A blog dedicated to philosophy, history, politics, literature
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Monday, November 30, 2020
Gaudapada and Buddhism
Sunday, November 29, 2020
The Bhagavad Gita and the Isa Upanisad
Saturday, November 28, 2020
Rousseau, Napoleon, and the Politics of Religion
On Solzhenitsyn’s View Of Communism
Friday, November 27, 2020
On the Navya-Nyaya Theory of Language
Thursday, November 26, 2020
The Dialectical Method of Hindu Philosophy
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
The Carvaka View of the Four Purusarthas
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Machiavelli: Unarmed are Despised
Metaphysics is Rationalistic
Monday, November 23, 2020
The Importance of Philosophical Skepticism
The Doctrine of Purusarthas
Sunday, November 22, 2020
Performance of Duty is the Fulfillment
Saturday, November 21, 2020
The Crooked Timber of Humanity
The Fable of the Bees: The Importance of Vices
Thursday, November 19, 2020
Bhagavad Gita: On the Striving for Perfection
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Hindu Philosophy of Moksa
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
A Brief History of History
Monday, November 16, 2020
The Wisdom of Somerset Maugham
The Vedic Quest for The Truth
Saturday, November 14, 2020
The River Sarasvati
Alexander and the Indian Philosophers
Friday, November 13, 2020
The Riddle of the Rig Veda and the Sphinx
Vajasaneyi Samhita: Metaphysical and Theological Riddles
Thursday, November 12, 2020
The Vedic Prayers for Power
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
The Anti-Communism of Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison, the author of Invisible Man: A Novel, became a communist in the 1930s after coming under the influence of communist intellectuals in New York. But in less than a decade, when he realized that communism was as dangerous as Nazism, he became a staunch anti-communist. The extent of Ellison’s disenchantment from communism comes out in a letter which he wrote to Roger Wright on August 18, 1945. While referring to the American communists, Ellison wrote in the letter: “If they want to play ball with the bourgeoisie they needn’t think they can get away with it. If they want to be lice, then by God let them be squashed like lice. Maybe we can’t smash the atom, but we can, with a few well chosen, well written words, smash all that crummy filth to hell.”
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Chandogya Upaniṣad On Mind and Will
Monday, November 9, 2020
Four Qualities of the Seekers of Brahman
In his commentary on the Brahma Sutra, Shankara, the seventh century AD philosopher of Advaita, says that the man who wants to gain knowledge of the Brahman, the ultimate mover and principle of the universe, must have four spiritual qualifications: first, he should possess the ability to discriminate between the real and the unreal; second, he should be indifferent to all pleasures and he should have the fortitude to perform actions without caring for the fruits; third, he should possess six virtues, which are shama (ability to control the mind), dama (ability to control the senses), uparati (ability to strictly observe one’s own dharma with dispassion), titiksha (ability to live with pleasure or pain, and hot or cold), shraddha (faith in guru and in the Upanishads), and samadhana (deep concentration); fourth, he should be filled with the desire for liberation. Shankara notes that the knowledge of the Vedic rituals and the ability to perform them is not necessary for those who seek knowledge of the Brahman.