Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Who is a good Hindu father?
Published on 23rd June, 2019, in Mumbai Mirror Indians are obsessed with their mothers. An overview of Bollywood films reveals that. Mothers can do no wrong. They always sacrifice their life for their children. Good sons always choose mother over wife. By contrast, fathers are considered absent, leaving the mother to take care of the…
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Articles
The non-violent Ram: Stories from the Jain tradition – and how they differ from the Hindu canon
Published on 12th May, 2019, in Mumbai Mirror Followers of Hindutva believe that Jainism is just a branch of Hinduism, despite the fact that it is deemed a minority religion in India’s Constitution. They often use the phrase Sanatan Dharma as an umbrella term to include both faiths. While there are no doubt many things…
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Articles
The metaphor of the forest
Published on 21st April, 2019, in Mid-day. To understand Hindu mythology, it is critical to understand the metaphor of forests. Forests represent the default wild world, where might is right, where strong prey on the weak; while culture represents the world, where the forest has been domesticated, where might is no longer right, and the…
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Articles
Dharma is not a game of thrones
We live in times where politicians talk of Ram and Ram-rajya, but take no lessons on what raj-dharma meant to Ram and his Ikshavaku clan. They refuse to take responsibility for failures of their own governance…
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Articles
Beyond justice and forgiveness
Published on 3rd March, 2019, in Mumbai Mirror. The two ideas may shape our understanding of conflicts, but Hinduism, which is based on karma, is more complex. Whenever we are deeply hurt, a question comes to our mind: do we seek justice through retribution, or do we let go? Justice and forgiveness are two concepts…
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Articles
So many different Indras
Published on 16th February, 2019, in Mid-day. When we speak of Indra, we must keep in mind that the scriptures refer to six different types of Indra, belonging to different periods of history…
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Articles
Who is a Hindu? The Curious Case of Brahmins
Published on 17th February, 2019 in Mumbai Mirror. In Hindu scriptures, killing a Brahmin is deemed the worst of sins. It is called Brahma-hatyapaap. And he who kills a Brahmin is considered the greatest sinner…
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Articles
The march of Yudhishthira’s horse
This is not just a conquest by a victorious king, but also an attempt to reconcile with former enemies…
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Articles
Bypassing the womb
In Puranic literature, we come across the concept of ayonija, someone who is not born from the womb, and consequently, is able to bypass or rise above the cycle of birth and death…
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Articles
Who is a Hindu? The forest of sacred stories
Puranas introduce us to the classical Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and their spouses — goddesses Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati…
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Articles
Who is a Hindu? Why do intellectuals scorn Hindu deities?
Hindus as it doesn’t comply with their preconceived notions of what god and religion should be…
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Articles
Misreading Gita As Motivation
The Bhagavad Gita is a philosophy being presented in the middle of a battleground…
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Articles
Othering the Asuras
Published on 8th July, 2018, in Mid-day. In Hindu mythological stories narrated in the Puranas, Brahma’s son Kashyapa has two wives. One called Aditi, the other called Diti. Aditi’s children are called Adityas or Devas, and they reside in the celestial realms above the sky. Diti’s sons are called Daityas, and they reside in the…
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Articles
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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Articles
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…
