Puri Vlog | My First Vlog ever! | A girl with a Camera

 Hi there,

It's been a long time since I have blogged about anything because I was busy with my pre-boards :( (Don't ask how it went 😂) 

But, now the wait is finally over!!! 🤩

Here presenting my 1st Vlog!! ✨ It's of Jagannath Puri 🏖️ Honestly saying, I didn't planned this vlog along with the journey but as the saying goes....

"Everything happens in it's own time, in the divine's timing" ✨

I later on had the idea of compiling the clips together and making a vlog out of it. And here it is.... 🤩

P.S - It was my first inter state trip after the pandemic, and I was damn excited about it!! Still Nostalgic 🍁

Captured and edited by : Kamya Sahu 

Tell me how it was in the comments below!! Till then,

Take Care ❤

World Tourism Day 2021 | Pictures | Philosophy

 

“The best journeys in life are those that answer questions you never thought to ask.” 

                                                                 ― Rich Ridgeway

Wish you a very Happy World Tourism Day! 🌏❤️

Here I am presenting some shots, edited by me of some my favourite tourist places across India. World is slowly coming back on tracks, but yeah, we have a long way to go! 

I wish by next World Tourism Day, the Travellers and the tourists get to explore this mysterious world safely, normally, just as the pre-pandemic time. For now, Enjoy the shots....

( This one is my favourite 😍 This is the Tomb of Iltutmish in Delhi. )

Curated and Edited by : Kamya

I hope you liked and enjoyed this special blog on " World Tourism Day". Do tell me which places have you visited or it's in your wish list in the comments section below and do share this blog with the world. And for more content like this, Stay tuned to your favourite blog.....

Once again, A very happy World Tourism Day. 

See you in the next blog soon, till then,

Have a wonderful day, take care and....

always remember to love yourself first!! ❤

Ganesh Chaturthi 2021 | Part 1 | Special blog | Symbolism | Significance | Spirituality

 Ganesh Chaturthi Special blog  - Part 1

ॐ एकदन्ताय विद्महे वक्रतुंडाय धीमहि तन्नो बुदि्ध प्रचोदयात।। 

Hi there! and a very happy Ganesh Utsav to you and your family! 🙏🌺

It was my dream since childhood to visit a potter's home or workshop before Ganesh- utsav or Durga Puja to see the statues before the world  and capture the beauty and essence of it. I wondered how beautifully the photographers captured the beauty of half finished statues, by seeing pictures in the newspaper or internet. And Voila, this time, this dream of mine came true . I visited one of the potter's house in Bagbahra during this time and here are the glimpses of my visit, highly loaded with a combo of  spirituality and art. Literally, it was a divine experience....

Ganesha, the son of Lord Shiva and Devi Parvati is popularly worshipped under different names like Sumukha, Ekadanta, Kapila, Gajakarna, Lambodara, Vikath, Vidhnanashaka, Vinayaka, Dhumraketu, Ganadhayaksha, Bhalchandra and Gajanana.

Ganesha’s form is highly charming and mesmerizing. The cute little chubby boy like body with an elephant head, a broken tusk. A rounded body carrying the wisdom of the universe. A tray of sweets by his side. A tiny mouse on the other. A lotus in one hand. A crown on his head. The second arm raised with an axe. A third lifting in benediction and blessing, has been inspiring devotion and love in the hearts of millions down the history. While the form of Lord Ganesh evokes our imaginations and pleases us beyond compare, there is also deep spiritual symbolism behind the form of Lord Ganesh.

Interesting symbolism behind Lord Ganesha's form - 

Usually elephants are the path makers in forests. When an elephant passes through thick woods, a way is created for the other animals to follow. Lord Ganesh is worshiped first before starting anything new. Lord Ganesha clears the obstacles and paves the way for us to move forward in life.

The large elephant head of Lord Ganesha symbolizes wisdom, understanding, and a discriminating intellect that one must possess to attain perfection in life.

The wide mouth represents the . natural human desire to enjoy life in the world. The large ears signify that a perfect person is the one who possesses a great capacity to listen to others and assimilate ideas. Ganesha being the ruler of the worlds, he possesses large ears to keenly listen to the prayers and needs of all his subjects.

