Tides of Thoughts

Abhinav was a smart boy. He was in senior kindergarten . He loved to learn in school. One day, the teacher taught road rules . She showed the traffic signal . She talked about wearing a helmet. She told them to walk on the left side. Abhinav listened carefully. After school, his father came. Father made Abhinav wear a helmet. Abhinav said, “My teacher taught me this!” They started driving home. Suddenly, Abhinav asked, “Papa, why are we on the right side?” Father said, “It is faster this way.” Abhinav was confused. He kept quiet. At the signal, the light was red. Father stopped for a moment. Then he drove forward again. Abhinav said, “Papa, the signal is red. We must wait for green.” Father said, “No cars are coming. It is okay.” Abhinav still felt worried. At the next road, people crossed anywhere. There was no zebra crossing . Abhinav asked, “Papa, why do people cross anywhere? My teacher told us to use a zebra crossing.” Father said, “People forget the rules.” Abhinav became sad...

Guha, a character that needs no introduction to people who have watched or read something about Ramayana. Many of us remember this character as someone who helped Rama cross a river. But how many of us remember or correctly know which river Rama crossed with the help of Guha? I asked the same question on different social media platforms with the following options: Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra, and Godavari.  The question received 60 votes as below: Ganga (33.9% - 20) Yamuna (14.3% - 9) Brahmaputra (3.6% - 2) Godavari (48.2% - 29) Godavari got the highest number of votes, but the correct answer is Ganga . Then how did we end up with Godavari getting the highest votes? This can be attributed to movies in regional languages and a slight mistranslation of the Valmiki Ramayana. So, what does Valmiki Ramayana have to say about Guha and his role in Ramayana? The episode of Guha begins in Ayodhyakanda, Sarga 50, with Rama reaching the banks of the Ganga. The intro of Guha goes like this: तत्...

Image source: AI generated by me with ChatGPT. We all know that Sri Rama Navami is celebrated on the 9th day of the ascending moon of Chaitra Masam in the Hindu calendar. We also know that Rama was born after Dasaratha and his three wives performed the Putrakameshti yagam. So, the question is, Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata & Shatrughna were born after how many months/years from the completion of Putrakameshti? When I asked this question on X, it received 38 votes. 15 people opted for 9 months, 15 others opted for 12 months, 4 people opted immediately, and another 4 opted for 6 months. I am not surprised, as I saw similar responses for earlier questions on Ramayana. So, what was written in the Valmiki Ramayana about Rama's birth date and the timelines from the Putrakameshti yagna? In Valmiki Ramayana, Balakanda, Sarga 13,14, 15 & 16 details the performance of Rajasuya yagna and Putrakameshti by Dasaratha and his wives under the guidance of sages Rishyashringa and Vashishta. Sarga...

Once upon a time, there lived a king known for his judicious, courageous, compassionate and wise nature. He expanded the kingdom over a period. It extended 3000 km from east to west and 4000 km from north to south. Since he couldn't be everywhere, he started to administer the whole kingdom in bits and pieces by appointing governors, justices, administrators, tax collectors, and other supporting administration staff for each territory. Though the king was pious and honest, the people surrounding him were not so honest. Some used to do favours to their friends, family and relatives as and when possible. Some used to create new opportunities, jobs, and were favoured in establishing businesses, showing partiality for people of their community. Some others used to show partiality for the people who bribed them. Some others used to show partiality based on regionality, and so forth and so on. Though the king knew that some of his administration was corrupt and dishonest, the king didn...

Book-1/2025 Title - Conversion - An Assault on Truth Authors - Dr S.L Bhyrappa, M. Chidananda Murthy, David Frawley, R Ganesh, N.S Rajaram, Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Publishers - Sahitya Prakashana, Hubli First Published Year – 2009 Image courtesy – www.exoticindiaart.com   The book deals with religious conversions in India, the Indian perspective and global phenomenon, and the impact of religious conversions on Hindu demographics.   Before going into a detailed review of the book, I want to express a little about my perspective on religious conversions, which I will later elaborate on and make into a book.   For me, there are three perspectives for analysing religious conversions.   Morality - To give a brief about the idea of morality from a non-religious perspective, in general, morality refers to the principles that define good or bad, right and wrong behaviour. If we remove the class and religious perspectives of individuals, the...