Satya
Satya is the Sanskrit word for truth. It refers to a virtue in Indian religions, referring to being truthful in one's thought and action. In Yoga, satya is one of five yamas, the virtuous restraint from falsehood and distortion of reality in one's expressions and actions. In the Vedas and sutras, the meaning of the word satya evolves into an ethical concept about truthfulness and is considered an important virtue, it means being true and consistent with reality in one's thought and action. A related concept, sattva derived from "sat", means true essence, spiritual essence, character. Sattva is a guṇa, a psychology concept in the Samkhya school of philosophy, where it means goodness, clean, one that advances good true nature of self. Satya has cognates in a number of diverse Indo-European languages, including the word "sooth" in English, "istina" in Russian, "sannhet" in Norwegian and "haithya" in Avestan, the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. Satya is a central theme in the Vedas, it is equated with and considered necessary to the concept Ṛta – that, properly joined, rule, balance, harmony.
Ṛta results from Satya in the Vedas, states Holdrege, as it regulates and enables the operation of the universe and everything within it. Satya is considered essential, without it, the universe and reality falls apart, cannot function. In Rigveda, opposed to rita and satya are anrita and asatya. Truth and truthfulness is considered as a form of reverence for the divine, while falsehood a form of sin. Satya includes action and speech, factual, real and reverent to Ṛta in Book 1, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10 of Rigveda. However, Satya isn't about one's past, in context in the Vedas, it has one's current and one's future contexts as well. De Nicolás states, that in Rigveda, "Satya is the modality of acting in the world of Sat, as the truth to be built, formed or established". Satya is a discussed concept in various Upanishads, including the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad where satya is called the means to Brahman, as well as Brahman. In hymn 1.4.14 of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Satya is equated to Dharma, as Nothing is higher than the Law of Righteousness.
The weak overcomes the stronger by the Law of Righteousness. That Law is the Truth. For both are one. Taittiriya Upanishad's hymn 11.11 states, "Speak the Satya, conduct yourself according to the Dharma". Truth is sought, praised in the hymns of Upanishads, held as one that always prevails; the Mundaka Upanishad, for example, states in Book 3, Chapter 1, Sandilya Upanishad of Atharvanaveda, in Chapter 1, includes ten forbearances as virtues, in its exposition of Yoga. It defines Satya as "the speaking of the truth that conduces to the well being of creatures, through the actions of one's mind, speech or body."Deussen states that Satya is described in the major Upanishads with two layers of meanings - one as empirical truth about reality, another as abstract truth about universal principle and the unchanging. Both these ideas are explained in early Upanishads, composed before 500 BC, by variously breaking the word satya or satyam into two or three syllables. In Upanishads, the ideas evolve and transcend into satya as truth, Brahman as the Being, Be-ness, real Self, the eternal.
The Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata states, "The righteous hold that forgiveness, truth and compassion are the foremost. Truth is the essence of the Vedas."The Epic emphasizes that Satya is a basic virtue, because everything and everyone depends on and relies on Satya. सत्यस्य वचनं साधु न सत्याद विद्यते परम सत्येन विधृतं सर्वं सर्वं सत्ये परतिष्ठितम अपि पापकृतॊ रौद्राः सत्यं कृत्वा पृथक पृथक अद्रॊहम अविसंवादं परवर्तन्ते तदाश्रयाः ते चेन मिथॊ ऽधृतिं कुर्युर विनश्येयुर असंशयम To speak the truth is meritorious. There is nothing higher than truth. Everything is upheld by truth, everything rests upon truth; the sinful and ferocious, swear to keep the truth amongst themselves, dismiss all grounds of quarrel and uniting with one another set themselves to their tasks, depending upon truth. If they behaved falsely towards one another, they would be destroyed without doubt. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, it is written, “When one is established in speaking truth, the fruits of action become subservient to him."
