The Power game between Past and Present Karma
In 2012, Prof Benjamin A. Converse from University of Virginia and Prof Jane L. Risen from University of Chicago wrote an interesting paper titled “Investing in Karma When Wanting Promotes Helping” in the Psychological More...
First Things First – A Lesson Karna Forgot
It is not without reason that the character of Karna has attracted so much fascination and attention from readers of the Mahabharata. People have seen and identified in him an ideal friend, an ideal giver, and above More...
Breaking the Myth of Beef in Vedas
Any lifestyle that does not cause any violence (himsā) or causes the least violence on oneself and to other living entities (including humans) in this world, is said to be the best religion that one can follow(1). More...
Mahabharata and Charity
When trying to opine on an epic like the Mahabharata, perhaps the most appropriate way to keep one’s ego in check to be reminded of a verse from Ch 279 of the Shanti Parva, Moksha Dharma, which describes among More...
The Need for a Resurgent Bharat
There is an ongoing battle occurring at many levels relative to the concept of India and what India is, was and is meant to be. This is not merely a scholarly debate to arrive at truth but resembles more a struggle More...
Rudra: A Brief Journey through Early Śaiva Thought
[contextly_sidebar id=”bgsTWOzHyBVG1fiSJGPMk6nwzNh6gzBg”]There is a persistent motif of the deva Rudra (Śiva) being originally refused ritual offerings of the yajña to which the other deva-s were entitled. More...
The Realm of Indra
Indra is the Indo-Aryan version of the preeminent deity of the ancestral Indo-European pantheon. In the Vedic texts, we see remnants of what might have been an ancient tripartition of this deity, as manifest on More...
The legend of King Hayagrīva
After the Great War at Kurukṣetra and the conquest of Hastināpura, Yudhiṣṭhira went through a phase of deep despondency. Given his pacific nature, he was immensely troubled by the violence he had inflicted More...
Epic parallels and symbols in the 2014 elections
Even before Narendra Modi’s evocative Ganga arti and his prostration before the steps of Parliament, this election was replete with symbols. While all sides attempted to use them to their advantage, the BJP turned More...
The Need for a Kshatriya Mindset: Part 2
Read Part 1. We must all meditate on the image of Krishna and Arjuna on the battlefield, because this promotes something that is sorely needed in our community today, a Kshatriya mindset: that is, the proper values More...