Shiva & Nothingness

Shiva means nothing; nothing from which everything was created; created and manifested to be adorned and respected. Observers cannot exist when the whole world is in non-duality because all is one; no distinction between observers and observed would be possible. Therefore to satisfy the urge for an observer, Shakti or energy manifests itself as consciousness. Consciousness, the manifested gives us the ability to perceive and experience. Religion originates from our perception as a medium to bring in morality and humanity and helps us experience reality. We emerge from nothingness and go back to nothingness

Growth rings in tropical trees : role of functional traits, environment, and phylogeny

Acknowledgments Financial support of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (USR 3330), France, and from the Rufford Small Grants Foundation (UK) is acknowledged. We thank the private farmers and coffee plantation companies of Kodagu for providing permissions and logistical support for this project. We are grateful to N. Barathan for assistance with slide preparation and data entry, S. Aravajy for botanical assistance, S. Prasad and G. Orukaimoni for technical inputs, and A. Prathap, S. Shiva, B. Saravana, and P. Shiva for field assistance. The corresponding editor and three anonymous reviewers provided insightful comments that improved the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

The Impact of Globalization on Women: Testing Vandana Shiva’s Critique of Development

Vandana Shiva argues that through the masculinization of agriculture globalization has turned nature and women into passive fields for sowing. Shiva’s critique that international trade, and globalization more generally, has undermined the social and economic position of women in less developed countries provides a wealth of testable hypotheses. For example, Shiva’s argument implies that gender earnings inequality is higher in countries that are more integrated into the world economy, ceteris paribus. After summarizing her argument, we test this hypothesis through cross-sectional regression analysis.Gender Earnings Inequality; Vandana Shiva; Kuznets Curve

Principles of Siva in Thirumanthiram

Thirumoolar has the principle that 'There is One Race and One God'. He has accepted Lord Shiva as the great deity in his Thirumanthiram. When we say the greatness of Shiva, it is said that 'Shiva is the one who directs the world just as life fits into the body and directs the body', therefore, Shiva is the life of the world. He who has many worlds as a body, he is the one God of all the worlds. Thirumanthiram describes this as "One who has seen it and a Deity for the World". Thirumanthiram has used many mythological stories here and there to make people aware of many rare truths. Among them, this article is to examine the nature of Eesan in the Thirumanthiram, which depicts the deeds and grace of Lord Shiva

Shekhizhar about Shiva Worship

Saivism had spread all around the world in ancient times. Evidence of Shiva worship has also been found in the Hindus Valley Civilization. There are literary references to Shiva even in the Sangam period. Shiva has been linked with the metaphysical philosophy. In the seventh century A.D, Saivism had a revival and spread throughout Tamil Nadu. The Nayanmars spread the Saivism throughout Tamil Nadu. Their history was made into a great epic called Periyapuranam by Shekhizhar. This article examines the tradition of Shiva worship through Shekhizhar’s works

The Introduction of a Gene Encoding a Novel Peptide Into Plants to Increase Plant Bacterial Resistance.

A 38 amino acid long peptide, Shiva-1, was designed and chemically synthesized in our laboratory. Shiva-1 has only 46% amino acid homology with the naturally occurring lytic peptide from Hyalophora cecropia, known as Cecropin B. However, hydrophobic properties and charge density of the natural molecule were conserved at 100% in the synthetic peptide. This novel peptide was shown to be capable of killing a number of different species of plant pathogenic bacteria at nanomolar concentrations. Comparative studies show that Shiva-1 is more effective in this bacteriolytic activity than Cecropin B. The gene for Shiva-1 was chemically synthesized and cloned into the binary vector Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA4404/pBI121 under the control of a wound-inducible plant promoter. Tobacco leaf discs were transformed using this binary system containing the gene encoding Shiva-1 and transgenic plants were obtained. These plants were shown to be kanamycin-resistant and displayed $\beta$-glucoronidase activity indicating effective plant transformation. Southern blots confirmed the presence of a single copy Shiva-1 gene integrated into the genomes of individual transgenic plants. Southern analyses also showed stable inheritance of the Shiva-1 gene. Northern analyses verified that the expression of the gene could be triggered by mechanical and pathogen-induced wounding. Northern blots also showed that a mRNA with the expected size of Shiva-1 transcript hybridized to the Shiva-1 probe. Western blots indicated the presence of a distinct band hybridizing to antisera raised against Shiva-1. R1 plants from self-crossed mother transgenic plants demonstrated a 3:1 segregation pattern for kanamycin resistance gene. Plant bacterial challenge suggested that the R1 transgenic plants exhibit delayed symptoms, reduced disease severity and mortality after infection with Pseudomonas solenacearum, when compared to control plants

Architectural and Religious Study on Signifier of Shiva-Buddhist in Jago Temple

Shiva-Buddhist is a phenomenon which is appeared during the Singhasari-Majapahit period. It can be seen from the signifier of Jago temple, Malang. The element of the signifier can be seen from the substance of the related manuscript. Based on the form of architecture, Jago Temple shows the paralellism of Shiva-Buddhist. In addition, the description of the relief is useful to explore the paralellism. The accompanying artifacts reinforce the hypothesis of Shiva-Buddhist pararellismin the period ofSinghasari-Majapahit. Keywords : Shiva-Buddhism, paralellism, signifier

Weeds in Her Curly Hair

“I need a dagger,” Shiva says, “double-edged…and razor-sharp.” The blacksmith turns from his furnace and stares at him in surprise. What the hell is a renowned writer doing here? he thinks as he stands up and walks towards Shiva

Worship of Shiva in Tamil Tradition

The worship of Lord Shiva is very ancient in Tamil Nadu. The old temples were renovated. The methods of worship were modified to make the minds of the people happy. The devotees began to serve in the temples. People engaged themselves in the service of sweeping and cleaning the temple, garlanding it, setting up a garden, etc. In the temples, they sang the Thevara Pathigam (The first seven of the twelve hymns chanted on the Saiva Deity Lord Shiva). The practice of singing and worshipping the Lord began. Lord Shiva has been worshipped by the people in a very special way from the time of the kings till date. This article is intended to explore the Worship, Ceremonies, Fasting, and Greatness of Sacred Ash (Thiruneeru), the dances of Lord Shiva, and the specialties of the temple