stackexchange: What does the demon kali staying in gold mean?

 since stackexchange is becoming like reddit and wikipedia where unknown , behind the mask moderators run these sites like dictatorship, I have decided to add answers here.

I think you are taking it in the wrong direction. Many of hindu texts have sub layered meanings.So the parikshit permits him to stay only in places where there is

1. prostituion
2. gold (riches, display of riches)
3. Alcohol (intoxicants which will affect your moral judgement)
4. Gambling

As you might have already figured out from the story, kali is non physical in nature and omnipresent. He can not only be present in many places at once but also many kalpas at once. So for easier understanding, think of him as the biggest influencer of immorality. Wherever these 4 things are there, there is a high chance that, the place and the people in it are immoral, unethical.

Here are the same 4 things in islam and how it is restricted.

Prostitution is prohibited in Islam. It is considered a form of zina, or adultery, which is a major sin. The Quran states that "those who commit zina, male or female, flog each of them with one hundred stripes" (Quran 24:2).

Gold is not prohibited in Islam. However, there are some restrictions on how it can be worn and used. For example, men are not allowed to wear gold jewelry, and women should not wear gold jewelry that is excessive or ostentatious. In hinduism you will see that all our deities wear gold extensively, our women own more gold than many nations combined. This excessive or ostentatious affection to gold (riches, money) & vulgar display of it is mainly talking about men since historically all these 4 are always or at least mostly, done by men.

Alcohol is prohibited in Islam. It is considered to be a form of intoxicant, which is harmful to the body and the mind. The Quran states that "O you who believe! Intoxicants and gambling are an abomination of Satan's handiwork. So avoid them that you may prosper" (Quran 2:219).

Gambling is prohibited in Islam. It is considered to be a form of maysir, which is a game of chance. The Quran states that "O you who believe! Intoxicants and gambling are an abomination of Satan's handiwork. So avoid them that you may prosper" (Quran 2:219).

So the text or the story is trying to tell the reader one should be extremely careful in dealnig with those 4 things since it is easy to use all of these to immoralize any one. Those who are surrounded by these 4 or involved in these 4 are most likely immoral, unethical. The word is most likely. It is highly unlikely that someone who is involved in all these 4 are controlled his senses and he is not in control of his senses, those who are not in control of their senses are most likely unethical, immoral since it takes great characteristic conviction to stay moral and ethical. TLDR, Be wary of people, group or location who are involved in these 4. Here alcohol does not mean just alcohol, it represents any mood altering substance where you lose control of your senses, leading to mental, physical deterioration. Ex: mood altering drugs, intoxicant chemicals. From time immemorial gold has been the universal currency. Untill nixon even USD was backed by gold. So here gold represents money. Here scripture cautions you about those who indulge in display of money, richness, lavishness to gain societal acceptance or admiration. Usually those with no impressive social achievements, personality or character of their own use materialism to impress others. You all know about gambling and mahabharata yudh. There is a famous saying in las vegas (the gambling capital of the world), in gambling the house always wins. Prostitution is the reason why a lot of women trafficking, child trafficking, violence against women & children happens. Also prostitution has been historically used to lure & trap powerfull key persons to control them or even deteriorate their mental and physical health.

stackexchange: Why do many Hindus eat meat and fish? Eating meat and fish directly violates the principle of Ahimsa

since stackexchange is becoming like reddit and wikipedia where unknown , behind the mask moderators run these sites like dictatorship, I have decided to add answers here.

The meaning of ahimsa today unfortunately has been equated to non violence due to the lack of equivalent word in english. Just like atma is not sould, ahimsa is not non violence. It is a state of being. Meta is discouraged and not forbidden in hinduism. Today unfortunately meat has been associated with health and fitness.

Let us have a look at the animals in the jungle. Elephant - biggest animal, most powerful animal, heaviest animal Rhino, hippopotamus, wild buffalo - big, powerful, heavy deer - fastest animal giraffe, camel - tallest animal tortoise - lenghty life horse - speed, vigor donkey - most hardworking

Many of these vegetarian animals (elephant, rhino, hippopotamus, wild ox, wild bull) can easily defeat any tiger, lion. In fact no lion or tiger ever dare to do a one on one with any of them.

