Author: Nivedita Rai

Categories
Festivals

Guru Purnima: History, Significance, Celebration & Culture

Gurus or teachers are a house full of enlightenment and gratefulness. From showing the paths to a bright future, to contributing in what we are today, they have always been a very significant part of our lives. Bowing to them today, bowing to their dedication and solemnity today on this auspicious occasion of Guru Purnima, we pay gratitude to all the Gurus in our life.

Talking about Indian Traditions, one must know that Gurus in our cultures are akin to gods. So let us know what exactly is Guru Purnima and why and how do we celebrate it.

About Guru Purnima

  • Guru Purnima also known as Vyas Purnima is celebrated on the full moon day of Ashadh month.
  • The Purnima tithi this year starts at 10:45 am on July 23 and ends at 08:08 pm on July 24.
  • It is also named as Vyas Purnima , after the name of famous hindu teacher and scholar Ved Vyas. According to the mythology, this day commemorates as his birthday.
  • The word GURU originates from Sanskrit which literally means ‘the one who frees us of ignorance.
guru shishya
https://in.pinterest.com/Sandeep_Narain/happy-guru-purnima-2019/

History of Guru Purnima

  • Legends say that Ved Vyas structured the four Vedas, composed the epic of the Mahabharata, created the foundation for the many Puranas and the day of Guru Purnima is to honor him.
  • Some also say that Guru Purnima represents the date on which Lord Shiva as the Adi Guru taught the seven rishis who were the seers of the Vedas.
  • In some parts, Buddhists celebrate this day as Buddha Purnima too as it is believed that Lord Buddha was said to have delivered his first sermon on this day at Sarnath, reflecting the power of this sacred time.

How to celebrate Guru Purnima

  • On this day people worship the gods who are our ultimate teachers in life.
  • It has also been seen that people associate importance of Vishnu pooja with Guru Purnima.
  • The thousand names of Lord Vishnu also known as Vishnu Sahatranam should be recited on this day.
  • The day is celebrated with full vigor and auspiciousness of thanking the lords and the Gurus.

Fasting and food traditions on Guru Purnima

  • Many people fast on this occasion. They refrain from eating salt, rice, heavy foods such as non-vegetarian dishes and other meals made of cereals.
  • They only eat yogurt and fruit mostly.
  • People break their fast after performing puja and other rituals in the evening.
  • In most houses a feast of delicious Indian delicacies like poori, choley, halwa and other exuberant sweets are prepared and enjoyed.
https://www.funfoodfrolic.com/best-indian-thali-meals-festivals/

Significance of Guru Purnima

Guru Purnima is being celebrated since ancient times as to feel grateful to have a guru, A teacher in one’s life. We celebrate this day in the remembrance of the efforts of all those who work on us to make us a better human being , to whom we can always look up to, to those who teach us not just to jump the obstacle but to face and overcome it. The significance of a Guru is more than words.

We say here in our culture that a teacher is equivalent to god and after mother and father he/she is the most important person. I feel that’s nowhere wrong. Our teachers, gurus are the people who teach us to face the real life without being biased. They lead us to great ways and we can never be thankful enough. Here’s wishing our guides, our mentors a very happy Guru Purnima.

Categories
Featured

International Chess Day special: Did you know about this chess club in Udaipur?

They say chess is a game of intellect and intelligence. Rightfully said!

Chess is a game of imagination and strategy. Absolutely!

It’s a game that provides an order, wit and growth in one’s life. In fact, there have been studies which support the claim that chess improves an individual’s organizational and analytical skills. The game of chess also helps in making new wonderful habits of planning and making careful and decisive moves in life and most importantly it teaches patients.  It teaches that if we have taken the step forward, it’s irreversible but, for future we can obviously improvise and do better than the last move.

Our lakecity is not at all in lack of champions and their stories and continuing to this tradition Chess in lakecity club has contributed in making the list of achievements a longer one.

About Chess in lakecity

  • Chess in lakecity is a group of chess enthusiast players of Udaipur.
  • Chess in lakecity was established in the year 2008 by Mr. Rajeev Bhardwaj, President, Chess in lakecity and the core team of the club.
  • It is an established organization that has helped in expansion and growth of chess in Udaipur from past 15 -16 years.
  • From then onwards it has been a coaching as well as a tournament and organizing platform for chess.
  • Chess in lakecity has organized many grand level international FIDE rated chess tournaments.

