Shakunam and Nimitham

The Hidden Language of Mother Nature

“Omens are like gentle whispers from the divine, reminding us to stay aligned with our true purpose.” – Thirumoolar -Tamil saint and author of Thirumandiram.

In Astrology, Shakunam and Nimitham are believed to be the signs and omens from nature that can provide guidance and insight into our daily lives.

These signs are considered messages from Mother Nature and are said to be connected to the natural forces of the universe. Our ancestors, such as enlightened masters like siddhas and yogis, observed our nature closely and recorded these hidden messages for the benefits of mankind.

Good omens in Shakunam and Nimitham include:

  • Hearing a cuckoo bird sing
  • Seeing a cluster of swans or geese flying together
  • Seeing an owl in the daytime
  • Seeing a snake with a raised hood
  • Seeing a white elephant
  • Seeing a shooting star or meteor
  • Hearing a temple bell ringing
  • Finding a four-leaved clover
  • Seeing a Rainbow
  • Seeing a peacock dance
  • Seeing a lizard entering your home
  • Hearing the sound of a conch shell
  • Finding a lotus flower
  • Seeing a kite flying high in the sky
  • Seeing a deer in the forest
  • Seeing a red flower bloom
  • Seeing a tortoise climbing up a tree

Bad omens include:

  • Seeing a bat fly into your home
  • Seeing a snake with a flat hood
  • Hearing the sound of a dog barking at night
  • Seeing a cat cross your path
  • Finding a dead bird
  • Seeing a frog jump in front of you
  • Seeing a vulture or a crow
  • Seeing a black cat
  • Hearing the sound of a crow cawing
  • Seeing a rat in the daytime
  • Seeing a lizard fall from the ceiling
  • Hearing the sound of a fox or jackal howling
  • Finding a dead insect / reptiles
  • Seeing a snake slither into your home
  • Seeing a snake with multiple heads

It’s important to note that these signs are meant to happen naturally and should not be forced. If you encounter a bad omen, it’s not necessarily a negative sign, but rather a reminder to reconsider your actions and approach them with positive energy.

One incident from the past..

Few years back, one of our HLP member’s daughter was about to get married. She was very excited about her upcoming rituals but also had a few reservations about her fiancé.

On the morning of her wedding day, as she was getting ready, she heard the sound of a dog barking loudly outside. This was one of the signs of bad Shakunam and it made her feel uneasy. As she stepped outside, she saw a bat fly into her home, which was another bad omen.

She felt a sense of dread and unease and began to second-guess her decision to get married. She decided to put off the wedding and think through the things. After talking with her family and friends, she realized that her fiancé was not the right person for her and that the signs of bad Shakunam were warning her of the potential dangers ahead.

She ended up not getting married and found happiness with someone within 3 months, who was truly right for her.

So the nature helped to avoid making mistakes and making the wrong decisions. She learned that these signs were not just superstitions, but a real and powerful form of communication from nature to help her navigate the ups and downs of life.

In conclusion, Shakunam and Nimitham are fascinating aspects of Hindu astrology that offer insight into the hidden messages of nature. By understanding these omens and their significance, we can better align ourselves with the universe and make more informed decisions in our daily lives.

“Why did the Indians always carry a lucky charm with them. Because they didn’t want to leave anything to shakunam!”

Velu Jayaprakash

Author: Velu Jayaprakash

Velu Jayaprakash is a social entrepreneur, product manager, techy, photographer, meditator, father of two angels, ancient wisdom seeker, holistic adviser and Soul coach. You can reach him at velu.jayaprakash AT gmail DOT com

World Banana Day

Want to know more about the fruit that The Nagas cultivated and the Buddhists ate, 1000’s of years ago?

Want to know why bananas are called a fruit of the Wise men?

Bananas are undervalued by us here in India, but to the rest of the world, it holds a lot of importance. The scientific name for banana is Musa sapientum, which means “fruit of the wise men.” Since today is World Banana day, we wanted to share some of the amazing facts you should know about Bananas. Bananas are a rare example of fruit which has three genes from one of its parents, Musa acuminata. It confers the ability to produce fruit without the need for seeds. The word, Bana is of African origin, which means finger. The word was introduced by salves that were brought to the Americas from Africa. In India, it is called plantain. With the help of Alexander the Great, the fruits traveled to Europe and Spain. Later a Spanish missionary brought the fruit to America. 

In a document, which is from 400 B.C, quoted in Sanskrit literature, which in the south was known as Sangam literature states that bananas were the only fruit permitted to Buddhists in those days. Furthermore, bananas were cultivated by ancient South Indian people who are once called Nagas. 

Bananas originated in Southeast Asia, it was said to be the world’s most consumed food, in the previous times. It is one of the most common fruits all over the world. Not to mention it has twice the amount of nutrition than what can be obtained from an apple. Plus it doesn’t require any specific fertilizer or maintenance except water. Yes, water is the main source to cultivate Banana. Thus said, Banana will grow in all types of climate. It is one of a few fruits which is available throughout the year. No auspicius function or puja is complete without full grown banana plant. Banana plant is treated as god, cow in india.

Banana is one divine plant, that has various used to mother nature and mankind. Right from its root to flower, everything is a healing property. Eg. The roots has a micro-organisms, which can purity the impure or contimanited water. That is why in olden days, you will find Banana trees in backyard. where waste water of the house is directed to it, and the water is filtured and send into ground. Whats an amazing ecofriendly fore sight our ancestors had!

Type of Bananas in India – Originally more than 100 nati varieties of Banana were available in India however after the green revolution, most fo the nati varieties of banana weren destroyed and only a few varieties are now currently available. Below is the list of Nati Variety Bananas as follows:

Best time to Eat Banana

Sevvalai (red banana) – which is more nutritious, cultivated in 10 months. Anyone can eat. Especially good for Newly married couples. It helps in weight gain.
Mondham Palam (thoothukudi, Nagercoil belt) – King of Banana. Highest nutrition in a single banana than other nati banana varieties. For babies start from 2+ years old, they can give. Rich in fiber and easy digestion.
Nenthram Palam (Kerala) – Its a must take for Babies (2+) and those for neuro problems and constipation. In Kerala, the semi ripens fruit will be prepared as Kanji and given to infants to gain more weight. Must eat for all ages. The famous chips of kerala is made from this.
Matti Palam (North TN) – Rich in fiber and very rare to get.
Yelaki palam (krishnagiri, karnataka) – Very tasty, good for digestion.
Naatu vaalai – Very rare to get.
Then (honey) vaalai – Rich in fiber, reduces constipation.
Poo vaalai – Not recommended due to high sugar content. One of the oldest variety.
Rasthali – Very tasty with a good aroma.
Malai vaalai – Only produce in Hill stations. Rich in Nutrition and good for weight gain.
Sirumalai – A rare variety grows only in Sirumalai. Very tasty and rich in fiber. The famous Siddha Build Temple, Palani’s Panchamritham is made from this fruit, which has various preservative and curative property.
Karpooravalli – Very tasty and easily grown in many parts of South TN. Good for constipation and digestion.

