#hinduism — Public Fediverse posts

‘Brown Hindu’ Rishi Sunak warns Britain against race-based ideas of nationality

Former British prime minister Rishi Sunak has warned against linking a person’s skin colour to their nationality, saying…
#EuropeSays #Britain #Europe #EU #Cricket #Hinduism #integration #Nationality #race #RishiSunakBritishIdentity #TebbitTest #UKimmigration
https://www.europesays.com/britain/128758/

https://www.europesays.com/britain/128758/ ‘Brown Hindu’ Rishi Sunak warns Britain against race-based ideas of nationality #Britain #Cricket #Hinduism #integration #Nationality #race #RishiSunakBritishIdentity #TebbitTest #UKImmigration

Hungry for connection? This is what we lose when we stop eating together | Shadi Khan Saif
By Shadi Khan Saif

Mealtimes offer a pause in the day for parents and children to sit together, listen to one another and trade stories

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/21/hungry-for-connection-eating-together-family-meals-tradition-ritual

#Religion #Islam #Food #Family #Lifeandstyle #Judaism #Sikhism #Hinduism #TheGuardian #ShadiKhanSaif

Hungry for connection? This is what we lose when we stop eating together | Shadi Khan Saif
By Shadi Khan Saif

Mealtimes offer a pause in the day for parents and children to sit together, listen to one another and trade stories

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/21/hungry-for-connection-eating-together-family-meals-tradition-ritual

#Religion #Islam #Food #Family #Lifeandstyle #Judaism #Sikhism #Hinduism #TheGuardian #ShadiKhanSaif

Hungry for connection? This is what we lose when we stop eating together | Shadi Khan Saif
By Shadi Khan Saif

Mealtimes offer a pause in the day for parents and children to sit together, listen to one another and trade stories

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/21/hungry-for-connection-eating-together-family-meals-tradition-ritual

#Religion #Islam #Food #Family #Lifeandstyle #Judaism #Sikhism #Hinduism #TheGuardian #ShadiKhanSaif

Hungry for connection? This is what we lose when we stop eating together | Shadi Khan Saif
By Shadi Khan Saif

Mealtimes offer a pause in the day for parents and children to sit together, listen to one another and trade stories

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/21/hungry-for-connection-eating-together-family-meals-tradition-ritual

#Religion #Islam #Food #Family #Lifeandstyle #Judaism #Sikhism #Hinduism #TheGuardian #ShadiKhanSaif

Hungry for connection? This is what we lose when we stop eating together | Shadi Khan Saif https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/21/hungry-for-connection-eating-together-family-meals-tradition-ritual #Religion #Islam #Food #Family #LifeAndStyle #Judaism #Sikhism #Hinduism

Hungry for connection? This is what we lose when we stop eating together | Shadi Khan Saif https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/21/hungry-for-connection-eating-together-family-meals-tradition-ritual #Religion #Islam #Food #Family #LifeAndStyle #Judaism #Sikhism #Hinduism

Hungry for connection? This is what we lose when we stop eating together | Shadi Khan Saif https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/21/hungry-for-connection-eating-together-family-meals-tradition-ritual #Religion #Islam #Food #Family #LifeAndStyle #Judaism #Sikhism #Hinduism

Hungry for connection? This is what we lose when we stop eating together | Shadi Khan Saif https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/21/hungry-for-connection-eating-together-family-meals-tradition-ritual #Religion #Islam #Food #Family #LifeAndStyle #Judaism #Sikhism #Hinduism

https://www.europesays.com/dk/156489/ Indian Navy boosts underwater operations with indigenous DSV ‘Nipun’ #AatmanirbharBharat #Biden #BJP #Blogs #BookReviews #China #Christianity #congress #culture #DeepSeaDiving #DivingSupportVessel #DSV #ForeignPolicy #Hindu #Hinduism #HindustanShipyardLimited #India #IndianArtciles #IndianNavy #Indic #Interviews #Israel #Japan #Jihad #Modi #MovieReviews #MyindNet #MyIndBook #MyIndMakers #Nipun #Podcasts #politics #Religion #SubmarineRescue #Swami #TRAVEL #trump #videos

My Final Hurrah!

