of yours...

In India, people are not in a position to understand spirituality, but they think they already understand. Right now, West is getting spirituality faster and Indians are sleeping more and more.. So in many places, especially in places which are neither cities nor villages, people are in a social confusion. There is no proper social order In India and I clearly see this problem way more than I did. So, talking spirituality in India now is like talking to the wall. They think they understand; but they understand nothing... You people are very fortunate to be on this forum; that is all I can say. This seems to be one of the few sane places in this world.

no.. I am currently suspecting something totally different. My suspiciousness is this: Both Sadhguru and Nithyananda might be completely genuine but they are pressurized by the government of India; so these people choose to act like conmen. Something fishy is happening in India. And these two people, Sadhguru and Nithyananda may have a master plan to come out of this situation. But don't believe it yet.. It may not be true. I only suspect.. But in general, a drama is happening in India and people are believing it is true, thats for sure. That is worse than not being enlightened!

@Shin Read this recent post of mine, you will find it interesting: https://nellaishanmugam.wordpress.com/2018/11/28/what-is-maturity-and-what-is-immaturity-warning-a-mature-content-written-by-an-immature-person/

Miracles are happening right now as you are reading this answer. The only thing that can stop you from listening to what the existence is saying is the meaning that you attribute to the word 'miracle' itself. People tend to think that a miracle is something that happens against the laws of nature. But that is impossible! Even if a unicorn jumps out of the screen that you are looking at right now, eats your loved ones and run away, it cannot be against the laws of nature; because it is the law of nature which creates miracles in the first place! For the past one or two months, I am witnessing a lot of things that existence is trying to tell me. Something has finally opened me up to the world of extrasensory perception, but it is not something that I can manipulate. It happens all by itself! I just go with the flow! There are many miracles which are waiting for you. The fact that you are reading this in itself is a miracle... And there is a secret path that you will discover which lies deep inside your heart and once that door opens it will blow your mind!!! I only have to give you a few warnings: 1) The journey to spiritual enlightenment is not for faint-hearted! It is ok if you don't feel attracted towards the spiritual path but don't force yourself into it. You will come back later when you are ready. 2) You need extraordinary patience and open-mindedness.

Ok.. then I will keep this thread alive and post whenever I find time to narrate the story: Let me make the first post but the screenplay is going to be not in the Chronological order; I will make the order so that you see the links between the events more clearly: Scene 1: Two Osho sannyasins from Germany wanted me to meet me when they visit India. They emailed me 2-3 months before. I interact with them on whatsapp about their travel plan. He tells me he would visit me on Nov 23rd. But on November 6th of this month, I tell him that 26th is better because it is on a Sunday. I will be free on Sundays... Scene 2: On November 9th, I send him a reply to a previous conversation asking me to remind me two days before their arrival. On the same day, I write the above poem and slept; I was woken up by the death news; It was a big death in our entire family and it was totally unexpected. Scene 3: Problems start between me and my father. My father gets offended by me and starts to point out how worthless my life is. I challenge my father and there is a cold war. Scene 4 - Nov 22 - It has been one year since I published my first book. I remembered how amazing it was...There is a lot to say regarding this one year, which I will write about in a different post in the same thread. Scene 5: Usually, after a death in South India, there is a celebration again after two weeks when all the relatives gather together. On Nove 23rd, my wife reminds me that it was going to be on November 26th on sunday.. But I totally forgot that the German sannyasins were coming that date. On the evening, I got a reminder from the Osho sannyasin. Scene 6: On Nov 25th, my whole family with all my relatives think that I am crazy and worthless. Lots of things happened on that day which led my relatives to get convinced that I am someone who needs a lots of advice. Scene 7: On Nov 26th, the German sannyasins come to my home town with my book and I became the center of attraction of my whole town. Everyone starts praising me. That is when all of my relatives came to know that I had written a book. My dad feels totally embarassed. We ended up taking a lot of pics: Scene 8: I also meet an old friend who I saw about 16 years before...It was another turning point in the story. Scene 9: Until last year, all of my relatives thought that I am the most useless guy among the relatives. But they now have the totally opposite idea.. And when I posted the following post today in Facebook, it brought me smile. 10) When I look at the whole thing today, I see how karma works very clearly. I see why things happened in my life the way they did. At every moment, trillions of karmic action is going on and interacting with us, creating many deep links among people. I also discovered that there are secret keys which lie behind the names of people who have been close with me the whole life. The whole discovery was amazing .. One 28th Nov, in the morning, as my face was drenched with tears of bliss and wonder, I was explaining how the whole thing was a Eureka moment to my wife; that is when I also remembered that the old friend that I met recently actually worked with me in a company for two months.. It was my first job and the name of the company was 'Eureka Forbes'.. By the way, the name of the german Sannyasini (the women) is Vedanta Kabiro! (to be continued)

@Shin After I wrote the above poem and slept, I was woken up by my wife on the afternoon with the phone call that claimed that my uncle was dead. What happened after that can be made into a blockbuster movie.. But the story is too long with a lot of amazing, mind blowing revelations! I can't write it down.. May be one day I will speak about them..

exactly.. this is the greatest drama I have ever seen.. All the dramas, plays and movies are derived from the ultimate drama that existence is playing. The happy endings in the stories are nothing when compared to the happy ending of the ignorance..Then there is a journey in a different dimension, the timeless dimension which unravels many mysteries as you go on to live. When you watch a movie, you know why director decided to have certain scenes in certain order at the end of the movie. But at the end of the movie that runs a fake show of a limited identity, what you eventually get to know is trillion times more amazing than that... I recommend reading 'Turiya - The God State: Beyond Kundalini, Kriya Yoga & all Spirituality' by Santatagamana. It is his latest book.

I am joking.. You didn't get it? In India, we mix water and brandy when we drink.