The Dharma Dispatch

The Story of Manasa Devi the Naga Goddess of Bhagirathi   Read this unknown folktale of Manasa Devi, the snake-goddess worshipped in the Bhagirathi-Hooghly region about a century ago. --- Hindu folklore is how the Itihasa and Purana were localised, adapted and repurposed. Just as how Bharatavarsha is the largest global repository of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, it is also the world’s largest treasure-trove of folklore.   Just as how the dialect and cuisine of Bharatavarsha changes roughly after 90 kilometres in any given region, there is an inexhaustible reservoir of Hindu folklore measured for example, in clusters of villages located in an average area of 50 kilometres.    As we were digging through the archives at The Dharma Dispatch, we unearthed this precious gem of a story. As recently as a century ago, it was wildly popular along the rustic interiors of the Hooghly-Bhagirathi stretch. Among other things, this folktale was apparently linked to the sanctity of banana.   The Naga-Devata named Manasa Devi was obliquely invoked to bolster this sanctity.  Here’s her story.  🛕🕉🪔🐍  https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/the-story-of-manasa-devi-the-naga-goddess-of-bhagirathi

The Superhuman Diet and Demonic Workout Regime of Pehlwan Gobar Goho ---   Do read this rare anecdote describing the diet and workout routine of the fabled pehlwan, Gobar Goho or Gobar Guha or Jatindra Charan Guha as witnessed by the editor of a British magazine in Edinburgh.   Gobar Babu’s grandfather, Ambika Charan Guha's celebrated disciples include Swami Vivekananda and Bagha Jatin.   Goho Gobar is only 20 years of age, but what a terror of a young giant he is! Just like a great big boy with sparkling intelligent eyes—a boy to whom life is full of joy and beauty, because he is so strong and glories in his strength.    No English food will he touch: everything has to be cooked by his own servants. His food comprises fowls and plenty of butter, and he is very fond of almonds crushed and cooked with sugar and water. He is an absolute teetotaler.   I saw him training and I wonder how many of our British strong men will be able to keep pace with him. He also is a very strong, tall, and stout man of simple habits. India has reasons to be proud of such strong men as he. -- Read the whole brilliant story! 💪💪🛕🕉📑 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/the-superhuman-diet-and-demonic-workout-regime-of-pehlwan-gobar-goho

A party of Europeans: How Congress was formed to halt a repeat of 1857. My latest column in Firstpost. https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/a-party-of-europeans-how-congress-was-formed-to-halt-a-repeat-of-1857-11969272.html

The Andha Master of Varanasi and Sri Sri Naga Baba's Exposition of Nama-Yoga --- Read the highly evocative story of Andha Master, a self-realised Mahatma who lived in Varanasi. His name was Veni Madhav Mukhopadhyaya. This sadhu was completely blind and he had crossed eighty. He had come to Kashi early in his youth and had settled there ever since. He had been born in an extremely prosperous family and had acquired an elite education. He was born in a village near Hooghly. He had lost his eyesight in childhood due to a severe attack of smallpox. This incident made him renounce worldly life, brought him all the way to Kashi and had made him spend the rest of his life in the sanctuary of Kashi Visvanath’s feet.    He stays in the Pandey Haveli Mohalla ensconced in the Bengali Ṭōlā. Till the very end of his ennobling life, he remained in the same house. Each day in his house, he would gather small boys and girls living in his gulley and teach them some lessons. This took care of his food and clothing. He never needed anything else. It earned him the fond moniker “Andha Master” (Blind Master) from the citizens of Kashi.   -- Do read this evocative story and teach it to your children. 🕉🛕🪔   https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/the-andha-master-of-varanasi-and-sri-sri-naga-babas-exposition-of-nama-yoga

In the Company of Sadhus: Sri Sri Naga Baba, the Digambara Sadhu of Varanasi ---   We begin a series documenting the exalted spiritual lives of unknown Sadhus and Sanyasis of Bharatavarsha. They did not leave behind any school or sect or an inheritance of exclusivity. They were Sadhakas in the most profound sense of the term.    The first Sadhu profiled here was known as Sri Sri Naga Baba, a Digambara who wandered about the Varanasi ghats. He permanently lived on the ghats of the Ganga and never moved into the city.   Babaji had another specialty. He never ate any food. In fact, he admitted to this in his own words saying, “in my present state, food has no use to me.”  When he takes his sacred ablutions in the purifying waters of the Ganga, he removes his intestines and washes them and puts them back into his body. There have been numerous eyewitnesses to this incredible scene. -- Writing this has been a sanctifying experience for me. Hope you find it useful and elevating! Do read and share. 🙏🕉🛕🪔🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/in-the-company-of-sadhus-sri-sri-naga-baba-the-digambara-sadhu-of-varanasi

