The Dharma Dispatch

NewsClick: The Latest Actor in a Century-Old Drama of Treason   In-depth commentary on the anti-India outlet, "NewsClick" which was exposed as a propaganda arm of China. --- WHY IS EVERYONE SHOCKED that something called Newsclick is on the Chinese payroll? In fact, Newsclick is merely a fragment of a clutch of such treasonous outfits.   Newsclick is the latest exhibit of a familiar ideological phenomenon that continues to plague this blighted nation for more than a century. The ideology is Communism and national betrayal is its heartbeat.   Till date, the greatest success of Communists has been the creation of an influential, nationwide enclave of India-breakers.     Newsclick is part of the same anti-India global forces that want a regime change in India. One such indirect regime change operation was successful in the past. It was engineered by the USSR. With the support of Indian politicians.   This was the toppling of the Janata Government in 1980. -- Read the whole in-depth and powerful piece! 💪📑🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/newsclick-the-latest-actor-in-a-century-old-drama-of-treason

DVG’s Immortal 30-Point Advice to Young Men Delivered in 1971   This is the full text of a letter that DVG wrote in 1971 to a disconcerted young college student seeking advice on entering public life. ---- Some excerpts follow.   "Here is the substance of what I wrote in reply to a senior class student in a college who asked me for advice as to what young people can do in the present predicament of the country.   • Make up your mind once for all never to seek a public position in order to make private gain. • The first duty of patriotism is that you should avoid becoming a burden upon society. • you have first to accustom yourself to ways of simplicity and keep nerves of steel against temptation.  • Give up the notion that progress can be achieved by dramatic or revolutionary methods.  • Don’t be obliged to anyone else for your living.  • Contest no elections. • Your own conscience and good sense will be your guide in the light of knowledge and thought cultivated by study. • Young men must once for all banish all dreams of bringing about a change for the better by the use of brute force." --- The whole piece is worth its weight in gold. Read it. Take a printout. Distribute it. 📑🛕💪🪔🕉 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/dvgs-immortal-30-point-advice-to-young-men-delivered-in-1971

*Since time immemorial, the Meos were a first-rate Hindu warrior clan* who shared their antiquity with say, the Jats and the Gakhars. They formed the first line of defence in wars repelling alien invaders. -- My column in Open magazine https://openthemagazine.com/cover-stories/a-warning-from-history/

Padma Subrahmanyam: The Patriot who Danced her way into our Hearts   A scholarly and aesthetic appreciation of the artistry of the danseuse extraordinaire, Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam who fused uncompromising patriotism in her performances. -- Some excerpts are given below.   The extraordinary scholar and artist, Śatāvadhānī Dr R.Ganesh and Arjun Bharadwaj have jointly authored the wonderful work, Nayana-Savana, a creative appreciation of Dr. Padma’s artistry.   Some key statements that drive home Dr. Padma’s nationalistic vision have been powerfully expressed.    1 “She uses powerful words to emphasise the unity and greatness of our country and the harm that invaders and selfish individuals have caused.” 2 Padma has also said that her goal in life has been to put karaṇas into practice and thereby revive the bhāratīya heritage. It is interesting to note that not merely the content, but even the grammar of dance can help us realise national unity! ---- Read the whole brilliant essay! 🛕📑🕉🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/padma-subrahmanyam-the-patriot-who-danced-her-way-into-our-hearts

Some Protagonists of Sacred Traditions: The Book that Sanctifies Every Hindu Home   The following is my introduction to the English translation of DVG's immortal classic, Vaidikadharmasampradāyastharu. The English translation is titled, Some Protagonists of Sacred Traditions.   Excerpts are given below. -- Vaidikadharmasampradāyastharu is a solemn extravaganza of how Rta and Dharma express themselves through profound human lives.    Vedic traditionalists, Acharyas, Pandits, etc., who continue to be deliberately derided as superstitious & regressive, were endowed with eternal wisdom and the practical insight derived therefrom. Only the strength of undatable and unbroken tradition can instil it within a person.   When DVG wrote these profiles more than half a century ago, he observed a rapid descent of the Vedic culture that still remains the bedrock of Bharata.  In his own words, "How such people used to live their lives fifty or sixty years ago, how they had escaped the trappings of modern civilisation, how they found abundance in poverty and remained content, and how they remained steadfast to their svadharma... leading such simple, plain, and harmless lives… the very treasure trove of knowledge that is the life-blood of Bharata, that which is its very Atman, is vanishing before our eyes." -- Do read the whole essay and buy the book! 🛕🙏🕉🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/some-protagonists-of-sacred-traditions-the-book-that-sanctifies-every-hindu-home