In Yoga sutra, Satya is virtuous restraints, along with ahimsa. Patanjali considers satya as a restraint from falsehood in one's action, words, or feelings / thoughts. In Patanjali's teachings, one may not always know the truth or the whole truth, but one knows if one is creating, sustaining or expressing falsehood, distortion, fabrication or deception. Satya is, in Patanjali's Yoga, the virtue of restraint from such falsehood, either through silence or through stating the truth without any form of distortion. Satya is one of the five vows prescribed in Jain Agamas. Satya was preached by Mahavira. According to Jainism, not to lie or speak what is not commendable; the underlying cause of falsehood is passion and therefore, it is said to cause hiṃsā. According to the Jain text Sarvārthasiddhi: "that which causes pain and sufferi
Sarasvati River
The Sarasvati River was one of the Rigvedic rivers mentioned in the Rig Veda and Vedic and post-Vedic texts. The Sarasvati River played an important role in Hinduism since Vedic Sanskrit; the first part of the Rig Veda is believed to have originated when the Vedic people lived on its banks, during the 2nd millennium BCE. The goddess Sarasvati was a personification of this river, but developed an independent identity; the Sarasvati is considered by Hindus to exist in a metaphysical form, in which it formed a confluence with the sacred rivers Ganges and Yamuna, at the Triveni Sangam. According to Michael Witzel, superimposed on the Vedic Sarasvati river is the heavenly river Milky Way, seen as "a road to immortality and heavenly after-life."Rigvedic and Vedic texts have been used to propose identification with present-day rivers, or ancient riverbeds. The Nadistuti hymn in the Rigveda mentions the Sarasvati between the Yamuna in the east and the Sutlej in the west. Vedic texts like the Tandya and Jaiminiya Brahmanas, as well as the Mahabharata, mention that the Sarasvati dried up in a desert.
Since the late 19th-century, scholars have conjectured that the Vedic Saraswati river is the Ghaggar-Hakra River system, which flows through northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. Satellite images have pointed to the more significant river once following the course of the present day Ghaggar River. Scholars have observed that major Indus Valley Civilization sites at Kalibangan and Rakhigarhi, Dholavira and Lothal lay along this course. However, identification of the Vedic Sarasvati with the Ghaggar-Hakra system is problematic, since the Ghaggar-Hakra is not only mentioned separately in the Rig Veda river, but is described as having dried-up by the time of the composition of the Vedas and Hindu epics. In the words of Annette Wilke, the Ghaggar-Hakra had been reduced to a "small, sorry trickle in the desert", by the time that the Vedic people migrated into north-west India. Recent geophysical research suggests that the Ghaggar-Hakra system was a system of monsoon-fed rivers and that the Indus Valley Civilisation may have declined as a result of climate change.
That is, the monsoons that fed the rivers diminished at around the time civilisation diminished some 4,000 years ago."Sarasvati" may be identified with the Helmand or Haraxvati river in southern Afghanistan, the name of which may have been reused in its Sanskrit form as the name of the Ghaggar-Hakra river, after the Vedic tribes moved to the Punjab. Sarasvati of the Rig Veda may refer to two distinct rivers, with the family books referring to the Helmand River, the more recent 10th mandala referring to the Ghaggar-Hakra; the identification with the Ghaggar-Hakra system took on new significance in the early 21st century, with some suggesting an earlier dating of the Rig Veda. Sarasvatī is the feminine of an adjective sarasvant-, derived from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sáras-wat-iH, meaning ‘marshy, full of pools’, or ‘she with many lakes’; the other term -vatī is the Sanskrit grammatical feminine possessor suffix. Sanskrit sáras means ‘pool, pond or lake’. Like its cognates Welsh hêl, heledd ‘river meadow’ and Greek ἕλος ‘swamp’, the Rigvedic term refers to stagnant waters, Mayrhofer considers unlikely a connection with the root *sar- ‘run, flow’.
Sarasvatī may be a cognate of Avestan Haraxvatī originally referring to Arədvī Sūrā Anāhitā, the Zoroastrian mythological world river, which would point to a common Indo-Iranian myth of a cosmic or mystical Sáras-vat-ī river. In the younger Avesta, Haraxvatī is Arachosia, a region described to be rich in rivers, its Old Persian cognate Harauvati, which gave its name to the present-day Hārūt River in Afghanistan, may have referred to the entire Helmand drainage basin. However, the Avestan xv cognates with Sanskrit "ksha"; the usual cognate to "sva/sa" syllable of Sanskrit is "ngha/ŋh" syllable of Avestan, as found in cognate-pairs like Vivasvan-Vivanghat and Rasa-Rangha. The Saraswati river was revered and considered important for Hindus because it is said that it was on this river's banks, along with its tributary Drishadwati, in the Vedic state of Brahmavarta, that Vedic Sanskrit had its genesis, important Vedic scriptures like initial part of Rigveda and several Upanishads were supposed to have been composed by Vedic seers.