Phoney Western Indices as Tools for Recolonising Bharatavarsha   Creating fake indexes and misleading journalistic reportage about India is just the latest avatar of the biased colonial discourse emanating from the West for over three centuries. --   The colonial West affixed a permanent badge of international disrepute to this great civilisational nation as being peopled with a dark, regressive, unscientific, superstitious and barbaric culture. Thus, colonising it was the only means of civilising and uplifting it.     This biased narrative till date, is at the root of a majority of such “indices,” “reports,” and journalistic reportage emanating from the West. In the backdrop of this prolonged history, since when has the Western media and its political class ever been friendly to India? The answer: never.   The French anthropologist, Alfred Sauvy invented a econo-racist term, "third world country" and applied it to India. It quickly became a weapon of war in the postcolonial period.  We need to recall how Hollywood movies like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Octopussy and Slumdog Millionaire depicted India. These were political and not cinematic depictions by any definition. -- Read the whole piece! 📑🙏📝💪 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/phoney-western-indices-as-tools-for-recolonising-bharatavarsha

I had a fun conversation with Sanjay Dixit on the parallels between the Mughal and the Nehru dynasty. Do tune in! 😊🙏 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCwm4FTG168

The Wages of Civilisational Amnesia: What the Tragic Fate of the Prahladapuri Temple Teaches us   The Sanatana sacred annals tell us that the glorious Bhagavata, Prahlada built a temple for Narasimha Swami in Moolasthana. It was eponymously titled as the Prahladapuri temple and withstood the Islamic ravages of the ages. All the way till 1992. According to some traditions, the Holika Dahan festival originated at Prahladapuri.    The history of the Prahladapuri temple is sickeningly similar to the tragic history of all Hindu temples in Pakistan. However, the same history is also an eminent testimony to the piety and the indomitable spirit of resistance that ordinary Hindus showed in safeguarding the Prahladapuri temple for almost a millennium under oppressive conditions.    After 1818, Maharaja Ranjit Singh converted the Sufi, Shumsi Tabreezi’s dargah in Multan to a Gurudwara. In Ranjit Singh's regime, there was no public namaz, the Eid and the Mohurum processions passed silently; the Allaho Akbar of the Muslim priest was never heard. -- Read the first episode of a new blockbuster series! 🛕🕉📑💥🙏🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/the-wages-of-civilisational-amnesia-what-the-tragic-fate-of-the-prahladapuri-temple-teaches-us

The Dharma Dispatch Bestsellers 2022   A list of the most read pieces on The Dharma Dispatch in 2022. ---   AT THE OUTSET, the entire Dharma Dispatch team takes great pleasure to wish our readership a very happy 2023, according to the Gregorian calendar.   In 2022, we published 200-plus essays woven around our core focus areas: Hindu civilisation, culture and history. Without further ado, here is a list of the 10 essays that elicited the maximum response from you.  As always, it was an year full of learning and exploration and a continued reaffirmation of our commitment to bring the best elements of the Sanatana civilisational heritage to our readership. We measure the extent of our success in our pursuit of this sacred endeavour by the nature and mien of your response. And your response has been rather overwhelming to say the least.  So, a heartfelt note of thanks for all of you who have loved our content and supported our sacred work with contributions and messages of encouragement.  -- Happy reading! 🪔🛕🙏📑📝🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/dispatches/the-dharma-dispatch-bestsellers-2022

A Case Study of the Colonised World of Indian Publishers in English https://open.substack.com/pub/thedharmadispatch/p/a-case-study-of-the-colonised-world?utm_source=direct&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

When Jadunath Sarkar’s Personal Library Became the Single Source for Studying the Medieval History of India   After 1897 when I set myself to making truly original researches in Indo-Muslim history, I devoted my resources mainly to acquiring Persian, Marathi and French manuscripts and printed volumes of State-papers.   The result is that today my collection of Persian manuscripts and Marathi printed sources is indispensable to the students of our mediaeval history, as it has brought together in one place the necessary works which are scattered in many towns of India and the famous public libraries of Europe —  India Office, British Museum, the Bodleian, the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris, and the then Royal Library of Berlin, besides Kazvini’s metrical history of Nadir Shah of which there is only one manuscript in the world, in Leningrad.   There is no end to this quest, this search for buried truth, which we call research. Truly has the ancient Sanskrit poet said: “Time has no end and the world is vast.” -- This is how one must pursue an abiding passion -- with total dedication and unwavering focus. Read the whole inspirational piece! 📑📝🕉🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/dispatches/when-jadunath-sarkars-personal-library-became-the-single-source-for-studying-the-medieval-history-of-india

*Aurangzeb and the Art of Conversion with Sandeep Balakrishna* -- Please do watch and share 🙏🏽☺️ https://youtu.be/lYlmmrTs8Mk

How Acharya Jadunath Sarkar Built his Personal Library -- Here are some delightful and hugely inspiring excerpts from the reminisces in which Acharya Jadunath Sarkar tells us how he built his personal library. Excellent read! ☺️👍 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/dispatches/how-acharya-jadunath-sarkar-built-his-personal-library