Just published on Amazon my 20th book (I hope this will be my last book) “Summa Iru: My Formal Renunciation and Farewell to the World“. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H87DDNRM)

Just a few hours back I published on Amazon another book “Advaita Vedanta through Name-and-Form Analysis”, which was written largely with the help of Claude. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H84F82HS)

About the Book: “Summa Iru: My Formal Renunciation and Farewell to the World“

“It is time I ended the ignorance in myself.”

With these words, a writer, poet, and lifelong student of Advaita Vedanta announces his formal withdrawal from the world — effective July 16, 2026, his 62nd birthday. Not a retreat from failure, nor a flight from grief, but the logical terminus of a life spent reading, thinking, debating, and writing about one thing: the ending of ignorance, which is the ending of the seeker himself.

Summa Iru is the author’s twentieth and, by its own declaration, final book — a parting document composed in the months before silence. It gathers the last poems (“Without Her By My Side,” “The Me Time,” “I The Stranger,” “The Last Act”), the last aphorisms (“Even God disappears when you are silent”), and the last philosophical exchanges of a man tying up loose ends before going incommunicado.

Between the poems runs a sustained meditation in the tradition of Ramana Maharshi and the Ashtavakra Gita: Why does psychoanalysis fail where self-enquiry succeeds? Why is renouncing desires mere symptom-treatment while the disease of ignorance festers? What did Ramana mean when he said the future is already fixed — and that the best course is to remain silent? How does summa iru — “just be still” — dissolve the questioner along with the question?

The book also records something rarer: the texture of leave-taking itself. Letters declined. Friendships gently closed. A reply to a friend asking for a small favour: “Sorry dear, I have retired from all work and all relationships.” The ache of unrequited love examined without flinching and traced back to its root — the unworthiness we feel sitting alone with ourselves, forever seeking the other who will transport us away from our own insignificance.

Drawing on Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, the Ashtavakra Gita, J. Krishnamurti, Buber, Kant, Camus, and the ghazal tradition, this is comparative philosophy written not from the armchair but from the departure gate.

For readers of Advaita Vedanta, spiritual memoir, and contemplative poetry — and for anyone who has wondered what it would actually take to stop.

The author will not be available for comment. That is rather the point.

My Final Hurrah!

Just published on Amazon my 20th book (I hope this will be my last book) “Summa Iru: My Formal Renunciation and Farewell to the World“. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H87DDNRM)

Just a few hours back I published on Amazon another book “Advaita Vedanta through Name-and-Form Analysis”, which was written largely with the help of Claude. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H84F82HS)

About the Book: “Summa Iru: My Formal Renunciation and Farewell to the World“

“It is time I ended the ignorance in myself.”

With these words, a writer, poet, and lifelong student of Advaita Vedanta announces his formal withdrawal from the world — effective July 16, 2026, his 62nd birthday. Not a retreat from failure, nor a flight from grief, but the logical terminus of a life spent reading, thinking, debating, and writing about one thing: the ending of ignorance, which is the ending of the seeker himself.

Summa Iru is the author’s twentieth and, by its own declaration, final book — a parting document composed in the months before silence. It gathers the last poems (“Without Her By My Side,” “The Me Time,” “I The Stranger,” “The Last Act”), the last aphorisms (“Even God disappears when you are silent”), and the last philosophical exchanges of a man tying up loose ends before going incommunicado.

Between the poems runs a sustained meditation in the tradition of Ramana Maharshi and the Ashtavakra Gita: Why does psychoanalysis fail where self-enquiry succeeds? Why is renouncing desires mere symptom-treatment while the disease of ignorance festers? What did Ramana mean when he said the future is already fixed — and that the best course is to remain silent? How does summa iru — “just be still” — dissolve the questioner along with the question?

