Sanskrit Monier-Williams IAST Dictionary for MS Word and Devanāgarī - IAST converter VBA macro

॥ श्री गणेशाय नमः ॥ श्री गुरुभ्यो नमः ॥ ॥ श्री परमात्माने नमः ॥

Date: 06-Aug-2026

Updated on 07-Aug-2026

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Note: The VBA Macro may be updated in future if bugs are found. Please check for latest version. Incase you find any issues, please report it to indiaspirituality [at] gmail.com.

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Namaste,

I have made an attempt to do proofreading for Sanskrit words using Monier Williams dictionary. 

Sadly it is not possible to have proper spell check in Sanskrit as in case of English as MS Word does not provide either dictionary or proofreading tools. Sanskrit being a complex language and each line has compound words (longer words joined together using sandhi rules to form one big word). 

This attempt is a stop gap solution, something is better than nothing. Installing Hindi Spell Check and Proofreading may be helpful but adding another dictionary may make word heavy giving rise to lagging issues. 

Monier-Williams dictionary contains stem words which are called as Headwords and their meaning which is helpful especially to those who are writing articles or books in English and use Sanskrit Devanāgarī and IAST. In general these are standalone words and not compound words. So spell check will become easy. 

I have managed to create a custom Monier-Williams (MW) Sanskrit Dictionary which has Devanāgarī, IAST and ISO-15919 headwords with meaning.

Custom Dictionary in MS word contains only headwords and not meaning. So it will not show you the meaning along with spell correct options like it shows for English Spell check

In addition, CSV files are also created which contains meaning. They are used in a different tool - MW Sanskrit Spell Check Tool about which I will post it soon. CSV files are not useful for spell check in MS word. A separate file for nasal and anusvāra variants is also created. This file lists the extra words added which are not present in MW dictionary. They are valid words.

The original MW dictionary has some words with nasal variant but not anusvāra variants and vice versa. I have added these variants too. This increased total Headword count to 228,306 words.

For example चन्द्र and चंद्र, अहङ्कार and अहंकार. Their IAST and ISO-15919 variants are also added.

चन्द्र candra exits in MW but not चंद्र caṃdra (anusvāra variant added)

अहंकार ahaṃkāra exits in MW but not अहङ्कार ahaṅkāra (nasal variant added).

Those who wish to understand what are nasal variants can visit the published Google Docs -


Sanskrit Varnamala – A guide for Devanagari to IAST Converter v1-0-0

Direct Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRMD2xZt2ElMttur9B42gH225diNFkg1J60Jz2CW8KVRS60tuxAjKYIycf1YP4CuivS-l-7G7e0YM8x/pub


Details of files

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All three files are line-aligned. Total entries (identical in all three):

228,370

[Devanāgarī]

Base Headwords (MW): 194,078

Nasal Variants Added: 34,292 (4,340 anusvāra→nasal + 29,952 nasal→anusvāra)

Total Entries: 228,370

Approx. File Size: 4.26 MB

[IAST]

Base Headwords (MW): 194,078

Nasal Variants Added: 34,292 (4,340 anusvāra→nasal + 29,952 nasal→anusvāra)

Total Entries: 228,370

Approx. File Size: 4.90 MB

[ISO 15919]

Base Headwords (MW): 194,078

Nasal Variants Added: 34,292 (4,340 anusvāra→nasal + 29,952 nasal→anusvāra)

Total Entries: 228,370

Approx. File Size: 4.93 MB

[CSV files]

MW_Sanskrit_Dictionary_Comb_v13.csv ~25 MB (228,370 rows, 5 columns)

MW_Sanskrit_Nasal_Variants.csv 4.56 MB (34,328 rows, 8 columns)

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There are two ways to check, first inside word as spell checker - IAST / ISO only. Word does not pick up Devanāgarī dictionary file. 

Google Drive Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HxvnEVkO_3cCOPLZc9dhwWARIBYiZQ1c?usp=sharing

Tip: click on the screenshot to see larger screenshot

1) .DIC files for spell check in MS Word

Open folder Word Dic files for MW sanskrit dictionary. Download IAST or ISO files but not both. 

The reason for selecting only one is that MS word for each key stroke checks millions of words as you type. IAST and ISO has many common spelling except letters like ṃ (IAST) and ṁ (ISO), etc 8-10 letters. While IAST is strictly for sanskrit, ISO is common for all Brahmi derived scripts like Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, etc. So they have mapped a few characters that are different than IAST so as to not assign same English letter to more than one Indian Script letter. Hence, it is a waste of memory and may make the word hand or become very slow. Our custom dictionary headword list is itself very long. 

