Facts of Human Civilizations.

By Swami Satyananda Saraswati.   The ashram culture is a very old tradition. We know about the ashrams in Bharat, ancient Greece, the Essene communities of Palestine. During the Atlantis civilisation we also have references to ashram life. Ashram is a place where people come from every walk of life and live for some time without having any involvement or attachment. There is no caste, colour or sex barrier. In the olden days, kings and ordinary farmers lived together in the ashrams. The ashram life was designed in such a way that everybody automatically participated in the functions, and there was so much co-operation, co-ordination and harmony. The ashram food is different to what we take in our ordinary day to day life. That helps the people to purify their physical bodies. All day in the ashram the aspirants are exposed to physical work, which is very important for spiritual evolution. Intellectual work is a barrier to spiritual life, but physical work relaxes tensions

The Temple has references in Epics and Puranas. Srimad Bhagavatha says that Balarama visited this Temple, bathed in Padmatheertham and made several offerings. Nammalwar, 9th century poet and one among the 12 Vaishnavite saints of the Alvar tradition, has composed ten hymns in praise of Lord Padmanabha. On the 950th year of Kali Yuga a reinstallation of the idol was done. In the 960th Kali Yuga year King Kotha Marthandan built the Abhisravana Mandapam. It was in the year 1729 that the great ruler Marthanda Varma became the king of Travancore. He took the steps to renovate the Temple. In 1730 the idol was again moved to ‘Balalaya’ prior to the renovation and reconstruction of the sanctum sanctorum. It took two years for completion. The old wooden idol was replaced by the one that we see today. Made of highly complex amalgam known as Katusarkarayogam, it contains 12008 Salagrams within it. Most of what is seen today within the walls of the temple were constructed. It is recorded t

By David Frawley [Pandit Vamadeva Shastri] This article shows how the Proto-European Aryans, like the Celts, were originally a Vedic people called the Danavas or Sudanavas (good Danavas) connected to Vedic kings, sages and yogis. It is adapated from Frawley’s Rig Veda and the History of India. Many ancient European peoples, particularly the Celts and Germans, regarded themselves as children of Danu, with Danu meaning the Mother Goddess, who was also, like Sarasvati in the Rig Veda, a river Goddess. The Celts called themselves "Tuatha De Danaan", while the Germans had a similar name. Ancient European river names like the Danube and various rivers called Don in Russia, Scotland, England and France reflect this, as do place names like Den-mark (Danava-Marga), to mention but a few. The Danube which flows to the Black Sea is their most important river and could reflect their eastern origins. In fact, the term Danu or Danava (the plural of Danu) appears to form the subst

by Druuis Belenios Ategnatos ,  Aballonas, PO Box 120149, Staten Island NY 10312- 0149 As humanity begins to break free of the Dark Age caused by Christian Europe’s conquest (military, political and cultural) of much of the world, it becomes obvious that the history taught by their culture leaves much to be desired. This includes the history of Europe itself which also had its own Christian invasion, conquest and colonization. Finally, scholars within Western culture are beginning to recognize what the scholars and other leaders of traditional societies have been saying all along, for many centuries. I am going to briefly describe some of the latest findings regarding Indo-European culture. Some of this is theoretical. Some of it is proven to exacting standards. In the interest of brevity, I shall not attribute the following information to the proper academic form. Much of the material used is yet to be published, and is cutting-edge, but should become available soon. My

By PETER BERRESFORD ELLIS , 30 GRESLEY ROAD, LONDON, N19 3JZ, ENGLAND. Peter Berresford Ellis is one of the foremost living authorities on the Celts and author of many books on the subject, including "Celt and Roman," "Celt and Greek," "Dictionary of Celtic Mythology" and "Celtic Women." The Celtic people spread from their homeland in what is now Germany across Europe in the first millennium bce. Iron tools and weapons rendered them superior to their neighbors. They were also skilled farmers, road builders, traders and inventors of a fast two-wheeled chariot. They declined in the face of Roman, Germanic and Slavic ascendency by the second centuries bce. Here Peter Berresford Ellis, one of Europe's foremost experts of the Celts, explains how modern research has revealed the amazing similarities between ancient Celt and Vedic culture. The Celt's priestly caste, the Druids, has become a part of modern folklore. Their identity i