The book also records something rarer: the texture of leave-taking itself. Letters declined. Friendships gently closed. A reply to a friend asking for a small favour: “Sorry dear, I have retired from all work and all relationships.” The ache of unrequited love examined without flinching and traced back to its root — the unworthiness we feel sitting alone with ourselves, forever seeking the other who will transport us away from our own insignificance.

Drawing on Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, the Ashtavakra Gita, J. Krishnamurti, Buber, Kant, Camus, and the ghazal tradition, this is comparative philosophy written not from the armchair but from the departure gate.

For readers of Advaita Vedanta, spiritual memoir, and contemplative poetry — and for anyone who has wondered what it would actually take to stop.

The author will not be available for comment. That is rather the point.

My Final Hurrah!

Just published on Amazon my 20th book (I hope this will be my last book) “Summa Iru: My Formal Renunciation and Farewell to the World“. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H87DDNRM)

Just a few hours back I published on Amazon another book “Advaita Vedanta through Name-and-Form Analysis”, which was written largely with the help of Claude. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H84F82HS)

About the Book: “Summa Iru: My Formal Renunciation and Farewell to the World“

“It is time I ended the ignorance in myself.”

With these words, a writer, poet, and lifelong student of Advaita Vedanta announces his formal withdrawal from the world — effective July 16, 2026, his 62nd birthday. Not a retreat from failure, nor a flight from grief, but the logical terminus of a life spent reading, thinking, debating, and writing about one thing: the ending of ignorance, which is the ending of the seeker himself.

Summa Iru is the author’s twentieth and, by its own declaration, final book — a parting document composed in the months before silence. It gathers the last poems (“Without Her By My Side,” “The Me Time,” “I The Stranger,” “The Last Act”), the last aphorisms (“Even God disappears when you are silent”), and the last philosophical exchanges of a man tying up loose ends before going incommunicado.

Between the poems runs a sustained meditation in the tradition of Ramana Maharshi and the Ashtavakra Gita: Why does psychoanalysis fail where self-enquiry succeeds? Why is renouncing desires mere symptom-treatment while the disease of ignorance festers? What did Ramana mean when he said the future is already fixed — and that the best course is to remain silent? How does summa iru — “just be still” — dissolve the questioner along with the question?

The book also records something rarer: the texture of leave-taking itself. Letters declined. Friendships gently closed. A reply to a friend asking for a small favour: “Sorry dear, I have retired from all work and all relationships.” The ache of unrequited love examined without flinching and traced back to its root — the unworthiness we feel sitting alone with ourselves, forever seeking the other who will transport us away from our own insignificance.

Drawing on Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, the Ashtavakra Gita, J. Krishnamurti, Buber, Kant, Camus, and the ghazal tradition, this is comparative philosophy written not from the armchair but from the departure gate.

For readers of Advaita Vedanta, spiritual memoir, and contemplative poetry — and for anyone who has wondered what it would actually take to stop.

The author will not be available for comment. That is rather the point.

My Final Hurrah!

Just published on Amazon my 20th book (I hope this will be my last book) “Summa Iru: My Formal Renunciation and Farewell to the World“. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H87DDNRM)

Just a few hours back I published on Amazon another book “Advaita Vedanta through Name-and-Form Analysis”, which was written largely with the help of Claude. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H84F82HS)

About the Book: “Summa Iru: My Formal Renunciation and Farewell to the World“

“It is time I ended the ignorance in myself.”

With these words, a writer, poet, and lifelong student of Advaita Vedanta announces his formal withdrawal from the world — effective July 16, 2026, his 62nd birthday. Not a retreat from failure, nor a flight from grief, but the logical terminus of a life spent reading, thinking, debating, and writing about one thing: the ending of ignorance, which is the ending of the seeker himself.

Summa Iru is the author’s twentieth and, by its own declaration, final book — a parting document composed in the months before silence. It gathers the last poems (“Without Her By My Side,” “The Me Time,” “I The Stranger,” “The Last Act”), the last aphorisms (“Even God disappears when you are silent”), and the last philosophical exchanges of a man tying up loose ends before going incommunicado.