In the Manusmriti, Brahmavarta is portrayed as the "pure" centre of Vedic culture. Bridget and Raymond Allchin in The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan took the view that "The earliest Aryan homeland in India-Pakistan was in the Punjab and in the valleys of the Sarasvati and Drishadvati rivers in the time of the Rigveda." The Sarasvati River is mentioned in all but the fourth book of the Rigveda. The most important hymns related to Sarasvati are RV 6.61, RV 7.95 and RV 7.96. Macdonell and Keith provided a comprehensive survey of Vedic references to the Sarasvati River in their Vedic Index; the Sarasvati is praised lavishly in the Rigveda as the best of all the rivers. In RV 2.41.16,अम्बितमे नदीतमे देवितमे सरस्वति । अप्रशस्ताइव स्मसि प्रशस्तिमम्ब नस्कृधि ॥ ambitame nadītame devitame sarasvati । apraśastāiva smasi praśasti
Bharata (Mahabharata)
In Hindu scriptures, Bharata is an ancestor of the Pandavas and the Kauravas in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. Though the Bhāratas are a prominent community in the Rigveda, the story of Bharata is first told in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, wherein he is the son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala; the story of his parents and his birth is related in Kalidasa's famous play Abhijñānashākuntala. According to the Mahābhārata, Bharata was the son of King Dushyanta and Shakuntala and thus a descendant of the Lunar dynasty of the Kshatriya Varna, he was named Sarvadamana. Bharata's exploits as a child prince are dramatised in Kalidasa's poetic play Abhijñānaśākuntalam. According to a dramatized version of the events by the poet Kalidasa, the king Dushyanta married Shakuntala on his hunting expeditions in forests, he was courted her in royal style and married her. He had to leave to take care of affairs in the capital, she was given a ring by the king. She could claim her place as queen. Shakuntala gave birth to her child, named Sarvadamana by the sage Kanwa.
Surrounded only by wild animals, Sarvadamana grew to be a strong child and made a sport of opening the mouths of tigers and lions and counting their teeth. This narrative varies from the version in the epic Mahabharata. Bharat performed Sage Kanva was the chief priest at those sacrifices. Bharata performed a hundred horse sacrifices on the banks of the Yamuna, three hundred on the banks of Saraswati and four hundred on the banks of the Ganga, he again performed a hundred Rajasuya. He conducted sacrifices such as Agnishtoma, Atiratra and Viswajit, he performed many thousands of Vajapeyas. Bharat had a son named Bhúmanyu. In the Adi Parva of Mahabharata, it tells two different stories about Bhúmanyu's birth; the first story says that Bharat married Sunanda, the daughter of Sarvasena, the King of Kasi Kingdom and begot upon her the son named Bhumanyu. According to the second story, Bhúmanyu was born out of a great sacrifice that Bharata performed for the sage Bharadwaja. Emperor Bharat gave his name to the dynasty.
It was in the Bharat's' dynasty that the Pandavas of epic Mahabharata were born. Bharata Khanda Ganguly, KM, The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Sacred Texts Mackenzie, Donald A, Indian Myth and Legend, CHAPTER IX: Prelude to the Great Bharata War, Sacred Texts
Chandigarh
Chandigarh is a city and a union territory in India that serves as the capital of the two neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana. The city is unique as it is not a part of either of the two states but is governed directly by the Union Government, which administers all such territories in the country. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the north, the west and the south, to the state of Haryana to the east, it is considered to be a part of the Chandigarh capital region or Greater Chandigarh, which includes Chandigarh, the city of Panchkula and cities of Kharar, Mohali, Zirakpur. It is located 260 km north of 229 km southeast of Amritsar, it was one of the early planned cities in post-independent India and is internationally known for its architecture and urban design. The master plan of the city was prepared by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, which transformed from earlier plans created by the Polish architect Maciej Nowicki and the American planner Albert Mayer. Most of the government buildings and housing in the city, were designed by the Chandigarh Capital Project Team headed by Le Corbusier, Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry.
