Shaivam.org Mobile - Lord Shiva resources & temples

This application from Shaivam.org provides easy access to resources related to Lord Shiva.

1.Locate Shiva Temples near you and around the globe.

2.Simultaneously read and listen to Thirumurai (including Thevaram, Thiruvasagam, Thiruvisaipa, Thirumanthiram, Prabandham, Periyapuranam).

3.A convenient Hindu calendar featuring festivals and Shaivite events.

4.Access two 24/7 radio services - one in Tamil and the other multilingual.

5.Receive reminders for daily Anushtanam prayers.

6.Search and discover various content on Shaivam.org through this application.

The App is available in both English and Tamil languages.

What you need to know about Hinduism

(Hinduism A Perspective)Salutations to the Holy Guru who sits in the blissful posture under the banyan tree explaining the Supreme Truth with the silence. Salutations to that Source of knowledge, Salutations to that Giver of knowledge, Salutations to that Kindler who is the Supreme Truth Itself.Praising His Holy Feet, my wealth, would share a few things I know about Hinduism. 

I call this as a perspective because Hinduism is a big ocean and am really not sure whether anybody other than the Supreme Itself knows it in its completeness. Though this may appear as a general introductory word, the people who dived in this ocean would really acknowledge the fact of it very much. Because Hinduism is not a book of texts. It is a book of vEdham and sidhdhi, that is knowledge and experience. 

These two are boundless and so is the Hinduism. One may spend the whole life in exploring the Hinduism but at the end may not have ever seen the other bank of it.There is a story. A king wanted to know everything of the Supreme knowledge. In spite of his ministers advice he, being a king, spent all the days in reading the scriptures not concentrating in the government. 

One day while he was walking along the beach he saw a small boy taking a cup of water and pouring it on the sand. The boy kept doing this continuously. The king could not stop wondering what the boy was trying to achieve? When he asked, the boy replied that he was trying to drain the ocean and went ahead with his routine! 

The king held him tight in his hands and asked, "You fool! You think you can dry the ocean with this small cup you have ?" The boy patiently replied, "When our king tries to find out everything about the Supreme knowledge within his short span of life, why can't I dry this ocean with this small cup ?"Hinduism is an ocean of nectar. Nobody should miss it. 

I do not know its depths but I have a handful of the nectar that I could take. From this small knowledge of the big thing I am in my effort to share through words the taste of the nectar. Let the Flawless Supreme which is the essence of the truth guide me that only the truth comes out that benefits all creatures and the dilution because of my flaws are minimal. Humble salutations again and again to that Glorious Supremes Feet.

The Religion Hinduism - An IntroductionConcept of HinduismHinduism being very vast with its philosophies and emitting the light that stood time tested, glares many times the eyes of one who seeks to find what is inside it. Often one gets confused with the availability of multiple answers to the same question and the presence of numerous ways that it suggests to one who seeks it for upliftment. 

Because of this glare one may see only the darkness and may tend to think Hinduism is a religion of rituals and old fashioned. But when one comes beyond this initial confusion and gets to taste its real essence, he/she would realize these qualities of Hinduism are in fact its assets.Hinduism is an open-minded discipline. It is a discipline that does not use force on its follower. 

That is, it does not dictate the follower to act by one step by step recipe it gives, condemning all other recipes. In fact Hinduism is a discipline that allows many religions like shaivam, vaishnavam and many others to coexist sharing the dharma (discipline), permitting many philosophies - at times mutually exclusive - to be propounded. It is not a religion of mere postulations. It is a free but disciplined system, which has the concepts that could be proved by logic or by experience.

Religion of HinduismHinduism is the place which suits both the adventurous intellectual who wants to explore the essence and the real truth and the simple person who would be happy to follow a simplified procedure set that would easily uplift him/her without having to break the head with philosophies. It also allows the in-between person who wants to just make sure that what he/she gets is good enough and at the same time not getting caught in the complex current. 

It is a roaring gigantic waterfall that runs into streams and substreams that joins and finally into the ocean. The brave courageous thinkers could go to the trunk of the magnificent waterfall to explore and share the feeling with others, while the ones who do not want to get bewildered by that route could quench their thirst from one of the nice streams flowing from there and all in-between could go upto the point to satisfy themselves that the streams are from the same trunk and reaching the same ocean.

The problem comes when the simple one gets scared of the roaring complexities of the Hinduism and the adventurous one sees only the narrow running stream. It is a problem of improper application but not a problem of the system itself.Hinduism, when proper facade of it is chosen depending upon ones own requirements, is certain to bring the upliftment for one who follows - be it the one who wants to simply follow things, or be it the one who wants to go with things only after lengthy analysis or the one who wants to be balanced between the two.

Meaning of Hinduism - Definition of the term Hinduism (Hinduism A Perspective)

Meaning of the word HinduismHinduism, the word having its roots in Indus (the river), refers to the religion and philosophies that were prospering in the land around and beyond the river Indus. Hinduism originally was spread throughout the world (1), but at some later periods of time it has been practiced only in the Indian subcontinent. 

The discipline having no founder for itself and is in existence from the time undefined does not refer to itself as Hinduism. It was the people from outside who discovered this practice called it by this name Hinduism and now that has been generally referred to by this name only.What was Hinduism originally called?Originally the names that were used to refer to this discipline are vaidIka dharma (meaning discipline of vedas) and sanAtana dharma (meaning eternal discipline). If the religions practiced in the subcontinent are referred to as Hinduism it would mean a broad umbrella, which includes the Jainism, Buddhism and various other religions that took birth in this land and then spread to the other parts. 

These religions share many of the common roots with the sanAtana dharma. Hinduism being an open framework and these philosophies and customs are very closely associated with the main streams, it may not be wrong all together to call them so. However, as Hinduism is vaidika dharma - based on vedas, and since Jainism and Buddhism do not base their doctrines on vedas, in these sections generally Hinduism would mean the core Hindu discipline - based on vedas.It is quite important to note the fact that it is a discipline and not a religion by the terms as defined for most other religions. As already said, it is actually, a framework where different religions and philosophies build on the core knowledge and grow.