The Aditya Hridayama is a sacred hymn taught by Rishi Agastya to Lord Rama before the final battle with Ravana. It is said that Rama was feeling exhausted by the strain of the prolonged battle whereas Ravana was as energetic as ever, thanks to the pot of nectar hidden in his belly. Lord Agastya tells Rama to chant the hymn while meditating on the heart of the Sun to regain his sagging spirit. Lord Rama gains victory over Ravana in the battle that ensued.

The benefits of chanting the Aditya Hridayam are: victory over external enemies (foes) and internal enemies (weaknesses such as lust, anger, jealousy etc.), long life and good health, destruction of sins, dissolution of worries and anxeity, long lasting prosperity and auspicious qualities.

Request our priests to perform the parayanam of Aditya Hrida... Read More  

On this auspicious day, the birthday of the Purushottama SriRaama, here are two interesting anecdotes related to Him, one of them which happened even before His birth!

Dasaratha kills Shravana:
Once, the childless king Dasaratha goes to a forest to hunt, and uses his Shabdavedi, a weapon that strikes the destination based on the sound emitted by the object to be attacked. He launches this after listening to what sounded like an animal drinking water. Unfortunately, it was a young boy who was collecting water in his pot for his aged blind parents, who became the victim of the weapon. Dasaratha is then shocked to see that he has killed the only son of helpless parents, who curse him that he would also suffer separation from his son, just like they had been deprived of theirs.
While Dasaratha was profoundly grief-struck by the incident, he also felt i... Read More  

I once heard my grandmother, who was in a dilemma, complaining about being in a "Thrisanku Swargam". On analysing this, I found a very interesting piece of information related to our
Itihasas and astronomy.
This is from the Valmiki Ramayana:
Once, there was a king called Thrisanku who wanted to go to Swargam (Indra's abode) in his bodily form itself, without dying. He approached Sage Vasishta who promptly refused to help him. Now, Sage Vishw... Read More  

Aano bhadra krtavo yantu vishwatah
This means "Let noble thoughts come to all from all sides".
This verse is from the Rig Veda, and has also been adopted by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
as its motto.Hindu scriptures are full of such gems-simple statements driving home a profound truth.It is obvious that we must gather noble thoughts, so what's so great about this verse?

Here's my interpretation:
Let's take our epics for example.In the Mahabharata, the heroes are the Pandavas and the Kauravas are the villains. Similarly, in the Ramayana, Rama is the hero and Ravana, the villain.
Both these historical accounts describe the victory of good over evil-nothing seemingly special about this as there are countless stories across the world which talk about the victory of good over evil.

However, the standards of "good" and "evil" in the Ramayana and Mahab... Read More