2018 / Articles
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Who is a Hindu? Hindu ship of Theseus
Traditions may change every few years, but one school of thought says the essence of Hinduism will remain the same.
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Ancient incest in the sky
In the Vedas, long before people knew about gods such as Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, there was a story of how the god of heaven committed incest with the goddess of dawn, his daughter
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No definite article in Indic culture
A word like Satya, does not mean the truth, it means infinite truth. Mithya, doesn’t mean falsehood or interpretations or perceptions, it means limited or finite truth.
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The nymph and the hermit
The most visible form of connecting with the material world is the sexual act.
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Who is a Hindu? The forest of sacred stories
Puranas introduce us to the classical Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and their spouses — goddesses Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati.
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Men and women in Hindu mythology
God cannot exist without Goddess. Goddess cannot exist without God. Indian author Devdutt Pattanaik sheds light on Hindu mythology.
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Mountain of Vedas
Through stories of the mountain of Vedas and the blinking gods, Hindus were made aware of the scale of the universe and its wisdom, very different from the finite, closed word of ancient Greeks, inherited by the church
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Lessons from Indra’s elephant
Legend has it that fear of Indian war elephants was one of the reason that prevented Alexander from marching into the subcontinent. By the time of Ashoka, the elephant embodied kingship and so naturally came to be associated with Indra,…
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Who is a Hindu? Understanding Hindu stories
A typical Durga image, established collectively, represents the collective power of the village which helps in defeating calamities. This then becomes an anthropological approach in the study of Hindu mythology.
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View: Power has an inherent interest to keep things secret
Published on 6th October, 2018, in The Economic Times. A simple way to harness power is to keep a secret. This tendency, of being covert, has been used across time and space, around the world, in myth and in reality,…
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Metaphors of the Goddess
It is a mystery for many why Hindus, for whom divinity is both male and female, treat women so badly.
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Vedic approach to desire
The Vedic approach was very different. Suffering can be reduced when we pay attention to, and try to satisfy, each other’s desires.
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How sex became unholy
Today, we equate celibacy with social work. The popular belief is that a person who does not have sex has transcended desire. That such a man is more concerned with the welfare of the larger public world than his personal,…
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Who is a Hindu? The politics of bodily fluids
By using body physiology to create a spiritual hierarchy, some Hindu orders have placed men above women.
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Is Ganesha married?
In much of the North Indian traditions, Ganesha has two wives: Riddhi and Siddhi. Riddhi is associated with material growth, and Siddhi with intellectual or spiritual growth