This was the Lifelong Sankalpa of our Ancestors Just a Century Ago   In the final episode of this series, DVG evocatively reminisces about the lifelong conviction or Sankalpa that our ancestors had just about a century ago.  -- FIFTY YEARS AGO, the householder plucked the flowers from his own garden and the lady of the home transformed them into garlands. Today, flowers are bought from shops. In the past, family members would sit together and stitch meal-plates. Today, the meal plates are metallic, manufactured in a factory. Our ancestors believed that it was best to wash their own clothes with their own hands and cook their food by themselves. This was a natural discipline. In this discipline of cooking one’s own food by hand, there is an inherent element of soul-purification.    Our ancestors intuitively took a great Sankalpa in their mind so that God might be pleased and their birth, sanctified. They carried on their lives awaiting the time when this Sankalpa would be fulfilled. This feeling of submission to the unseen Divine is becoming rarer and rarer. -- Read the whole elevating piece and teach it to your children. 🛕🙏🕉🪔   https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/this-was-the-lifelong-sankalpa-of-our-ancestors-just-a-century-ago

The Hindu Joint Family as the Purest Form of Democracy   DVG gives us a captivating and heartwarming portrait of the innate strength of a Hindu joint family system and characterises it as a government of the people in the real sense. ---   It was a life of real togetherness. Of late, that feeling of oneness has melted away and the attitude of individualism is gaining strength. This new etiquette is a blind imitation of the Europeans. In that system, there is no sign of the essential unity of the husband and wife.    The Hindu family system was a great training ground for cultivating Samskaras on the part of the husband and the wife: individual self-restraint and individual growth. -- Read the whole profound piece! 🛕🙏🕉🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/the-hindu-joint-family-as-the-purest-form-of-democracy

Healing a Wounded Civilisation -- In my column in the current issue of Open Magazine, I argue that the Uniform Civil Code not merely a legislative matter but has long-term civilisational dimensions to it. https://openthemagazine.com/essay/healing-a-wounded-civilisation/

A Century of Cultural Erosion: Or How Hindus Lost Access to their Own Society and Culture   This is the first episode of a series featuring an English adaptation of DVG’s lecture delivered at All India Radio on May 10, 1957. The lecture was titled Samskruti (Culture). It is an invaluable and timeless rumination offering original and brilliant insights on a bygone society – our own society.  --- Here are some excerpts.   In the last 50 years, we have witnessed growth in external wealth. However, we have not grown proportionately in our Inner Wealth during the same period. In my opinion, we have only grown poorer. My purpose in this lecture is to offer five or six instances that demonstrate this Inner poverty.   Fifty years ago, wedding invitations were handwritten. Now they are printed. During the process of writing by hand, the mind would contemplate on the stature of each recipient and offer the appropriate affection and respect.   In these last fifty years, our people have lost pride in workmanship. In the past, people had deep respect towards their daily chores – the man in his profession, the woman in her culinary skill and household work. The conviction of the people of that era was that the food that they ate without doing their work honestly would not digest.    Of late, new businesses and professions have instilled a mentality of leading a crafty life. Even the minimum qualification for work is being eroded in our people at an alarming pace. There is no greater loss for a society than the loss of workmanship.  -- Read the whole brilliant piece! 📑🛕🕉🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/a-century-of-cultural-erosion-or-how-hindus-lost-access-to-their-own-society-and-culture

