Yantra , Tantra, Mantra

The apologists and propagandists who seek to justify Islamic rule in India invariably point to mostly two specific  figures -Akbar and Tipu Sultan for their vaunted secularism ,glory and nationalism. Let us leave us aside the curious aspect that in nearly 700 years or intermittent Muslim rule which saw hundreds of rulers in various parts of India, secularists and Muslim apologists are only able to provide two which are supposed to be palatable to Hindus! And even these two are certainly are not lacking in bigotry and monstrosity. That more than anything highlighted the extreme cruelty and exploitation of most of the other Muslim rulers rather than suggest a tolerance and humane governance was typical of Islamic empire by using these two individuals as example! But that is the sad state of debate and scholarship today! Lets start in chronological order. I find it rather strange that even some Hindu revivalists such as Sitaram Goel are willing to pardon Akbar's excesses if only he...

Kammas vs Puranas The essence of the Indian Puranas is that they tell us of the great incidents of the ancient times in a sort of coded form,disguised in various exaggerations and supernatural occurences. Yes , I wish more people woud realize this.  Though there may be multiple versions, and a few distortions might have taken place over generations where they were passed down orally, the basic theme generally remains the same. Once there was a lunar dynasty king Kamra . He was son of king Raji and great-grandson of Emperor Pururava. Kamra was very powerful and arrogant and along with his 500 brothers used to challenge and subdue any powerful king, who came under their way.Once they challenged the king of gods,Indra for a fight.Ultimately, Indra struck them with his Vajra ( lightning ),and reduced them to ashes. The meaning for this is that they couldn't withstand the penance involved in attaining to Indra and perished. After a long time, a solar dynasty king, ...

Continuing in my glorious tradition of my preferred Presidential hopeful since 2008 (Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain/Sarah Palin) and 2012(Herman Cain, Michelle Bachman,Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Gary Johnson, Mitt Romney) , Walker's candidacy has come to a crashing halt It is an odd shift for the most likely Presidential hopefuls from competent governors to glib charismatic senators. From Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and GW Bush to Barack Obama. The latter being the only Senator since JFK to attain the White House. Last month saw the fledgling campaigns of not one two highly effective and resilient governer's come to a screeching halt. Rick Perry of Texas as well my preferred union buster Scott Walker. Scott Walker , perhaps a tad too Midwestern nice for the rest of the country also made various errors in judgement when it came to campaign finances. While Rick Perry never really recovered from his bizarre run in 2012 wher...

I of course speak of this A congressman stole the water glass Pope Francis was drinking out of during his address at the White House on Thursday. Representative Bob Brady, a devout Catholic and Democrat from Pennsylvania immediately made his way to the podium after Pope Francis finished speaking and grabbed the glass that was still filled with water. He then drank the water, gave some of the water to his wife Debra, and saved the rest for his grandchildren.  Of course I am not a fan of swamis and babas of any sort. The era of Vishwamitra, Gautama, Durvasa, Agastya  et al is long gone. And unlikely to return in this yuga, with that in mind I try to avoid these "brokers" who tend to be frauds, charlatans and thieves than anything else. That said I would prefer that Westerners take a look at this behavior that is more common than they care to admit before they mock the unintelligently devout in the third world. Somewhat related: Pagan Libertarian candidate from Flo...

Apparently she is worth more than $ 4 billion . Wait a minute, I thought being rich was a bad thing as per Marxist doctrine. Certainly Mr Chavez heated rhetoric over the past decade had hammered that home. I guess in such regimes, it is only entrepreneurs, big or small who actually create products and services that people who are the "bad" rich. The good rich people are government officials who seize their assets for the common good. Though they often fail to redistribute in a fair manner. it always ends up sticking to their fingers somehow! Even in the Soviet era, the  party officials while lambasting the West for its materialism and corruption would live it up in the dachas with champagne, caviar, Swiss chocolates, Italian furniture and other luxuries while the masses wait in line for hours in the freezing cold for a sack of potatoes and a bar of soap. Meanwhile stores in Venezuela are running out bread, milk amongst other essentials. But ...but...

I came across this crank on Sabhlok's blog who left a comment around last year. Apparently a lot of this rubbish is courtesy of a Stephen Knapp who seems to have taken up the mantle on PN Oak of finding Hinduism in every nook and corner of the ancient world. Its best to dispel these before they gain further currency ala Sanskrit is the perfect language for developing software  , Vikramaditya ruled Kaaba or Taj Mahal was a Hindu palace. (My comments in Italics) see, we have to look at it this way. People from Hindu vedic culture migrated to other parts of the world and founded all the advanced civilizations of the world. We have 3 proofs. 1. Archaeological evidence – eg from south American Temples (Mayan) to Stonehenge in Britain No evidence for either being derived from Hinduism. The Hindu temples abounded in ancient Britain when Vedic culture pervaded the West. It has been already explained above that place-names ending in ‘shire’ testify to the existence of Sh...

