1006 posts since 2008

Dandapani’s Blog

Welcome! Sharing my reflections on the spiritual path.
Join me on a profound journey of self-discovery and spiritual growth.

Feb 26, 2012

Frams Torners....letters in disguise

Occasionally I'll post something totally random like this that I've seen while on the road. This one I saw in a little village in a pretty remote part of South Eastern India in a road side shop. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to blog it. Ok, I've heard of Transformers - robots in disguise, but I've never heard of Frams Torners. Are the makers of this dyslexic or are they trying to avoid a law s...

Feb 26, 2012 Spiritual Adventures

Smashing the Ego

At a small Shiva temple in the countryside of the Chettinad region, we stopped to participate in a Hindu custom in which a coconut is smashed on the ground in front of the temple to symbolize the smashing of the ego. The temple was beautifully kept and practically deser
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Feb 25, 2012 Spiritual Adventures

At the Ayyanar temple

Ayyanar is a village god, loosely affiliated with Hinduism, but emerging from a folk tradition of protective deities that keep disease and misfortune away from small rural villages. In one area of Tamil Nadu, the Ayyanar cult is particularly strong and many villages have Ayyanar
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Feb 25, 2012 Spiritual Adventures

Learning Chettinad Cooking

Our spiritual and culinary adventure is coming to a conclusion and today we had our last cooking class. It was on two Chettinad style dishes. The first was "Mint Chutney" and the second "Kola Urundai Kolambu". Here's the recipe for the "Mint Chutney" that we learned today. Ingr
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Feb 25, 2012 Spiritual Adventures

Fire ceremony at Pillayarpatti

Today we went to the small town of Pillayarpatti in the heartland of Chettinad to an ancient Ganesha temple. The priests in the temple come from the best priest training school in South India and the ceremonies are conducted with incredible rigor and to the highest standard. Anci
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Feb 25, 2012 Spiritual Adventures

A gorgeous sunset in Chettinad

A flashback to yesterday evening, about an hour or so after we arrived in Chettinad and checked into the mansion, Markley and I went for a walk and we were blessed with an extremely gorgeous sunset over old mansions, a Siva temple and it's temple tank. Here are a few images we ho
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Feb 24, 2012 Spiritual Tools

I can't concentrate!

A question came in to me on email asking for some insights on concentration. "I can't concentrate. Please help." Here are some of my thoughts on concentration. Most people can't concentrate because they have not been taught how to concentrate and they do not practice the art of
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