Aparigraha: An Original Sanatana Ideal and Societal Value   An outline exposition of Aparigraha or non-covetousness, one of the profoundest ideals birthed by the Sanatana genius. -- Aparigraha aims at gradually reducing and finally eliminating ahanakara or ego, a key aspect embodied in all our Darshanas. A person that has fully cultivated aparigraha eventually comes to embody it, and releases himself/herself of the psychological states of fear and the need to always be in control, and ultimately enjoys that highest freedom: that which comes from leading a life unfettered by anxiety of any sort.   Aparigraha has been recognized by all Dharma Shastra texts as a foundational and powerful motivator of Daana or charity. This shared cultural and civilizational consciousness is at work behind why even to this day we witness enormously wealthy people standing by the wayside at say the Vaishno Devi or other yatras and serving buttermilk or food to the pilgrims, erecting massive pandals, free rest houses and so on. -- Do read the ennobling essay in full. 🛕🕉🪔🙏 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/aparigraha-an-original-sanatana-ideal-and-societal-value

The Chilling Parallels Between the Mughal Dynasty and the Congress Dynasty: The Sleazy Character of the Courtiers   WHAT WAS THE BASIC CHARACTER and mindset and motivation of these foreigners who were allowed by the Nehru dynasty to acquire such fearsome power?    For the answer, we turn to the next parallel with the Mughal empire.   One of the most popular methods to secure a job in the Mughal empire was to find a patron who would introduce him to the sultan. If the sultan liked the candidate, a formal appointment letter was granted. The emphasis is on the word like because there was no test of fitness, and no educational qualification or work experience was sought. No rules were set for increments or promotions, and everything was based on whim and loyalty and intrigue.”   This is more or less how the Nehru dynasty ruled. By creating a durbar.  All democratic institutions and rules and procedures were meant only to subserve the durbar. Creating a durbar culture simultaneously creates a sprawling ecosystem of dalals — brokers, fixers, pimps — who sustain it and cocoon the sultan. -- Read the whole piece! 📑👍📝💪🛕 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/the-chilling-parallels-between-the-mughal-dynasty-and-the-congress-dynasty-the-sleazy-character-of-the-courtiers

When the Hindu Community Once took Pride in Maintaining Sanskrit Pathashalas https://thedharmadispatch.substack.com/p/when-the-hindu-community-once-took

Seven decades of agitations and Sanatana way of conflict resolution The history of independent India can be encapsulated in just four words — no decade of peace. My latest column in Firstpost. https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/seven-decades-of-agitations-and-sanatana-way-of-conflict-resolution-11840111.html

The Chilling Parallels Between the Mughal Dynasty and the Congress Dynasty: The Foreign Element   The Dharma Dispatch begins a series exploring the scary similarities between the Mughal dynasty and the Nehru dynasty. ----   Muslim rule set back Bharatavarsha by its concomitant duration: of eight centuries. And the Congress dynasty, by seven more decades.   we can trace chilling parallels between the dissolute administrative and the scrofulous judicial system of Muslim Empires and that of the Congress “Governments“ after “independence.”  To explore these parallels, this essay considers the Mughal administrative system and its judicial setup as the role model which the Congress dynasty adopted if not aped. The reason for this selection is straightforward: the Mughal Empire is still regarded as a showcase of religious tolerance, syncretism, liberalism, magnanimity, magnificence and good governance.      The first parallel is that like the Mughal Government, the Congress Government too, was a regime populated by foreigners at the highest levels. -- Read the whole eye-opening piece! 📑🕉🛕👍 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/the-chilling-parallels-between-the-mughal-dynasty-and-the-congress-dynasty-the-foreign-element

The Sprawling Cultural World that Hindu Inscriptions Reveal   This is the seventh and concluding part of this introductory series on Hindu inscriptions. -- The treasure-trove of Hindu inscriptions is perhaps the most glaring proof that Hindus did have a sense of History.   Purely on the physical plane, our inscriptions reveal an extraordinarily intricate system of administration and governance, a robust military machinery, a Dharma-based jurisprudence, a well-oiled and stable social order and a sprawling economic system bursting with material abundance. And an incessant continuity underscoring all these despite waves of alien invasions.     Our inscriptions are the mute witnesses waiting to narrate the story of our civilisation, culture, and our ancestors to the willing listener. They will reveal their inner lives to the earnest and dedicated artist who is patient and diligent and modest enough to acquire intimacy with them.   The whole experience of writing this series has been delightful at one level and sanctifying on a deeper plane. The purpose of this introductory series will be fulfilled if I have succeeded in transmitting my experience to the reader.  🕉🛕🪔🙏   Īśāvāsyamidam sarvaṁ https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/the-sprawling-cultural-world-that-hindu-inscriptions-reveal