Religions
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Trishanku in America or those betwixt and between
Trishanku is a famous character in Hindu mythology who hangs upside down between heaven and earth, belonging nowhere.
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Who is a Hindu? Indra: Entitled, insecure, dispensable
How the primary god and great warrior of the Vedas ended up as a minor Puranic god.
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The spread of Hinduism
By the time the Upanishads were composed, 2,500 years ago, there was a familiarity with the Gangetic Plain.
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Padmavat: An Epic Love Story
More than five hundred years after the Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi wrote his epic poem Padmavat, the story of Padmavati, princess of Simhal and her lover and husband, Ratansen, the king of Chittor, continues to capture the imagination of…
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Marking your expiry date
Nothing lasts forever. We know that. Yet, culture is all about ‘built to last’.
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Homophobia is subtle in Gurudom
Most of these gurus do oppose the criminalising of homosexuality, and so appear to be modern. However, they do see homosexuality as a deviance (or its Sanskrit equivalent), or a ‘fluidity’ that needs explanation, management and re-alignment.
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Devlok 3: With Devdutt Pattanaik
After the enormous success of the first two seasons of EPIC Channel’s Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik, India’s favourite mythologist is back with a third instalment to answer these questions and more, this time delving deeper into Hinduism and other religions…
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Yagna or Puja
Vedic yagna is conventionally translated as ‘sacrifice’ and Puranic puja is translated as ‘worship’. This translation is the basic problem.
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In Hindu mythology, Lord Vishnu is associated with economic activities
In contrast, Shiva is about letting go and accepting what is while Vishnu is about making efforts to enjoy a good life.
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The Gita without the Mahabharata
However, when we remove the Gita from the Mahabharata we miss out on the context. And so, miss out much of the learnings.
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Who is a Hindu? The temple as saviour
Our monumental temples, such as Puri’s Jagannatha temple, were a reaction to the arrival of a foreign faith, and a sign of resistance to it.
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Global misogyny
One finds misogyny in some form or the other in every religion, if one is looking for it. One will find respect for women too, in every religion, if one is looking for it.
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Cultural leadership: hierarchy in the east and individualism in the west
A cultural understanding of leadership, an appreciation of cultural differences, work at a collective or statistical level, not at an individual level.
