The Dharma Dispatch

Please join me today #Live at 8 PM IST on The Mahakal Corridor's significance. -- Link to join: youtu.be/MemKMcQDnV8

The Mahakala Corridor: A Corridor to the Sanatana Cultural Reclamation --   One of the most exalted embodiments of life-nourishing and soul-uplifting elements is undoubtedly the form of Shiva as Mahakala. Even as a philosophy and symbol, Mahakala is one of the original gifts of the genius of the Hindu civilisation to the world.    As Mahakala, Shiva signifies the incessant flow of time. He embodies the ultimate action of Laya (or dissolution). Adi Sankara evocatively brings out this aspect of Shiva in a tangential fashion when he says that Time is the world-eater (Jagadbhakṣakaḥ). As Mahakala, Shiva also symbolises Sanatana or Eternity in the great cycle of Time. Thus, when Time repeats itself, what really is meant by “destruction?” We also notice the unity of this profound conception in Shiva’s widely familiar abode: the Smaśāna (cemetery).    It couldn’t have been more appropriate that Mahakala is located in Ujjayinī — literally meaning city of victory, one of the Seven Sacred Sanatana Cities. It is additionally significant that the word Ujjayinī is a feminine noun (stri-linga). In our tradition, Śrī (prosperity) resides where Strī (woman) is victorious.  It is not coincidental that Ujjayini is both a Jyotirlinga, and a Dēvi-pīṭha, where Mahakala’s wife also resides as Mahakali. It is in this backdrop of our cultural history that the recent re-evolutions at Varanasi and the Mahakala Corridor at Ujjayini acquire such enormous significance.  The Mahakala Corridor is actually a corridor to the Sanatana cultural reclamation, renaissance, renewal and rejuvenation. In that order. More power to such reclamations, which should occur more often on a more widespread scale.   Laya is followed by Srushti.   -- Do read the whole piece! 🛕🕉🙏✍️🛕 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/the-mahakala-corridor-a-corridor-to-the-sanatana-cultural-reclamation

The Ennobling Story of Kunjanambi Setti: The Sanatana Guild Leader who Stopped Hindu Infighting   The story of Kunjanambi Setti is the real-life illustration of how Artha unravels profoundly when it is guided by and fused inseparably with Dharma. It is the story of how an individual from the Malayāḷa-dēśa became an instrument of peace between the Karṇāṭa-dēśa and the Marāṭha-dēśa.    This is how an inscription describes the profound character of Kunjanambi Setti: Kunjanambi Setti is a mirror to Goddess Lakshmi of the Kēraḷa-dēśa. Kunjanambi Setti is the ornament of the Vaishya-kula.  Kunjanambi Setti is the treasure-chest of virtue.  Kunjanambi Setti is the boon of Devi Bhadrakali herself. Kunjanambi Setti was an expert in understanding goods and vehicles.  Kunjanambi Setti is akin to a Maharaja among the Vaḍḍa-vyavahāri-s or moneylenders. (The Kannada word Baḍḍi is derived from Vaḍḍa). -- Read the extraordinary story and narrate it to your children. ✍️🙏🛕🕉 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/the-ennobling-story-of-kunjanambi-setti-the-sanatana-guild-leader-who-stopped-hindu-infighting

Dear friends: I will be on CNN NEWS 18 *today at 8 PM* on the Mahakal Temple inauguration by PM Modi. Please tune in if you are free. 🙏🕉️

What the Dark Corners of the East India Company's Loot of India Reveals about the Innate British Character   --- In 1759, King George III received the gift of a caracal named Shah Ghost, which was originally a gift given to Robert Clive by the Nawab of Bengal. Not just the animal, but its keeper had also been shipped to England from Bengal for it would obey only him.    Indeed, Indian animals were responsible for making entire careers cutting across a cross-section of British society.    In 1786, India’s first governor-general, Warren Hastings gifted six exotic Indian birds to King George III and a hyena to the Prince of Wales.   Lower middle class British youth who would have otherwise lived and worked and retired and died in the same job were now beelining to enlist in the service of the East India Company. Why live and die as a clerk in the docks if you could sail to India and then return to buy a manor in say, Southampton?   But to the innate British character, England's colonial empire of loot presented no ethical dilemma. It was concerned more with the image and reputation. -- This makes for disturbing reading. But do read it in full! 🥲✍️📝🙏 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/what-the-dark-corners-of-the-east-india-companys-loot-of-india-reveals-about-the-innate-british-character