The Kind of Hindus who Drafted our Legislations After Independence   This commentary written in 1955, is one of the best descriptions of deracinated Hindus. Sadly, such Hindus drafted legislations that have all but destroyed the Hindu society.   Here is a sample. ---   THE MISFORTUNE OF HINDU SOCIETY today is that power to affect its law and life has fallen into the hands of persons whose Hinduism is to be found only in official records.   Their knowledge of the Hindu scriptures is of the hearsay kind, and their faith in their teaching is less than skin-deep. They feel apologetic about practices and beliefs which the Western world is unable to endorse.   Their one passion is to make India a replica of America or Russia.  They think that India must adapt herself to world-conditions and do not pause to consider whether India may not persuade the world to adopt her scale of values and her ideals of social organization.  -- The whole piece is absolutely brilliant! Do read! 📑💪🕉🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/the-kind-of-hindus-that-drafted-our-legislations-after-independence

[PODCAST] A Ready Reckoner of Aurangzeb's Industrial Scale Temple Destructions https://thedharmadispatch.substack.com/p/a-ready-reckoner-of-aurangzebs-industrial

"Kshatra: The Tradition of Valour in India" — The Book that Must Adorn Every Hindu Home   The English adaptation of Shatavadhani Dr. R. Ganesh's Kannada bestseller, Bharateeya Kshatra Parampare or Kshatra: The Tradition of Valour in India is now available for pre-order. It is a seminal work on Kshatra, a fundamental value that enabled the Hindu civilisation to finally triumph after centuries of tumult and oppression. It is a work that must adorn the bookshelf of every Hindu home.   Dr. Ganesh lucidly delineates the manner in which the philosophy of Kshatra guided its manifestation as war in the physical realm — wars fought both to uphold and defend Dharma. The Indian Tradition of Valour is the best available treatise on the subject.   Pre-order the book here to get a generous discount.   The official launch of Kshatra: The Tradition of Valour in India, is scheduled on 22 July, 2023 at the Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs, Bangalore at 10:30 A.M. The original author, Shatavadhani Dr. R Ganesh will be present to grace the occasion. All are invited. 📑🙏🪔🕉   https://www.dharmadispatch.in/dispatches/kshatra-the-tradition-of-valour-in-india-the-book-that-must-adorn-every-hindu-home

I.N.D.I.A: How the rhetoric of Opposition unity is old wine in a new bottle -- My latest column in Firstpost. https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/i-n-d-i-a-how-the-rhetoric-of-opposition-unity-is-old-wine-in-a-new-bottle-12890112.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

An Enlivening Historical Voyage with the Banana   Did you know that the word banana and plantain originally comes from Sanskrit? Likewise, the Arabic word, mawza meaning "banana" comes from the Sanskrit word, Mocha? The Europeans took this Arabic corruption and derived the genus Musa.   The word Plantain is a corruption of the Sanskrit term Pala. The ancient Greeks and Romans called the Indian banana as Musa sapientum, meaning, "the food of the sages of India."   So, the next time you eat a banana, remember that you are eating the food of our Rishis, the spiritual sculptors of the Santana culture. In this backdrop, it is only natural that Hindus till date, regard the banana with such reverence. -- Do read the delightful and fascinating essay in full! 🍌📑🛕🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/an-enlivening-historical-voyage-with-the-banana

A Jilted Italian Lover’s Description of Primary Arithmetic Education in Gerusoppa   Pietro Della Valle, the 16th Century Italian musicologist and traveller, gives us a vivid and endearing picture of how small boys learnt arithmetic in Gerusoppa, now in Uttara Kannada district.   An excerpt follows:   "I entertained myself in the Porch of the Hanuman Temple, beholding little boys learning Arithmetic after a strange manner. They were four boys, all taken the same lesson from the Master. In order to get that lesson by heart and not forget them, one of them was singing musically with a certain continued tone. This has the force of making deep impression in the memory.   For example, ‘One by itself makes one.’  Whilst he was thus speaking, he writ down the same number, not with any kind of Pen, nor on Paper, but (not to spend paper in vain) with his finger on the ground. For that purpose, the pavement was strewn all over with very fine sand. Indeed this is a pretty, easy and secure way of learning.” -- Read the whole delightful and charming piece! 📑🕉🛕🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/a-jilted-italian-lovers-description-of-primary-arithmetic-education-in-gerusoppa

