dharma

BANGALORE: One need not be a graduate nor be wealthy to find ways of helping the disadvantaged. Neither was RB Shivakumar born with a silver spoon in his mouth, nor has he completed a university course. Yet he feeds the poor. Many years ago, Shivakumar, who had failed his SSLC examinations, had started helping his [...]

The 2016 American Presidential election currently has a large number of candidates on the Republican side, and a remarkable battle between two candidates on the Democratic side. Rather than endorsing any of the candidates, I want to take a look at some of the essential political background, especially from the point of view of Sanatana [...]

My take on this issue – as I have explained in several talks: Such a large-scale and irreversible gamble by any organization/institution would be rash, unless first analyzed carefully. This analysis includes developing all likely scenarios and assigning probabilities for likely outcomes. No corporate entity rushes into such an extreme position based on emotions or [...]

“Prof Vamsee Juluri faces Hinduism’s critics frontally, be it the categorisation of Amarnath as a “penis-shaped lump of ice”, pornographic depictions of Ganesh, or Wendy Doniger’s flawed writings that put the Vedic people at par with the white settlers who destroyed the Native Americans and Hitler’s Nazis. While anti-Hindu writings of the colonial era can [...]

Of all Indian scriptures, the Bhagavat Gita has likely been the one most commented on. India’s sages, yogis, philosophers, thinkers have, as a rule, regarded it a sacred duty to add theirs to the long list of commentaries on these eighteen brief chapters from the Mahabharata—a mere 700 slokas which have left the deepest of [...]

When my son (who at the time of writing is 4 years old) was born, I felt connected with the vastness of eternity in a way that I had never felt before. Having a a child of your own is an amazing experience – seeing someone who looks like you playing, learning, being mischievous in [...]

When someone harms you or someone to whom you have a sense of responsibility, getting suitable justice, or ensuring that the perpetrator is punished is not always easy. In Hinduism we have the concept of karma, so if justice is not easy to come by there is a temptation to feel that even if we [...]

“The company of the great is very difficult, even inaccessible, but it is infallible.” (Narada Bhakti Sutras. 39) Literally speaking, “sat” means truth, and “sang” means to be associated with. Satsang in Hinduism usually refers to a gathering of spiritual aspirants, and participating is such gatherings is meant to lead to tremendously greater progress than [...]

Since time immemorial there have been strong and influential Western women who have been drawn to and been inspired by Hinduism, and who have taken up the mantle of Hindu Dharma, becoming great leaders, swaminis, and gurus as keepers and vanguards of this ancient culture. [...]

(Speech given at the Dharma Civilization Foundation’s Strategic Retreat, SVYASA, Jigani/Bengaluru, 5-7 February 2015) A knife is sharpened by shaving away all the superfluous material that makes it dull. A sharp knife is a live case of “less is more”: less material means more sharpness. At an action-oriented “strategic retreat”, our knife should be sharpened [...]