The trunk can hold anything and everything existent in this universe. Likewise, the individuals should possess qualities of high adaptability and efficiency in life. This in other words can make them attune to any circumstances of life. It also represents OM ( ॐ) the sound symbol of cosmic reality.

The two tusks denote the two  aspects of the human personality, wisdom and emotion. The right tusk represents wisdom and the left tusk represents emotion. The broken left tusk conveys the idea that one must conquer emotions with wisdom to attain perfection. 

The right foot dangling over the left foot illustrates that in order to live a successful life one should utilise knowledge and reason to overcome emotions.

The elephant eyes are said to possess natural deceptiveness that allows them to perceive objects to be bigger than what they really are. Thus it indicates to surrender one's pride and attain humility.

The Trishul (weapon of Shiva, similar to Trident) over forehead symbolises time (past, present and future) and Lord Ganesha's mastery over it.

The four arms of Lord Ganesha represent the four inner attributes of the subtle body, that is: mind (Manas), intellect (Buddhi), ego (Ahamkara), and conditioned conscience (Chitta). Lord Ganesha represents the pure consciousness - the Atman - which enables these four attributes to function in us. The hand waving an axe is a symbol of the retrenchment of all desires, bearers of pain and suffering.

With this axe Lord Ganesha can both strike and repel obstacles. The axe is also to prod man to the path of righteousness (dharma) and truth. The second hand holds a whip, symbol of the force that ties the devout person to the eternal beatitude of God. The whip conveys that worldly attachments and desires should be rid of; the third hand, turned towards the devotee, is in a pose of blessing, refuge and protection (abhaya); the fourth hand holds a lotus flower (padma), and it symbolizes the highest goal of human evolution, the sweetness of the realized inner self.

The human body possesses a human heart, which is a symbol of kindness and compassion toward all. Lord Ganesha is usually portrayed wearing red and yellow clothes. Yellow symbolizes purity, peace, auspiciousness, sense control, and truthfulness. Red symbolizes the activity in the world. Thus an individual should perform all duties in the world, with purity, peace, and truthfulness.

Lord Ganesha's belly represents the whole cosmos, the seven realms above and below and the seven oceans are inside Ganesha's cosmic belly. These are held together by the cosmic energy (kundalini) symbolized by the huge snake around him. The snake that runs round his waist represents energy in all forms. The big belly signifies that a person should face all pleasant and unpleasant experiences during his life span with patience and calmness.

The mouse represents ego. Lord Ganesha using the mouse represents the need to control ego and so it's said that one who controls his ego has Ganesha consciousness. Ganesh Chaturthi is a celebration of  The Lord who controls the universe. The wandering mouse also signifies the wavering human mind. As Lord Ganesh (elephant head) controls the mouse, we must also learn to control our mind with intellect.

Yet another interpretation explains why Lord Ganesh has the mouse as his vehicle. The king must be accessible to all the subjects equally. Ganesh with a huge body and elephant head is close to the mouse which is a tiny creature. This indicates all lives are equal and it is the duty of every human to take care of the humble lives around.

                                    

Photographist : Kamya 📸

Facts curated from various websites...

Mouse also symbolizes uncontrolled desires and ego that can nibble all that is good and noble in a person. A mouse sitting near the feet of lord Ganesha and gazing at the Laddus denotes that with purified or controlled desires one can live in the world without being affected by the worldly temptations.

Like this  blog loaded with spirituality and photography or my new editing style? Don’t forget to share it and tell me what are your memories with lord ganesha or ganesh utsav in the comments section below!!

See you in the next blog soon, till then,

Have a wonderful day, take care and....

always remember to love yourself first!! ❤

May lord Ganesha give you a rainbow for every storm, a smile for every tear. A promise for every care and an answer to every prayer. Wishing you a happy Ganesh Paksh. ❤️🙏🏼✨

Ganapati bappa morya! 🙏❤🌺

Buddh Purnima Special Blog

 

What does "Buddha" mean?

Buddha is not a name, but a title. It is a Sanskrit word that means “a person who is awake.” What a buddha is awake to is the true nature of reality.

Simply put, Buddhism teaches that we all live in a fog of illusions created by mistaken perceptions and “impurities” — hate, greed, ignorance. A buddha is one who is freed from the fog. It is said that when a buddha dies he or she is not reborn but passes into the peace of Nirvana, which is not a “heaven” but a transformed state of existence.

Most of the time, when someone says the Buddha, it’s in reference to the historical person who founded Buddhism. This was a man originally named Siddhartha Gautama who lived in what is now northern India and Nepal about twenty-five centuries ago.

The Universe according to Buddhism...

According to Buddhist doctrine, the universe is the product of karma, the law of the cause and effect of actions, according to which virtuous actions create pleasure in the future and nonvirtuous actions create pain. The beings of the universe are reborn without beginning in six realms: as gods, demigods, humans, animals, ghosts, and hell beings. The actions of these beings create not only their individual experiences but the domains in which they dwell. The cycle of rebirth, called samsara (literally “wandering”), is regarded as a domain of suffering, and the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice is to escape from that suffering. The means of escape remains unknown until, over the course of millions of lifetimes, a person perfects himself, ultimately gaining the power to discover the path out of samsara and then compassionately revealing that path to the world.

Who exactly "Buddha" is?

A person who has set out on the long journey to discover the path to freedom from suffering, and then to teach it to others, is called a bodhisattva. A person who has discovered that path, followed it to its end, and taught it to the world is called a buddha. Buddhas are not reborn after they die but enter a state beyond suffering called nirvana (literally “passing away”). Because buddhas appear so rarely over the course of time and because only they reveal the path to liberation (moksha) from suffering (dukkha), the appearance of a buddha in the world is considered a momentous event in the history of the universe.

The story of a particular buddha begins before his birth and extends beyond his death. It encompasses the millions of lives spent on the bodhisattva path before the achievement of buddhahood and the persistence of the buddha, in the form of both his teachings and his relics, after he has passed into nirvana. The historical Buddha is regarded as neither the first nor the last buddha to appear in the world. According to some traditions he is the 7th buddha; according to another he is the 25th; according to yet another he is the 4th. The next buddha, named Maitreya, will appear after Shakyamuni’s teachings and relics have disappeared from the world.

Have there been other Buddhas?

In Theravada Buddhism ― the dominant school of southeast Asia ― it is thought there is only one buddha per age of humankind; each age is an unimaginably long time. The buddha of the current age is our historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. Another person who realizes enlightenment within this age is not called buddha. Instead, he or she is an arhat (Sanskrit) or arahant (Pali) — “worthy one” or “perfected one.” The principal difference between an arhat and a buddha is that only a buddha is a world teacher, the one who opens the door for all others.

Early scriptures name other buddhas who lived in the unimaginably long-ago earlier ages. There is also Maitreya, the future Buddha who will appear when all memory of our Buddha’s teachings has been lost.

There are other major traditions of Buddhism, called Mahayana and Vajrayana, and these traditions put no limits on the number of buddhas there can be. However, for practitioners of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism the ideal is to be a bodhisattva, one who vows to remain in the world until all beings are enlightened.

Gautama Buddha and Sanchi Stupa...

The Great Stupa at Sanchi, also known as Stupa No.1, was commissioned by none other than the Mauryan Emperor, Ashoka, in the 3rd century BCE and is believed to house ashes of the Buddha, and as a result, the stupa began to be associated with the body of the Buddha. Adding the Buddha's ashes to the mound of dirt activated it with the energy of the Buddha himself. It is believed that his intention behind constructing this Stupa was to preserve and spread the Buddhist philosophy and way of life. The Great Stupa is the oldest and largest Stupa at the Sanchi Buddhist Monument Complex.

The stupas and monasteries at Sanchi created a thriving Buddhist community of monks and supporters. As more people came over the centuries, other settlements were founded nearby, and the region became a hub of spiritual activity.

( Photos by : Alok kumar Sahu)

“Conquer anger with non-anger. Conquer badness with goodness. Conquer meanness with generosity. Conquer dishonesty with truth.”

                                                                    - Gautam Buddha

I konw, this blog was a bit more inclined toward Buddhism and I hope you got something new from this blog and if so, don't hesitate to give me credit. Till then..

Take Care❤