Desire To Think
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Family and society in the Vedic period
On the occasion of Guru Pūrṇimā, our thoughts may turn to the venerable lineages of successive teachers and students in India. As we will see, the need to record and preserve genealogical details of family and pedagogical lineages was already recognized in India in the earliest times. Indeed, this is very likely a continuation of…
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Þæt gefeoht ƿið Ucrægnan
On þissum gēare com micel landhere fram Russlande on Ucrægnan 7 micel Russisc sciphere ðurh þǣm blæcan sǣ oð þone Ucrægnan riman. Þās herigeas wǣron swā micel þe ærest gehwā þōhte þæt se Russisc here ahten sige.
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Ethics in the Upanishads
Literature from across the world engages with ethical questions and moral quandaries, and plays a role in cultivating our moral sensibilities. Religious literatures often present ethical teachings indirectly, such as in the form of parables, or more directly, such as moral commandments. In the Upanishads of late Vedic India, we find both ethical and metaphysical…
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On war in Ukraine and in the Mahabharata
In the ancient Indian epic Mahābhārata, we read about a shocking and devastating war at Kurukṣetra that seems to have many parallels with the ongoing war in Ukraine. In this summary of some key points about the Kurukṣetra war, we may perhaps find some revealing similarities.
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The theft of the mead
In a recent article, I discussed the theft of fire in the Rig Veda, and this may remind us of another similar incident of theft from the gods, viz. the theft of mead or soma by a falcon.
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Thoughts on the film Memoria
The film Memoria is highly unusual and intriguing, prompting me to reflect on how to make sense of what is actually happening in the film. Rather giving any kind of comprehensive review or summary, however, I am just sharing here some of the workings of my own mind in response to the film.
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गुरु लक्ष्मीङ्कर की कहानी
तिब्बत और भारत के सांस्कृतिक और ऐतिहासिक सम्बन्ध कई प्रकार के हैं | अतीत में, बहुत सी भारतीय साहित्यिक और आध्यात्मिक शास्त्रों को तिब्बत भेजा गया था, और उनके तिब्बती भाषा अनुवाद भी किया गया था | इनमें से बौद्ध ग्रन्थ हैं, जैसे के नागार्जुन, शान्तरक्षित, और कमलशील के लेखन | साथ ही व्याकरण के…
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Creation in the Rig Veda (again)
again from the tenth book. Though a different verse, the immensity of the boulder does give an impression of something elementary, mysterious and primordial that perhaps matches the idea of creation that starts with ‘night’ and basic elements such as ‘water’.
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On stealing from the gods
wisdom, forbidden knowledge, and access to divinity itself. Divine trickery may be involved. And the theft may be followed by divine anger and punishment. This article will briefly review and compare three such myths, that of the eating from the ‘tree of knowledge’ in the Garden of Eden, the Greek myth of the theft of…
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Emotions and our sense of time
time. The deepest parts of our personalities are structured in terms of our sense of time, such as our memories from the past, our hopes and dreams for the future, and our awareness of our own mortality.
Got any book recommendations?
Desire To Think 