Don’t be limited By the weight of the sand That pleasant softness on a beach Sandcastles breaking in the hand Don’t be limited By the weight of the scale That glass holding the wine Following a molten trail Don’t be limited By the weight of the world That metal under the earth Gold, Sapphire, Ruby or Emerald Don’t be limited To just a coloured gem on a crown Or a...
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There are so many aspects, interpretations as well as rituals associated with every Deity that the Scriptures are replete with stories and anecdotes. Each one of us can derive that which most resonates with our own inner self. As the many WhatsApp messages and FB posts were surfacing today with greetings and blessings for Basant Panchami & salutations to Ma Saraswati, I remembered a...
Read MoreWhen I learnt this morning that Yukti had passed away, along with the sadness which is inevitable at the passing away of someone known, I also found myself smiling fondly. She and I weren’t particularly close, even the relationship wasn’t too direct, more like a Basanti relationship from Sholay. She was the daughter of my late ex husband’s first cousin, though the same age as him and also his classmate in school for many...
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As many of the 90 odd women came and spoke to me after I ended the workshop with them a few days back, I realized I had touched a chord in them. They had been so caught up being Mothers and wives and daughters in law and the many other relationships that defined them, that they hadn’t come face to face with themselves in a long time. Some underlying discontent had tormented most of them from...
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The Samundar manthan (Churning of the Ocean) story is a very well known one. I had many years back written an interpretation of the same from the perspective of a Spiritual aspirant. But like all stories of traditional wisdom there are alternative interpretations and not merely from the spiritual perspective but also many other. The Leela of Kanhaiya(story of Krishna) can be a lesson on child...
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My very dear friend complained this morning about my lack of response on a post she had recently done about the lynching of the man in Dadri for allegedly eating beef, cow slaughter and the upheaval in all echelons of society, especially the targeting of a certain section of society based on their religion and eating habits. Commenting on politics and religion and social at a collective level, I...
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Yes, Varanasi is the holy city, the oldest continuous city of the world, the city where every deity from every faith has representation, the city where people go to die, the city where there are crematoriums where the fire of the funeral pyre has not gotten extinguished in over a hundred years, where sighting a procession with a dead body is common every day occurrence, where visiting a...
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Yes, it sounds like an oxymoron. Cause typically surrender means to give up, especially in the face of circumstances where there is no strength or resources left to fight any more. Like a meek acceptance of recognition of lack of ability to go on. Like a last resort to salvage what one can of an unpleasant situation, knowing there is only more to lose if one went on! So how can something that...
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From the 17th of July 2015 begin the Ashadha Navratri, also known as Gupt Navratri and also as the Gayatri Navaratri. These are not the days when you will find special thali meals for those observing the fast at fast food chains. Neither are these days for delighting in dance and revelry in the guise of Garbha. Nor does it culminate in ostentatious gifting, and feasting and gambling in the name...
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Sitting around Babaji, though unable to decipher the reason why, we were all feeling light and happy. In the contrasting setting of modern women clad in jeans and this starkly dressed Kapali Baba, the discussion of relevance of fasting in modern times ensued. While none of us had any issue with the benefits of fasting for health and medical reasons, we did observe that from the religious point...
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