The Dravidian Model: Slaughtering History, Promoting Sloth And Murdering Work Ethic --- In the 1950s and 60s, the following were the "academic" qualifications to be selected for writing chapters of the official history of Tamil Nadu, to be published in TEN volumes:   1 The candidate must never have any sort of contact with the impure Aryans. 2 The qualification of an author need not be judged by a University degree but by his commitment to Tamil and the Dravidian ideology. 3 The candidate must “not eat the Government’s salt and backstab it.” 4 More than a command over the subject, the author “must be an expert at using the Tamil language powerfully and creatively.” As a result, an entire book on "Tamil" botany was written with things like "unique Tamil plants, creepers, flowers, etc." The Dravidianist writer of this book gave this reasoning for it: "just as how the Tamils are unique in the whole world, there is a unique Tamil flora." This is how Tamil Nadu became the snake pit of unchecked Dravidianism and a wasteland where all valuable knowledge and fine culture has been destroyed. --- Do read the full piece! ✍️📝😲🙏 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/slaughtering-history-promoting-sloth-and-murdering-work-ethic-the-dravidian-model

The Golden Pagdi is Much Better for a Sepoy than a Congress Topi -- Dark stories of the Congress you might not have heard. 🙏🙂📑 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/the-golden-pagdi-is-much-better-for-a-sepoy-than-a-congress-topi

Why Hindus Should not Celebrate Giorgia Meloni’s Coronation   The internationalist woke regime now running amok is largely a creation of two world wars. Both were actually European wars fought by colonial empires which dragged more than half of the globe into them. In both wars, Italy played the role of the villain.    As Hindus, we need to place Giorgia Meloni’s emphatic victory in this historical context. Her stress on reclaiming identity — specifically as an Italian and a Christian — offers vital clues. To Hindus. Clues and proof.    Thus, if Meloni is Right Wing, she is a Right Wing Christian, which will prove fatal to Hindus in India. As it is, we have an abundance of soul vultures out here.   THEREFORE, IT IS WITH SOME ANXIETY that I observed the exultant celebration of the so-called Indian Right Wing over the news of Meloni’s win. Some sections have exploded in rapturous joy over her victory as if it is their personal victory.  It is not.   -- Read the whole thing and share it widely! 🛕✍️🕉👍 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/why-hindus-should-not-celebrate-giorgia-melonis-coronation

#LIVE TODAY at 8 PM IST with Sandeep Balakrishna of Dharma Dispatch on #Bollywood vs Southwood -- Who is guarding & promoting the culture? Don't miss it - Please join using the link below. 👍😊🙏 https://youtu.be/MzbKZfwuYjE

Rabindranath Tagore’s Sublime Analysis of Raghuvamsha and Kumarasambhava     AS KALIDASA sat amidst the rich splendour of the royal court, he was gazing afar off at the pure age of asceticism which was a thing of the past in the then India.    This heart’s anguish lurks in Raghuvamsa, a poem in which he undertook to sing of the deeds of the kings of the Surya-Vamsha.    Raghu, whose empire embraced the whole earth, was the fruit of his parents’ life of monastic discipline.   Kalidasa could have ended his epic at the exact point where the lineage of Raghu attains to its climax in the reign of Ramachandra. But the epic does not end in a burst of panegyric. Its conclusion clearly shows what had disturbed the poet’s heart.   In Kumarasambhava, Kalidasa teaches us that only by joining renunciation to wealth, asceticism to passion, can true Strength be born.    Renunciation means the surrender of a part for the whole, the yielding up of the temporal for the sake of the eternal, of pleasure for the sake of bliss. -- Read the whole ennobling essay and share it widely! 🛕🛕🕉✍️📑   https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/rabindranath-tagores-sublime-analysis-of-raghuvamsha-and-kumarasambhava

Kalidasa as the Representative of his Era in Tagore's Masterly Exposition --- The ancient Indian Ashrama as an institution stands as the place that has done away with man’s aloofness from plants and creepers, beasts and birds. This old lesson has been taught in our sacred land over and over again.   When human habitations are filled exclusively with men, when Nature is denied entrance through their chinks, our thoughts and deeds gradually grow impure and unhealthy and die a self-inflicted death amidst the measureless heap of rubbish created by themselves.   If you plant everything in its proper place in Nature, it loses its violence. But if you detach it thence and confine it within the narrow circle of men, it looks extremely hot and inflamed like a sick man’s body.   The whole poem of Kumara-sambhava is painted on a vast universal background. The inner motif of the poem is a deep and eternal problem; when the demon Taraka has grown strong and has suddenly and inexplicably thrown Heaven into wrack and ruin, whence can Heroism, strong enough to defeat it, be born?  -- This sort of reading material must be prescribed for our children at a very young age. Do read the whole uplifting piece! 🛕🕉📑🛕   https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/kalidasa-as-the-representative-of-his-era-in-tagores-masterly-exposition

Selections from Rabindranath Tagore on Kavikulaguru Kalidasa --- The Hindu sages who lived lives of deep meditation amidst the forest trees which revealed, day and night, season after season, the action of the life of Nature, had clearly perceived a delicious mystery all around themselves. Therefore could they say so easily, “All that exists has issued from the Supreme Life, and is vibrating in our souls.”   They did not shut themselves up in rigid brick and iron cages of their own making. Where they dwelt, the vast universal life had unfettered communion with their life.    Hence the Indian method of acquisition has been the acquisition of the universal world as a close kindred of our souls.   The memory of the ancient hermitages is twined with whatever is grand, marvelous or pure, whatever is noble or adorable in the ancient story of India. Herein lies the uniqueness of India in the history of mankind. -- On this auspicious Navaratri, read this sublime essay! 🛕🛕🕉✍️📑 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/selections-from-rabindranath-tagore-on-kavikulaguru-kalidasa