It will not check devanagari, so do not download it. Kept for archival purposes until I find a way to make word search devanāgarī script. One way is to download Hindi spell check from windows / MS word itself. But the confusion is whether it will still check the custom dictionary created by us or not as both Hindi and Sanskrit have similar words.

In Windows 11, add IAST or ISO ḌIC file to MS word either IAST or ISO but not both. Word lags and becomes slow if we add both due to large headword database. If this happens you will have to remove the custom dictionaries.

.dic files are nothing but text files with one word per line. To check the content, simply drag the file to any open browser like Chrome and it will open.

Adding Custom Dictionaries to MS Word 

Sanskrit Proofreading Suite released

Namaste,

On the holy occasion of the Ādi Śankarāchārya jayanti which comes on Vaiśākha Śukla Paṃcamī Tithi  वैशाख शुक्ल पंचमी तिथि, Sanskrit Proofreading Suite v4.0.0 is released. 

Please visit this link - 

Sanskrit Proofreading Tool

( https://www.advaita-vedanta.in/Sanskrit-proof-reading-conversion-tool )

Other standalone tools are also released. Links after the article.

(Click on image for bigger picture)

The file is a single HTML file. It is embedded in the website. It is live tool that can be used.

To download, visit website (the link given above). Click on download button on top and bottom of article on the website. It will take you to Google Drive Folder which has five HTML files. 

Simply download the file, double click it. It will open in the default browser. Start using it. Once loaded it works completely offline.

This tool is was created as a result of solving practical difficulty. 

Many valuable Sanskrit commentaries (such as Yoga Sudhākara by Sadāśiva Brahmendra on Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras) exist only in old scanned books with imperfect OCR. This tool was made to quickly spot typos, spacing errors, and variant readings so scholars and students can focus on study rather than correction. By comparing 2 OCRs, one which is supposedly proofread is treated as source and another is the new copy of same commentary, same text scanned by another OCR or manually typed. This helps spot typing errors.

This suite brings together three practical tools in one place to help you proofread Sanskrit texts and work comfortably with both Devanāgarī and IAST Roman scripts:

It consists of top and bottom windows or sections.

Top Section

Top panel (two + two panes)

Pane 1 - Left pane - Source or reference text. 

Pane 2 - Right pane - Target text to be compared for spell check

Output panes 1 and 2 - Output panes appear only when Compare button is clicked.

Displays text with differently spelled words highlighted. Source (left pane) highlights differently spelled letters in Turquoise with red font and target (right pane) highlights letters in Yellow with red font. 

The tool compares two Sanskrit passages (source vs. target) and instantly highlights every spelling or spacing difference in akshara-level and not word level, meaning in case of भोगि and भोगो it highlights only the differently spelled letters in the word and not the complete word pairs भोगि and भोगो or अहङ्कार and अहंकार and not अहङ्कार and अहंकार

Bottom Section

Bottom panel (three panes):

Pane 1 – Devanāgarī (Dual use in v4.0.0)

Pane 2 – IAST Roman (Dual use in v4.0.0 - drives the spell checker)

Pane 3 – Live comparative spell checker, not a dictionary check (read-only)

In Devanāgarī tool (pane 1) of bottom section, differently spelled words are now copied retaining highlighted differently spelled letters on akshara-level than full highlighting.

In the spell check tool (pane 3), the spelling of IAST Roman is checked from pane 2.

Bottom panes can be used independently for transliteration or for spell check (comparative) of word pairs in IAST Roman.

Please find explanation in brief on how to use this suite.

Steps to use the Suite

1. Compare Sanskrit Text: 

Use Load Sample button to understand the working.

Paste a reference text in left pane on top section, and target text to be proofread in right pane. Clicking Compare button will compare texts and display results in another window. The differently spelled words are highlighted on akshara-level and not word level, meaning that only the differently spelled letters in word are highlighted and not the entire word. The compare button will also trigger a function which copies differently spelled word pairs and pastes it in the bottom pane, the Devanāgarī pane 1. This is in-turn triggers a function to transliterate Devanāgarī to IAST Roman in pane 2. Third pane is auto triggered to check spelling of odd and even pairs. It is a read only pane.

After checking spelling of first pair i.e. first two lines, delete them and delete empty line and press "Devanāgarī to Roman" button to update pane 2 and pane 3.

Bottom panes can be used independently - 

Panes 1 and 2 for transliteration from Devanāgarī to IAST Roman and vice versa. That it why it is bi-directional.

Panes - 2 and 3 for spell check in IAST Roman.

2. Devanāgarī to IAST Roman Transliteration and vice versa

Use Load Sample button of each pane 1 and 2 to understand the working.

