The story of the Churning of the Ocean (samudra- or amṛta-manthana) goes to the very heart of Hinduism. It is found in various versions in the Purāṇas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata, and is referenced in the Vedic hymns. It is a story about the very nature of being and the…

There is no time without space, and no space without time. Reality is existence (sat), consciousness (cit), and our capacity to make sense of it (ānanda). These three, in their universal forms, are represented by Viṣṇu, Śiva, and the Goddess, and behind each lurks the mystery of time. Since we…

Scientific narratives can jar common sense. Thus an electron can be at two places at the same time, even traveling simultaneously through two holes. Matter can collapse and then disappear altogether, and then reappear at some other place. …

The Kailāsanātha Temple at Ellora is perhaps the world’s grandest artistic conception in which the entire structure, together with its ornamentations and sculptures, was carved out of a single rock. The temple, which is enclosed within a mountain, has large and dynamic carvings that creates a dramatic effect. This architectural…

The world is going through extraordinary change, and all signs point to India playing a prominent role in the new order. If the past few centuries were about discovery and control of the outer, the world is now in the dangerous phase of control of the inner by chemicals, pharma…

Empathy is a universal emotion, which is why people cry over suffering in books, stories and movies (even those about animals). Suffering at an epic scale as in a war or in the bombing of cities is rationalized by the mind as something over which no one has control. Despite…

The chimpanzee and the human have similar sensory capacities, but why can some humans do science or poetry and chimps apparently can’t? If truth be told, the memory of chimps is far superior to that of humans as revealed in the famous study on a chimpanzee named Ayumu at the…

The Russians see the war in Ukraine as their response to the attempted expansion of NATO to their borders. They feel that security considerations demand that they must thwart the expansion at all costs. But there is another angle to the war. A couple of weeks ago, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry…

Hinduism describes the nature of the outer and inner realities and instructs on ways to obtain self-knowledge. The formal name of Hinduism is Sanātana Dharma (Eternal or Universal Law) and its oldest text is the Ṛgveda. It also has a huge amount of ancillary literature that covers a wide variety…