Sanaa's Musings

  My family and I visited the Sandeepani Ashram i n Ujjain  a few months ago. Sandeepani ashram was the place where Lord Krishna and Balram were educated. On the bank  of the Shipra  river , the place was so beautiful.  It  was  full of old green trees which  made  it very shady and peaceful. There was also a well there which  has been in  existence since  olden times .  As per the belief, we put a coin into the well and asked for a wish. Secretly in my heart, I hoped that Corona should go away. Inside the ashram, there were many different pictures of Krishna, Balram and their friend Sudama. It felt so nice to see the place where the three had studied as I remembered my friends too.   When I think of the Gurukul system, I keep thinking about how hard it would have been to stay in the ashram for months until you learn everything.  There you can’t keep meeting your parents in the middle of learning. You can only le...

  For the past few months, my mom and I have been watching a series called RadhaKrishna. It shows the life of RadhaKrishna, their sacrifices, emotions and achievements. At each end of an episode, Krishna tells us a lesson to remember and follow. I have learned three things from their life which I will also try to follow. The first one is to always do your work without worrying about the result. Many people think what will happen if they do this or that and they start worrying about the result which will happen after that activity. I also sometimes follow this learning. I love music. I take many classes to learn music. I learn singing, piano and flute. Every year, I give an exam for each class; so three exams in a year. I give all three exams without worrying about the marks or the result of the exam. That's how I follow this learning. This lesson is very big. People can follow it in many different ways and do different activities to follow it.   The second learning is to alway...

  Do you think past life exists? -My mom asked me this. I had no clue but then I could recount a few stories from our epics and religious texts. Some examples I could think of were Bali-Jara, Jay/Vijay-Kumbakarna/Ravana-Shishupal/Dantavakra and Amba-Shikhandi. The first is a Treta yuga story. Lord Rama had killed his friend Sugriv’s brother Bali because of his bad deeds. So Bali’s wife had cursed him that just the way he killed Bali in this life, in his next life Bali will kill him. In Lord Ram’s next life he was Lord Krishna and Bali was a hunter named Jara who killed Krishna while he was sleeping.   The next tale of Amba-Shikhandi is from the Dwapar yuga. In the early years, there were three sisters named Amba, Ambika and Ambalika-daughters of King Kashya of Kashi. On the other side, in Hastinapur, Shantanu’s wife Satyavati had ordered her stepson, Pitamah Bhishma to find a wife for his step-brother Vichitravirya.   Unaware that Amba was in love with another ...

Today is the last day of Navratri. Every year we celebrate Navratri at home by offering bhog to a painting of Durga, wearing different colored dresses(each with its significance), and playing Dandiya on the last day. However, for me, the true meaning of Navratri is beyond the festivities. It's a chance to remember and worship Maa Durga’s inner strength and courage.   I recalled the stories of Goddess Durga and thought about what I had learned from her. It was to always be brave and ambitious but at the same time humane and ready to sacrifice.  I had tried once to fast(sacrifice food) for a day and it turned out to be a flop show because I ate so many fruits and still had a meal at the end of the day! But the sacrifice Goddess Sati had done was very different. Goddess Sati was nothing but Goddess Durga but in her previous life. Sati’s father was Daksh Prajapati who was the son of Lord Brahma and devotee of Vishnu. However, he loathed Lord Shiva. Still, his daughter, Sati went ...