In 2015, an article published by BBC named Chandigarh as one of the perfect cities of the world in terms of architecture, cultural growth and modernisation. Chandigarh’s Capitol Complex was in July 2016 declared by UNESCO as World Heritage at the 40th session of World Heritage Conference held in Istanbul. UNESCO inscription was under "The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier an outstanding contribution to the Modern Movement"; the Capitol Complex buildings include the Punjab and Haryana High Court and Haryana Secretariat and Punjab and Haryana Assembly along with monuments Open hand, Martyrs Memorial, Geometric Hill and Tower of Shadow and the Rock Garden The city has one of the highest per capita incomes in the country. The city was reported to be one of the cleanest in India based on a national government study; the union territory heads the list of Indian states and territories according to Human Development Index. In 2015, a survey by LG Electronics, ranked it as the happiest city in India over the happiness index.
The metropolitan area of Chandigarh–Mohali–Panchkula collectively forms a Tri-city, with a combined population of over 1,611,770. The name Chandigarh is a compound of Garh. Chandi refers to Hindu goddess Garh means fortress; the name is derived from Chandi Mandir, an ancient temple devoted to the Hindu Goddess Chandi, near the city in Panchkula District. The motif or sobriquet of "The City of Beauty " was derived from the City Beautiful movement, a popular philosophy in North American urban planning during the 1890s and 1900s. Architect Albert Mayer, the initial planner of Chandigarh, lamented the American rejection of City Beautiful concepts and declared "We want to create a beautiful city..." The phrase was used on as a logo in official publications in the 1970s, is now how the city describes itself. The city has a prehistoric past. Due to the presence of a lake, the area has fossil remains with imprints of a large variety of aquatic plants and animals, amphibian life, which were supported by that environment.
As it was a part of the Punjab region, it had many rivers nearby where the ancient and primitive settling of humans began. So, about 3000 years ago, the area was known to be a home to the Harappans. Chandigarh was the dream city of Jawaharlal Nehru. After the partition of India in 1947, the former British province of Punjab was split between East Punjab in India and West Punjab in Pakistan; the Indian Punjab required a new capital city to replace Lahore, which had become part of Pakistan during the partition. Therefore, an American planner and architect Albert Mayer was tasked to design a new city called "Chandigarh" in 1949; the government carved out Chandigarh of nearly 50 Puadhi speaking villages of the state of East Punjab, India. Shimla was the temporary capital of East Punjab until Chandigarh was completed in 1960. Albert Mayer, during his work on the development and planning of the new capital city of Chandigarh, developed a superblock-based city threaded with green spaces which emphasized cellular neighborhoods and traffic segregation.
His site plan used natural characteristics, using its gentle grade to promote drainage and rivers to orient the plan. Mayer discontinued his work on Chandigarh after developing a master plan for the city when his architect-partner Matthew Nowicki died in a plane crash in 1950. Government officials recruited Le Corbusier to succeed Mayer and Nowicki, who enlisted many elements of Mayer's original plan without attributing them to him. Le Corbusier designed many administration buildings, including the High Court, the Palace of Assembly and the Secretariat Building. Le Corbusier designed the general layout of the city, dividing it into sectors. Chandigarh hosts the largest of Le Corbusier's many Open Hand sculptures, standing 26 metres high; the Open Hand is a recurring motif in Le Corbusier's architecture, a sign for him of "peace and reconciliation. It is open to give and open to receive." It represents what Le Corbusier called the "Second Machine Age". Two of the six monuments planned in the Capitol Complex which has the High Court, the Assembly and the Secretariat, remain incomplete.
These include Martyrs Memorial. On 1 November 1966, the newly formed state of Haryana was carved out of the eastern portion of East Punjab, in order to create a new state for the majority Haryanvi-speaking people in that portion, while the western portion
Ludhiana
Ludhiana is a city and a municipal corporation in Ludhiana district in the Indian state of Punjab, India's largest city north of Delhi, with an area of 310sq. Km and an estimated population of 1,618,879 as of the 2011 census; the population increases during the harvesting season due to the migration of labourers from populated states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha. The city stands on the Sutlej River's old bank, 13 kilometres south of its present course, it is an industrial center of northern India. Ludhiana was among the list of smart cities. According to World Bank Group Ludhiana is the best city in India to do business. Ludhiana is 107 kilometres west of the state capital, Chandigarh, on NH 95, is centrally located on National Highway 44, which runs from New Delhi to Amritsar, it is 142 km southeast of Amritsar. Ludhiana is located at 30.9°N 75.85°E / 30.9. It has an average elevation of 244 metres. Ludhiana City, to its residents, consists of the New City; the land dips steeply to the west where, before 1785, the river Sutlej ran.