You will notice that all meat eating animals are violent in nature, smaller in size compared to their vegetarian co habitants. These are part of nature to keep the balance. Without these predators, most vegetation will be gone in the jungle, the vegetarian animals will over multiply and over breed and run out of food.

We have 4 varnas.

scholar

knight

trader

labor.

It is the nature of knight to have the qualities of a predator and thus meat was never forbidden for knights (xatriya). There is a saying that you are what you eat. If you eat tiger's food, you will have the characters of a tiger. If you eat the food of a horse (oats, grains, jowar), you will have the characters of a horse (lean, ripped, fast).

Labor class is another one. Meat was never forbidden or discouraged to those whose work involved meat, leather, fishing (collecting perls, fish oil for medicine) etc., It would make much sense for a fishermen to eat the oyster after collectign perls than throwing it out and wasting it. Someone who does not have farming land or cattle to farm the land, it is unwise and inhuman to even advice him not to eat meat or fish.

So as you see in hinduism, historically meat was for less fortunate or poor who cannot afford to have a farm, farming animals etc., In many countries even today vegetarian meal and ingredients are rarer and costlier than meat. Only a small portion of the geography produces spices today needed for a good vegetarian course meal.

It is more difficult for a meat eater to pursue a path of spirituality, awakening or intelligence and thus 2 of the varnas (scholar/brahmin, trader/vysya) where these characteristics are very necessary, meat was forbidden for them as a form of diet.

A diet however does not include ritualistic slaughter. It is like, I do not eat sweet but I will take a piece of cake when it is the birthday of my children or siblings. It was more of a ritual than a practise.

So in short, meat was discouraged for all but allowed for 2 varnas (knights, labors). vegetarian was the prescribed & recommended diet for scholars and vysyas.

stackexchange: Are shudras and women not allowed to chant Aum i.e Pranava?

since stackexchange is becoming like reddit and wikipedia where unknown , behind the mask moderators run these sites like dictatorship, I have decided to add answers here.

Chanting and reading are different. Vedic Chanting has two parts - Tone and Recitation (Patha). It further has four different tones - Udatta, Anudaatta, Svarita and Deergha Svarita. Pathas are the styles of hymnal recitation.

So unless your are are well skilled in these and your pronouncination, enunciation is accurate, you are not supposed to chant. Chanting the same mantras in different way produces different effects, different vibrations. Many a times a slight difference in spacing, intonation, pronounciation, enunciation produces different meanings. So unless you are classically trained to chant these, one shall avoid it but can read them with sound without making a sound, silently.

Ex: Many in north india swap va & ba. Ravindranath tagore becomes rabindranath tagore.

Many in north india also swap ra & da. Bada aadmi ( in hindi: big man) may become bara aadmi while pronounciation.

some sounds done exist in some region and language. ಳ್ sound exists in kannada but not in tamil.

ja and ya interchange again in spanish and sometimes in sanskrit too. om namah shivaya becomes om namah shivaja. You should know when and how it changes and when it doesnt.You should know sandhis to understand this.

So unless you are certain that you dont have vaak dosha (speech impedement, speech inaccuracy in sounds, etc.,).

Some also have hereditory speech issue as below.

Also many tend to speek or pronunce words from one side of the mouth, ideally for every sound, your tongue should be using both (left and right) side of the mouth equally and proportionally.

How many bite our tongue when we pronounce tha (as in tantric)? Very few. Many people also have hissing sound when they speak, (especially with s, sha, shha) sounds, might be because of gap in their teeth. Anyone can sing prayers. Anyone can read mantras.

Chanting is restricted to those who are classically trained to do so without the above mentioned issues.

stackexchange: If moksha is true then will prahlad take rebirth in next cycle of four yug for narsingh avtar of shri hari?

since stackexchange is becoming like reddit and wikipedia where unknown , behind the mask moderators run these sites like dictatorship, I have decided to add answers here.

 Moksha is restricted to one kalpa. In another kalpa, there will be another prahlad but it may not be the same prahlad. Think of prahlad as a character of batman. Many have played batman, same story with few details changed everytime but the main storyline stays the same, an orphan kid, how his parents died, what he ends up becoming, what kind of villains he faces. So here prahlad is a character, a different soul may take that role. You might notice that you will find few contradictory incidents in puranas but the main story stays the same, however all those contradictions are true. Each contradictory version took place in a different kalpa. You might have also heard about bhavishya purana. Bhavishya purana is actually boothkal purana, it is talking about what happened in kali yuga of the last kalpa, it is not talking about the kali yuga of this kalpa. So yes, prahlad will be born in the new kalpa, the role will be played by a different soul. Since in hinduism each soul is a piece of the brahman itself, it is highly unlikely that same piece of the brahman will take the same role (prahlad) in every kalpa.

stackexchange: Why does Skanda Purana say to cut off the tongue of a low-caste person who reads the Vedas?

