Agama

Published on 16th September, 2018, in Mumbai Mirror Krishna steals women’s clothes. Ram abandoned his wife. Shiva smokes narcotics. Durga kills a buffalo. Hindus worship weird gods! These are the comments I hear from people who have moved on from Hinduism, embracing other faiths. But often, also from well-read Hindus. Hinduism embarrasses these intellectual Hindus as it doesn’t comply with their preconceived notions of what god and religion should be. And where did these preconceptions come from? From education – the assumption that god is good and all-powerful, and that religion is supposed to create a just and fair society based on ethical and moral ..

Published on 27th May, 2018, in Mid-Day. The hymns Rig Veda, as we know it today, were composed over 3,000 years ago around Punjab and Haryana, and refer to a time when there was movement eastwards towards the Gangetic Plain, a movement facilitated by fire. By the time the Upanishads were composed, 2,500 years ago, there was a familiarity with the Gangetic Plain. This is the region, and the time, associated with the life of the Buddha and the Jina Mahavira. Around 2,000 years ago, the Mahabharata had been put down in writing in Vedic Sanskrit, after centuries of oral transmission. Here we have some ..