It is recommended to eat on an empty stomach to get more benefits. Or else need to at least eat 1 hr before food or after 2hrs of food. You can also take tea time in the evening. Must avoid eating before sleep. Avoid eating Hybrid bananas. 

Make sure the banana contains Seeds while you are eating. Eat daily one banana and stay healthy.

AMAZING BUT TRUE THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH BANANA PEELS (AND BANANAS)

  • Thanks to its oil, rubbing the inside of a banana peel on a mosquito bite (or another bug bite) or on poison ivy will help keep it from itching and getting inflamed.
  • If you rub the inside of a banana peel on a scrape or burn, it will help the pain go away, keep the swelling down, and keep the wound from getting infected.
  • If you rub the inside of a small piece of the banana peel on a wart every night (or tape a piece of peel over the wart), the potassium in the peel can make the wart disappear in one to two weeks.
  • If you tape a banana peel over a splinter, the enzymes help the splinter work its way out of your skin (and also heal the wound).

Author: Velu Jayaprakash

Velu Jayaprakash is a social entrepreneur, product manager, techy, photographer, meditator, father of two angels, ancient wisdom seeker, holistic adviser and Soul coach. You can reach him at velu.jayaprakash AT gmail DOT com

Enhance your life with the knowledge of ancient Samskars

It is amazing to see the community in action again. The plan was to start at 10 AM today. There was an unexpected technical glitch, Mic was not working. By the time we got to fixed, it was around 10.30 AM. After that when we started to add people, YouTube showed up 500 error! It was a dead end for us, we could not do anything. There was few wrong email ID’s given by parents that were creating issues, we found this and fixed it. But later again google started to throw some unknown errors. By the time when I was ready to start, it was almost 12 PM.

Parents patiently waited all the time, many parents quickly started to join to lend their hands. Though we could not get their help since everyone was at the different location. Usually, when we do webinars (a couple of times in last five years) we used to use my ex-office, so we had a team of parents to support. Now this time, I wanted to do at home in my own space, as we plan to do more this year.

With few parents added, we started, in parallel @Devika @Sindhuja @Divya tried their best to add the missing parents. Since the recorded version is going to be provided I went ahead and started. One thing I wanted to make sure that I do not want to miss the knowledge coz of time. So the target was 3 hours, but the webinar went well smooth and lasted for 3.45 hours.

Shared the detailed spiritual, scientific and common sense point of view to 16 key samskaras and the remedies that we can do, if we missed the bus. Including me, where I missed most of the time when I was one-sided with science alone and following atheist. Good to see parents shared their feedback, some emotional moments did rise, some touchy and emotional topics might be the trigger, I myself was in tears during the session, as a parent I too have missed many moments of life. At that time I neither had the knowledge nor was patient to learn. Now I know and I am trying my best to go for remedies and reap the benefits.

For the parents who enrolled and who could not make it to webinar can now watch it. I plan to have this live for a while. So do not worry. We will close the dedicated group soon I am planning to keep it open for a week. So if you have doubts you can ask.  I will answer at my free time. Later we will close the group and we will use the open group to discuss.

Avail the recording of this past event: https://www.hlp.world/challenge-page/samskara

Recordings

https://youtu.be/YGT_T4-Htrw

If you have trouble seeing the video, please click here

Knowing is not important, practicing is important so please implement the learning, only then the time and efforts of the community will be benefitted. And this is the only way we can show our gratitude to our ancestors.

End of the day we are doing this for our own self and for the next generation to build a healthy society.

As said during the webinar, the next session will be a 24 days practice of Sacred Sleep and Dream therapy (SSD therapy) will start soon. We will share the details later.