Type or paste Sanskrit words in Devanāgarī pane 1 and click "Devanāgarī to Roman" button to transliterate in IAST Roman

Type or paste Sanskrit words in IAST Roman in pane 2 and click "Roman to Devanāgarī" button to transliterate in Devanāgarī.

3. Spell check IAST Roman words in pairs, one word in each line

Use Load Sample button to understand the working.

This READ ONLY pane is auto triggered upon any changes in pane 2. 

It checks word pairs. One word per line should be typed or pasted. 

One odd and even line make one pair. So line 1 and line 2 make on pair. Both are compared and differently spelled letters in the word are highlighted on akshara-level and not the whole word is highlighted. This is comparative spell check and not dictionary spell check.

For further details, please visit:

https://www.advaita-vedanta.in/Sanskrit-proof-reading-conversion-tool

Other Standalone tools

Along with the suite which has three integrated tools, standalone tools are also released. 

For details about how they work and to use and download them, please visit -

Devanāgarī to IAST Roman Transliteration Tool (Bi-directional)

Devanāgarī, IAST Roman Spell Checker Tool (Comparative)

Third tool - Sanskrit Text comparison tool (difference checker) is not uploaded as there is no need for it. Suite can do it. Just ignore the bottom panes. However, for those who are interested in lighter version, it is available as a HTML file which can be downloaded. Please note that this tool is not updated to check on akshara-level checking and so highlights the whole word.

I hope these tools help you proofreading Sanskrit texts. 

Hari OM

71st Uttaradhikari of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam annoited on Akshaya Tritiya - 30th April 2025

Namaste,

On Akshaya Tritiya i.e. on 30-Apr-2025, Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Pitham and Matha Shankaracharya Sri Swami Shankara Vijayendra Sarasvati gave Sanyasa Deeksha to Duddu Satya Venkata Surya Subrahmanya Ganesha Sharma Dravid (approx 25 years). He is now known as Satya Chandrashekharendra Swamiji (Swami Satya Chandrashekharendra Sarasvati) (refer Anugraha Bhashya in Hindi, jump to 7.29 mins).

Sanyasa Diksha Vidhi started on 30-04-2025 at 5:30 AM

5:30 AM - Vidhi Prior to Diksha at Sri Kanchi Kamakshi Ambal Devasthanam

6:30 AM onwards - Sanyasa Diksha Samaroha at Pancha Ganga Teertham, Sri Kanchi Kamakshi Ambal Devasthanam

Entire Tentative Schedule

He has also announced him as his successor and the 71th Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham and Matham. He will be anointed as Shankaracharya on 2nd May 2025, on the divine occasion of 2,534th Jayantī of Jagadguru Śrī Ādi Śankarāchārya jī (Adi Shankaracharya Jayanti).

Please find photos of his initiation into Sanyasa

Shri Ganesha Sharma Dravid getting Sanyasa Diksha from Kanchi Shankaracharya on 30-04-2025

Shri Ganesha Sharma Dravid getting instructions for holy dip in Pancha-Ganga pond

Shri Ganesha Sharma Dravid changing clothes to become a Eka Dandi Sanyasin (Monk of Adi Sankara Order), gets the blessed Dandi (wooden stick)

Swami Vijayendra Saraswati (Guru) blessing Dandi (Wooden Stick) with mantras and other rituals

Passing of Dandi to Successor

Shri Ganesha Sharma Dravid getting initiated (Sanyasa Diksha)

Sanyasa Diksha Continues

Worshipping Guru (Final ritual at Pancha Ganga pond)

Guru Applying Tilak

Both Sitting on Peetham - Guru Accepting Gifts and honors by dignitaries

He is a Rig Vedic Scholar from Andra Pradesh. 

Ganesha Sharma was born to Duddu Dhanvantari and Alivelu Mangadevi, from Annavaram. Annavaram is a village in the Kakinada district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

He comes from from a deeply spiritual family with a lineage of Vedic Tradition. His father, Danvantari, serves as a first-class Pujari / Pandit at the renowned Sri Satyanarayana Swamy temple in Annavaram, Andra Pradesh. He has a sister. From Anugraha Bhashyam in Hindi, it looks like his sister's name is Soumya (unconfirmed).

Announcement

Sanyasa Deeksha Karyakram - Some glimpses as covered by the press 

Sanyasa Sweekara Mahotsavam - Photos

Official Annoucement from Kamakoti Website

Shri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetadhipati Jagadguru Pujyashri Shankara Vijayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya Swamiji gave Sanyasa Deeksha to Sri Duddu Satya Venkata Surya Subrahmanya Ganesha Sharma Dravid at Shri Kamakshi Ambal Devasthanam in Kanchipuram on the banks of the Pancha-Ganga pond in the early hours of 30th April - the auspicious day of Budha (बुध) - Rohini- Akshaya Triteeya. The new Acharya was given the deeksha name as ‘Satya Chandrashekarendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya Swamiji’.