The Old Fort was at the banks of the Sutlej. Legend has it that an underground tunnel connects it to the fort in Phillaur – although why this should be is debatable, as the Sutlej was the traditional dividing line between the principalities occupied by enemy forces; the ground is of yellow sandstone and granite, forming small hillocks and dips. The tree of largest natural extraction was the kikar, or Acacia indica, but has been supplanted by the eucalyptus, transplanted from rural Australia in the late 1950s by the government of Chief Minister Pratap Singh Kairon. Gulmohars and jacarandas were planted by the British along the avenues of Civil Lines, as were other flowering trees, while the Old City contains no vegetation or parks, except for a few isolated pipal trees, holy to the Hindus, as it is supposed to be the abode of Lord Shiva. Ludhiana features a humid subtropical climate under the Köppen climate classification, with three defined seasons. Ludhiana on average sees 890 millimetres of precipitation annually.
Ludhiana has one of the worst air pollution problems in India, with particulate matter being over six times the World Health Organization recommended standard, making it the 13th most polluted city in the world. Industrial water pollution is of significant concern in portions of Ludhiana, notably along the Budha Dariya; as per provisional data of 2011 census Ludhiana had a population of 1,618,879. The literacy rate was 82.50 per cent. This population consists of 743,530 females; the World Bank ranked Ludhiana as the city in India with the best business environment in 2009 and 2013. The riches are brought by small-scale industrial units, which produce industrial goods, machine parts, auto parts, household appliances, hosiery and garments. Ludhiana is Asia's largest hub for bicycle manufacturing and produces more than 50% of India's bicycle consumption of more than 10 million each year. Ludhiana produces a large portion of auto and two-wheeler parts. Many parts used in German cars Mercedes and BMW are produced in Ludhiana to satisfy the world requirement.
It is one of the largest manufacturer of domestic sewing machines. Hand tools and industrial equipment are other specialties; the apparel industry of Ludhiana, popularly known as Ludhiana Hosiery industry provides employment to millions of people and produces world best brands of winter wears preferably woolens and jackets. It is famous all over India for its woolen sweaters and cotton T-shirts; as a result of its dominance in the textile industry it is dubbed as the Manchester of India. Ludhiana has a growing IT sector with multiple software services and product companies having development centers in the city. Ludhiana is home to the Ludhiana Stock Exchange Association. LSC is situated on NH95 in Feroze Gandhi market near Mini Secretariat Ludhiana. Stock trading is one the main course of action of LSC. Ludhiana has 363 senior secondary, 367 high, 324 middle, 1129 primary, pre-primary recognised Schools, with a total of 398,770 students. Most of these schools are either run by the Central Board of Secondary Education or by Punjab School Education Board.
Ludhiana is home to the largest agricultural university in Asia and one of the largest in the world, Punjab Agricultural University. The College of Veterinary Sciences at PAU was upgraded to the Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. GADVASU was established at Ludhiana by an act of the Punjab Legislature No. 16 of 2005 notified in the Punjab Government Gazette on August 9, 2005 and it started functioning w.e.f. April 21, 2006 for promoting livestock production and prevention of the disease through integrated teaching and extension programme. Christian Medical College, the first medical school for women in Asia, was founded by Dr Dame Edith Mary Brown in 1894. Christian Medical College is a major and reputed tertiary care hospital in India where the world's first face transplant was done. Dayanand Medical College and Hospital is a tertiary care teaching hospital in Ludh
Aranyaka
The Aranyakas constitutes the philosophy behind ritual sacrifice of the ancient Hindu sacred texts, the Vedas. They represent the sections of Vedas, are one of many layers of the Vedic texts; the other parts of Vedas are the Samhitas and the Upanishads. Aranyakas describe and discuss rituals from various perspectives, but some include philosophical speculations. For example, the Katha Aranyaka discusses rituals connected with the Pravargya; the Aitareya Aranyaka includes explanation of the Mahavrata ritual from ritualisitic to symbolic meta-ritualistic points of view. Aranyakas, neither are homogeneous in content nor in structure. Aranyakas are sometimes identified as karma-kanda /, ritualistic action/sacrifice section), while the Upanishads are identified as jnana-kanda knowledge/spirituality section). In an alternate classification, the early part of Vedas are called Samhitas and the ritualistic commentary on the mantras and rituals are called the Brahmanas which together are identified as the ceremonial karma-kanda, while Aranyakas and Upanishads are referred to as the jnana-kanda.