Feedback from the parents

  1. It’s was very useful session and looking forward for more information like pooja rituals how to teach kids out tradition and please throw light on spiritual meditation and on healthy food habits 
  2. Have only partially seen the video. But everything I saw was very informative…Thanks a million for the efforts you have put in. 
  3. Please continue the good work. Vaazhga valamudan vaazhga Vaiyagam.
  4. Mind blowing and I was in total awe. Amazing wealth of information. Hats off for such webinars
  5. Great knowledge, happy to be part of this knowledge sharing
  6. I got the knowledge about the Sanskaras which I would have never known. The best part was that everything was explained by giving scientific reasons, the kind of theory which I agree on. Once again Thank you, Velu Anna, for giving us such a vast knowledge.
  7. The session was amazingly great as the contents shared were very deep and long lost in current culture.
  8. A session was very informative with good stuff to learn, highly appreciate the efforts to make such a video
  9. Yes, most of them are known to every website, but slightly in-depth info, but could have been better if more insight added,
  10. Amazing and detailed program. We don’t have so many traditions in our community. Its good to understand the significance of each such traditions right from birth to death.it makes our life easier when we align with nature and our energies. The father’s role part during the birth of the child was particularly interesting to know as otherwise the fathers are kept away from the mother during that time. Its good to know how the father bonds with the baby. So much of our wisdom lost in superstition definitely needs to be channeled back into our society. Looking forward for more such programs
  11. Not watched completely
  12. Whenever Velu Anna uploads a video definitely I will get knowledge from it.. I am very happy that I came across such good people..
  13. Amazing information.. Thanks for sharing..
  14. I am so happy that I have learnt many unknown facts in our life.
  15. Have not watched the video completely yet
  16. Amazing to know the reason behind it. I feel guilty that why I get this info so late. My since thanks and gratitude to Velu Anna.
  17. Yet to complete the video
  18. Yet to watch the video completely, have seen only a part of it
  19. Webinar was really great  It has given us in-depth knowledge of our samskaras. Remedy for each samskaras to balance it, if we missed doing anything. Spiritual and psychological reasons behind each samskaras are explained well. Thank you so much Velu!!!
  20. I have gone through half of it. We were almost following samskaras from seemandham not before that. I was not aware these many rituals exist in India.. thank you so much Anna for bringing it up
  21. Wonderful. I learnt a lot from this webinar. I am sure it must have been a lot of reading/research for this webinar. Grateful to the committed group!!
  22. Wonderful session…. much needed for this generation (for me)… Thanks so much for sharing knowledge about ancient holistic living. Gratitude and Pranams. Also I’m eagerly waiting for 24days online program…details about it.. as I live in US.
  23. Even though we have heard about the samsakaras the reason behind those were always unanswered by all elders at my home. It was really so informational and surprising to understand those samskaras and the fact behind it. I am really looking forward for more info about the spiritual world.
  24. Hello Velu I am yet to watch the full video as I was traveling since last week with poor data network connection. Request to grant access to your wisdom shared
  25. Never knew so scientific samskara we have . Can we start face to face interaction where all parents can meet and have so great sessions not only in Bangalore but in Pune also
  26. Really valuable ancient sanskaras remembrance and explanation of those use in nowadays life
  27. Good. High content. Very tough to follow. Could be done in 2 days. How do we ensure that, maximum people try this? Don’t use plastic carry bag will reach less people. Introducing eco-friendly/comparable plastic bag is the solution. Our people needs a kick-off and easy start. How r we going to help? Knowledge sharing is great, because we don’t know these information. How can we help the society to practice and come back as original form of ancient living?
  28. So much I missed, I was not aware… each n every action in life… deeds we do have so much meaning… this knowledge makes me ask myself “We are living a meaningless life, life without meaningful samskaras”… after watching the video… being part of 48 days holistic and 27 days program extension, i want to be a small stream of change, incorporating as much that I can in my life… making them part of my life.. Pls keep sharing such wonderful and meaningful videos Velu Anna as you give light of hope with such knowledge to depressed and lost souls like me… Gratitude 
  29. The meaning behind each samskara is very well thought by our ancestor is refreshed again. And I think the effort that Velu took to pass this on to this generation is imperative and appreciated. The meaning behind each of the samskara is very well presented.
  30. I really appreciate your effort in taking this initiative. The webinar was very informative and an eye opener regarding our ancient wisdom on Samskaras.
  31. Have seen it partials and yet to complete
  32. Thank you very much.. Learnt many new information
  33. It was a fantastic program
  34. I want to be journey with all great persons, want to learn more.
  35. Very informative video. Happy that I registered for this program.
  36. Excellent, glad to see we’re discussing deeper spiritual topics than primary Heath and wellness.
  37. Thank you very much for all the info.
  38. Very informative and in depth info.
  39. Have not seen completely
  40. It was Interesting and elaborate. Suggestion, references can be included.
  41. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this expansive subject. Enjoyed the webinar so far. Yet to complete.
  42. Viewed only half of the video. Unable to view offline. Mobile data empty.
  43. useful information and very much necessary for all to have good and well balanced family
  44. It was very informative, could have been more elaborate.
  45. I dent watch n I wish to try with new id Amr*****848@gmail.com
  46. The session was fabulous. It was so informative that one viewing is not enough. Need to view it so many times to understand all the different meditations.
  47. It is such a detailed video on the samskaras.. Thank you for sharing the in-depth knowledge…
  48. It was very interesting, informative program, an eye opening session .. look forward for many more such sessions.
  49. Very informative session. Thanks Anna for all your effort to make it happen and sharing worthy knowledge..
  50. Very informative
  51. Loved the 16 sanskar video, the efforts made behind the research
  52. Samskaras gives a systematic and disciplined way of living. I am really happy to know these and change living style at least a bit and carry forward our rich culture to the future generations. I could say this is a kind of GEM knowledge. Thanks Velu Anna from the bottom of my heart.

Topics parents requested.

  1. Spiritual meditation class, classes on eating habits to be healthy and few class for kids on tradition and how to teach them and parenting tips
  2. Ashtanga yogam by Thirumoolar
  3. Science of breath
  4. More meditation, self realization, knowledge about spiritual growth
  5. Meditation
  6. Would like to learn more about Sidhas and their life
  7. Siddha stuff , which is very untapped topic , i know it revolve around occult stuff , but as saying goes astrology is for millionaires and occult is for billionaires , just kidding , on a serious note siddha stuff is needed to come out of illuminati And help us to come out mind control business that rothschild and rockfellas do to commonman ,
  8. Astrology, holistic parenting, holistic. Living
  9. Want to know about olden days food culture.. And benefits behind it
  10. About siddaras, pranayama so on. .
  11. Parenting and child mentality. It differs from kid to kid. How to handle in a right way.
  12. Effects of planets on us. Ex: shani
  13. Why special children born? How to correct them spiritually. What to do to make them more lively.
  14. Decoding mythological stories and significance of different gods and goddesses to understand the meaning and logic behind them.
  15. Garbhsankar, swarnabhasma – how it helps adults for health and other benefits
  16. Would like to hear more on karma’s and the hereditary diseases, how are they related. Some complete family itself suffers from diabetes including my mother, perima and all her daughters (one daughter died too coz of diabetes) and sons, maternal mama, chithi. Pls throw some light on this
  17. Can there be a seminar on daily lifestyle and must do spiritual/ ancient practices in daily routine.
  18. Yet to complete the present webinar
  19. Birth stars …how to raise children to be on spiritiual path . how to know their creativity , how to increase the decision power of children.
  20. Intuition and telepathy and dreams comparison and understanding those
  21. *just one-to-one with kids :). Would be a different experience for you and they can give lot of ideas and will share their opinion. *Special topics only for women. For example, we really struggle at home to bring back holistic living. Lot of opposition and struggle. Women r in high pressure in our society. How to help? For men- giving them a proper direction and stress free living. They r direction less or addicted to technology (just my opinion). Shall we help? *Separate program for elders. :). To overcome their fear, worries, sadness about their children etc.,
  22. Has anyone actually seen spirits??? Do they exist??? Is there god, where??? Question asked frequently but I still don’t have the answer….
  23. I am not sure if this is the forum for this question. But here goes…” Can you please tell me worshipping procedures to be followed at temples especially navagrahas? There a lot of books and you tube videos, but contradict each other…I am confused as to which to follow.
  24. I am not sure if this is the forum for this questionBut here goes…” Can you please tell me worshipping procedures to be followed at temples especially navagrahas? There a lot of books and you tube videos, but contradict each other…I am confused as to which to follow
  25. How to overcome negativity that world throws at you both tangible and intangible
  26. Would like a webinar about our ancient food.
  27. What happens to the soul after it leaves the physical body
  28. Mudras and breath, reading omens from nature
  29. Regarding spiritual and need know about athik related things
  30. About saatvik food – how and what to eat !
  31. Astrology, the importance of rituals in daily life, significance of powerful, energetic locations for social growth, connecting with ascended Masters, the spiritual significance of deities, mastery of internal functions, expansion of our brain function, to name a few.
  32. No
  33. Similar ancient wisdom
  34. Stress related discussion
  35. Mind and Breathing inter-connectivity
  36. Indigenous medicine, Raising girls, on Mantras /Mudras,
  37. Ways of attaining enlightenment by being a family man
  38. Astrology related
  39. Specific meditations. I try to follow the full moon, new moon and cycles meditation and it’s so fulfilling.
  40. All the topics you pick are unique and detailed.. would love to know about anything 🙂
  41. Horoscopes and believes
  42. 1. Astrology
  43. Child raising day to day psychological challenges
  44. Detail approach to carry the pregnancy, Detail steps of parenting right from how to give bath for new born baby and other details in a step by step manner, How to take care of the parents even if so many internal disputes going on , Daily worshipping, Spiritual knowledge to children, How to consider Astrology, Vastu….these are the some of the topics I would like to hear from your wisdom

