The final part of  “What is Dharma” by Harapriya. Today, can one fight a dharma yudh against adharma?
*** What is “Dharma”? – Concluding Part by K Harapriya ***

Can one fight a dharma yudh against adharma?
The Mahabharata gives a pretty clear answer —-yes, we can fight a dharmic war mostly although some acts of adharma will be committed.
This will seem like equivocation to most people because we tend to believe two prevailing myths:   one, that dharmic people should be held to much higher standards than the totally adharmic;   and two,  that …

Continuing from Part-I that appeared earlier this week. Today, lessons from the MahaBharata.
*** What is “Dharma”? – Part II by K Harapriya ***

Lessons of the Mahabharata
One epic which still holds profound lessons for us,  is the Mahabharata.  Here is an epic where a central character, Duryodhana, is an ambitious king who seeks wealth and power.  These desires, in themselves,   are the hallmark of a kshatriya and therefore befitting a king.  He, as the first born son of the first born Dhritarashtra ,  considers himself the rightful heir to Hastinapura.  Leaving …

Dear All: It is my pleasure to publish this guest post on “Dharma” by K Harapriya. I will be posting this in three parts. At the outset, I am grateful to her for a very well articulated exposition of a difficult concept. Please read and share widely. Today, a definition of “Dharma” and the role of Itihaasa in the Hindu value system (formatting and emphasis is mine).
*** What is “Dharma”? by K Harapriya ***

In the last great battle of the Kurukshetra war, Bhima is engaged in a fight to death …

The first post of 2010 – a brief excerpt from Chapter 3,  The Way of Action (emphasis mine):
Arjuna asked:
Hey God, if you feel that, wisdom is superior to action,
Why are you pushing me to do this savage war? 1
You seem to enchant my brain by your conflicting words,
Please tell me decisively that, by which I will get fame. 2

Lord said:
Oh sinless one, in the times ancient, I had taught
Two distinct ways of paths to follow,
The path of wisdom for the discriminatory and
The path of action to those performers of action. …

To all my readers I owe a big apology. I have long been promising a definition of the word “Dharma” – a word that crops up every now and then in many discussions on this blog – and is also the part of my blog’s sub-title. But as I started to write this post, I realised that this should actually have been one of my first posts, if not the first. Anyways, better late than never.
As I began to do some background reading on this subject, I realised that it …

Thanks to Sh Ashok Chowgule-ji for alerting me to this excerpt from an interview of Prof Amartya Sen in a recent issue of Outlook (emphasis added):
Question: In your new book, The Idea of Justice, you speak a lot about the difference between niti (institutional justice) and nyaya (realised justice). Do you think we have too much niti in India and too little nyaya?
Prof Amrtya Sen: The short answer is yes. Niti has huge appeal and this applies to the great as well as to the non-great. In the Bhagavad …

I have moved the last few comments on the discussion on Islam, Hindutva, Dr Zakir Naik, Godhra post here to prevent comment overload.
Please continue discussing your thoughts on this thread.
The extract below picks up from the last few comments.
*** Comments Begin ***
*** Comment by Naved

There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad (pbuh) is the Messenger of Allah.
A Muslim believes in the existence of that which is beyond human perception. A Muslim believes in Allah and His attributes. A Muslim believes in the angels, the scriptures, and the Prophets. …

This is a lazy post i.e. one made up entirely of comments by other readers. It is an offshoot of the discussion on the post re. attack  on an Army convoy in Tamil Nadu.
Somewhere along the line, the discussion on the Tamil Nadu post branched off into a debate on Atheism, Theism, Spritualism, Humanism, Agnosticism etc.  Read on to see how…and please share your thoughts, futher comments etc below.

I first read this post by Rajiv Malhotra many many months ago but somehow never got around to making excerpts and publishing them on this blog…Late today afternoon, something else reminded me of it…I finally dug it out of my archives…and I am glad that I did…
From the very readable The Westernized side of my background by Rajiv Malhotra:
*** Excerpts Begin ***
Since this matter keeps getting raised by some very narrow-minded Hindus in the middle of any and every kind of column, here is what I have to say:
My upbringing in family, …

*** GUEST POST by Sh RAJU MALIGER ***
In my previous article (pl. see A rebuttal to Abul Kasem – “Women in Hinduism” by R Maliger), I had refuted Abul Kasem’s derogatory views on women in Vedic culture. In this article, I would like to emphasize on how Vedas glorify Mother Goddess and women.
When we enter Hindu temples, it is a blissful scene to observe a female deity worshipped alongside a male deity. Common examples of such deities are Vishnu-Lakshmi, Radha-Krishna, and Shiva-Parvati. Vedas consider male and female of all …