 Since stackexchange is becoming like reddit and wikipedia where unknown , behind the mask moderators run these sites like dictatorship, I have decided to add answers here. 

valmiki was a hunter, visvamitra was a xatriya (king). However exceptions do not make or break the rule.
In modern age what is the punishment for someone practicing medicine without a medicine degree and a license?
What is the punishment for someone practising law without passing the bar exam and getting a license?
They will face prison.
So someone who will study and chant vedas, his training began when he is a child. He will go through an initiation process and then his training starts which not only involves, memorization, pronounciatioin etc., but also a strict diet, strict daily routine of when he will up, how will he bathe, what should he eat, what will he wear, there are more restrictions and abstinence prescribed to this trainee than any modern day professions.
A shudra aka laborer start their family trade from a very young age too which would restrict them to follow any of the dietory prescriptions of a vedic student like strict vegetarian diet, getting up early in the morning, take cold bath in the river everyday, not to touch or consume tamasic food (alcohol, intoxicants, meat etc.,). Now a shudra whose livelihood is leather, fish, meat or makeing/selling alcohol, you cant expect him to follow all these restrictions, his life is already hard.
I would like to think this as a discount of burden on shudras via reverse psychology. Let me give you an example. In olden days menstruating women were forbidden to be inside the house or enter the kitchen or touch anything inside the house. It was 5 days a month. This was a clever way of giving 5 days a month holiday to the women of the house who works all day, taking care of the house and family members. If you ask everyone to give her 5 holidays a month during her painful days, most wouldnt follow, but if you make it part of the culture or religion or attach faith to it, then it is automatically enforced.
Once again Vedic chanting was forbidden for untrained ( in this case shudras) but not reading.
ex: shankaracharya and chandala story.
As per vedas, shudras are compared to the legs of the purusha aka brahman. All 3 varnas (brahmin, xatriya, vysa) touch their head to the legs/feet of the deity, so it is not demeaning. Why legs? It is to indicate that the entire weight of the society is on shudras and it is they who carry the society (body) forward. How fair it is to expect them to also study vedas, study of vedas is a life long process, which starts at a very young age, as a child. So, If shudras were also made to study vedas, that society would be slow and moves no where. Imagine the entire blue collar, manufacturing and labor class in every country is expected to have a PHD in philosophy and religion apart from doing their work. Such a society will be inefficient and least developed. There will be more thinkers and no doers.
This is also why the accountability, punishment are inversly proportional to the weight of the sociey a varna carries.
shudra carries the most weight. hence is punishment is the least. brahmin, even though guides other varnas, he carries the least burden, hence highest level of punishment and accountability. Legs carry the most weight of the body, head carries almost no weight of the body (unless you have too much of long matted hair).
If I am a shudra who doe shard labor everyday, may be doing leather work and metal work, I will be more than glad If I am not asked or expected to know any scriptures, in fact I would enjoy a ban on me, just a like a village kid who loves grazing his sheep or his cattle but hates to go to school. Who hasnt enjoyed suspension in school, it is like unwanted holiday.
Let us not forget that fact that all our amazing temples with astrological significance, symmitry, geometry which isnt even possible today to be made by machines; was all the work of shudras.
In modern day you can compare this to those who go to trade school (blue collar jobs training), medical degree, engineering as shudras; those who study theoretical physica, string theory, psychology, quantum physics as brahmins.
If I am a plumber and I had to plumbing and If I am expected to know quantum physics to do my plumbing job, then I will be pissed. So as a shudra in olden days, as a farmer or a carpenter who breaks his back all day, I will be glad that not only no one expects me to chant vedas but have banned me from chanting it. We have british records stating that rhinoplasty was performed on a soldier by a shudra in india during mughal british conflict. During those days, cutting off nose was seen as a great dishonor. That is also why you see many of hindu status are missing their nose in temples during mughal invasion.