with heart and soul

Author: Velu Jayaprakash

Velu Jayaprakash is a social entrepreneur, product manager, techy, photographer, meditator, father of two angels, ancient wisdom seeker, holistic adviser and Soul coach. You can reach him at velu.jayaprakash AT gmail DOT com

Understand the water

Special heartfelt gratitude to Divya and parents from translation team, who translated various tamil documents for research that we share in our community. This document was created 2 years back. I think now it is time to share it to public.

Bowen Falls Milford Sound NZ.

There is a famous saying in ancient tamil siddha’s _”Andathilullathe Pindam Pindathilullathe Andam Andamum Pindamum Ondre Atharinthuthan Parkkumpothe”_ it means what is in universe is same in our body. That is, our body is made of 5 elements, so does the universe.

Our earth has ⅔ water, so does our body, particularly brain. Water plays an important role in our body, there are countless benefits. At the same time, everyone is unique, so their needs are different. So drinking water with reference to certain benchmark is wrong. You drink water when you feel the need and as per your environment.

We can not say water is just H2O. Water has various nutritional elements that can be validated with scientific tools, but those scientific tools can not find the life force or spiritual energy. Our ancestors were well aware of this, in fact they were able to document various sources of water and their benefits. Though all source has water, but their function and benefits are different. We have to use as per our needs.

Pearson_Falls2

Let’s see what are the sources our ancestors have documented. As you think water comes from cloud, and it is collected and cleaned and sent to us in tap. But the story goes deeper. It will open your eyes, and also you can educate children about water in depth.   

  1. Agazhi (Moat) – A moat is a deep, broad trench, filled with water, that surrounds a castle for defence purposes. It has poisonous plants and deadly animals such as crocodile.
  2. Aruvi (WaterFalls) – a steep fall or flow of water in a watercourse from the highest part of a hill or a mountain. Each waterfalls has therapeutic benefits as per season.
  3. Aazhikinaru (Well in Sea Shore) – well dug near a sea shore. Good for stabilizing excess salt in air.
  4. Aaru (River) – Natural stream of water of fairly large size
  5. Elanji (Reservoir for drinking and other purposes) – a natural or artificial place where water is collected and stored for drinking and other purposes
  6. Urai kinaru (Ring well) – an excavation or structure in the form of descending rings created in the ground by digging to access groundwater. It is usually lined with fired clay.
  7. Ooruni (Drinking water tank) – Drinking water tank
  8. Ootru (spring) – water flow from an underground layer of water to the earth surface
  9. Aeri (Irrigation Tank) – water stored from rainfall, springs and rivers, used for agriculture
  10. Odai (Brook) – a small body of moving water from an underlying water body.  It always flows through a channel
  11. Kattunginaru ( Built-in -well) – an excavation or structure created in the red soil ground by digging to access groundwater. It is usually lined with stones and bricks.
  12. Kadal (Sea) – Sea
  13. Kanmai/Kammai (Irrigation Tank) – alternative name for irrigation tank used in the pandya dynasty
  14. Kalingu (Sluice with many Venturis) – Water sources like irrigation tank, built with a strong stone wall(as a precaution to prevent it from overflowing), with a gate at its end for water flow.
  15. Kaal(Channel) –  path of a narrow body of water
  16. Kaalvaai (Supply channel to a tank) – supply channel to the water resources like irrigation tank, bathing tank and drinking water tank
  17. Kuttam (Large Pond) – large pond (see the description of pond below)
  18. Kuttai( Small Pond) –  a small and shallow body of standing water, either natural or artificial,  that is usually smaller than a lake, used for bathing farm animals.
  19. Kundam (Small Pool) – a small water source for bathing.
  20. Kundu (Pool) – bathing water source, small in size
  21. Kumizhi (Rock cut Well/Artesian well) – An aquifer is a geologic layer of porous and permeable material such as sand and gravel, limestone, or sandstone, through which water flows and is stored. A well drilled into such an aquifer is called an artesian well.
  22. Kumizhi ootru (Artesian fountain) – If water reaches the ground surface under the natural pressure of the aquifer,it is called the artesian fountain.
  23. Kulam (Bathing Tank) – bathing water source near a village.
  24. Koovam (Abnormal well) – an abnormal well.
  25. Kooval (Hollow) – a shallow well like pit.
  26. Vaali (Stream) – a small drainage basin built from an overflowing natural water source like river
  27. Keni (Large Well) – a broad and deep well
  28. Sirai (Reservoir) – is an enlarged natural or artificial lake, storage pond or  impoundment created using a dam or lock to store water.
  29. Sunai (Mountain Pool) – natural water source in the mountains.
  30. Sengai (Tank with DuckWeed) – Bathing tank with abundant duckweed.
  31. Thadam (Beautifully Constructed Bathing Tank) – Beautifully Constructed Bathing Tank
  32. Thalikulam (Tank Surrounding a Temple) – water source surrounding the temple similar to a moat
  33. Thaangal ( Irrigation Tank) – In Thondai Dynasty, (dynasty which got separated from chola dynasty), irrigation tank is called so.
  34. Thirukulam (Temple Tank) – a sacred bathing tank near a temple
  35. Theppakulam (Temple tank with inside pathway along parapet wall) – a big sized temple tank with a inside pathway along the parapet wall, where theppam (a kind of boat car for the deities of the temple) is run during a temple festival.
  36. Thodu Kinaru (Dig Well) – water obtained from time to time by digging sand in the river
  37. Nadai Keni (Large well with steps on one side) – A large well which has steps on one side
  38. Neeraavi (Bigger tank with center Mantapam) – a large tank with a center stage. It is also called as aavi.
  39. Pillaikinaru (Well in the middle of a tank) – well in the middle of a bathing/ irrigation tank
  40. Pongu Kinaru ( Well with Bubbling Spring) – Well which has a never drying bubbling spring.
  41. Poigai (Lake) – a natural water source where there are abundant lotus flowers.
  42. Madu (Deep place in a river) – a deep, dangerous pit in a river.
  43. Madai (Small sluice with single venturi) – a small water source controlled by a sluice gate with single opening which controls the water flow.
  44. Madhagu (Sluice with many venturis) – a large irrigation tank controlled at its head by sluice gate with many openings. Sluice gate is traditionally a wood or metal barrier sliding in grooves that are set in the sides of the waterway. Sluice gates commonly control water levels and flow rates
  45. Marukaal (Surplus water channel) – channel where the excess water is diverted.
  46. Valayam (Round tank) – Bathing tank which is round in shape.
  47. Vaaikaal (Small Water Course) – small water sources like irrigation tank/ channel