An old one but amusing and insightful nonetheless...... It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to choose one. The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower. The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel. The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that in these hard times, gave her "services" on credit. The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there. The hotel propr...

He is officially running for President woo hoo is all I can add. Unfortunately his happy news is tempered by the fact an unhinged rodeo clown is also seeking the ticket. You play the cards you are dealt I suppose

From TechCrunch Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening. And from a hitherto unknown tribe deep in the Amazon rainforest. Technological advances must not “determine our destiny.” Oh Im sorry, that is not a primitive tribesman but Hillary Clinton, a candidate for the leadership position of the most powerful and technologically advanced country in the world! I get those two confused all the time! My mistake.

In a matter of days, the U.S Supreme Court handed out not one but two rulings which firmly go against the will of the American people. Both are based on specious reasoning and stink of political maneuvering and back room deals. Ann Coulter had warned us about John Roberts in 2005 that a tabula rasa such as himself was far worse than a liberal justice. Whether Roberts chose to commit these travesties against the Republic because he was a closet liberal or Obama in his characteristic Chicago manner of dirty tricks not limited to blackmail or other threats worked his "magic" on him, only history will tell. To be fair, even as he disgraced himself on Obamacare , he did make up for it by writing a superb dissent on Obergeffel (gay marriage case). I guess the tyrant Obama knows his own limits, which is heartening in its own twisted way. Anyhow her words have proven to be prescient. He has folded not once but twice on the Leviathan in waiting- Obama care and ha...

To clear up some misconceptions I want to make it clear that yogis do use certain herbs both orally and by inhalation.  But the herbs are not taken to create "psychedelic" experiences nor is meditation meant to create some undefined strange mystical experience.  The practice of meditation is very well defined in Hinduism and the expectations from it are also well defined. One cannot generalize anything regarding all sadhus as that would span everything from murderous criminals hiding out from the police to real yogis devoted to yoga practice.  Yogis are not after "some" psychadelic experience caused by drugs.  Ideally they want to be able to increase the energy in their body, and eventually manage to circulate it with mental intent.  From my personal experience I can say that it is indeed quite possible, but requires a good deal of awareness to be intact for controlling the circulation of the energy. But just to clear up the issue of using herbs, certain herbs...

I recently had the misfortune of sitting through the "comedy" film called Welcome 2(?) Karachi whose "plot" can be summarized as follows- two Indian misfits and simpleton end up in Pakistan where they end up with the Taliban and hounded by the CIA because they mistake them for the Taliban. They make their escape only to be detained by Pakistani authorities but a good natured and beautiful ISI agent(?!!) ensures their release all the while foiling a terrorist plot by the Taliban. All the while feted by both India and Pakistan. Firstly the movie is not very funny even as it is supposed to be a slapstick sort of comedy. The actors are talented but there is only so much they can do with such an ill conceived and semi literate script. However the movies contains a great deal of post colonial tropes and memes and pretty little lies that modern day Indians are particularly attached to. Firstly let us examine the treatment of Americans and their mission in Afghanistan...

Mr. Sanjeev Sabhlok while admirable in his quest for good governance and economic policy for India is rather lacking in knowledge of Indian history and religion. And what is worse he is unwilling to entertain counter arguments. Recently he caught the Aryan Invasion Theory bug and a derivative of the same is the notion that Indian was routinely defeated due to its lack of a good cavalry. I retorted here As you can see, he might as well be completely oblivious of my post. He just goes and repeats the same talking points even if I had refuted his argument. And when I went and criticized his views on AIT somehow he turned me into Hindutvadi even as I criticized Hindutvadis more than once on his forum, not to mention here as well! And then he complains about "personal attacks" I made about him! The "personal attack" he keeps whining about ,which him being so thin skinned he didn't even publish, was something along  the lines of me pointing out his hypoc...

Regrettably no account of Chandragupta Maurya's campaigns against Seleukus Nicator survive ala Caesar's Commentaries on his decade long wars against the Gauls. So this gives agenda driven Western historians a further face saving measure about the ultimately pitiful and fruitless Greek adventure in India. Firstly historians neglect to mention that Alexander's rival Porus was not even a proper king with an empire but just happened to be a glorified chief of a frontier republic who only took on the Macedonian warlord because he alone in that area had the traditional four division army. And Alexander very nearly lost even this engagement. Now there are Indian nationalist historians who see his disengagement from India as a strategic retreat and some go as far as to claim that he was defeated by Porus but I am inclined to give Alexander benefit of the doubt. Bactria and Persia were the verge of rebellion and Porus was apparently pacified so Alexander saw fit to deal wit...