Lord Curzon, the late Viceroy of India, in an address delivered at the Delhi Durbar in 1901:
Powerful Empires existed and flourished here [in India] while Englishmen were still wandering painted in the woods, and while the British Colonies were a wilderness and a jungle.
India has left a deeper mark upon the history, the philosophy, and the religion of mankind, than any other terrestrial unit in the universe. [ link ]
Related Posts:
The Myth of a Benevolent “Raj” 
India in the 1820s
Loot – in search of East India Co. (excerpts) 
Clearing the dust off …

This part begins from comments that were triggered following a post by Incognito (in which he referred to Nemo’c comment @ #51) on the earlier thread. Since it was in danger of getting overloaded (100+ comments already), I decided to move the recent comments here and start this new thread.
Please continue the discussion here…
I am reproducing excerpts from Nemo’s comment first (for context), followed by Incognito’s and others comments… Please read on:
*** COMMENTS BEGIN (CAUTION: Long Post) ***
Excerpts from Comment By Nemo (#51):
…
Hindus have had enough of the racist myth which …

Dear All: It is my pleasure to publish this very direct and blunt article by Dr Ajai Singh, M.D. and Editor of Mens Sana Monographs… Please do read and think about the points he has raised…Many of them make for uncomfortable reading…but these questions need to be asked and the ideas need to be discussed.
*** ”Straight Talk: The Challenge Before Modern Day Hinduism“  by Ajai Singh *** 
I wish to do some straight talk in this communication. No beating about the bush, no offering illusory solace.
I write this on the Oscar win for the film …

Some of you may have come across an article on Islam-watch recently that contained several derogatory references – supposedly from vedic texts – towards women and their position in ancient Hindu society. I was first alerted to it a few weeks ago by Jagmohan.
While I was still trying to compile references and source material to refute the claims made in the article, Parama Karuna-ji introduced me to Raju Maliger who forwarded me his rebuttal to Abul Kasem.
I would put this essay by Sh Maliger in the category of *Must read*. …

Start this weekend by reading Sandeep’s views on the Hindu Holocaust. 
Next an impassioned plea for broadminded, enlightened Indian Muslims to speak out. Amazingly, it was written more than 16 years ago! Unfortunately I have no URL link to this article, so I am reproducing it in full below.
Finally, a thought-provoking essay on Interfaith Marraiges by Dr Dilip Amin. It is a long article but I have reproduced excerpts below.
.

I am grateful to Sh Krishen Kak for allowing me to publish this essay by him (in full), first published as THE IDEA OF INDIA by India First Foundation, Nov 2008:127-138.  I would encourage everyone to please read it in full. It is superbly thought-provoking, richly referenced and well researched. Without further ado (CAUTION: Long Post),
*** THE IDEA OF INDIA ***
KRISHEN KAK 
The idea of India is a conception often credited by our English-speaking “secular” elite to Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru or Sunil Khilnani, not necessarily in that order. 
Our British colonizers too …

….and a deja-vu moment.
Courtesy Sridhar, this news-item from earlier today: Karuna does it again, flays Hindus for sporting tilaks
Flaying the Hindu practice of smearing ash or saffron or sporting a ’tilak’ on the forehead for yet another time, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi questioned the need for ‘such things in a country which preached equality of all religions’. 
which reminded me of Don’t wear a “tilak” to work ! …
…and of Mark Tully’s memorable quote:
Secular fundamentalism is alive and kicking in India too. 
Next target, Sanskrit? 
P.S. I doubt that Thiru Karunanidhi needs …

I received this email yesterday and could not stop before reading it right through to the end…It is a long read…quite a long read, in fact.  And it is seriously thought-provoking.  Below, excerpts from a speech delivered by Sh. Gurumurthy at IIT Chennai in 2003 which – although five years old – still retains its and relevance and punch.  This is a *must read*.
*** Excerpts from “The Intellectual Scene in Post-Independence India“ by Sh Gurumurthy ***
A critical review of strengths and weaknesses
… Defeat and anger go together. Abuse and defeat go together. So, it is in this …

In response to my previous post, a loyal reader emailed me and asked, what about reforms in Hinduism? or did I think that Hinduism was perfect and really did not need any changes?
That question prompted this post…Now, I have written on this subject before (pl. see list of related posts at the end) but I realised there was still some value in enumerating what is “wrong” with Hinduism and what needs to change for the better…
So here is my first cut (and I must say that this is an amateur’s attempt – I am by no …

Thanks to Sh Nachiketa Tiwari for spotting this and Sh Kak for emailing it to me.
Although this is a fairly long excerpt from an exchange of emails re. learning Sanskrit, pl. try and read in full. It shows how some western academics tarnish any attempt(s) at learning more about our ancient heritage (including language) with labels such as “fundamentalism” and of course, “Hindutva”.
I have taken out email addresses of  the respondents to protect privacy.
By the way, many of you would remember that learning Sanskrit is now considered to be a “communal” activity.
*** Excerpts from the email exchange ***