Er GuRmukh GuRu

" When Abraham Lincoln became the president of America, his father was a shoemaker . And, naturally, egoistic people were very much offended that a shoemaker’s son should become the president. They were aristocrats, who thought it was their birthright to be in the highest government post. A shoemaker’s son? On the first day, as Abraham Lincoln entered to give his inaugural address, just in the middle, one man stood up. He was a very rich aristocrat. He said, “Mr. Lincoln, you should not forget that your father used to make shoes for my family.”  And the whole Senate laughed; they thought that they had made a fool of Abraham Lincoln     Thomas Lincoln (Father of Abraham Lincoln)  But Lincoln – and that type of person is made of a totally different mettle – Lincoln looked at the man and said, “Sir, I know that my father used to make shoes in your house for your family, and there will be many others here… bec...

Gedun Drupa, the 1st Dalai Lama  Gendun Drupa was born to a nomadic family in 1391 and died in 1474. His original name was Pema Dorjee. He took novice monk's vows in 1405 at Narthang monastery and received full monk's ordination in 1411. In 1416, he became a disciple of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa School, and eventually became Tsongkhapa's principle disciple. Gendun Drupa is remembered as a great scholar who wrote a number of books and who founded a major monastic university, Tashi Lhunpo. Gendun Drupa was not called "Dalai Lama" during his lifetime, because the title did not yet exist. He was identified as the first Dalai Lama several years after his death.  Gendun Gyatso, the 2nd Dalai Lama   Gendun Gyatso was born in 1475 and died in 1542. His father, a well-known tantric practitioner of the Nyingma school, named him Sangye Phel and gave the boy a Buddhist education. When he was 11 years old, he was recognized as an incarnation of Gedun Drupa and ent...

Shri Guru Ravidas Gurughar of Tughlaqabad was visited by Sant Ravidas around 1509 during.   Nearly 160 years ago on land provided by Sikander Lodhi , an ancestor named Roopa Nand dug out a pond in the area known as chamarwala johar in Khasra No. 123 of Tughlakabad village. The hut of Roopa Nand was situated in khasra No. 124/1 of Tughlakabad village. Later, in the Delhi Land Reforms Act of 1954, this land was shown as 'Shamlat' (village common land). An organization named Guru Ravidas Jainti Samaroh Samiti was formed in 1959 to build an ashram, Guru Ravidas temple and samadhi of Roopa Nand and other saints on 12350 square yards (ca. 1 ha) of land. The temple was inaugurated on 1 March 1959 by Dalit leader. Mughal era painting of Guru Ravidas at Gurughar  Demolition  Ravidas Gurughar was demolished by Delhi Development Authority following an 8 April 2019 Supreme Court order. The apex court, upholding a 2018 order of the Delhi High Court, ordered that the area be vacat...

W e were caught in a downpour in Hong Kong. We took shelter under the awning of a souvenir shop outside the Po Lin Monastery. As we waited for the rain to slow down I peered at the souvenirs. A strange feminine-looking Buddha statue caught my eye. I curiously asked the lady at the shop who that was. “Lady Buddha,” she said.  Who was Lady Buddha? This was the first time I was hearing that term. In the monastery too, I caught sight of sculptures of a female Buddha. That evening as I shopped for souvenirs, I found another figurine of a Lady Buddha, this time reclining with a hand under her head, akin to how Vishnu would look on his Shesh Nag. Eager to learn more about the Lady Buddha, I began reading all that I could gather about this avatar.  The Concept of a Female Buddha  A bodhisattva is any person who is on the path towards becoming a Buddha, but has not yet attained it. In Mahayana Buddhism, a bodhisattva is one who has generated bodhicitta, which is an enlightened min...