Source

Ref: https://www.kamakoti.org - See Recent Announcements in Footer Section

Shri Ganesha Sharma Dravid becomes Satya Chandrashekarendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya Swamiji, graces the devotees along with his Diksha Guru Swami Vijayendra Saraswati ji Maharaj

Source

श्री कांची कामकोटि पीठाधिपति जगद्गुरु पूज्य श्री शंकर विजयेंद्र सरस्वती शंकराचार्य महाराज जी - अनुग्रह भाष्य / शिष्य स्वीकार - हिन्दी / संस्कृत

Shishya Svikara Ceremony was published by the official YouTube Channel of Kanchi Matha - Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Kanchipuram

Please find the video of announcement of successor below in Hindi and Sanskrit

सन्यास दीक्षा कार्यक्रम ३० अप्रैल २०२५ - श्री कांची कामकोटि पीठाधिपति शंकराचार्य जी का अनुग्रह भाषण

संन्यासदीक्षा कार्यक्रमः- Anugraha Bhashanam of Pujya Kanchi Shankaracharya Swamiji in Sanskrit

Full Shishya Svikara Ceremony (7+ hours Video on YouTube). Jump to 33:45 mins 

Shri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Sanyasa Deeksha Karyakram Akshaya Tritiya - 30th Apr 2025

Hari OM

Read: kAnchi Jagadguru attained mahAsamAdhi on 9:00 am 28-02-2018, Shukla Trayodashi

Important Announcement

Namaste,

Recently there have been many request to grant access to a websites Understanding Advaita and Sanatan Dharma 

Old URLs like sites.google.com/site/understandingadvaita and sites.google.com/site/sanatanhinndusite are now disfunct.

Alternate / Canonical URLs remain the same.

Both Websites www.advaita-vendata.in and www.sanatan-dharma.in are now shifted to new Google Sites Platform. Please visit these URLs to visit websites.

Hari OM

Indiaspirituality Blog

[Update] Understanding Advaita and Sanatan Dharma Websites Migrated to New Platform

 Namaste,

Dear Divine Atman

Wishing you a very Happy Janmastami

Websites Understanding Advaita and Sanatan Dharma were developed and hosted on Google Sites Platform. Since last few years, Google Sites has developed a new website builder platform, known as New Google Sites or simply Google Sites, which is aimed to give consistent look and feel on multiple devices like Desktop, Tab and Mobile (known as responsive design or layout). Classic Sites platform is discontinued from 31-Aug2021 and all websites created on old Google Sites Platform, now called Classic Sites need to migrate to the new Website Builder Platform in order to keep the site active and available for public viewing.

The migration to the new sites is still going on. All content is transferred the the new Google Sites Platform. Both websites Understanding Advaita and Santana Dharma will remain active. The content is also available as PDF format. In addition to pdf, for Understanding Advaita website, content is available as docx and as Google Docs. For Sanatan Dharma website, content is available as Google docs document in which you can suggest any corrections via comments. What is left is to check for broken links and formatting which will be done in free time. 

As a viewer, you do not need to do anything. The URLs remain the same except that Google Sites now auto redirects to HTTPS instead of HTTP. www has to be typed in if you type in address bar to open the website. 

URLs of both website are

https://www.advaita-vedanta.in/

https://www.sanatan-dharma.in/

 

Please be sure to visit Notice page of both websites for further updates. Link can be found in sidebar and on top of each page as 'Read More' in Announcement Banner banner.

Direct Links:

https://www.advaita-vedanta.in/notice

https://www.sanatan-dharma.in/notice

If you are a regular or repeat visitor you may have noticed that change in look and feel of both websites.

New Google Sites offer less functionality. It does not offer the following

• Recent Updates / Recent Activity Page
• Sitemap
• Tables
• Limited resize options of photos
• Open external link in same window
• Limited formatting of Table Of Contents (TOC)
• No option to add Text or Section heading on sidebar as sidebar is autogenerated
• and more

Interested viewers can visit the following link for full comparison between two sites

https://www.steegle.com/google-sites/classic-comparison 

If you find any error or a broken link or wish to give suggestion, please email at indiaspirituality [at] gmail.com

The author hopes that the new site turns out to be more user friendly then older one.

May both websites continue to help students of Sanatan Dharma and Advaita Vedanta.

