EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH VAISHALI K. SHAH
This Indian Woman is Spreading Hindu Vedic Knowledge & Culture in the World
BY ONKARESHWAR PANDEY
PM Modi is doing fantastic jobs in every field. World over, the people love him and it has definitely changed the idea about India in NRIs’ minds. I am glad that I am witnessing this drastic change in India in just the last six years. However, we desperately need to encourage Indian small and medium size entrepreneurs to create more jobs for the lower strata of the economy. The fastest way to reduce the funds getting out of the country through MNCs and other outbound investments by the Indians in other countries.- Vaishali Shah
“Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is our cultural heritage, identity and the most treasured place for every Hindu living anywhere in the world. It is extremely heartening to see this temple taking shape finally after the wait of 450 years. Yes I ensured that I contributed to the temple funds and encouraged others to contribute too,” says Vaishali Shah. She is one of the most active Indian women in our Indian diaspora, who is living in Kenya, and working tirelessly to promote Vedic knowledge and Indian culture throughout the world through her website www.hinduscriptures.com and also continuously through social media. She is the founder-owner of Shrivedant Foundation (www.shrivedant.com ) in India, Kenya and United Kingdom, which aims to bring forth the pearls of wisdom from ancient Indian scriptures. She has managed to collect more than 45000 pages of various scriptures under one portal http://www.hinduscriptures.com. “I want our education system to adopt our scriptures and scripture based topics, says Vaishali, who has built a Shiv Temple in Kenya with her husband, she is also promoting vegetarianism in Africa, through her Kenya Vegetarian Club www.kenyavegclub.com . Vaishali Shah was recently awarded with The Great Indian Women Awards #GIWA 2021.
Here is an exclusive Interview with Vaishali Shah.
A) Welcome Ms. Vaishali Shah. Congratulations! You are our Special Guest and one of the Golden Signatures from Indian Diaspora, because of your vision, dedication and continued hard work to promote Vedic knowledge and Indian culture throughout the world through your website hinduscriptures.com and the social media. Tell us about this journey. When and how this idea came in your mind?
- Greetings to everyone. It is a mammoth task to narrate the story of two decades from early teenage to adulthood. My interest in the scripture-based topic was there from my school days as I used to read various tales in Panchatantra and other stories based on our culture. I used to read the Shrimad Bhagwad Purana to my grandmother during holidays. Going ahead, during my university days, I got interested in Chanakya’s Arthashastra which really opened my eyes towards Indian knowledge. Earlier, I used to think Sun Tzu’s Art of War is the best book on strategy but after reading Bhagwad Geeta and also Mahabharata I realised how advanced we were in those days. Our knowledge of weaponry, warfare, astronomy, medicine, nature, architects, mathematics, etc. were incomparable, even today. I couldn’t stop reading many such scriptures and felt the urge to make them publicly available to seekers.
B) What were the initial challenges, when you started this mission to propagate about Indian culture and Vedic Knowledge?
- When I started researching the content, there were not many websites available, Infect that was the major push to start a website. So I started reading books, talking to spiritual gurus, read newspapers and contacted researchers and professors of various universities. Back then, many people laughed at me for choosing this subject to create a portal as most of the people were running after making commercially viable websites and applications. I was determined that one day this website will be worth millions and it will help millions of people across the globe. I spent all my reserves of lifetime, invested whatever savings I had. I still spend a lot from my own pocket to sustain this project. I still haven’t thought of making any profit out of it.
C) Total how many pages have been researched, written and digitized so far? And what are all topics you have covered?
- We have collected 45000 pages so far. We still keep adding more topics to the website every day. These are researched content written by various professors, scholars and researchers from different parts of India. More than three hundred scriptures are digitized from the authentic sources. Apart from scriptures, we have covered every aspect of Indian and Vedic lifestyle from the Vedic era to medieval era to historic time and till today. Festivals, rituals, prayers, warriors, queens, bhakta, Vedic sciences, institutions, lifestyle, culture, heritage sites, dresses, jewellery, food, traditions, music, musical instruments, dances, universities, heroes, researchers, historic sites, holy cities, rivers, mountains, vedic mathematics, astrology, astronomy, biology, Ayurveda, yoga, meditation etc. The list is really long and exhaustive.
Based on the website, we have written a book series called Hindu Culture and Lifestyle. The series is a partially fictional story of a young boy in New York who is keen to learn about his culture. The series helps you to know the fundamentals of Hinduism. This will also help you to educate your kids when they ask you some weird questions like why Ganesha has an elephant face or why we have so many Gods. We have tried to explain a lot of such queries which modern kids have in their minds. The series is available on amazon.in and amazon.com, flipcart.com and notionpress.com websites.
D) Mantras, Sutras, and Vedic hymns are some of the major aspects of Hindu culture. How many Mantras, Sutras, and Vedic hymns have you collected so far? And how you did it?
- We have collected a few important mantras from various scriptures; they are useful to us on a daily basis. Our team from Varanasi also has sung the Bhagwad Geeta in a melodious way.
E) You have also collected more than 300 scriptures from various schools of thought and have made it available for all readers in the best digital format. Plz. tell us about some of the main scriptures and their highlights.
- We hand-coded all four Vedas. Our team in Pune actually typed them on the computer so that we don’t have to scan these important scriptures. Apart from Veda, we have Purana, Upanishad, Darshan shastra, Vedanta, Itihas like Ramayana and Mahabharata, Gurbani of Sikhism, Agama shastra, Brahmana Granth, Jain scriptures, Upaveda, Vedangas, Upa Purana and thousands of researched articles which explain various aspects of Vedic sciences.
F) You are actively involved in the social work in Africa. Please tell us something about that.
- Through Kenya Vegetarian club, we promote human health, protect animal rights, preserve the environment and improve the lifestyle of the people. So far, we have planted 70,000 trees single-handedly.
•Women empowerment through vegetable farming and seed donation. Donated more than 6000 seedlings to women to start their cottage business
•Youth empowerment through the development of study material for vegetable farming and organic farming with Lake Basin College
•Food Outreach Program in the remote area of Kenya, feeding more than 400 kids
•Built and Managing the Hindu Shiv Temple in Kenya
We conduct seminars on the benefits of plant-based diet in corporate, private institutes, education centres, schools, colleges, religious organisations across Kenya. After working for seven years, I had to write down my experiences and encourage the people to turn vegetarian. Hence we published The Veg Safari, a book on my journey to vegetarianism.
- We need to free Hindu temples from the governments
- We need uniform civil code for every aspect of life including education
- We need to change our education system and make it more Indian in nature
- Government should declare India as a Hindu Rashtra