Tantra at the British Museum

A short review of the exhibition ‘Tantra: enlightenment to revolution’ which is currently on at the British Museum.

On worshipping the sun as god

The sun has been worshipped as a deity in many of the major religious traditions in history, dating at least from the ancient Egyptian religion which worshipped the sun god 𒊑𒀀 (a.k.a. Re or Ra).

Ethics and Action in Indian Literature

Dharma, religion and morality in the Mahabharata

Chance events and Indian Philosophy

Encountering reality as radically singular, unique and ineffable

Theology and Indian Philosophy

A translation and analysis of the Nāsadīya Sūkta

The Cosmos in Indian Philosophy

Reflecting on the sacred fig tree as a metaphor for the cosmos

The Self in Indian Philosophy

Reflecting on the chariot as a metaphor for the Self

Death and the Rig Veda

King Dasharatha cremates Shravana and his aged Parents — Wikimedia Commons (B.N.Goswamy/ Gazal world) Ideas about some kind of afterlife are commonly found in all religions. In the Bhagavad Gītā, Krishna explains that those who resort to him do not get ‘punarjanma’ (rebirth in this world). A precursor to ‘punarjanma’ is the idea of ‘punarmṛtyu’ or ‘re-death’, found […]

T.S. Eliot and Indian Philosophy

T.S. Eliot — Wikimedia Commons (Octave.H) It is well-known that T.S. Eliot engaged deeply with Indian philosophy in ways which significantly influenced his worldview and his poetry. In fact,Eliot was a student of the eminent Sanskrit scholar Professor Charles Rockwell Lanman at Harvard University, and in fact Eliot’s PhD supervisor there, Josiah Royce, had also earlier learnt […]

Hymn to all gods (№2)

What follows is my own translation of Rig Veda Mandala 1 Sūkta 90. The final lines of this verse are well-known and well-loved as they feature in one of the Śānti Mantras. The repeated reference to honey (madhu) also seems to be picked up on later in the Madhu-vidyā section of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad. The […]