Atri

Atri (Sanskrit: अत्रि) or Attri is a Vedic sage, who is credited with composing numerous hymns to Agni, Indra and other Vedic deities of Hinduism. Atri is one of the Saptarishi (seven great Vedic sages) in the Hindu tradition, and the one most mentioned in its scripture Rigveda.The fifth Mandala (Book 5) of Rigveda is called the Atri Mandala in his honour, and the eighty seven hymns in it are attributed to him and his descendants....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yoga guru, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as Bande Mataram. He joined the Indian movement for independence from British colonial rule, until 1910 was one of its influential leaders and then became a spiritual reformer, introducing his visions on human progress and spiritual evolution. Aurobindo studied for the Indian Civil Service at King’s College, Cambridge, England....

December 26, 2021 · 2 min · TheAum

Basava

Basaveshwara, colloquially known as Basavanna, was a 12th-century CE Indian statesman, philosopher, poet, social reformer and Lingayat saint in the Shiva-focussed bhakti movement, and a Hindu Shaivite social reformer during the reign of the Kalyani Chalukya/Kalachuri dynasty. Basava was active during the rule of both dynasties but reached the peak of his influence during the rule of King Bijjala II in Karnataka, India. Basava spread social awareness through his poetry, popularly known as Vachanaas....

December 26, 2021 · 2 min · TheAum

Bhaktivinoda Thakur

Bhaktivinoda Thakur (IAST: Bhakti-vinoda Ṭhākura, Bengali pronunciation: [bʱɔktibinodo tʰakur] (listen)) (2 September 1838 – 23 June 1914), born Kedarnath Datta (Kedāra-nātha Datta, Bengali: [kedɔrnɔtʰ dɔtto]), was a Hindu philosopher, guru and spiritual reformer of Gaudiya Vaishnavism who effected its resurgence in India in late 19th and early 20th century and was hailed by contemporary scholars as the most influential Gaudiya Vaishnava leader of his time. He is also credited, along with his son Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, with pioneering the propagation of Gaudiya Vaishnavism in the West and its eventual global spread....

December 26, 2021 · 4 min · TheAum

Bharadwaja

Bharadvaja (Sanskrit: भरद्वाज, IAST: Bharadvāja; also spelled Bharadwaja) was one of the revered Vedic sages (maharishi) in Ancient India. He was a renowned scholar, economist, grammarian and physician. He is one of the Saptarishis (seven great sages or Maharṣis).His contributions to ancient Indian literature, specifically the Rig Veda, provide significant insight into ancient Indian society. He and his family of students were the authors of the sixth book of the Rigveda....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Chaitanya

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (IAST: Caitanya Mahāprabhu, born as Vishvambhar Mishra) was a 15th century Indian saint considered to be the combined avatar of Radha and Krishna by his disciples. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mode of worshipping Krishna with ecstatic song and dance had a profound effect on Vaishnavism in Bengal. He was also the chief proponent of the Vedantic philosophy of Achintya Bheda Abheda Tattva. Mahaprabhu founded Gaudiya Vaishnavism (a.k.a. Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya). He expounded Bhakti yoga and popularized the chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Chakradhara

Sarvadnya Shri Chakradhar Swami (also known as Kunwar Haripaladeva) was a spiritual master, and one of the most important exponents of the Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism. He is the founder of Mahanubhava Sampradaya of Krishnaite Vaishnavism in 1267. Shree Chakradhar Swami advocated worship of Lord Krishna and preached Dvaita. He did not recognize caste distinctions, and like Buddha had only two others viz the householder and recluses. Some sources claim that Chakrapani Prabhu and Govinda Prabhu as the originators of Mahanubhava doctrine and Chakradhara as the first apostle who systematized Mahanubhava as a school of Bhakti philosophy

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Chinmayananda

Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati, (born Balakrishna Menon; 8 May 1916 – 3 August 1993) was a Hindu spiritual leader and a teacher. In 1951, he founded Chinmaya Mission, a worldwide nonprofit organisation, in order to spread the knowledge of Advaita Vedanta, the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and other ancient Hindu scriptures. Through the Mission, Chinmayananda spearheaded a global Hindu spiritual and cultural renaissance that popularised these spiritual texts and values, teaching them in English all across India and abroad....

