Speaking Tree

Published on 1st September, 2018, in Speaking Tree Back in the year 2011, I went to an exhibition of Sudarshan Sahoo, master stone carver from Odisha, at Jehangir Art Gallery, and saw an image of Krishna, standing with flute in hand. What caught my eye was the nose-ring worn by Krishna on the right side of the nose. Women traditionally wore it on the left side, and men on the right. I smiled as few notice the right side nose-ring on the face of Jagannath, the form in which Krishna is worshipped in Odisha. Noticing me smile, the sculptor said, “Krishna of the Raas Lila ..

Published on 5th September, 2016, on SpeakingTree.in . In many temples of south India, it is common to find the image of Shiva seated under a banyan tree facing south. This image is called Dakshinamurti, or the south-facing image. It presents Shiva as the teacher of teachers. Dakshinamurti sits atop Mount Kailash, under the Pole Star, which is located in the North, and which is still, indicating it is the centre of the whirling world. He sits in the shade of a banyan tree.Banyan trees are associated with the hermit traditions of India, and hermits bring knowledge of the mind to the materialistic world of ..

Published on 12th August, 2016, in Speaking Tree. Cow protection is an integral part of Hindu lore. Go-hatya, or killing a cow, is viewed as a terrible crime. In the Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa, Rama’s ancestor Dilipa offers to sacrifice himself in order to save a cow from a lion. In the Godavari Mahatmya, the sage Gautama accidentally kills a cow, and the only way to wash away the demerits that stain his soul is to invoke Shiva and beg him to let Ganga to flow south of the Vindhyas as Godavari. These stories reveal the Hindu discomfort with killing of cows. There are references to ..

Published on 4th August, 2016, in Speaking Tree. The origins of the Olympic Games can be traced to a competitive sport played as tribute to dead warriors. Homer’s Iliad mentions that Achilles held funeral games on the shores of Troy in honour of his male lover, Patroclus. Games were also held to celebrate the killing of a foe. The Pythian Games celebrated Apollo’s slaying of the Python. The Nemean games celebrated Hercules’ killing of the Nemean lion. There are a number of possible explanations for the practice of funeral games. First, it honoured the dead warrior by re-enacting his military skills. Second, it served as ..

Published on 15th June, 2016, in Speaking Tree. Many young people adore Shiva as a ‘cool dude’. Why? Because he is visualised as being indifferent to other people’s opinions regarding his appearance and lifestyle, and is content being alone, smoking his chillum, full of ganja (ganjika, in Sanskrit), a narcotic made using the flowers of the female cannabis plant, or drinking bhang, a milder narcotic drink made using the leaves of the male cannabis plant. “If Shiva takes drugs, so must I,” said a student to his teacher. “A good idea,” said the teacher, “but first you must make yourself Shiva, no?” This leads us ..

Published on 20th June, 2015, in the Speaking Tree. Yoga can be seen in three ways: the modern way where it is seen as a holistic therapy for all physical and mental problems; the upanishadic way elaborated in the Bhagwad Gita, where it is an intellectual, emotional and social technique for Self-realisation; and finally the Siddha way where it is a means to attain supernatural powers. This third method is rarely talked about, yet traditionally for most Indians, until recent times this aspect of yoga was most familiar. A jogi was a wandering holy man, ascetic and alchemist, mendicant and magician, all rolled into one. ..

Published on 1st May, 2015, in the Speaking Tree. In Roman times, Sunday was the first day of the week – an important day named after the Sun-God. Helios or Hyperion was the Greco-Roman Sun-God, who later merged with another Greek god, Apollo, the youthful, energetic, beautiful god who shot arrows that got rid of the darkness. When the Roman Empire became Christian, the day of the Sun became Dominica, the Day of the Lord, the day when – according to Christians – God rested after creating the world in six days. Unlike the months of the year, weekdays have no astronomical correlations. It is ..