Each water was treated by the human, or by nature for specific purposes. It is astonished by our ancestors’ depth of knowledge and practice they integrated into our lives, which we forgot by globalization. It is high time we switch back to our roots to save our loved one.

HOT or COLD

Wooden Spoon in Hot Water

Now let’s decode about the drinking water that is hot, warm or room temperature or cold. The answer is this, we just need to use common sense, here, like all living creatures, we should take water in room temperature. Since humans are enabled with 6th sense, we can enhance our body function by changing the water temperature as per our needs. In case of cold weather, we can consume warm water. Our stomach needs fire energy to digest the food. So warm water does enhance its function. But never take HOT water, it will kill the sense in tongue, and affect our lining of walls from mouth to stomach. So does the cold water also affect us. Cold water does the most damage in our body. It numbs the sense, affects our thought process, and extinguishes the fire in gut. So anything cold (milk shake, ice cream) is not good. Unless it is for a specific purpose and for a season as per body and environment.

If you are not convinced, take a pot with hot (hot and cooled later), cold, warm, room temp water. Put a seed or fish. You clearly see which water has a life. So do you want to drink water that has life or what looks good?

In case if you have a skin related problem or obesity or toxin in body regular warm water can help to flush the toxins. Regular water takes 6 hours to enter various channels in the body whereas herbal water does this job in 1.5 hours.

So boiled and cooled water does kill all the things in water including the life force, so it is of no use, rather it makes our body less immune. Check with people around who drink boiled water and normal water. You will find out the answers.

Research on Holy Water

Holy waters

During post world war times. Some German and Japanese scientist were sent all over the world to do research on various holy water bodies, such as ganga, natural springs, etc. in the end of their study they found, ionized alkaline water that has high PH value, and it is the reason for providing positive health, anticancer, and refrain from psychological problem. They could not find the spiritual value, probably they know and have hidden it for public eyes.

Now, those companies make special water treatment machines, that cost us few lakhs.

Human body is at 7.4 PH value. Anything less than 7 is acidic and more than 7 is alkaline, So don’t jump into conclusion that we only take alkaline food, in fact most of the food we eat is not alkaline, our body needs acidic value too. In small number. So the intake should be balanced with higher alkaline intake.

Few months back, I did a test with various waters (who sells those Japanese technologies) I found, something shocking. Few more friend did this with other source shared the result with me for our community.

  • Normal tap water – 7 To 7.5
  • Rain water – 7 to 8
  • Mineral water – 4 to 5.5
  • Soda and packed juice – 2.5 to 3.5
  • Water from ganga and rameshwaram – 9.5 to 11.5
  • Coconut milk – 7 to 8!!
  • Milk – 4 To 5

No wonder, why temples give coconut water during visits, they were trying to increase PH value of the body. As said before, temples where holistic spiritual places never a religious ritual business centers like today. So drinking coconut milk daily does wonder in health. I have seen many parents including myself, observed sea level changes in health. Now, we know which water is safe.

Purifying the water

Somehow we have been brainwashed from birth that water is not safe, germs, bacteria, etc. I do agree that some germs and bacteria does deadly harm to us, but MNCs has exaggerated too high that they created a permanent fear in our mind to drink the water from normal source. What is the solution to get a good water without spending Rs.100000s of money. The answer lies in our traditional lifestyle practices.

Use herbs, Earth Pot, or Copper

Water stored in earthern pot for more than 12 hours in dark does wonders, it in fact increase PH value by 1 or 2 value more. Copper does the same in 4 hours. Pot reduce the body temperature, copper increases the body temperature. So use it as per season and your environment.

If you use, more physical work use pot, if you use more mental work then use pure copper.

To remove dust particles, harmful bacteria, use simple white organic cotton layers of clothes. This is a most simple cost-effective and efficient filter, the water that passes the cotton layers, it will capture the bacteria, I have not done research, could not find anyone doing test. But most of the naturopathy, ayurvedic and siddha dr agree to this.

Enhancing the water

We can add a small piece of wood from guava or amla or drumstick seeds or vettiveru. Once those woods or seed smells bad, change it.  No harm. Good for health.  

Read this blog by Vaijayanthi about various detox waters.