Hari OM

What is Dharma - New Article on Sanatan Dharma Website

Namaste,

I have uploaded new article 'What is Dharma' on my website www.sanatan-dharma.in

Please find the link below

http://www.sanatan-dharma.in/what-is-dharma

The article attempts to explain different uses of the word 'Dharma' including varṇa dharma and āśrama dharma. It goes on to explain our spiritual journey and importance of dharma to progress on spiritual path.

The Article also explains that guṇas are at the heart of dharma. From individual level, following dharma leads to development of divine qualities within ourselves and helps us purify our heart and mind. Character building, emotional, mental and spiritual nourishment which is often neglected today is the main motto of practicing dharma. 

Article further explains how our śāstras give the meaning of dharma. Article further goes beyond dharma and adharma towards moksha.

It explains three types of debts (Ṝṇa-traya) and how can a person be free by following the prescribed dharma. 

Article also explains difference between dharma and religion or mazhab and Prophet and Guru. It also emphases on the uniqueness of our tradition to reason before accepting anything and freedom to challenge the basic concepts of Nyāya school.

I hope you will enjoy the article. 

Hari OM

Volunteers needed to Translate Puri Shankaracharya ji's discourses

Namaste

There is an initiative by a few volunteers devoted to the propagation of the message of Sanatana Dharma to provide English subtitles to the Hindi speeches of His Holiness the Shankaracharya of Puri, Sri Nischalananda Saraswati. Since the group involved in this work is needing the assistance of some more volunteers, those who have a fairly good grasp of Hindi and ability to render the same into English may please participate in this noble endeavor and become beneficiaries of the blessings of the Mother Sanatana Dharma. For more details please contact Sri Ajay Bhargavan on phone: 72042 16181 and Sri Natraj Maneshinde email: natrajmaneshinde [at] gmail [dot] com

Govardhan Math Youtube Channel
Govardhan Math Twitter Handle

[Update] Pages with TOC are now working

Namaste,

It has been some time now since the Blog was updated. It came to my notice that many Links in the Horizontal Menu Bar are not working. These are TOCs (Table of Contents) of various labels. Today, I have managed to find a script and modify it so as to list posts of selected Labels. These links are now working.

Updated Pages are:

1. Kathamrita
2. Q and A
3. Bhakti
4. Meditation
5. TOC - Labels (sorted by Labels / Categories)
6. TOC - Date (Sortable TOC by Date and Label) - Recommended
7. Ramana Maharshi Life and Works (not in menu bar, but in side bar)
8. Advaita Vedanta Basics (not in menu bar, but in side bar)
9. Spirituality (not in menu bar, but in side bar)

Pages are not indexed by Blogger. Blogger allows maximum 10 Pages. 10th page which does not need to be updated is Guidelines for submitting Blogs to Spiritual Blogs of Note

(Other links like 'Quotes' are not Auto generated TOCs)

I personally recommend TOC - Date, as it is a sortable TOC in which reader can sort date-wise and filter posts tagged with a particular label. Instructions are provided on the page on how to use TOC

Since one post can have more than one label, hence the script categorize posts under label. Though it is confusing, script does not show posts that do not fall under selected Label.

Note: Wordpress has both categories and Labels. One category can have more than one label. Blogger uses the word 'Label' for 'Category'. Hence I use both words interchangeably.

Hope you find this useful.

For seekers, below information can be skipped. For interested readers who wish to know more about blogging and scripts, please continue to read

 

Some more info about Pages for interested Readers:

 

Pages are not indexed by blogger and hence they are not shown in archives. They are static pages which are either updated regularly like TOC or Index of Selected Posts that are manually updated by Blogger or static pages like 'About Us' or 'Contact Me' which technically do not fit into blog niche but are necessary. 

Pages have /p/ in URL after the main blog address 

(https://indiaspirituality.blogspot.in in our case)

For example, TOC - Date has URL - https://indiaspirituality.blogspot.in/p/table-of-contents-sorted-by-date.html

I myself do not periodically check links on the blog. Some links in the 'Downloads' Post (technically it's not a page) may have outdated or broken or missing links. 

Some details about scripts:

Indiaspirituality Blog also uses third party scripts which are freely available on net. Scripts are used in Auto generation of TOC. There are other scripts like Auto changing Quotes of the Day widget. 

There are two types of scripts (jscript or java script or HTML code)

1. First type of script is which is completely embedded into Blog's code. Whole script or code is available with Blogger, as in case of Quote of the Day widget / gadget like 'Gems of Gospel'. A responsible blogger will verify script before using it on blog as it may contain virus or a malware.
2. Second type is which has hotlinks. Coder may give a small script to embed into blogger's HTML. This script points to a hotlinked script which has full code. It is this script which a blogger has no control. 

