पश्यन्ति paśyantī

AN ODE TO THE COSMIC DANCER With a roar, out of darkness,  The unborn gives birth to time itself Out of infinite nothing,  he manifests as everything With the rhythm of birth and dissolution,  he dances in unison To comprehend this cosmic dance,  we give him name and form Dwarfed by ignorance,  we see him not in our timeless selves Churning oceans within, sri asks, is there a permanence of anything  other than the unmanifest nothing? _____ PURPORT With a roar, out of darkness,  he gives birth to time itself Commentary: When the Universe was created time (Kala) and space came into existence from the darkness of  “non-existence” (shunya).  This “nonexistence” is unaffected by time since time itself came into existence from it. For visualizing this event let this “non-existence” be personified and labeled as Shiva. The incomprehensible event is visualized as Shiva’s roar Rudra....

जन्माष्टमी  Janmashtami thoughts On this auspicious day, I have decided to write something I wanted to for a while. About 800 years ago, the great composer Jayadeva, in his magnum opus, Gita Govinda, described how mesmerized Radha was at the sight of the deep colored (neela kalevara), handsome Krishna (meaning the dark one): ध्यायति मुग्ध वधुरधिकं मधुसूदन वदन सरोजं dhyayati mugdha vadhoo radhikam madhusoodana vadana sarojam Fast forward to 1978. Poet Narendra Sharma writes Yashomati maiyya se pooche nandlaala,  Radha kyon gori aur mein kyon kala ?!! Notice how the aesthetics of the post-colonial Indian mind made a 180 degree flip. The color which gave Krishna his name; on whose beauty, great poetry was penned; one whose complexion was compared with the beauty of the dark clouds (shyam rang), suddenly, in the modern era, has a complex and feels inferior in front of Radha's fair skin (a physical attribute of Radha that was hither...

धर्म  DHARMA Preamble I write these pieces for our next generation and share with my own kith and kin. I always feel that many of our foundational ideas are so progressive but they are never discussed in ways that our youth can relate to. My attempt is to only start a discussion on how relevant some of these ideas are even today, who we are as a civilization, and why we do what we do. I expect this to be read more as a discussion and is not intended to be preachy - although I realize that it can sometimes walk that precarious line and inadvertently cross it sometimes. For those shortcomings, I ask for your forgiveness. What is Dharma? Growing up as a  Bharatiya  (Indian), we all take the word Dharma for granted. It is commonly used to mean one or all of the following: religion, righteousness, duty, being good to others, being truthful, etc. But does it have a clear definition? Our itihasas and puranas are full of stories describing Dharma through riddles, situa...

ब्रह्मन्   BRHMAN Preamble I am writing this piece for the uninitiated young minds who have little or no knowledge of Bharatiya thought. I am not an expert in this subject and continue to be its student. My intention is to share my own excitement in studying this subject through select ideas and concepts that are timeless and so profound in their conception, that they continue to remain relevant today. I have tried to describe these ancient ideas in ways that are relatable to any curious mind. In this attempt I have chosen to keep it simple, sometimes at the expense of subtleties and nuances. Pardon the typos, grammar, etc. Like before, I am sharing it rough cut! Vyavaharika Experience We experience the world around us in the form of the air we breath, the water we drink, the earth we walk on, the food we eat, the trees and plants that we are surrounded by, the billions of people that we share this experience with, and the millions of species of microbe...