Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
The Mysterious Deaths of Bhakti Saints
The recurring motif of saints who challenge orthodoxy dying mysterious deaths, performing samadhi (voluntarily leaving their lives at a young age, as in the case of Gyandev), raises questions. …
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Articles
How Did the Guru Become More Godlike Than God?
Today, we find gurus speaking about gods like Ram and Krishna in their Ram-katha and Bhagavat-katha, yet the guru has become the focal point. …
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Articles
The Hindu History of Bengal
Published on 6th May, 2023, in Times of India. When we talk about Bengal, we speak of its partition. The eastern part became Muslim Bangladesh, the western part became communist West Bengal. It almost seemed as if Hinduism had been wiped out in this eastern corner of India. Yet, this is where Hinduism was defined…
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Articles
Bhakti Is Devotion? Is Loyalty?
Published on 4th February, 2023, in Economic Times. Most family business owners in India prefer loyal staff over professional staff. Loyal staff can be paid less, work on Saturdays, take abuse but they will never leave your side. The professional staff will leave you if they get a better offer. That makes the loyal staff…
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Articles
Distracted by Balaram’s Beauty
Published on 23rd October, 2022, in Mid-day. In Persian lore, we hear the story of Yusuf (biblical Joseph), the son of Yaqub (Jacob). Yusuf was a very nice person, very handsome, extremely talented, much loved by his father, to the point that his brothers became jealous and sold him in slavery in Egypt. Yusuf was…
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Articles
How Advaita Shapes the Indian Headshake
Published on 17th September, 2022, in Economic Times. The most popular school of Vedanta is called Advaita. Advaita means non-dual. In English it is often translated as monism. But there is a difference between the structure of the two words. Advaita is refuting the existence of two. Monism is acknowledging the existence of only one,…
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Articles
History of Bharat in Seven Days
Published on 10th July, 2022, in Mid-day. When you compress India’s history to one week, we gain a rather delightful perspective of our past. Indian history from Harappan times till today is approximately 5,000 years, so each day of the week is approximately a period of 700 years. On Sunday, in Northwest India, farming appears.…
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Articles
Can Hanuman Protect Us From Political Sorcery?
Published on 27th April, 2022, in Times of India. Hanuman Chalisa is a 400-year-old Awadhi poem of forty (chalis) verses, aimed at invoking Hanuman to get health, wealth, wisdom, security, and success. Jai Hanuman Gyan gun sagar. Jai Kapis Tihun lok ujagar. Victory to Hanuman who is the ocean of wisdom and virtue. Victory to…
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Articles
Bankura Horse for Dharma Thakur
Published on 24th April, 2022, in Mid-day. Terracotta Bankura horses serve as decoration today. But for many centuries, these were offerings made in rural Bengal to the god Dharma who is formless and all-powerful. Stories about Dharma Thakur were written in the 17th and 18th century, in the Mangal Kavya tradition of Bengal where specific…
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Articles
How Hindus of Andaman and Nicobar Rejected Religious Bigotry,
Published on 9th April, 2022, in Times of India. Located where the Andaman Sea meets the Bay of Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar is a string of over 500 islands, of which only over 30 are inhabited. The northern islands are called Andaman and its original inhabitants comprise the “Negrito” tribes (Onge, Sentinelese, Jarawa) who came…
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Articles
From Shrinathji to Jagannath: How Krishna Avatars Change Across India.
Published on 29th January, 2022, in Times of India. Five hundred years ago, when the Mughals ruled north India, there was an explosion of Bhakti poetry across India. From north to south, people expressed their devotion to different forms of god using emotionally charged language. One of these forms of God was that of Krishna.…
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Articles
Why Does Hindutva Not Like Historians?
Published on 4th December, 2021, in Times of India. The subject that we know as history emerged only in the 19th century. Before that, memory, legends and evidence-based history were all combined as a single unit. They were stories from the past, communicated by bards to make communities feel good about the past or to…
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Articles
How Many Types Of Sanyasis Are There?
Published on 6th November, 2021. in Times of India. The idea of hermits, or the wandering ascetic, unwed, and nomadic, was an idea elaborated in post-Vedic literature, dated to 2,500 years ago, when we started hearing about shramanas India is the land of sanyasis (or hermits) but the hermits are of different types. Harappan seals…
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Articles
Brief History of Hindu Mythology
Published on 31st October, 2021, in Mid-day. Hindu mythology is not static. It has changed over history. In the Rig Veda (1,500 BCE), we are introduced to Indra. He is a powerful celestial being who rides chariots and who defeats enemies like Vritra, Pani and Vala to secure stolen cows and release water. We don’t…
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Articles
Rivalry of Sants and Naths
Published on 10th October, 2021, in Mid-day. In 13th Century Maharashtra, Dyaneshwar translated the Bhagavad Gita into the local language. It was a great cultural revolution. He encouraged people to use emotions and feelings to connect with the divine. This was the Bhakti Marg or path of devotion. Here, Dyaneshwar or Gyan-dev is addressed as…
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Articles
Festival Of Women, By Women, For Women
Published on 12th September, 2021, in Mid-day. The word ‘teej’ refers to the third day of the lunar cycle when women fast, stay awake in all night vigils, hoping to find good husbands if not married, and praying for the health of husbands if married. Hariyali Teej is celebrated during the waxing moon of Shravan,…