Contribucions

“I am not as pleased by sacrifice or charity as I am by observance of complete fasting on Ekadasi. One should therefore fast on Ekadasi to the best of one’s ability on this day of Lord Hari. “O lion among…

So we come to the end of our first plague year feeling like we’ve been hit by a truck, even if we’ve just been inside for most of the year doomscrolling and watching Netflix. We’re the lucky ones. By the…

I learned this first-hand. In 1989, I was one of the earliest British students to participate in the scheme, which had begun two years earlier. Confusingly, I spent my autumn term in the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. In an instant,…

Nevertheless, she points out, the insistence that inequality undermines democratic societies has been amply vindicated. As divergences in wealth and circumstance deepened, and the welfare state became a minimalist safety net, faith in the social contract eroded and identity politics…

I would feel uncomfortable marking Liz Truss’s homework in public like this, except that she was never really trying to understand Foucault. In fact, on the right, it is a badge of honour not to understand or care about these…

These experiences have provoked something of an existential crisis in me. I still feel an optimistic outlook is, fundamentally, the only way to keep going – otherwise what’s the point? How can I find a comfortable and balanced place in…

“Parvata Muni replied, ‘During the light fortnight of the month of Margashirsha there occurs an Ekadasi called Mokshada. If you observe this sacred Ekadasi strictly, fasting fully, and transfer the merit you obtain to your suffering father, he will be…

  Being fully renounced he could clearly distinguish genuine devotees from imposters and would bluntly expose charlatans. Although he was much sought after by people, he shunned the association of the general masses, sometimes closeting himself in public latrines to…

Lord Brahma replied, “If a person eats once at midday on Ekadasi, the sins of his previous birth are erased, if he eats supper, the sins acquired during his previous two births are removed, and if he fasts completely, the…

I feel like maybe if I started door knocking or something I could maybe make a difference. But it seems like a lot of work and I don’t know the first thing about it. It might take up a lot…

Yudhisthira Maharaj said, “O Janardana, protector of all beings, kindly bestow upon me knowledge of the Ekadasi that falls in the dark fortnight (krishna paksha) of the month of Kartika (October – November).” “Shobhana replied, ‘When I fasted on Rama…

Bahulashtami is the eighth day of the Krishna paksha of Kartika Masa. It was on this day at midnight that Radha Kund appeared. This how the events leading to creation of Radha Kund unfolded: “Why is Rādhā-kuṇḍa so exalted? The…

Readers of Gray will recognise this book as a postscript or coda to Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals, the 2002 bestseller in which he elegantly dismantled the history of western philosophy – with its illusory faith in…

His host’s girlfriend had exploded at him, calling him an “incredible pig” for eating 3-4ft of a 6ft sandwich. Alan’s protest that he had brought homemade chicken wings to share (“sort of my specialty”) fell on deaf ears, as did…