Many bloggers are not programmers and they are dependent upon others for code. Blogger allows 3rd party scripts to be added. Blogger also has it's own gallery of gadgets, but at times, a blogger may not find what s/he wants. Hence we look for 3rd party coders. In case of part time blogger, especially in spiritual field like me are laymen and blog only as a hobby and not as a source of earning. Hence we try to minimize our expenses. Blogger gives space for free. Coders give useful scripts for free and in return we thank them by giving them recognition by back-linking to their post or blog  home page.

Though it looks all good here, some bloggers may not get enough encouragement or recognition of their hard work. Some bloggers who host script may loose interest in blogging their script stops working for some reason like discontinue to pay for server space, etc. 

Some times, scripts stop working as Google regularly updates Blogger interface and or one changes from HTTP to HTTPS (Secured Protocol) which increases safety of both bloggers and readers.

Due to shortage of time, I am not able to verify all the links. It has been more than nine years since the first post was published. As on today, the blog was 699 Posts (Including this post). 

Some info about Chances of being affected by Viruses and Malware

At times the server on which the code is hosted may get affected by virus or malware. It may affect blogger who use the code too. We we know, no security is bullef proof. Even Bank accounts and Bank servers are cracked.

Wordpress do not allow use of unverified 3rd party scripts. It mostly used and recommended by professionals as a better alternative to Blogger. Howeer, I am comfortable with blogger. To migrate a blog with about 700 posts is pretty much hectic.

Note: 

Hacking is a wrong terminology. Remember pirated softwares has cracks and not hacks. Hacker is a security expert who will to the reverse engineering and debug a software or a code, find loop holes, report it to the technical team and possibly give a patch to plug the hole. Since word Hacker is now-a-days is demeaned as it is used in place of 'cracker' hence Genuine Hackers identify themselves 'Ethical Hackers'. The word 'Hacker' has lost it's pride due to wrong use. Crackers, on the other hand, use their extraordinary knowledge for destructive purpose.

For extra cautious readers, 

I have a clone blog: 

https://indiaspirituality3.blogspot.com/ 

This is a private blog i.e. it is not indexed by Google. You cannot get email updates from this blog. It uses only 1 third party script - horizontal menu. Code is completely embedded into blogger. All other scripts like 'Google Custom Search' and 'Contributors' are provided by Blogger and are as safe as Google's other services like Gmail, Blogger and Google+

Thank you

Pranams

Indiaspirituality Blog now available in HTTPS - protocol for secure communication

Namaste,

Dear Divine Souls,

Indiaspirituality Blog is now available in HTTPS - protocol for secure communication.

Both URLS work

https://indiaspirituality.blogspot.in/

http://indiaspirituality.blogspot.in/

In Firefox (Ver 44.0.2), browser it will show a green lock before address bar. 

In Google Chrome (Ver 48.0.2564.116 m) and Opera (Ver 34.0), green lock disappears after the page is completely loaded. 

In Microsoft Edge and IE 11,  address bar shows grey lock.

Some browsers may not identify blog as secure due to hotlinked images to third party, or using of jscripts that hotlink to third party URL. We have tried to reduce external images and scripts to minimum so as to make blog more secure.

Visitors will have to type https://  manually after site loads in http:// protocol. HTTP sites do not show http:// . Site or blog directly starts with indiaspirituality.blogspot.com and shows earth symbol in address bar.

Both urls are considered as different. This will affect number of visitors. Never mind, we are more concerned with security than page hits.

Hari OM

[Announcement] Retirement of Google Friend Connect

Pranams,

As per the notification from Google, Google Friend Connect which allows you to connect and follow Blogger blogs i.e. Blogs published on Google's Blogger platform will discontinue to support sign-in from Twitter, Facebook, OpenID accounts. Hence readers are requested to follow via Google ID to stay updated with Latest Posts from Indiaspirituality Blog.

Apologies for late announcement, but you haven't lost much as the announcement was made on 21-Dec-2015 on Blogger Buzz. There hasn't been much blogging after Diwali except two articles on 20-Jan-2016

Hari OM

Samata Books Needs Funds

Namaste,

Samata Books has published some old books of spiritual nature.They are in need of funds for further printing of books.

Please find a letter from the owner:

Due to paucity of funds we are unable to reprint the books. We are in a crisis. My fear is if some publisher prints my books i will be doomed. We need Rs.3 Lakhs to reprint JNANESHWARI, THE DAKSHINAMURTI STOTRA, HE CAN WHO THINKS HE CAN, GOSPEL OF BUDDHA, ADI SANKARACHARYA'S PRABODHASUDHAKARA and VISION AND WAY OF VAASISHTHA. If you do not mind in circulating our appeal to your friends and like minded souls, it will be helpful for us. Sorry for bothering you.

