Religions
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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…
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How Gods, Demons Formed India’s Mountains, Rivers and Seas
Published on 28th January, 2023, in The Times of India. One of the ways you map India is through the Shakti Pithas. It is said that when the goddess got angry with her father, Daksha, for insulting her husband, Shiva,…
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How the Gayatri Mantra, composed by men, heard by men, for a male deity, became embodied as a goddess
Published on 27th January, 2023, in The Hindu. Mantra is a carefully crafted sound formula that has the power to invoke and anchor divine energy for the benefit of humans: this is what Hindus, Buddhists and Jains believe. Rig Veda…
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View: Privilege to Saraswati at the cost of Durga & Lakshmi is an old Brahmanical hangover
Published on 21st January, 2023, in Economic Times. In America, the state serves the rich. In China, the rich serve the state. The American politicians get the military to ensure American businesses have access to resources and markets. The Chinese…
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In Joshimath, the question is: What is the cost of pilgrimage?
Published on 12th January, 2023, in Indian Express. The pandas of Jagannath Puri in Odisha are often chastised for aggressively demanding daan and dakshina from pilgrims. They argue the temple is their mother – she feeds them through those who…
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Discovering Gay Generals in Jarasandha’s Army
Published on 12th January, 2023, in Times of India. In 2018, when the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality, Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Arun Kumar said, ‘Just like the Supreme Court, we also do not consider this criminal. But we do not…
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How Jainism Spread From North to South In India
Published on 11th January, 2023, in The Times of India. We are inclined to see religion from a historical point of view, through the lens of time. But we rarely see religion from the perspective of geography. We are told…
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Where Is the River Saraswati?
Published on 8th January, 2021, in Mid-day. In Gujarat, there is a river called Saraswati that originates in the Aravalli mountains, and runs for 350 km. In Uttarakhand, there is another Saraswati river that is a tributary of the Alakananda…
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The Sun Kings Who Ruled Sri Lanka
Published on 15th January, 2023, in Mid-day. As 2022 drew to a close, the Government of India admitted in Parliament that it is difficult to conclusively prove that Ram Setu, the bridge between India and Sri Lanka (visible until 500…
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Losing and Gaining the Head
Published on 1st January, 2023, in Mid-day. We have heard stories of how Shiva beheaded his father-in-law Daksha Prajapati and replaced Daksha’s head with that of a goat and how he beheaded his son Ganesha and replaced Ganesha’s head with…
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History of How Brahmins Migrated to All Parts of India
Published on 31st December, 2022, in Times of India. To appreciate the history of Africa, we have to study the history of its many tribes. To appreciate the history of India we have to study its many castes. Not the…
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The Meaning of Contentment
Published on 30th December, 2022, in The Hindu. At the start of anything new, like New Year, Hindus look towards Ganesha. We want him to remove obstacles from our lives, and usher in prosperity. We have been conditioned to see…
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One Christ, But So Many Churches
Published on 25th December, 2022, in Mid-day. About 1,900 years ago, documents were compiled in Israel that described the virgin birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, who was identified as the Christ, the anointed one, the prophesied…
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Tales Of Gods, Politics Of Kings
Published on 24th December, 2022, in Economic Times. If one goes to Kerala, one hears of “tharavad”. These were ancestral homes, where large joint families lived together. They controlled large tracts of land. A similar system is found in faraway…
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How Hara and Hari Helped Kings of Cambodia
Published on 17th December, 2022, in Times of India. In the 5th century AD, i.e. 1,500 years ago, the Gupta kings rose in India. They were amongst the earliest royal families to establish themselves through a Hindu framework. Following the…
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Those Who Give Gifts Voluntarily Are Truly Rare and Great
Published on 10th December, 2022, in Economic Times. Many people think the world is unravelling itself today. Politicians insist this unravelling began a thousand years ago with the coming of Muslim warlords of Central Asia (Turuka) followed by the Europeans.…