2017
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Who is a guru?
Different people in different contexts use the word guru differently to refer to different kinds of people.
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Times Litfest: Devdutt Pattanaik talks about Mahabharata and Ramayana for Children
Watch Devdutt Pattanaik talk at the Times Literary Festival, November, 2017.
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How Devdutt Saved Buddhism
Buddha Had A Cousin Who Often Argued With Him And Opposed Him. His Name Was Devdutt, Or Devadatta. He Was Also Buddha’s Brother-In-Law
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The Jealous God of Science
Published on 26th November, 2017, in Bangalore Mirror. Western scholars often state that Indians do not have a sense of history. Rows over films like Padmavati confirm that. Unlike their Chinese, Arabic and Greek counterparts, ancient and medieval Indians show…
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Honour as value: A concept for people without much economic or political power
Like ‘honour’, ‘holiness’ is also a currency. Icons become holy. Teachers become holy and so everything they touch become holy.
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I Am Divine So Are You
How Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and Hinduism affirm the dignity of queer identities and sexualities.
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Tulu-Nadu’s Bhootas
In Tulu Nadu, one finds even today, special temples, known as ‘sthaans’ where metal and wooden masks of spirits, or Bhootas, are worshipped.
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India’s New Age gurus believe sexuality may be fluid – but not brutal structures of caste, gender
They have fine-tuned Indian philosophy to pacify middle-class guilt about wealth and power while amplifying guilt over pleasure that could disrupt social norms.
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Does Hinduism have anything to say about mind, perception and cognition?
The word “spirituality”, which is about self-discovery leans towards the former, and the word “religion”, which is about social engineering leans towards the latter.
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Rituals, not belief
Hindu unity is sought by looking for the familiar, and ignoring the unfamiliar. There is no idea of a ‘false’ god.
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Born of Brahma’s hair
Plants play a key role in Hindu mythology. Plants are seen as sacred, sometimes deities by themselves, and sometimes as key offerings in a ritual
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Is there such a thing as Hindu Halloween?
In Hinduism, there is no exact equivalent of Halloween, but there are many rituals performed that recognises the proximity of ghosts and seeks to keep them away.
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Who is a Hindu? Karma, caste and free will.
Is Hinduism fatalistic? The answer depends on the context.
