TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2011 (4) TMI 385
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....3-2008, seeking registration thereunder as a charitable institution. The same stood disposed of by the ld. CIT vide her order under section 12AA dated 17-9-2008. It was opined therein that the Institution did not seek to benefit the public at large, but was confined to the members of the Hindu community, so that it could not be treated as a charitable trust. Another order of even date, registering the trust as a religious institution was issued by the ld. CIT. The appellant had preferred an appeal against the order under section 12AA. It was only during the course of hearing the said appeal on an earlier occasion that it was brought to light that an appeal challenging the order under section 12AA(1)(b)(i) of the Act had also to be instituted. The same is accordingly done, which explains the delay of 20 months. 2.2 We have heard the parties in the matter of condonation. It is apparent that the delay had been caused by a genuine misunderstanding at the end of the appellant, more particularly for the reason that two orders under section 12AA, though not required to, were issued by the ld. CIT. Considering the same, as well as the fact that the appeal in the first instance was in ti....
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....itation, revealed by sound 'directly heard' (shruti) by the rishis. The Rig Veda (X, 90, 9) - the other three being - Sama, Yajur and Atharva - itself assigns a divine origin to the hymns, telling us they have come down from 'ancient times', re-clothed in a new language (III, 39, 2). Divinely revealed from age to age to the Rishis, seers, the Vedas are said to possess nityaatva, i.e., timeless finality. Each syallable ('akshara') of a vedic word is endowed with significance and efficacy. For millenniums, the one lakh couplets of the Vedas were not written down, but orally transmitted by Brahmin priests, who have from dim antiquity uniquely preserved the original purity of the Vedas. Vedas: Content 4.2.1 The sacred texts explain the nature of Brahma, God, the Creator, whose expression in the individual man is 'brih' - atma - soul. The verb root of Brahma is 'to expand', conveying the vedic concept of the divine power of spontaneous growth, of bursting forth into creative activity. The cosmos, like the spider's web, is said to evolve (vikurute) within His being. The conscious fusion of the atma with Brahma, the soul with Spirit, may be said to be the whole import of the Vedas. ....
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....religion', which word is not defined in the Act, so that it has to be accorded its common parlance meaning. Webster's new world dictionary defines the word as: (a) a belief in a divine or superhuman power or powers, to be obeyed and worshipped as the creator(s) or ruler(s) of the universe; expression of such a belief in conduct and ritual. (b) any specific system of belief, worship, conduct, etc., often involving a code of ethics and philosophy; any system of beliefs, practices, ethical values, etc., resembling, suggesting of, or likened to such a system (humanism as a religion); (c) the community; (d) any object of conscientious regard and pursuit. In other words, the true nature of man, and his relationship with the source of his being, and with all Nature, can be considered as constituting 'religion'. The Vedas explain that the religion takes three steps. The first is dualism. Then man gets to a higher state of partial-dualism. And at last he finds he is one with the universe. Vedas: Science or Philosophy 4.4 The answer to the question lies in the answer to another question, i.e., is truth a philosophy or scie....
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....s perhaps from the time the Greeks, given to the people residing on the banks of river Indus, as Indoos' or Hindus. There is internal evidence in the Vedas pointing to India as the home of the Hindus. For our purposes, rather, it would be sufficient that the Vedas are religious scriptures, and vedic study, a study of religion or religious instruction. Vedas: Universal appeal 4.6 Vedanta is the philosophy which analysed and taught man to be moral consciously. It is the essence of all religions. The Hindu scriptures teach that man is attracted to this earth to learn, more completely in each successive life, the infinite ways in which the Spirit may be expressed through, and be dominant over, material conditions. Slowly but surely, man, throughout the world, including India, across different religions, nationalities and ideologies, with the entering of the atomic age and the expansion of the world mind, is learning these truths. Wisdom garnered by India, the eldest brother among the nations, is a heritage of all mankind. Vedic truth, as all truth, belongs to the Lord and not to India. The Rishis, whose minds were pure receptacles to receive the divine profundities of the Veda....