For someone who doesnt know what Vibuthi is…

Vibhuti is the holy ash obtained from sacred Puja rites involving fire. Ash as the product of fire is considered intrinsically pure. It is used on the forehead, normally as three horizontal lines representing Shiva.
Some Hindus meld both the three horizontal Vibhuti lines of Shiva and the ‘U’ shape Thilaka of Vishnu in an amalgam marker signifying Hari-Hara (Vishnu-Shiva).

This is Navarathri season. When I went with Vibhuti on my forehead, one of my colleague mentioned me, “in US we call Indians dot-face” because of this. He also asked me, “Why do you keep this dot on your forehead?” I just told him “Nothing is permanent and this symbolizes that.”

The reason for the Vibhuti on fore head is to remind you that “one day your body will turn to ash. And that remembrance will rid of all the evil thoughts”.

The reason for Hinduism to constantly remind that the body is not permanent is not to scare, but to indicate that no one is spared from death and that realization will help the mind to direct the body and soul to live an honest and truthful life.

“Sacred ash signifies that the body’s origin is from dust and ash and to dust and ash it shall return. The ash is a marker of impermanence. Everything in the interim is but an illusion (maya).”

“vittu vitu pogudhu uyir; vittavudan udalai suttu vida pogindranar;” – Patinathar
Translates to “The soul departs the body, and the moment it departs, our relatives burn the body and even our relatives depart from our place”.

A common man gets enlightened on this at some point of time in his life. The body is God’s gift for the soul which is temporary. The signs of ageing are mere indications that the time for the soul to depart is nearing and the body is becoming useless. That’s why many Tamil poets often refer to the body as the wick “yaakai thiri”.

This realization enables a human being to lead honest, positive, kind and affectionate life. This also helps humans disregard any difficulty in personal or professional life.

A person who does not realize this fact runs behind immaterial things in life. For instance some people earn plenty of money and depart from this world, even before making full use of the money they earned.

This is one of the main intentions of Hindu Scholars is making a man realize the power of his death even before it actually occurs.

One may inquire in way what considering this body or its beauty useless is beneficial. Any extraordinary passion towards it is eliminated. Allows a person to be satisfied with what he has and lead a peaceful life.

That is also the reason why Hindus burn the body after a person is dead. This is to indicate that the purpose of the body is achieved and turning it into ashes is the best thing to do. If we bury it, then the body is present in this world with out life. This creates an illusion that the person is still there.

Also, when we bury a person, the place becomes the body’s property. But a body turned into ash, does not own anything and it is dissolved in water. A person should be able to judge himself and correct if he is wrong is what Hindu Scholars insisted by considering the body as useless.

If you have come directly to this page, read the post Form of Energy further know what I am talking about in “energy…”

God. You don’t know where he is or how he is. One reason why I am able to possibly argue for the reason why Hinduism is about idol worship is energy.

The one single reason why energy is not appreciated is because, energy is not seen and known how it is. Like how energy is not appreciated as it’s outcome is, is possibly the reason why we have idols of Ganesha, Muruga, Shiva, Krishna, Vishnu, Brahma and so on… so that the actual energy has a form which could be appreciated, thought about, explained and believed.

So, if God does not have a form, how are we going to appreciate the concept of God? So, when Hinduism evolved approximately 5000 years back [The oldest veda is Rigveda which is 1700 BCE], the scholars at that time, probably judged that any concept of energy without a form, may not be appreciated and created the form of God.

One more probable reason we have many forms of God [Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Krishna, Ganesha, Hanuman, Rama] is may be because we don’t find all the qualities in one person completely. Like energy, heat is only from the substance which is associated with Fire or Mechanical energy is only from moving objects, we have a God who preserves, a God who creates, a God who destroys,a God who teaches how to be loyal, a God who teaches us to be respectful to parents at all times, a God who is loyal to his wife and so on.

Since we do not have only one energy in this world, Hinduism does not insist on one form of God. It created so many forms of God with lot of stories around God just to explain to Human Beings the…. way of life!

There is a famous story told during my school days. The story is goes like this.

Approximately 150 years back, when electricity was a new concept, a school in the United States of America was conducting a scientific exhibition. A old man walking down the street is curious about the new festivity on the street. He walks up to one of the students near the school and inquires about the festivity. The student tells him that it is a scientific exhibition where students like me, exhibit their inventions to the people who visit the school during that time.

The old man walks into the exhibition hall and visits many of the stalls in the exhibition hall.

There he sees a group of students who are demonstrating a new type of car running on track.

He walks up to them, and asks them “what is this?”. The student explains that it is an electric car, which runs on the track when the button is pressed and stops when the same button is pressed again.

The old man, apparently thrilled by the concept asks the students how it works and so on. When he hears about the electricity which is behind this, he asks the students to show the electricity. The students claim that they cant show it, however, their professor who is more educated than them, would be able to help.

When the professor got the same question, he also denies seeing electricity and explains that the principal of the college should be knowing and the principal is requested to explain about electricity to the old man.

The principal apparently having more knowledge, explains that electricity could not be seen and only could be used in such applications. He also explains that electricity is a form of energy and could not be seen. He also says, that probably the inventor of this Thomas Alva Edison might be the only person who would have seen it.

The old man, convinced, decides to leave and thanks all of them. Before walking off, he also says, “The inventor has also not seen electricity. I am Edison”

Well, as we all see and agree that energy can only be felt and not actually seen. I cannot walk into my house and ask my parents or spouse show me their love for me.

No one actually sees love, but all they see is the out come of that love. No one really loves love, but they love the outcome of love and cause behind it.

We have always admired electric trains, express elevators, bullet trains etc., which are actually the out come of energy and not the energy itself.

Energy is like the foundation of a building which is not visible but holding the big structure above it.

Love and affection are also energy. They are not seen, but felt.

Please proceed to Way of Life for the continuation