Latest achievements of Chess in lakecity:

  • In September 2019, Chess in lakecity organized 1st Lakecity Grand Master International Chess Tournament. Players from 11 different countries participated. There were total 204 international FIDE rated players among all participants and 223 players from 11 Federations i.e. BAN, CHI, EGY, IND, MDV, NEP, RUS, SGP, SRI, SVK, USA.
  • In these past few years the club has managed to organize more than 150 tournaments like local and state open, including 16-17 FIDE rated international tournament.
  • Due to such steps and efforts of the club, there are 150+ FIDE rated players in our city today and the club has helped in providing the deserving platforms for all these extraordinary players.

The vision of this club is to expand the knowledge of chess in our very own city and somewhere down the line they have accomplished a part of their vision. The foresightedness for the chess talents in our city by this club has proven to be a great endeavor in spreading the word about the game in the city of lakes.

Today on the occasion of International Chess Day we wish all the chess lovers out there, tons of luck and wisdom.

For further inquiries contact Chess in lakecity @ +91-9413045606

Address: Mahaveer Chessman Public School, Lakhara Chowk, Udaipur-313001 (Raj.)

Categories
Featured

A startup from Udaipur created a Covid-19 vaccine slots finder chatbot

The world’s changing, daily. As are we, updating ourselves and everything around us. It was not that long when we started to use applications on our smartphones and its not been that long too when we’ve started to use chatbots.

Due to artificial intelligence, technological advancements and other technical evolution the human race is definitely heading forward. Contributing to this is a startup by a few youngsters from Udaipur, where they have started an initiative known as United Against Virus to fight against the deadly coronavirus in a very different yet in a simple and subtle way.

Under the Initiative United Against Virus, their experienced team has created a chatbot.

About the chatbot

  • The chatbot helps people to find slots available at the nearest vaccination center without the hassle of logging in or following any long OTP process.
  • It’s a bilingual chatbot that supports both Hindi and English language.
  • The chatbot is available on Whatsapp, Facebook messenger and Telegram.

How to use the chatbot

The chatbot works in the following easy steps:

  • Step 1: Click on any of the below mentioned links according to your choice of platform.
    Whatsapp: https://bit.ly/unitedagainstviruswhatsapp
    Facebook Messenger: https://bit.ly/unitedagainstvirusfb
    Telegram: https://bit.ly/unitedagainstvirustelegram
  • Step 2: Send a Hi.
  • Step 3: A language selection box will appear to select a language from hindi or english. Enter the language you’re comfortable with.
  • Step 4: After the language selection, another box will appear that will ask you to enter either the district you live in or the pin code of your area. Select from any of the given options.
  1. After this small process you can get all the slot details i.e.
  • Where is the vaccination center
  • Available slots
  • Age group of the vaccination drive
  • Charges (if any)
  • Which vaccine is available
  • Time band of the available slots

 

The end goal of the chatbot is to increase the rate of vaccination by motivating people to get vaccinated. The process of logging in and generating OTPs are very time consuming, so this chatbot is a step for easing the ways out for the general masses. Also, the chatbot is free of cost to use so that more and more people can find the required details and get vaccinated and at the end all of us together, United can defeat the virus.

For more details visit: https://bit.ly/unitedagainstvirus

Categories
Festivals

आइए जानते है क्या है चातुर्मास?

रंगों और त्योहारों की भूमि भारत में त्योहारों का एक और मौसम दस्तक देने वाला है।  

जैसे-जैसे बारिश का मौसम आ रहा है, वैसे ही आ रहा है “चातुर्मास” यानि “चौमासा” जिसका अर्थ है चार बहुत ही पवित्र महीने। हमारी संस्कृति में इन चार महीनों का विशेष महत्व है।प्रत्येक व्यक्ति और धर्म अपनी संस्कृति के अनुसार धार्मिक संस्कार और अनुष्ठान करते हैं लेकिन अंत में हम सभी इन चार महीनों को एक साथ मनाते हैं।

आइए जानते हैं चातुर्मास के बारे में

  1. आषाढ़ शुक्ल एकादशी से लेकर कार्तिक शुक्ल एकादशी या आषाढ़ पूर्णिमा तक के समय को चातुर्मास कहा जाता है.
  2. यह देवशयनी एकादशी (आषाढ़ी एकादशी) से शुरू होती है और प्रबोधनी एकादशी के साथ समाप्त होती है जिसे देव उठानी एकादशी भी कहा जाता है।
  3. इस साल चातुर्मास 20 जुलाई 2021 से शुरू होकर 14 नवंबर 2021 तक खत्म होगा और यह इस बार 118 दिनों का होगा।
  4. धार्मिक मान्यताओं के अनुसार, भगवान विष्णु और अन्य देवता इन चार महीनों के लिए विश्राम की स्थिति में प्रवेश करते हैं।
  5. इन चार महीनों के लिए विवाह या गृहप्रवेश आदि मांगलिक कार्यों पर प्रतिबंध रहता है।
  6. धार्मिक अनुष्ठान और दूसरे धार्मिक संस्कार जैसे उपवास, पवित्र नदी में स्नान, तपस्या आदि किए जाते हैं।
  7. साथ ही चातुर्मास का पालन करने वाले आमतौर पर गुड़, दुग्ध उत्पाद, मसालेदार भोजन, पत्तेदार सब्जियां, पान, सुपारी और मांस का सेवन नहीं करते हैं। इन महीनों के दौरान शराब और तंबाकू का सेवन भी सख्त वर्जित है।