Conclusion
  • Drink room temperature water or warm water as per your need
  • Use copper and mud pot or go for an expensive machine. (nothing in between like RO, etc, it does weak our body in long run)
  • Prefer tap water or save rain water an store in in dark place and use it.

Looking forward, we should work on areas to save rain water.

Author: Velu Jayaprakash

Velu Jayaprakash is a social entrepreneur, product manager, techy, photographer, meditator, father of two angels, ancient wisdom seeker, holistic adviser and Soul coach. You can reach him at velu.jayaprakash AT gmail DOT com

Stop cheating about God to your child

When it comes to upbringing a spiritual child, parents are mostly in a odd situation, a they themselves have no idea.

Introducing spirituality to children at younger age is a challenging task, as we parents ourselves have no idea. Today psychologists say, more than IQ or EQ, Spiritual Quotient (SQ) matters a lot. Once the SQ is higher, the soul is pure, it automatically gains the right things in life.

We should remember a fact that what we believe or not believe is just limited to our own experience we gather from birth (and previous birth) with our limited knowledge we gained from others eyes. In short we are just a collection of thoughts of others, are you not?

If you ask yourself, have you ever seen God? Did your parents? Did your grandparents saw? Even if they did, what is the fact that, they are telling the truth? We do not even have a  scientific proof that our own parents are actually biological parents, did you do DNA test? We took it with a faith right?, proof came later. So it is an essential fact that we inculcate the true facts of what you have learnt, to the child in an open way, show them the common sense, explain the scientific meaning, leave an open ended gap,  so that they think over it and realize as they travel this life.

Since most of religious scripts are written like stories, we tend to believe it coz we are constantly made to believe on the limited knowledge by parents, later we started to assume as per our convenience. But today children are different and evolved, so we should rethink about our belief system and guide them properly.

Share them the history, from your common sense than text book, tell Shiva was a person who lived 20000 years ago. Tell them Jesus was a human, later with good virtues they elevated themselves into a godly soul, later, they become part of nature.

Explain the rituals if you follow it, do not teach, when you believe and do it yourself children can sense it. If you do not know the meaning, find it, if not, admit that you do not know, and encourage them that you both will explore together. Trust me, you will discover a new meaning for divinity from your own child.

Do not protagonist and antagonist anyone from the religious story or script. They have a deeper meaning. Explain them how each side has their own belief and fought for truth. This will free them from most dangerous systematic cognitive error of mind called as community bias. The very thought of feeling that we belong to certain cast, language, region, color, etc. is a psychological disorder. Most of the time it is planned by our own parents unknowingly.

One of the most blunder parents do is, telling their children that if you misbehave, God is watching and later he will punish him. Are you not portraying God a harmful person? Rather taking the usual route, tell them there is divinity inside the child and it is watching them, later it will misguide them if they do not realize their mistakes and correct himself.

You might be wondering will all this logical steps help children at younger age? The answer is they do not, but you are setting the ground clear for them to believe and build. That is why the gurukula system is thought after 7. They wait for the children’s brain to fully develop and as per their ability par the past life that is explored in horoscope, the guru guide them.

If you look deeper, the babies from birth  have the divine qualities intrigued with past baggage. Ideal things we can do is to make them listen to chants, you do it with them, these sounds patterns and mandalas trigger certain neural charge in their brain to keep the brain unharmed with those psychological disorder and invoke the divinity in their brain. These chants or reading the sacred scripts will attract cosmic energy into them.

I am not giving you a quick fix right now, I am only kindling your thoughts to make you think little deeper. In coming blogs we will explore more on nurturing the divine quality of the child and guide them in their spiritual path.

Author: Velu Jayaprakash

Velu Jayaprakash is a social entrepreneur, product manager, techy, photographer, meditator, father of two angels, ancient wisdom seeker, holistic adviser and Soul coach. You can reach him at velu.jayaprakash AT gmail DOT com

5th Year Celebration of whatsapp group

It is a long journey from where this group of parents started 5 years ago, with 6 parents. Today, as we stand, this group of like-minded people committed to nourish their kids and live a holistic life with ancient wisdom gifted to us by our ancestors, has grown strong with 6500+ parents and continues to grow on a daily basis.

After the past Sathuragiri retreat, the community’s energy was so high and determined to meet each other and celebrate this 5th year. Happy to see parents in our community took ownership of this event, felt like a family get together. Some highlights of our WhatsApp post.

Out Station Parents

The plan was to start, at 5PM on Friday, the unpredictable weather took over, many parents were stuck in traffic. So we had to delay, all kids found their ways to keep them busy. We started to introduce all the parents and their journey of how they ended up in our group. It was finally good to put a name to face. Gratitude to @Ananth who took a day off on Friday to make sure out station parents reach the venue safer. In parallel he took care of posters, banners, etc. @Ananth @Rajasaker @Mani made sure all the banners were fixed on time. Really glad to see @Nikitha Jain flew all the way from Delhi for this event, @Yoga Jothy from Hyd, @Saranya from Chennai, @Vijaya from AP.

At the resort, we made a solid demand to replace 5 whites. Due to operations and financial issues, they could not do it. So from our community, we estimated the use of 2 poisons, white sugar, and white salt and replaced with jaggery powder and pink salt. In the last min, we came to know from our team that jaggery powder was not available, @Ananth took charge and arranged 25kgs to the event. To make the check-in smooth, @Divya and @Priya planned meticulously to allot rooms in such a way that parents have their own space. Unfortunately, the resort management wanted to fill block by block not random rooms at different rooms. It was the time when most of the parents are stuck in traffic. Then we took help of the resort management and tried to rearrange the rooms. The SoAW was kind enough to offer to upgrade the rooms to accommodate for kids too. So all kids were given same coats, some even had extra beds.

We made a history by planting Birth Star Trees

In parallel, we had plenty of issues to source 27 birth star trees, we had to refer back our blog to get alternative trees. @SriNandhini did multiple follow ups with them to make sure we have all the plants. Finally when the plants arrived, none of the plants had a name tag. We had no idea which plant was referring to which star. @Divya and @Srinandhini spent nearly 3 hours to figure out while the session was happening. Luckily Dr. Shankar was of handy help, he was able to help us spot some plants.
@Srinandhi also make sure all were given a small tulsi as a return gift.
@Priya also sourced seed balls from chennai as an additional return gift.

