Krishna is perhaps the god favoured by all Indians irrespective of age. Children can identify with him for his childish pranks, so can the teenagers for his adventures, so can the lovers for his love of music and dance, so can the adults for his sagacious advice and so can the very old for his profound teachings. In that sense Krishna is a sampUrNAvatAra, a complete manifestation of self.

My parents were religious; my father used to pUjA quite regularly, offer sandhyAvandana, and recite a lot of stOtras and explain their meanings too. My mother was very religious observing all vratas and fasting on EkAdaSi and other days. My parents-in-law too were very religious.

This blog has reference to the star of David drawn by latAjI (http://ikolam.com/node/297?p=5851) and my response to it. The star of David is the centre piece of the Israeli flag. I mentioned this in a different context while explaining the hexagonal yantras (http://ikolam.com/node/5387?p=1930).

I am narrating a story that may be taking place everyday in many houses. The mother gets up in the morning and goes out to decorate the front yard with a beautiful rangOli. The child follows her and wants to help the mother :-) His (her) help consists of coming in the way of the mother’s efforts, stepping on the rangOli dots or wiping them with his (her) tender hands.

Line:
As the moon revolves around the Earth
and as the Earth revolves around the Sun
I revolve around you
countless times and in countless ways -
up and down and in and out
north and south and east and west
straight and cross
over and under
and round and round ...

Dot:
Unless you are present
and unless you go around me
my existence does not count

Line:

Subhadra is Krishna's sister, Arjuna's wife and child warrior Abhimanyu's mother and related by marriage to the mighty Pandava clan. In her outer as well as her inner self, she always worshipped Krishna. She felt, if she worshipped Krishna no other form of worship is really necessary. I am reminded of the purandaradAsa kriti "kR^ishNA eMdare kashTavu baMdite kR^ishNA enabArade".

Tomorrow is America's Independence Day - more than two centuries of life as a nation. Much has changed during that time. But the basic tenet of USA remains still the same - life, liberty and pursuit of happiness! Long life is quite important and that is why the traditional blessings are always for a long life (dIrghAyushmAn bhava). Freedom and happiness certainly increases the life span.

Colour conscience is quite important in designs as well as in science. Let us take the bottom paisley design that I made in
http://www.ikolam.com/node/6030?p=1930

There are no Hindu prayers that do not start with the praNava mantra Om. Buddhists and Jains too use Om in their prayer mantras. Of late, Om is a part of all yOga rituals. In fact the word Om is a combination of a, u and m sounds (the conjunction of a and u gives rise to O, called guNa sandhi). Another word that has these sounds is umA.

As soon as I wake up (usually at about 5 or 5:30 in the morning), I have the
habit of switching on and listening to the NPR (Natl Public Radio, people in
India and abroad may listen to this on the internet). There is a segment in
it called the Daily Almanac, hosted by the incomparable Garrison Keillor. He,
in five minutes, gives the day's significant events in the field of arts