God Series:Episode 4-God as Wind!

Hanuman (the shadow of a hanging pendant) Meady's Musings Production 2010.

As we continue our look of the perception of God as 'the elements' on the God series today we look at the element of Wind! In Hinduism the God of Wind is called Pavan but he isn't as popular as his son...Hanuman who is often referred to as Pavan-Putra Hanuman i.e. the son of the Wind God, Hanuman. In keeping with the twists and turns that is Hinduism the God of Wind in Hinduism has other names than Pavan...here are just a few of them:

-Vayu
-Vata from the root of the Sanskrit word for atmosphere vatavaran

So technically Hanuman could have been called Vayu-Putra Hanuman or Vata-Putra even! :) However he is most often called Pavan-Putra Hanuman!

Then there is the all famous Prana or vital breath in Vedanta! The Prana makes up one of the five organs of vitality or sensation in Vedantic philosophy. The five organs are listed as follows:

prana "breath", vac "speech", caksus "sight", shrotra "hearing", and manas "thought"

So they altogether represent the physiological organs: nose, mouth, eyes, ears and mind respectively.

So it seems what Hinduism is saying is without the wind we could not be alive...makes sense after all as us humans are aerobic beings i.e. we need to breathe in the oxygen from air to survive and also to be able to expel carbon dioxide as if it is accumulated in our body it would kill us! So there! :)

However Hinduism is also mystifying the Wind...making an ode to him...glorifying him in poetry...deifying him even...so you have the Wind God...and he even had a son who is way more famous than him...and it seems Hinduism attributed strength to the wind cause all his sons were mighty strong guys! :) You see Bheem from the Mahabharat is also said to be a son of Vayu...so you have Hanuman and Bheem...the strong guys...sons of the Wind! So it must be they got their strength from good ole 'elemental' daddy! :)

So UCP salutes you oh wind! And to do so we hail your famous son in the form of the Hanuman Chalisa and then follow it with a celebration of you in what we here at UCP like to call John Denverism....but I guess can be seen to as a form of religion that worships nature itself...well and I think that religion is called...well...Nature worship! So John play on...and sing your windsong!:)

The God Series: Episode 3-Mother Earth!

Our last episode in the God series looked at God as Fire. We would like to continue on that trend and cover all the elements on the next few episodes of the series. As a result we felt it fitting to cover the element of Earth today since it is a Friday and normally based on Hindu centric views we usually surrender to the Divine Mother on a Friday and the Earth is always seen as Mother as well. We’ve never come upon a single religious or cultural view hence far that has seen Earth as Father...don’t know why really...although I can see why they’d see Earth as Mother but not sure why not Father as well...
But anyway let’s stick with the world traditions here and go along and explore the concept of God as Mother Earth!
We’ll start with Hinduism then...
The Earth is worshipped in Hindu rituals all the time and Hindus bow to the Earth in fact they often beg her forgiveness before they allow their feet to trample upon her each morning...just check out this lovely prayer noting this!



However UCP’s favourite concept of God being perceived as Earth is when in the Ramayan, Sita Maa is seen as born from the earth and eventually returns to her Mother...and this touching scene in the TV serial version of The Ramayan where she begs Mother Earth to open up and receive her again epitomises it for us!

As a whole we here at UCP can see why man as a whole even if it is seen from a scientific evolutionary path...divorce of all UCP and spirit...would hold great respect and awe for Earth. And why as a result worship of the Earth or its personification as God would have eventually developed. After all we live on planet Earth and it is from her we are nourished and it is where we are sheltered and eek out our existence. I guess it is why she is always personified as a her ...as a mother not a father...because she is seen as the ultimate nourisher...we are in a sense in our particular mother’s wombs as we stay grounded to planet Earth by gravity while she holds all of us in her womb....feeding us...sheltering us...Mother Earth is our foothold in this great and wild Universe! In fact some from the Production House have celebrated Mother Earth for Preserving Our Lives in the past at this Diwali Festival Show!

So next up on the God series is Wind! So we'll catch you then!

Happy Ganesh Fest 2010!

Before we go into the God Series today on UCP we thought we'd hail out all of those sharing in the Ganesh Fest this year...also known as Ganesh Ustav or Chaturthi or Chauth. As readers may know he is indeed one of our fav perceptions of God here on UCP and have often celebrated or played with him over the two years that this blog has existed. So today we thought we'd share the memories to celebrate Ganesh Ustav 2010! So here we go recalling all the times we had with good ole Ganapati or Ganesh and of course one of his kind is at the very heart of UCP because our parent blog is Meady's Musings and we all know a Purple Elephant and little Mouse live with us here at the Production House from where it all happens! :)

So as we sing and dance to this song take a look at our archive of all things Ganesh over the years...


Happy Ganesh Chaturthi 2009
Ganesh Chauth 2008
My Fav Ganesh Aarti Just for So!
Ganesh as My Ishq Devata
Ganesh as Part of the Shiv Family
The Gift that are Elephants!

Eid Mubarak 2010!

UCP celebrates the end of the month of fasting that is Ramadan! And salutes all those who successfully completed this period of fasting. We hope it was a time well spent where spiritual questions were asked and lessons were learnt well while enjoying the time with Allah! This year Ramadan ends at a not so good time on the global landscape for UCP though...I mean all must have heard of the threat by an American pastor to burn the Holy Quran and how he is now playing around with the idea of 'shall I or shall I not' depending on whether a mosque/Islamic cultural centre is built at 'Ground zero'

Now UCP wasn't around in 2001 when the famous '9 11 bombings' took place but you can clearly see why we needed UCP then and still do now! It's a pity when men of the cloth in particular carry on like this...I mean why can't we all just get along and engage in UCP already! But in reality we here at UCP know that there are many who don't see prayer in all and any religion as part of a universal collective prayer and instead like to carry on as if one prayer is the only prayer and perhaps even go as far as to discount the prayer of another! And that's just sad...it's so sad that it makes having to do this blog post be the saddest blog post ever topping out in sadness over the blog post we had to do when there were bombings in Mumbai in 2008.

