Narada

Published on 19th May, 2019, in Mid-day. In the Puranas, we are told that Narada, the mind, was born from the thoughts of Brahma, and like all sages had the knowledge of Brahma vidya, or the ultimate truth of the world. He would go around the world sharing this knowledge and enabling people to break the cycle of birth and death. The problem was he went around divulging this knowledge to every son born of Daksha Prajapati. These sons, therefore, refused to marry, produce children, become householders and practise their vocation. Instead, they chose the path of renunciation, becoming hermits and ascetics. They began working ..

Published on 22nd August, 2016, on Outlookindia.com . Once upon a time, there was a monk in a Buddhist monastery who approached other monks to ‘def­ile’ (dusatha, in Pali) him. He probably meant sex, for in Buddhist lore, sexual desire was seen as contaminating one away from the path of dha­mma. The monks refused and so he approached the mahouts or elephant-grooms who lived in the vic­inity of the monastery. The mahouts obliged, but after the act started grumbling and speaking ill about the monastery and its residents. The monk was identified as a pandaka and it was decreed that a pandaka should not be ..