In the immense volume of ancient Indian Vedic literature, there is no absolute universally true distinction between Aranyakas and Brahmanas. There is no absolute distinction between Aranyakas and Upanishads, as some Upanishads are incorporated inside a few Aranyakas. Aranyakas, along with Brahmanas, represent the emerging transitions in Vedic religious practices; the transition completes with the blossoming of ancient Indian philosophy from external sacrificial rituals to internalized philosophical treatise of Upanishads. "Aranyaka" means "produced, relating to a forest " or rather, "belonging to the wilderness". It is derived from the word Araṇya, which means "wilderness". Several theories have been proposed on the origin of the word Aranyaka; as per Oldenberg, it meant (dangerous texts to be studied in the wilderness. A post-Vedic theory holds that these texts were meant to be studied in a forest, while the other holds that the name came from these being the manuals of allegorical interpretation of sacrifices, for those in Vanaprastha stage of their life, however the Vanaprastha Ashrama came into existence only well after that of the Sanyasin -- according to the historic age-based Ashrama system of human life.
Taittiriya Ar. 2 says, "from where one cannot see the roofs of the settlement", which does not indicate a forested area. Aranyakas are diverse in their structure. Jan Gonda summarizes, The structure of the Aranyakas is as little homogenous as their contents; some portions have the character of a Samhita, others of a Brahmana, others again of a Sutra, according to the material that, varying from Veda to Veda, from school to school, was collected in an Aranyaka corpus. Linguistically and stylistically these works form a transition between the Brahmanas proper and the speculative literature that follows them and develops part of the ideas and lines of thought which are characteristic of them. Many Aranyaka texts enumerate mantras, etymologies, discussions and symbolic interpretations, but a few such as by sage Arunaketu include hymns with deeper philosophical insights; the Aranyakas discuss sacrifices, in the language and style of the Brahmanas, thus are concerned with the proper performance of ritual.
The Aranyakas were restricted to a particular class of rituals that were included in the Vedic curriculum. The Aranyakas are associated with, named for, individual Vedic shakhas. Rigveda Aitareya Aranyaka belongs to the Aitareya Shakha of Rigveda Kaushitaki Aranyaka belongs to the Kaushitaki and Shankhayana Shakhas of Rigveda Yajurveda Taittiriya Aranyaka belongs to the Taittiriya Shakha of the Krishna Yajurveda Maitrayaniya Aranyaka belongs to the Maitrayaniya Shakha of the Krishna Yajurveda Katha Aranyaka belongs to the Katha Shakha of the Krishna Yajurveda Brihad Aranyaka in the Madhyandina and the Kanva versions of the Shukla Yajurveda; the Madhyandina version has 9 sections. Samaveda Talavakara Aranyaka or Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana belongs to the Talavakara or Jaiminiya Shakha of the Samaveda Aranyaka Samhita is not a typical Aranyaka text: rather the Purvarchika of the Samaveda Samhitas has a section of mantras, called the'Aranyaka Samhita', on which the Aranyagana Samans are sung.
The Atharvaveda has no surviving Aranyaka, though the Gopatha Brahmana is regarded as its Aranyaka, a remnant of a larger, lost Atharva Brahmana. There are five chapters each of, considered as a full Aranyaka; the first one deals with the regimen known as ‘Mahaa-vrata’. The explanations are both ritualistic as well as speculative; the second one has six chapters of which the first three are about ‘Praana-vidyaa’ – meaning, the Vital Air that constitutes the life-breath of a living body is the life-breath of all mantras, all vedas and all vedic declarations. It is in this portion of the Aranyaka that one finds specific statements about how one who follows the vedic injunctions and performs the sacrifices goes to become the God of Fire, or the Sun or Air and how one who transgresses the Vedic prescriptions is born into lower levels of being, namely, as birds and reptiles; the 4th, 5th and 6th chapters of this second Aranyaka constitute what is known as Aitareya Upanishad. The third Aranyaka in this chain of Aranyakas is known as ‘Samhitopanishad’.