December 26, 2021 · 2 min · TheAum

Dayananda Saraswati

Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati (pronunciation ) (12 February 1824 – 30 October 1883) was an Indian philosopher, social leader and founder of the Arya Samaj, a reform movement of the Vedic dharma. He was the first to give the call for Swaraj as “India for Indians” in 1876, a call later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak. Denouncing the idolatry and ritualistic worship, he worked towards reviving Vedic ideologies. Subsequently, the philosopher and President of India, S....

December 26, 2021 · 2 min · TheAum

Gangesha Upadhyaya

Gangesha Upadhyaya (Sanskrit: गंगेश उपाध्याय, Gaṅgeśa Upādhyāya) (first half of the 14th century) was an Indian philosopher, logician and mathematician from the kingdom of Mithila. He established the Navya-Nyāya (“New Logic”) school. His Tattvacintāmaṇi (The Jewel of Thought on the Nature of Things), also known as Pramāṇacintāmaṇi (The Jewel of Thought on the Means of Valid Knowledge), is the basic text for all later developments. The logicians of this school were primarily interested in defining their terms and concepts related to non-binary logical categories....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Gaudapada

Gauḍapāda (Sanskrit: गौडपाद; fl.c. 6th century CE), also referred as Gauḍapādācārya (“Gauḍapāda the Teacher”), was an early medieval era Hindu philosopher and scholar of the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. While details of his biography are uncertain, his ideas inspired others such as Adi Shankara who called him a Paramaguru (highest teacher). audapada was the author or compiler of the Māṇḍukya Kārikā, also known as Gaudapada Karika. The text consists of four chapters (also called four books), of which Chapter Four uses Buddhist terminology thereby showing it was influenced by Buddhism....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Gorakshanath

Gorakhnath (also known as Goraksanath, c. early 11th century) was a Hindu yogi, saint who was the influential founder of the Nath Hindu monastic movement in India and Nepal He is considered one of the two notable disciples of Matsyendranath. His followers are found in India at the place known as Garbhagiri which is in Ahmednagar in the state of Maharashtra. These followers are called yogis, Gorakhnathi, Darshani or Kanphata....

December 26, 2021 · 2 min · TheAum

Gotama

The Nyāya Sūtras is an ancient Indian Sanskrit text composed by Akṣapāda Gautama, and the foundational text of the Nyaya school of Hindu philosophy. The date when the text was composed, and the biography of its author is unknown, but variously estimated between 6th-century BCE and 2nd-century CE. The text may have been composed by more than one author, over a period of time. The text consists of five books, with two chapters in each book, with a cumulative total of 528 aphoristic sutras, about rules of reason, logic, epistemology and metaphysics....

December 26, 2021 · 2 min · TheAum

Haridasa Thakur

Haridasa Thakur (IAST Haridāsa) (born 1451 or 1450) was a prominent Vaishnava saint known for being instrumental in the initial propagation of the Hare Krishna movement. He is considered to be the most famous convert of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, apart from Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami. His story of integrity and unflinching faith in the face of extreme adversity is told in Chaitanya Charitamrita, Antya lila. It is believed that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself designated Haridasa as nāmācarya, meaning the ’teacher of the Name’....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Jagannatha Dasa

Jagannatha Dasa (Kannada: ಜಗನ್ನಾಥ ದಾಸ) (1728–1809), a native of Manvi town in the Raichur district, Karnataka state, India,is a disciple of Madhvacharya and is considered one of the notable Haridasa of Dvaita Vedanta of Madhva (“devotee of the Hindu god Vishnu”) saint-poets of the Kannada language. Apart from authoring numerous well-known devotional songs that propagate the Vaishnava bhakti (“faith”) of Dvaita Vedanta of Madhvacharya, Jagannatha Dasa wrote the Harikathamritasara in the native shatpadi (six-line verse) metre and Tattva suvali in the native tripadi (three-line verse) metre....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum