India named the landing spot of the Pragyan probe/Vikram lander from Chandrayaan 3 Lunar Mission as the ‘Shiv Shakthi’ point – after the father and mother of the Universe, Lord Shiva and Shakthi. There is no Hindu dharma without Shakthi, the power. India became the first country in the world to softland/touch down in the darker side of the moon this August 23, 2023, which means India/Indians have been to that part of space where NO OTHER NATION on earth has ever had access to. Shakthi is the kinetic energy. Shiva is static. Together they enable the function or activity. India also named the Indian territory of Antarctica ‘Dhakshina Gangotri’ decades earlier. The ISRO chief Dr Somnath says, its the prerogative of the prime minister to name the spot in his capacity and he is just a scientist. Very mature answer. Similarly someone asked world No.2 and runner-up in Chess world cup Praggnanandhaa about the vibhuthi mark in his forehead. Just 18, he gave a very diplomatic reply that he did what his mother wanted him to do. Faith is someone’s private affair. We Hindus have every right to practise our faith the way we want to. If Mary could get impregnated by IVF (or whoever) over two thousand years back and you have the gall to call it ‘immaculate conception’ and if you cannot stop dreaming of the seventy two virgins waiting for you on the other side of the world, you have no right to comment on anything Hindu.
Never sent my son to a school or college exam without the mark of vibhuthi on his forehead. My father, grandfathers and uncles could never be seen without the vibhuthi ash mark on their foreheads. Some men sport a ‘naamam’ – mostly the vaishnavites but there were grandfathers in our family who sported the naamam as well. In Kerala, men sport even the sandal paste (chandan). Vibhuthi is the ash mark of Lord Shiva. A bindi/vibhuthi is part and parcel of our Hindu identity. It is offered in all temples where we wear it in our forehead with reference and we also have it at home in our puja. Men wear it in forehead after shower. I anoint kumkum (vermilion) in my forehead in the middle east and in India but not in America because America is full of racist bigots and hate crimes. Its safer to be seen a practising Hindu in the middle east. What an irony! Just like the bombers of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Nazis were never called terrorists!
Every Indian satellite is launched only after heartiest Pujas are performed at the most ancient temples of India for the success of the space missions. After the successes, the gods and goddesses are also thanked for their benevolence.
Shivashakthi: Shiva plus Shakthi: Hindus do not believe in an all male god. Brahman for Shakthi followers is Shakthi. We believe the ultimate creator of the universe to be the SHE. This is the reason for most of us Hindus not identifying with Islam or Christianity: because God for us first and foremost is a SHE.
I want to close the post with the beautiful Shivashakthi reference in Soundarya Lahari – partly composed by Lord Shiva Himself we believe and then taken over from 42 to 100th stanza by Shankaracharya in the 7th century CE. That is the antiquity of Bharat, the Hindu country.
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