Hinduism is only a post-European concept. Europeans have given that name. We do not call ourselves by that name. ‘Hindu’ comes from the word ‘Sindhu’. When Greeks and Persians came to India some years before Christ – Alexander and Jerious, and other Persian kings and Greek invaders came – they crossed the Sindhu, and they wanted to know who these people staying in this country are. They did not know their name. They said that river is called Sindhu, and all those people who are on the other side are Sindhus.

In Persian, ‘s’ is pronounced as ‘h’, so ‘Sindh’ becomes ‘Hind’, so they pronounce it as ‘Hindu’; and in Greek it has become ‘Ind’. The word ‘India’ has come from the word ‘Sindhu’ only. ‘Sindh’ becomes ‘Hind’, ‘Hind’ becomes ‘Ind’. So the words ‘Hindu’ and ‘India’ have both been created by these historical conditions, historical circumstances.

Really, this is Bharatvarsh. We call it Bharatvarsh. Even now they say ‘Bharat’. It is not India. ‘India’ is a historical exigency. Similarly, the word ‘Hinduism’ – there is no such thing as that. It is Sanatana Dharma – eternal religion. It is eternal religion because it accepts every level of religious thought. It does not reject any level, but it does not consider any level as final. That is the whole point.

~ Swami Krishnananda

Q: Why are there differences between religions?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Religion has three components: symbols, customs and traditions, and values. As far as values are concerned, there is no difference, because all talk about oneness. Customs and symbols are all very different; they have to be, this is what makes the world beautiful, because God doesn't like uniforms!

Nature has been created with such diversity- so many flowers, animals, people. Diversity is the language of God. In India, God can have any number of names and forms, and they all point to one Divinity. So in one sense, there is difference, and in another sense there is unity.

Wise ones celebrate diversity, fools fight over it.

In an age of so much inconsequential tweeting, it’s worth recalling the advice of yogis: Sit still, they say, so still that a bird can land on your head.

From the cold lakes of the Himalayas to the sand dunes of western Rajasthan to the tropical rain forests in the south, India hosts a dizzying variety of birds, like a dizzying variety of everything else. Residents and visitors, common and rare, more than 1,200 species have been recorded in India, which puts it somewhere between the United States (just under 900 recorded species) and Colombia (more than 1,800 species).

More: The New York Times

Marigold, roses, pink asters and leaves make this floral rangoli.

Swami ji often used to tell his disciples about the past glories of India, but at the same time he said that India in the future would be even greater. One day at the Belur Math he said to them. “ Believe me, I have had a vision in which I saw clearly what would happen to India in the coming four or five centuries.”

On another occasion he made a series of remarkable predictions. He said : “India will be free in another fifty years and freedom will come in an unusual way. A great war will flare up within twenty years, and if the Western nations do not give up their stark materialism, another world war is inevitable.” Swami ji also prophesized that “India, when independent, will embrace the materialism of the West and attain material prosperity to such an extent that it will surpass its past records in that field” He also foretold that “Countries such as America would become increasingly spiritual because they will have realized from the height of material prosperity the simple truth that gross materialism cannot give eternal peace.”

~ Swami Vivekananda

The white cheeked barbet is a common bird in my garden in Lucknow, North India. In this picture it is eating giloi berries. It also see it enjoying figs, and the banyan tree fruit.

Peacock is the national bird of India, and the Sarus crane is the state bird of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India.

Last year, members of the Society for Conservation of Nature identified 1,005 Sarus birds in the districts of Etawah, Auraiyya and Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh.

A four-hours exercise to identify and count Sarus Crane (Grus Antigone), the state bird will be organised across the state on Sunday, June 20. After a span of almost a decade, such an exercise is being launched and it will be conducted by the state forest department and its associated agencies, volunteers and various NGOs in the thousands of wetlands in the state as per the sources.

Out of the total number of 10,000 Grus Antigone, Indian Saras, Demosil Crane and Common Crane, nearly 2,500 of them are said to be nesting in and around Etawah and nearly 1,000 in Mainpuri district besides a good number of Sarus birds have also been spotted in Aligarh and Etah districts, claim the wildlife experts.

More: Times of India