Pranaams,

V.Krishna
www.samatabooks.org
+91-94440 10706

Blog Health Update

Namaste,

Dear Divine Souls

Just to be extra safe, I completely changed the template of the Blog. So all old codes are automatically removed. Blog has a new template, but the layout remains the same.

Hari OM

Everything OK: INDIASPIRITUALITY Blog Restored

Namaste,

Dear Divine Souls,

Yesterday, I had informed about INDIASPIRITUALITY being compromised. Now everything is back to normal. Blog is restored back.

Only a handful of pages those loading TOC's were affected. There could have been change of hacking if the pages were loaded, as the script loads only if the page is opened, not otherwise.

Subscribed members were not affected, as the feed burner app is not in anyway related to this hacking. We use Mailchimp as our feed burner for our email subscribers. Even if you must have message and may have clicked on the link and landed on the page describing that this blog is compromised, still, there no chance that the malicious code would have been entered, as that post didn't use any of the scripts.

The blog was submitted to webmaster.google.com to check for infection and everything is reported ok. The message is 'No new messages or recent critical issues.'  (which was obviously not the message that I got yesterday :)

Still two if the pages, TOC- Meditation and TOC-Kathamrita, posting auto-updated blog posts labelled / categorized under 'Meditation' and 'Ramakrishna Kathamrita' were still being blocked by google, maybe because of cache or until robots might re-index them. However, to remain safe, both pages were deleted and new pages were setup.

Even after the pages are deleted, google still shows them as suspicious, probably due to cached reports.

New URLs are

Meditation:

http://indiaspirituality.blogspot.in/p/toc-for-category-meditation_24.html

Ramakrishna Kathamrita

http://indiaspirituality.blogspot.in/p/toc-for-category-ramakrishna-kathamrita_24.html

Old deleted URLs were - Please do not click them.

http://indiaspirituality.blogspot.in/p/toc-for-category-meditation.html

http://indiaspirituality.blogspot.in/p/toc-for-category-ramakrishna-kathamrita_24.html

Inconvenience caused is regretted.  If you find any issues, please report to indiaspirituality [at] gmail.com (replace [at] by @ )

AUM

INDIASPIRITUALITY Blog Compromized

Namaste,

My Blog, INDIASPIRITUALITY, is compromised. Please do not visit my blog until I manage to clear the code. This is mostly due to a script for TOC-date and TOC - Labels which I took it from abu-farhan.com. The parent site is also hacked.

Not all pages are affected, yet it is better not to visit it until matter is sorted out.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Aum

INDIASPIRITUALITY

[Understanding Advaita] - New Changes

Namaste,

After uploading the content online, I have done many changes to the site to all the pages. Improvement is an ongoing process and I will update the content as and when time permits.

I have added info about Advaita Vedanta in 'Understanding Advaita' page, added and corrected some more info to 'Dispelling Doubts' and added more reference to 'Advaita in Shastras'

I have also added a few references in 'Advaita in Shastra' and 'References and Sources' Page.

If you wish to track changes, you can visit 'Recent site activity'

Please visit Understanding Advaita for more details.

Still the site is not error free. If you find some inconsistencies or typos, please let me know.

Alternatively, I ma trying to add 'Subscribe to RSS feeds', but my lack of technical knowledge is making things difficult.

Aum

Indiaspirituality

New website: Understanding Advaita

Namaste,

I am pleased to inform you that I have launched a new website Understanding Advaita.

Site is divided into 3 categories: 

1. Dispelling Doubts

Advaita is often quoted wrongly by many saakaarvaadis mainly Vaishnavas, who say that Advaita is not authentic. They accuse Adi Shankaracharya as a hidden Buddhist. They incorrectly say that Advaita is maayaavaad, though it is brahmavaad. 

This part attempts to dispel doubts and correct misunderstandings.

2. Understanding Advaita

This section attempts to correctly project Advaita. It also goes into subtler details, in brief, which can be useful for sincere advaitins who regularly meditate for attaining moksha. Advaita teaches to go beyond maayaa, beyond attributes and be free from duality and non-duality, beyond knowledge and ignorance. Advaita also teaches that everything else that you see is Brahman. 

3. Advaita in Shastras.

Shastras are an authority, any path has to be consistent with them. Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita are the pillars of Sanatan Dharma. Hence Reference to advaita teachings in shastras has to be pointed out.

This session points out verses of Advaita origin.

---

This site is my silent response. It's an attempt to give correct picture and leave it's discretion to the reader. More than a response, I have created this site as I do not want others to waste time collecting references from shastras. After going through this website, one should say that

'Advaita is authentic, consistent with Vedas and Adi Shankara was one of the greatest proponent of traditional advaita'

Even if one person would speak the above statement from heart, my humble attempt will be fulfilled. 

