Most of this website's content can be downloaded. Just right-click on "rm" or "mp3"
link and select "save target as" on the menu.
AlOchanaamR^itaM
Vivekananda to an Agnostic
Swami Vivekananda responding to a famous American agnostic
Robert Ingersoll who said to him, "religion is of no use. Why bother
our heads about other worlds?":
"...You think it is enough to live and eat and drink and have a little
scientific knowledge, but you have no right to say that will suit all
tastes... Such a conception is nothing to me. If I had only to learn how an apple falls
to the ground, or how an electric current shakes my nerves, I would
commit suicide. I want to understand the heart of things, the
very kernel itself. Your study is the manifestation of life, mine is
the life itself".
"My philosophy says you must know that and drive out from your mind all
thoughts of heaven and hell and all other superstitions, even though
they exist in the same sense that this world exists. I must know the
heart of this life, its very essence, what it is, not only how it works
and what are its manifestations. I
want to know the why of everything, I leave the how to children."
- Swami Vivekananda (The Gift Unopened by Eleanor Stark,
pp. 89)
Here I present a collection of audio renderings of telugu poetry by various
people.
Sorry for the poor audio quality of some of these recordings. They
have been made using simple personal audio recorders by various friends and
relatives of mine. Even getting access to them was difficult.
Also, if you have any personal collections of such nature, I'd be very grateful
if you could share them with me to be put on my website for everybody's benefit.
I'm looking for kavitA paThanam/gAnam.
Here is a very good webpage that provides introduction to chhandas (Indian
notion of poetic rhythm) called
Chhandassu
101. I created a
local copy to avoid losing it.