But UCP is about happiness not sadness and we really hope no Qurans are burnt tomorrow or at any other time...and we do hope that terrorist world over learn instead to engage in this thing we like to call UCP-Universal Collective Prayer! Because you know what? If they did dance forth like us in this thing we call UCP and explore it no matter what religion it was...well they'd not want to blow up things! And so our Eid Mubarak prayer and wishes is for all the world to realise and see that terrorists are simply terrorists...and people who engage in prayer are simply prayer givers and no one...no matter what religion they offer these prayers in...if they do it from their heart and soul in true communion with God however they perceive him or her or it to be would ever want to blow up things in this beautiful plane but would instead want to only create, create, create and dance forth in this thing we call UCP-Universal Collective Prayer! :)

So let's now celebrate Eid 2010 as we crank up the tunes once more! :) But we also put in a snip from the film 'My Name is Khan' in the hope that we here at UCP throw our two cents in the hat for if not 'religious acceptance for all' at least 'religious tolerance' on this Eid day 2010! :)

The God Series:Episode 2-Fire!

A Havan fire in a Hindu ceremony, Trinidad and Tobago
Meady's Musings Production 2010


Worshippers at Jing'an Temple, Shanghai China Jun 2010.
Meady's Musings Production 2010

Today on the God series we examine the concept of God as fire…from the Ancient Vedic Homa and Havan to the Old Testament’s fiery appearance before Moses to UCP’s recent visit to China where it was pyrotechnics galore…what’s man’s obsession with God like fire?

Well we here at UCP have been thinking…the gyan yoga caps on…not the bhakti ones…so we thought and thought and thought some more just like Winnie the Pooh and here is what we came up with after we thought even some more!

Well if we look at what fire is used for and if we go with what modern science tells us about the ‘evolution’ of man well if they were cave men…well they must have once they discovered fire’s presence first of all…either when lighting struck something and it burned or when a volcano erupted or a fire just burst out on its due to the searing heat focusing on dry wood for instance...well they must have been amazed! And I guess first they would have been scared of it but then they would have played around with it and realised that if they was its friend well hmmm...it could do loads for them couldn't it? Warm them from the cold...cook their food so it could taste better...melt some materials so they could join together...all sorts of things...but the fire had to be feared too...I mean it could burn you...kill you even...it could be a fierce beast let me tell ya! LOL!

So perhaps if we go on and on...in this analysis we could see how Man started to revere and at the same time fear fire...and so as a society evolved it's practices, rites and rituals would have incorporated this and made fire become an integral part of religions world over! Myth upon myth being woven around it...but hey this is not that sort of blog...it's UCP of course...we engage in Universal Collective Prayer here not analysis and speculation of how man and societies evolved! LOL! So let's get back to the UCP of it!

Well you see for whatever speculative reason it may be...Man for sure does revere fire and also fear it and it for sure forms major parts of practically all the world religions. In Hinduism it is seen as an integral portal between the divine world and the material/human plane on which we live. Contact can be made with God throught the Vedic Homa or Havan. In fact sometimes God even appears or manifests in the Havan! And they've also given fire it's on status as the God Agni. Man infact a whole line of Brahmins have even been dedicated to working the fire! Yep...the Agnihotri Brahmins. For sure I think the Hindus have to be one of the top rankers when it comes to perceiving God in the form or fire. However you see it in Buddhism and Catholicism in their rites and rituals too!

However to me the classic case of fire getting on 'bad' is in the movie, the Ten Commandents...I mean it is so clear cut here God coming as fire in the burning bushnell no doubt! :) To talk to Moses and look how 'bad' he gets on! Whoa! Moses had to be some brave man to stand up and take that message! :)

Krishna Janamashtami 2010!

Baby Krishna in the Palm of My Hand! :) Meady's Musings Production 2010.

Krishna Janamashtami is always a big and reflective time for us here at UCP because it was on the day of that festival in 2008 in the Western Gregorian calendar that UCP was launched i.e. Krishna Janamashtami 2008 on 23 August 2008. So as a result today Krishna Janamashtami to Krishna Janamashtami again UCP is roughly 2 years old or just a little over two years old if you count by the Western Gregorian calendar! :)It was launched in a big way back then I, Meady the founder of all of this had a Satyanarayan katha at my home...you see I like my new found friends Lily and Xavier was searching for Sat or Satya...the truth...I wanted to reflect on it...explore it...and share my journey into it here with you...and I'm happy to continue to do this with you...so two years into the dance...here we are...here we are...here we are again! :) Happy Birthday Shri Krishna and Happy Birthday UCP! :) And to celebrate I recall the blogs from our first bday and our launch. And also crank up the tunes! :)

-UCP's 1st Bday and Krishna Janamashtami 2009

-Krishna Janashtami 2008 and the big UCP launch! :)

And hey look at my photos below and the one up above...I even cleaned out my little baby Krishna murti I bought in London years ago for this mega birthday bash...he can sit in the palm or my hand and yet he grew up to be the one from whose mouth the gita spewed forth! AMAZING GUY THIS KRISHNA MAN! :)


Baby Krishna with the Gita He Grew Up to Expound- Meady's Musings Production 2010