Sandeep Balakrishna's latest take on #Bollywood at the PGurus channel. Do tune in 👍😊 https://youtu.be/uUNHH3azDmE

The Sanatana Conception of Skin Colour Contrasted with The Biblical Darkness of Racism   Examining the Western theory and practice of skin colour-based racism from the prism of Sanatana philosophy. --- It is reasonable to conclude that skin colour was the highest civilisational and cultural “ideal” that the White Race could take pride in for over three centuries.   The contrast cannot be starker. Almost every chronicle and travelogue written by Europeans from the 16th century onwards make this uniform observation about the unanimous Indian attitude to white skin – we associated white skin with a specific ailment: leprosy.   Which brings us to the subject of this piece: how important was skin colour in ancient Indian thought? The answer: almost zero.  -- Read the whole essay! ✍️📑🛕👍 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/the-sanatana-conception-of-skin-colour-contrasted-with-the-biblical-darkness-of-racism

Clive indeed was seen as the hood of the new serpentine class that had corrupted the British society with its ill-gotten wealth, which it paraded flagrantly throughout England. Lower middle class British youth who would have otherwise lived and worked and retired and died in the same station were now beelining to enlist in the service of the Company. Why live and die as a clerk in the docks if you could sail to India and then return to buy a manor in say, Southampton? -- My column in Firstpost 🙏 https://www.firstpost.com/opinion-news-expert-views-news-analysis-firstpost-viewpoint/the-impeachment-of-warren-hastings-and-the-patented-british-character-of-the-era-11306141.html

• Reminiscing Four Years of Dharma Dispatch   Jotting down some thoughts on the fourth anniversary of The Dharma Dispatch tracing our journey so far. --   Reminiscing the trajectory of The Dharma Dispatch over these four years is a sobering, joyous, and humbling experience in that order. Sobering because what these years have taught us is a familiar but oft overlooked lesson: that we have to remain eternal learners in the sense of being engaged in constant Adhyayana. Joyous because the whole process of putting pen to paper till finally hitting the publish button is an experience of unqualified joy. Humbling because of the infinite outpouring of genuine regard and goodwill that The Dharma Dispatch continues to receive from the Sanatana community.    We continue to remain committed to our core ideal of regarding our work as a civilisational good. In this, our profound and inalienable guides remain:   1 A quest for truth.  2 Self-study or Svadhyaya. 3 A deep sense of idealism drawn from the spiritual fount that our Rishis have bequeathed to us.   •   We do not chase page views nor do we aim for popularity or mass appeal. It is our conviction that these are manifestations of the transient and have little intrinsic value.  Quiet, unhurried, rhythmic, concentrated and sustained work spanning generations is the Sanatana method, and therefore, our method as well.   With due humility, the experience of these four years has shown us that our work has, in its own small way, resonated with the larger Sanatana community.  Primary schoolteachers in remote villages,  Gurukulams, businessmen, Hindu parents, academics, students, et al, send heartfelt messages and good wishes blessing and encouraging The Dharma Dispatch.    Given this scale of affection and regard, what can The Dharma Dispatch really offer in return but to reaffirm our lasting dedication to this sacred journey? As we never tire of saying it, it is your support that has brought us this far from the cradle of our inception four years ago.  -- Thanks to one and all for your support and goodwill! 🛕🕉🙏✍️🛕   ॐ तत् सत्   https://www.dharmadispatch.in/dispatches/reminiscing-four-years-of-dharma-dispatch

The Ennobling Vedic Life and Lifestyle of the Elder Vidvan Rajagopala Sarma   Ghanapati Rajagopala Sarma took his name from his grandfather, a devout Veda Vidwan and Guru. The elder Rajagopala Sarma never settled in one place. His was a mobile Gurukulam. He travelled across scores of villages and towns with his compact retinue of disciples and boys. He would travel to every city and town and village in Tamil Nadu and rent a house there. After that, he would teach Veda, Sastra, Purana, and Itihasa to the people according to their expectation and ability. Whatever he got from these students as fees would go towards maintaining his family.    THE CHILDREN WHO LIVED in the elder Rajagopala Sarma’s mobile Gurukulam had to wake up at the Brahma-Muhurtam (typically from 3:30 - 5:30 am). The first round of their lessons would begin at this hour. Around seven or seven-thirty, some basic Veda mantras would be imparted to the people of the village or town. -- Do read the whole uplifting essay and share it widely! 🕉🛕🙏🛕 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/the-vedic-life-and-lifestyle-of-the-elder-vidvan-rajagopala-sarma