May this humble attempt bring inner peace to Fellow Advaitins and other sincere spiritual seekers. May we all move beyond the realm of vaad-vivaad is my humble prayer.

|| ॐ तम नमामि गुरूम्‌ परम ||

Aum

Indiaspirituality

Mahashivarathri Celebrations with Jaggi Vasudev

Namaste,

Dear Divine Souls, If you are a follower of Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev and or would like to attend to Mahashivaratri Celebration in his presence, an event will be organized at Isha Yoga Center at the foothills of the Velliangiri Mountains.

As per the information provided to me, there will be no entry fees. If you are unable to attend the event physically, you can also watch it online after registering for event.. Donation is optional. However, there are paid alternatives abailable like high quality downloads with costs Rs. 500/- (USD 10) and Rs. 1000/- (USD 20) respectively.

Please find the official announcement in below links:

Mahashivarathri – A Rapturous Night with the Divine

Pancha Bhuta Aradhana

Register to Watch Online

Aum

Change of Service Provider for Email Subscription

(This Post serves Dual Purpose of Test mail and Announcement of change in email subscription service provider)

Namaste,

Dear Divine Souls, since Google is closing down Feedburner, we have shifted to Mailchimp. You are receiving this Email since you are subscribed to INDIASPIRITUALITY Blog. Until now, INDIASPIRITUALITY was using Google's Feedburner to send Latest Blog Posts to email subscribers. Since google is stopping Feedburner service on 20 Oct 2012, and we are not getting any subscriber info on Feedburner anymore, we have transferred your email address to MailChimp, another RSS to Email generator similar to Feedburner.

You will be receiving Email as Indiaspirituality or Indiaspirituality Amrut from email id indiaspirituality[at]gmail.com.

It will take time to get used to new RSS to Email service due to our limited technical knowledge. Till then, please bear with us. We hope you like this change.

Feel Free to contact us incase you face any problems.

Default Feed url will be

http://indiaspirituality.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Feedburner Feed url is

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Indiaspirituality

Currently, http://indiaspirituality.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default is auto redirected to http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Indiaspirituality

If you stop receiving any updates, please change your feed address.

Aum

INDIASPIRITUALITY

Peaceful Protest at Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne) continues

Namaste,

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about a play 'Ganesh versus the Third Reich' played at Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne) form Oct 6, 2011. After watching the play, Hindus are very upset. Peaceful protest was conducted by Forum for Hindu Awakening. Media representative of the Play is not giving any response when contacted over telephone.

While, we Hindus, prefer to leave at peace with other religions, we certainly cannot accept anything that hurt our sentiment and degeneration of our God. There are repeated attempts, in the name of freedom of speech and expression, to hurt Hindu Sentiment. While violence is not a preferable way to protest, Peaceful demonstration definitely is.

As a Hindu, I wish 'Forum for Hindu Awakening', my support and pray to God, that the ojbective of peacefull educative demonstration, is successful.

For latest news please visit here.

To here Protest interview audio recording (in Hindi) on SBS Radio visit:

http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/hindi/highlight/page/id/187947/t/Ganesh-versus-the-Third-Reich/

Namaste

Hari Aum

INDIASPIRITUALITY

Change in the format of posts received by Email Subscription

Recently, I have made some change in the way posts are delivered through Feedburner email subscriptions.

1. I have changed the default  email ID from indianspirituality@gmail.com to indiaspirituality@gmail.com. Incase you have setup a filter, kindly change it accordingly.
2. Change in title of subject. Earlier, the subject of email consisted of only one word 'INDIASPIRITUALITY'. I found this less informative, hence, I changed it. New subject contains title of newest / latest post. Incase, just more than one post is published, subject line gets modified to title of latest post plus m more. 'm' is the number of post(s) excluding the one post, whose title is displayed in the subject line.

Recently, there was a mass email titled 'URGENT - Protesting Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne, Australia on 06 OCT (Thurs)'.

It was repeated again the next day. I have configured feedburner to deliver post(s) in a single email on the next day, the post(s) are published.This was not a spam, and was done by me. First one was send one urgent basis, as a mass mail to all subscribers. Email received next day was a regular copy of post published on the blog.

I request you to kindly add both the email id's to safe list and add to contact to ensure that email lands in your inbox or in the filter.

In case you have subscribed and did not get this post in your inbox, then, probably it has landed in spam. This may have happened due to the fact that I mass emailed to all the subscribers. Email also bounced from some id's. Please take necessary action.

We are sorry for the Inconvenience caused to you.

Hope you benefit from INDIASPIRITUALITY. 

Namaste

INDIASPIRITUALITY