भोजन के संबंध में कोई सख्त नियम नहीं हैं। यह हर एक व्यक्ति पर निर्भर करता है कि वह चातुर्मास व्रत उपवास या का पालन कैसे करना चाहता है।

चातुर्मास के चार महीने 

चातुर्मास में चार पवित्र महीने होते हैं जिन्हें सावन, भाद्रपद, अश्विन और कार्तिक के नाम से जाना जाता है। आइये जानते है कुछ उनके बारे में। 

  1. चातुर्मास का पहला महीना सावन होता है। यह महीना भगवान विष्णु को समर्पित है।
  2. दूसरा मास भाद्रपद होता है। यह महीना त्योहारों से भरा होता है। इसी महीने में गणेश चतुर्थी और कृष्ण जन्माष्टमी का पर्व भी आता है।
  3. चातुर्मास का तीसरा महीना होता है अश्विन। इस महीने में नवरात्रि और दशहरा मनाया जाता है। 
  4. चातुर्मास का चौथा और अंतिम महीना कार्तिक होता है। इस महीने में दिवाली का त्योहार मनाया जाता है। इस महीने में देवउठनी एकादशी भी मनाई जाती है। इसके साथ ही शुभ कार्यों की शुरुआत हो जाती है। 

चातुर्मास 2021 में आने वाले त्यौहार –

जुलाई 2021

  • 24 जुलाई: गुरु पूर्णिमा (वेद व्यास जयंती)

अगस्त 2021

  • 08 अगस्त: हरियाली अमावस्या
  • 10 अगस्त: सिंजारा दूज
  • 11 अगस्त: हरियाली तीज
  • 13 अगस्त: नाग पंचमी
  • 22 अगस्त: रक्षाबंधन
  • 25 अगस्त: सातुड़ी तीज
  • 27 अगस्त: चंद्र छठ
  • 30 अगस्त: कृष्ण जन्माष्टमी
  • 31 अगस्त: गोगा नवमी

सितंबर 2021

  • 03 सितंबर: गोवत्स द्वादशी (बख्श बरस)
  • 09 सितंबर: हरतालिका तीज
  • 10 सितंबर: गणेश चतुर्थी
  • 11 सितंबर: ऋषि पंचमी, जैन सावंतसारी पंचमी
  • 12 सितंबर: हल छठ, बलराम जयंती
  • 16 सितंबर: तेजा दशमी
  • 17 सितंबर: डोल ग्यारस
  • 19 सितंबर: अनंत चतुर्दशी
  • 20 सितंबर: श्राद्ध आरंभ

अक्टूबर 2021

  • 06 अक्टूबर: सर्व पितृ मोक्ष अमावस्या
  • 07 अक्टूबर: शारदीय नवरात्र आरंभ
  • 13 अक्टूबर: दुर्गा अष्टमी
  • 14 अक्टूबर: महानवमी
  • 15 अक्टूबर: विजयादशमी (दशहरा)
  • 20 अक्टूबर: शरद पूर्णिमा
  • 24 अक्टूबर: कारव चतुर्थी

नवंबर 2021

  • 2 नवंबर: धनतेरस
  • 3 नवंबर: रूप चतुर्दशी
  • 4 नवंबर : दिवाली पूजन
  • 5 नवंबर: गोवर्धन पूजा, अन्नकूट महोत्सव
  • 6 नवंबर: भाई दूज
  • 10 नवंबर: सूर्य छठ (सूर्य जयंती)
  • 11 नवंबर: गोपाष्टमी
  • 15 नवंबर: देवउठनी एकादशी

हमारा देश एक बहु-सांस्कृतिक देश है। इन चार पवित्र महीनों को अलग-अलग क्षेत्रों में अलग-अलग तरीके से मनाया जाता है। चातुर्मास उत्सव, उत्सवों और खुशियों की एक नई शुरुआत है। यही प्रार्थना है की चातुर्मास का महीना हमारे जीवन में सकारात्मकता और रोशनी लेकर आए।