Ganesh

Ganesh's appearance symbolically : his obesity contains the whole universe,his trunk is bent to remove obstacles, and his four arms represent the four categories into which things(e.g.castes,Vedas) can be divided. His companion animal is a bandicoot.'This is illustrative of the several ways in which obstacles can be overcome, to attain religious ends.

Calisas

A poem like Donne's Hymne to God my God, in my sicknesse is a hymn in the sense that it is a song of praise, a song in which the poet calls upon God to cure him of his sickness. It reminds us of Hanumanastaka in which the poet refers to his personal sufferings,but, whereas the Hindi Calisas is an utterly simple poem,Donne's is 'stronglined' and hard.
To be continued.

Calisas

Even the philosophical veneer of the Calisas is traceable to the Vedic hymns, for already in the creation hymn in the last book of the Rgveda appears that tendency to philosophical speculation which has always been characteristic of India. The Calisas is only a song of praise to God or a tutelary deity.A hymn in the West has, however, been used to denote anthem, canticle,trope,sequence, and other religious compositions accompanied by music.
To be continued.

Calisas

The Samaveda alone of all the four Vedas is set to music and, as those familiar with it say,is intended to be sung. The musical form enables one to commit a song to memory with no great effort.
Of the two sections into which the text of the Veda or Samhita is divided,the first is Gana or songs containing 640 mantras,some of which are based on musical notes. Of these, again, there are two sub-divisions:namely, those which are to be sung in villages and those which are meant to be sung only in forests and not in villages.
The second section containing 235 mantras is called Arcika or prayers. Just as the Calisas are addressed to different devas,so are the mantras written in praise of different Aryan gods. The Rgveda alone comprises 1028 hymns,grouped in ten books,in honour of the deities worshipped by the Indo-Aryan tribes.
To be continued.

Calisas

The Calisas are all hymns or religious songs praising God. Just as 18th and 19th centuries were particularly rich periods for the writing and composing of hymns by poets and ecclesiastics in the West, so were these centuries rich for the writing and composing of the Calisas and Aratis by saint-poets in India.
Most English hymns of repute date from 17th to 19th century, their authors being John Keble,NahumTate,Nicholas Brady, John Mason,Neale,Reginald, Heber,Issac Watts,and Charles and John Wesley. Among English-speaking poets of note who have attempted the form one should mention George Herbert, Dryden, Milton, William Blake, William Cowper,Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Tennyson and Christina Rossetti.
Though the Hindi Calisas are of much later origin, the Indian hymnody goes back to the Vedas.
To be continued~ Dr R.C.Prasad

Ethics and. Morals:Intellect or Emotion

In the economy of man the mental nature rests upon the moral, and the education of the intellect divorced from the perfection of the moral and emotional nature is injurious to human progress. The only way for him to train himself morally is to habituate himself to the right emotions, the noblest associations,the best mental, emotional and physical habits....'
The spirit that manifests itself in man... is great and profounder than his intellect....
From management by values~SK Chakraborty