@Srinandhi @Divya – did an amazing work on getting those toys, stationery. They and other parents made countless shopping time for this events.

Parent Monika celebrated her daughter Ishitha’s First Birthday at the event.

The first birthday is always very important and special to parents than kids. We are honored to see when parents decided to celebrate with like-minded parents and seek blessings. @Sarayna our Nala group active member (and Admin) took charge and experimented with Ragi and millets to make a healthy cake. In spite of her daughter’s health issues, She personally baked and delivered the cake as a surprise. As the principles of reciprocity continue, @Monica arranged healthy sweets for all parents.

Shloka Time


Within 10 mins, @Roopa took charge of all the kids and made them practice shloka. Along with her, kids did a decent job of chanting.

Maran Ji – the showstopper among all speakers

Though all experts share their in depth wisdom, It was this humble healer, who stole the show! Though he is not fluent in other language than Tamil. His true intention, sincerely reflected in his voice and attitude. All our parents were breathless with his sense of humor and able to make his strong point in everyone’s mind. This is one of the reasons I wanted him to be the first speaker. (but have to make a switch in plan due to logistical reasons) @Gayathri did an amazing job to catch up with Maran ji’s high velocity speak into English. But many parents was able to make sense from his talk. His simple and effective solutions was an eye opener. After his talk…Few parents immediately made a commitment that they would translate his recipe book into multiple language book.

Laughter Therapy

On request of Maran ji. He handed over a small book about laughter therapy, he wanted some parents to quickly learn and do a session, @Vaijayanthi jumped into action and did a session (I really missed it, have to see the video to comment, heard it was good)

Wedding Anniversary Celebrations

Though we know about the birthday we planned it well. But one of our parent @Divya was celebrating their anniversary, came to us as a surprise. In the mid of chaos at events, handling guest, kids, other running issues, the core parents really hacked a plan to at least arrange a flower bouquet. All parents showered flowers over the couple with their blessings. and gifted Darbai grass meditation mat. Yes @Divya it was a small gift from our community.

Darbai Grass Meditation Mat

We wanted to give something ancient but spiritual for the guest. One side we have a negative budget to work on and another side, time was limited. At this junction, I was  suggested this idea. But I strongly suggested standard size would not be really useful if you are really a meditation and seek to benefits from the grass. So he had to work his way to find a lengthy grass from Haridwar to make this custom size, I demanded. The extra mat was sold to few parents at the end of the event. (Yes, we will launch this mat on demand)

A Parent almost skipped a Wedding function to attend our event


@Priya known as a please use reply button admins, really skipped her cousin’s wedding reception to hand hold our event, late in evening, @Saranya took charge of her to reach the wedding at night and @Priya ran back to the event after the early morning wedding.

First Preview of Sathuragiri Footage

It was nice to see the energy of parents clapping and making notice like a movie experience. The first draft copy of the footage of our recent Sathuragiri retreat. Personally, the video has some elements like swp talk, and my long thank you note etc.. I felt this is not in context with the motive, so we will edit it and add some more footage of parents and publish it in few weeks.

Some notable gestures
  • Bhooma Balaji supported us in conducting the amazing Yoga session in the morning, since our Yoga expert could not make it at the last moment.
  • Roopa engaged the kids in one of the session by interesting Origami. Along with Vaijayanthi Roopa performed the role of time keeper
  • Pottery session was enjoyed by both kids and adults.
  • Nadiyan Divya’s hubby, took the initiative to take a child to the hospital due to unexpected emergency.
  • Shilpa’s mother was so thoughtful by sharing her homemade Marmalade pickle to our parents (Sunday lunch table had that).
  • Efforts of Raja by running multiple times for all the physical work.
  • Mani and Raja at the second day, gave their rooms to the camera crew and adjusted in a hall.
  • Healer Sangeetha Shah, only member outside the group who listened to her intuition and took part of our celebration.

Awards

We identified nearly 40 parents from the 1000s of parents who did the little things that mattered to the community. Parents who made it to the event received their awards. For parents who did not make it to the event, once we have enough budget, we will post it to your house soon. A detailed post is on the way about this tomorrow.

There are many untold stories to share about this landmark event of our WhatsApp group. I tried to bring that I could recollect quickly. I might have skipped some, this does not mean their work is unnoticed, it is just my memory (RAM space is limited).

Moving forward, As core group is restructuring, we decided to be more of quality focused and removed parents who do not follow group disciplines. The idea is reduce the group size and keep only like minded people who are serious about holistic living.

Author: Velu Jayaprakash

Velu Jayaprakash is a social entrepreneur, product manager, techy, photographer, meditator, father of two angels, ancient wisdom seeker, holistic adviser and Soul coach. You can reach him at velu.jayaprakash AT gmail DOT com

Sathuragiri – Season1 – Random Clicks.

Author: Velu Jayaprakash

Velu Jayaprakash is a social entrepreneur, product manager, techy, photographer, meditator, father of two angels, ancient wisdom seeker, holistic adviser and Soul coach. You can reach him at velu.jayaprakash AT gmail DOT com

Herbal Tea

Anyone can try this simple recipe for Herbal tea. This is a very good substitute for Coffee and tea

Ingredients:

  1. Coriander seeds
  2. Dry ginger Powder
  3. Palm sugar

Method:

👉🏻 Take 2 hand full of coriander seeds, slightly pan fry it
👉🏻 Immediately pour 2 glass of water and dry ginger powder without skin, boil it and wait until reduce it to 3/4th
👉🏻 Now switch off. Add palm sugar to the extract.
👉🏻After mixing it, filter it and drink.

Ancient people will drink this as a tonic for brain development. This is the basic version.

Author: Velu Jayaprakash

Velu Jayaprakash is a social entrepreneur, product manager, techy, photographer, meditator, father of two angels, ancient wisdom seeker, holistic adviser and Soul coach. You can reach him at velu.jayaprakash AT gmail DOT com

Pure Pink Salt for All

An act of gratitude to bring health into our food. A HLP Store initiative to Donate Pure Pink Salt and not to Vend anymore……

Pink Salt for All

Four years ago, this group started accidentally to remind parents about next Pushya day to administer Swarnaprashana. We never knew it would turn into a holistic group that would expand into various traditional medicinal and lifestyle practices. Very soon it became a community effort, many parents stepped into the show by taking up projects on their shoulders and few made home remedies based products.

On the same lines, when we introduced our  project, hoping to share knowledge and not as a sales point. We set a strong standard to protect this platform from any commercial drive rather each shift needs to be People driven and wisdom centric. Over a period of time, awareness of ancient traditional products among our parent community transformed this into a community shopping. Now, many parents work together to get those indigenous food ingredients to each of us every month, one side we work on quality and on other side, we take lot of time and efforts into refinement that is happening in parallel. In spite of all these changing dynamics, we all moved together with high spirits. Above all, every month, we kept pushing ourselves to next level in introducing a new rare indigenous variety and remedy. Its really amazing how a simple whatsapp group has turned into a social enterprise.

When we turn back and ask ourselves ,what kind of positive changes we really made in terms of food in our community. One prominent issue that has surfaced that has been staple in many of our lives are 5 Whites. We at the group, kept on talking about, avoiding 5 type of white food. We want to revive the practices from ancient days, at least do our part of removing one white in every house of our parent group and outside people without any bias or condition.

By Rainer Z ... - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
By Rainer Z Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Salt was one thing, that came to mind. Today, table salt being the main culprit for many health problems. HLP community has put in lot of efforts to make Pink Salt more affordable. On this Mahalaya amavasya, I proposed about donating Salt for anyone and everyone without any condition, if nature blesses us, we will continue this Salt for all without money or any catch.

All the religious and ancient text talks high of Salt and it has to be donated. Some References are.

“He is the one who has set free the two kinds of water, one sweet and palatable, and the other salty and bitter. And He has made between them a barrier and a forbidding partition.” (Quran, 25:53)

Some mystics have deeply interpreted these verses as referring to the invisible barrier between man’s spiritual perceptions on one side and his worldly desires on the other side


Salt is blessed and used with water for baptism


Exorcism – Japanese Sumo wrestles throw blessed salt in the ring before wrestling to drive away the evil spirit.


A very famous expression ‘being worth one’s salt’ has been consistently associated with ‘salt’ and ‘precious’.


‘Salt’ – as a catalyst to India’s freedom struggle – The Dandi March was propelled by salt.


The offering of ‘saltless meal’ to departed souls according to hindu traditions signifying salt as an earthly ligature with respect to the cosmos.


Garuda Purana Preta Khanda chapter 29 Verse 30­33 states
“Salt is on par with everything divine. It yields everything the person
wishes for himself. No dish is tasteful without salt. Hence, salt is the favourite
with the Pitrs (ancestors).


As per the ancient text, Salt is considered to be one of the 10 greatest donations.

Thank you Aicha Imtiaz, Roopa, Sri Nandhini and Yamini for sharing references.

When I shared this proposal, Mani willingly said “Yes, Velu, Let’s do it, at least, I am happy, I am part of removing table salt once and for all, this will bring lot of health benefits especially for parents who never got a chance to taste pure salt.”

That said, our community will NOT PROVIDE SALT ANY MORE rather, we will Donate 1/2 Kg Pure Pink Salt for any one and everyone. Irrespective of whether you are part of our group or part of core parenting team or take swp from dr. Lakshmi or buy home remedies from other parents or HLP Store, any one can book one pack salt / family. You do not have to pay for the salt. (We expect you to cover the DTDC charges of Rs.30 apx). Every month, we will buy a limited quantity and donate. Hope to cover all of us in our group soon.

For any one, who gets the products Subscription you do not have to book it, the team will automatically, add a salt pack for you.

The team has expressed their willingness to donate in any charity project. In case if you would like to gift or donate salt, do join us for your contribution. To make it transparent, we will open a google doc to track … How many made this healthy shift and what kind of changes we are bringing in lives of people and our society.

Kindly notice, I have not used FREE as i do not believe in Free concept rather I see this as an act of gratitude and responsibility.

On this great day of Mahalaya Amavasya, We share this yet another milestone of our group. Gratitude to all. Let us fight to remove the table salt out of life atleast now!!

Book Here Now!

Author: Velu Jayaprakash

Velu Jayaprakash is a social entrepreneur, product manager, techy, photographer, meditator, father of two angels, ancient wisdom seeker, holistic adviser and Soul coach. You can reach him at velu.jayaprakash AT gmail DOT com

War Against White Food

By Stefan KühnOwn work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Thanks for amazing response about the reviving food we eat. Now, we are aware of the fact that, we just need 20% of food (including water) twice a day to stay healthy. Let us explore further…

Today, we are bombarded with plenty of artificial and chemically processed food. It is a great myth that, healthy food is not in market or expensive, such as organic or natural farming food. With this false assumption, people consume processed food or fall victim to marketing campaign. They hardly know a fact that, they are opening doors towards non-communicable disease such as, diabetes, heart attack, cancer and so on.

Now, Rather than getting to the various food that is good to eat, let us explore the food, that we should completely avoid. The reason is, it does not makes sense to eat the good food, and we also consume the food that is harming us. It is like taking pure milk and a drop of poison.

Many  parents in our whatsapp group constantly ask, what are the remedies to regain or live a healthy lifestyle. The answer is not found in those rare or expensive food, but rather avoiding certain food, does the magic. You will be surprised to see there are plenty of food options that is econimical and healthy.

To lead a holistic healthy lifestyle, we need to avoid 5 white food ingredients. They are: 

  1. Refined Sugar – Replace with Palm Jaggery, Brown Sugar
  2. Table Salt – Replace with Rock salt and Pink Salt
  3. Milk – Sukku Malli Water or coconut milk. 
  4. Polished Rice / – Unpolished, traditional Rice. Say no to hybrid rice.  
  5. Maida – There is no replacement for this, you can use Millets powder to some extent.

Just by switching these simple five elements, you will notice  tremendous health benefits in short time. It is very important, to adopt these lifestyle changes ASAP, to our children.  It is a big topic to discuss on each “White” items which I will blog later…

We got this wisdom from members in our group who has dedicated his life to revive ancient food of India. In case if you like to switch to a healthy lifestyle, do check here and encourage them.

Author: Velu Jayaprakash

Velu Jayaprakash is a social entrepreneur, product manager, techy, photographer, meditator, father of two angels, ancient wisdom seeker, holistic adviser and Soul coach. You can reach him at velu.jayaprakash AT gmail DOT com