Year: 2023
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What is wrong with the Western political class?
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I came across an article that I thought had many important insights about the Western political establishment. Here are some excerpts: Excerpt 1:A breakdown of diplomacy doesn’t quite describe how bad things have become. The behavior of US and European leaders has become increasingly unhinged and any semblance of rationality has been abandoned. It is…
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Advice to a young educator – Part 2
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(Continued from last week…) Young potential educator (Ype): I am not saying that I agree with you but you have certainly given me some food for thought. Tell me some more about modern education. Me: Let us look at it from two perspectives. Think of a large school. A school with thousands of children, hundreds…
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Advice to a young educator
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I was talking to a young man who wanted to leave his corporate job and go back to his town to start a school and I thought that the (slightly exaggerated version of the) conversation we had may be useful to other young people interested in education. The conversation went something like this… Me: Why…
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The Crisis of Global Liberalism
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Excerpts from an interview of Alexander Dugin, Russian philosopher and author of over 70 books: Question: If Liberalism won against its only competitors – Communism and Fascism, where does the crisis of global Liberalism come from? – Till Communism and Fascism (openly totalitarian ideologies and products of the same Western political science that created Liberalism)…
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Ideas On Detoxification
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I met some distant relatives for the first time recently and was pleasantly surprised to see that although they were almost 50 years old, they were healthy and happy and vitally alive. It made me realise what a strange world we live in, where, if you are a working person, you get progressively unwell as…
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Parisamvaad at Bangalore
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We have just finished a 5-day contemplative, residential, parisamvaad, a detailed discussion, on tradition and modernity, at Bangalore. The Parisamvaad was organized by Udhbhavaha, an alternative school that works closely with SIDH. Held at the Art of living ashram, the parisamvaad had around 20 participants who had a slow conversation around some passages from ‘Illuminations’,…
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How to get out of your own way
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The following is an excerpt from a talk by Alan Watts available on youtube… The whole idea of self-improvement is a hoax. What happens if you KNOW beyond any shadow of doubt that there is nothing you can do to be better. Its a kind of a relief isn’t it? We are so used to…
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Hanuman’s first meeting with Shri Ram
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बाल्मीकि रामायण के किष्किन्धाकाण्ड में सुग्रीव के कहने पर हनुमान जी राम और लक्ष्मण के समीप जाकर, एक साधारण तपस्वी का रूप धारण कर अत्यन्त विनीत भाव व मधुर वाणी में वार्तालाप प्रारम्भ करते हैं। वे राम-लक्ष्मण से पहली बार मिल रहे हैं लेकिन फिर भी उनकी बातों को सुन और उनके व्यवहार को देख…
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Some More Perspectives on Violence
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Last week, when I was looking for the quote on violence in ‘I Am That, Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj’, I came across some more relevant excerpts. Take a look… Excerpt 1: Q: Admitted that the world in which I live is subjective and partial. What about you? In what kind of world do you…
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A Perspective On Violence
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Recently there was a lot of talk in my college hostel WhatsApp group about the continuing violence across different parts of India. It brought to my mind something I had read in ‘I Am That, Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj’ and I thought I would hunt it down and quote it here as this week’s…
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The Empress of India
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“Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days is known as the Victorian era and was longer than any of her predecessors. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title…
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The Experience of Bharatiyata
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Recently I was at a function where there was a lot of talk about Bharatiyata. It struck me suddenly that everyone had a different understanding of what the word meant. Like the story of the blind men and the elephant. I thought of doing a survey, asking many people what they meant when they used…