Why the Hindu Youth of Today Must Memorise Kunti’s Call to Action   Kunti's advice to her sons delivered through Sri Krishna counts as one of the most heroic and clear expositions of Kshatra Dharma. --   Kunti Devi's extensive conversations with Sri Krishna in the Udyoga Parva is unalloyed gold. Here, we see Kunti commanding the summit of courage, maturity and wisdom.    She has never known happiness. Her indomitable inner strength is also the source of her lifelong tragedy. And there is no better person than Sri Krishna with whom she can confide it so candidly.    In the Udyoga Parva, she emerges as the ideal heroic, Kshatriya mother. Her Dhīrata triumphs over her Duḥkha. She sends an unambiguous message for her sons through Sri Krishna: "Tell Yudhishtira to stop his drama of peace negotiations. Else, his Dharma will become sullied. The time for which a Kṣātrīṇi gives birth to sons has arrived. If you allow it to slip away without doing anything, then, although you are respected by the whole world, you will only be inflicting harm upon it. You will be indulging in contemptible behaviour. And if contempt touches you, I will abandon you for ever!” -- Read the full powerful piece! 💪📑🕉🛕🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/why-the-hindu-youth-of-today-must-memorise-kuntis-call-to-action

[PODCAST] Rang de Basanti: A Cinematic Model of Anti-India Propaganda https://thedharmadispatch.substack.com/p/podcast-rang-de-basanti-a-cinematic#details

Episodes from the Udyoga Parva as Sagacious Guides to the Contemporary Hindu Society   The Udyoga Parva is one of the most glorious sections in the Mahabharata offering a wealth of insights and guidance for the contemporary Hindu society. This is the first part of a new series. -- The whole of Udyoga Parva is an encyclopaedic manual of statecraft, diplomacy, ethics, ideals, values and hard-nosed pragmatism. One of its resplendent jewels is the fabled Vidura-niti.    The Udyoga Parva provides the clearest exposition of Dharma-Yuddha or the righteous war that must be fought and won. It is also the best rebuttal to the woolly-headed and hypocritical purveyors of the perfidy that all war is bad.         Reading and contemplating on the Udyoga Parva is an urgent imperative for the contemporary Hindu society. It is a phenomenal spine-strengthening exercise.   The Sri Krishna that we witness here is the Krishna that today’s Hindus must really worship. It is here that Krishna sculpts the ultimate victory of the Kurukshetra war.       Krishna's diplomacy is sans weakness. It is conviction sans compromise. Confusion is the father of compromise. Conviction is the mother of Dharma.  -- Read the whole piece! 🕉🛕🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/episodes-from-the-udyoga-parva-as-sagacious-guides-to-the-contemporary-hindu-society

An in-depth podcast of the 2006 Bollywood movie, Rang de Basanti. It is not a movie, but anti-India propaganda done really well. The amount of crap that Bollywood has inflicted on the nation is incredible. https://youtu.be/RQ1Q7zy7SNs

When a Spotless Poet Mortgaged an Alphabet in his Name   The story of the 13th Century Kannada poet named Rudrabhatta, who pledged an alphabet in his name to get a loan. --- Rudrabhatta was on the edge of bankruptcy. Accordingly, he approached a wealthy man in Saundatti seeking a loan of one thousand gold coins. However, he had nothing to offer as collateral.   What follows is what makes this story so profound. He told the moneylender that he would offer one alphabet in his name as collateral. Henceforth, he would drop the letter Bha from his name. The letter would be in the moneylender’s custody till the loan was returned. -- Read what happened next! 🕉🛕🙏🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/when-a-spotless-poet-mortgaged-an-alphabet-in-his-name