I – On Bhakti: Loss of a concept?

Concept of Bhakti For those grown up in India, it appears, at least on the face of it, that the word bhakti needs no elaboration. The word is familiar to most of us and is a salient part of our lives. In our everyday conversations, we often talk about not just bhakti (as a noun) towards the gods, but also of matru bhakti, pitru-bhakti or of guru-bhakti. In music, we are told that Thyagaraja was…

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Making Sense of Superstitions

Today, our everyday lives are fraught with some kind of larger intellectual conflict. This comes to the fore especially when youngsters are forced to take part in a ritual, say like a Shraadha, or a pooja. Aren’t these superstitions which any educated person should shed? Why are we being forced to perform these outdated traditions which are irrational and have no scientific basis? While it was alright to hold on to these practice two centuries…

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