This elaborates on the various ways
Dāna
Dāna is a Sanskrit and Pali word that connotes the virtue of generosity, charity or giving of alms in Indian philosophies. It is alternatively transliterated as daana. In Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism, dāna is the practice of cultivating generosity, it can take the form of giving to an individual in need. It can take the form of philanthropic public projects that empower and help many. According to historical records, dāna is an ancient practice in Indian traditions, tracing back to Vedic traditions. Dāna means giving in the context of donation and charity. In other contexts, such as rituals, it can refer to the act of giving something. Dāna is related to and mentioned in ancient texts with concepts of Paropakāra which means benevolent deed, helping others. Dāna has been defined in traditional texts as any action of relinquishing the ownership of what one considered or identified as one's own, investing the same in a recipient without expecting anything in return. While dāna is given to one person or family, Hinduism discusses charity or giving aimed at public benefit, sometimes called utsarga.
This aims at larger projects such as building a rest house, drinking water or irrigation well, planting trees, building care facility among others. The Rigveda has the earliest discussion of dāna in the Vedas; the Rigveda relates it to satya "truth" and in another hymn points to the guilt one feels from not giving to those in need. It uses the root of word dāna, in its hymns to refer to the act of giving to those in distress. Ralph T. H. Griffith, for example, translates Book 10, Hymn 117 of the Rig veda as follows: The Upanishads, composed before 500 BCE, present some of the earliest Upanishadic discussion of dāna. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, in verse 5.2.3, states that three characteristics of a good, developed person are self-restraint, compassion or love for all sentient life, charity. तदेतत्त्रयँ शिक्षेद् दमं दानं दयामिति Learn three cardinal virtues - self restraint and compassion for all life. Chandogya Upanishad, Book III states that a virtuous life requires: tapas, dāna, arjava and satyavacana.
Bhagavad Gita describes the right and wrong forms of dāna in verses 17.20 through 17.22. It defines sāttvikam charity, in verse 17.20, as one given without expectation of return, at the proper time and place, to a worthy person. It defines rajas charity, in verse 17.21, as one given with the expectation of some return, or with a desire for fruits and results, or grudgingly. It defines tamas charity, in verse 17.22, as one given with contempt, to unworthy person, at a wrong place and time. In Book 17, Bhadwad Gita suggests steadiness in sattvikam dāna, or the good form of charity is better; these three psychological categories are referred to as the guṇas in Hindu philosophy. The Adi Parva of the Hindu Epic Mahabharata, in Chapter 91, states that a person must first acquire wealth by honest means embark on charity. In Chapter 87 of Adi Parva, it calls sweet speech and refusal to use harsh words or wrong others if you have been wronged, as a form of charity. In the Vana Parva, Chapter 194, the Mahabharata recommends that one must, "conquer the mean by charity, the untruthful by truth, the wicked by forgiveness, dishonesty by honesty".
Anushasana Parva in Chapter 58, recommends public projects as a form of dāna. It discusses the building of drinking water tanks for people and cattle as a noble form of giving, as well as giving of lamps for lighting dark public spaces. In sections of Chapter 58, it describes planting public orchards, with trees that give fruits to strangers and shade to travelers, as meritorious acts of benevolent charity. In Chapter 59 of Book 13 of the Mahabharata and Bhishma discuss the best and lasting gifts between people: An assurance unto all creatures with love and affection and abstention from every kind of injury, acts of kindness and favor done to a person in distress, whatever gifts are made without the giver's thinking of them as gifts made by him, constitute, O chief of Bharata's race, the highest and best of gifts; the Bhagavata Purana discusses when it is improper. In Book 8, Chapter 19, verse 36 it states that charity is inappropriate if it endangers and cripples modest livelihood of one's biological dependents or of one’s own.
Charity from surplus income above that required for modest living is recommended in the Puranas. Hindu scriptures exist in many Indian languages. For example, the Tirukkuṛaḷ, written between 200 BCE and 400 CE, is one of the most cherished classics on Hinduism written in a South Indian language, it discusses charity. Tirukkuṛaḷ suggests charity is necessary for happiness, he states in Chapter 23: "Giving to the poor is true charity, all other giving expects some return". Greater still is the power to relieve other's hunger". In Chapter 101, he states: "Believing wealth is everything, yet giving away nothing, is a miserable state of mind". Like the Mahabharata, Tirukkuṛaḷ extends the concept of charity to
India
pronunciation (help·info)) is a city in the Indian state of Haryana. It is also known as Dharmakshetra ("Holy Place") and as the "Land of the Bhagavad Gita". The Kurukshetra War of the Mahabharata is said to have taken place there.
Kurukshetra city
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