Between the poems runs a sustained meditation in the tradition of Ramana Maharshi and the Ashtavakra Gita: Why does psychoanalysis fail where self-enquiry succeeds? Why is renouncing desires mere symptom-treatment while the disease of ignorance festers? What did Ramana mean when he said the future is already fixed — and that the best course is to remain silent? How does summa iru — “just be still” — dissolve the questioner along with the question?

The book also records something rarer: the texture of leave-taking itself. Letters declined. Friendships gently closed. A reply to a friend asking for a small favour: “Sorry dear, I have retired from all work and all relationships.” The ache of unrequited love examined without flinching and traced back to its root — the unworthiness we feel sitting alone with ourselves, forever seeking the other who will transport us away from our own insignificance.

Drawing on Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, the Ashtavakra Gita, J. Krishnamurti, Buber, Kant, Camus, and the ghazal tradition, this is comparative philosophy written not from the armchair but from the departure gate.

For readers of Advaita Vedanta, spiritual memoir, and contemplative poetry — and for anyone who has wondered what it would actually take to stop.

The author will not be available for comment. That is rather the point.

My Final Hurrah!

Just published on Amazon my 20th book (I hope this will be my last book) “Summa Iru: My Formal Renunciation and Farewell to the World“. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H87DDNRM)

Just a few hours back I published on Amazon another book “Advaita Vedanta through Name-and-Form Analysis”, which was written largely with the help of Claude. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H84F82HS)

About the Book: “Summa Iru: My Formal Renunciation and Farewell to the World“

“It is time I ended the ignorance in myself.”

With these words, a writer, poet, and lifelong student of Advaita Vedanta announces his formal withdrawal from the world — effective July 16, 2026, his 62nd birthday. Not a retreat from failure, nor a flight from grief, but the logical terminus of a life spent reading, thinking, debating, and writing about one thing: the ending of ignorance, which is the ending of the seeker himself.

Summa Iru is the author’s twentieth and, by its own declaration, final book — a parting document composed in the months before silence. It gathers the last poems (“Without Her By My Side,” “The Me Time,” “I The Stranger,” “The Last Act”), the last aphorisms (“Even God disappears when you are silent”), and the last philosophical exchanges of a man tying up loose ends before going incommunicado.

Between the poems runs a sustained meditation in the tradition of Ramana Maharshi and the Ashtavakra Gita: Why does psychoanalysis fail where self-enquiry succeeds? Why is renouncing desires mere symptom-treatment while the disease of ignorance festers? What did Ramana mean when he said the future is already fixed — and that the best course is to remain silent? How does summa iru — “just be still” — dissolve the questioner along with the question?

The book also records something rarer: the texture of leave-taking itself. Letters declined. Friendships gently closed. A reply to a friend asking for a small favour: “Sorry dear, I have retired from all work and all relationships.” The ache of unrequited love examined without flinching and traced back to its root — the unworthiness we feel sitting alone with ourselves, forever seeking the other who will transport us away from our own insignificance.

Drawing on Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, the Ashtavakra Gita, J. Krishnamurti, Buber, Kant, Camus, and the ghazal tradition, this is comparative philosophy written not from the armchair but from the departure gate.

For readers of Advaita Vedanta, spiritual memoir, and contemplative poetry — and for anyone who has wondered what it would actually take to stop.

The author will not be available for comment. That is rather the point.

About the Author on the Back Cover of my Latest Book “Advaita Vedanta through Name-and-Form Analysis”

No, I am serious in talking about myself that way in the philosophical and spiritual sense.

About the Book

One principle. Pursued without flinching. The whole of Advaita Vedanta unfolds.

The Upanishads teach it through a single homely image: the clay pot. The pot is entirely clay — the name “pot” and the rounded shape are cognitive overlays, not new substances. Strip them away and only clay remains. There never was a pot-substance apart from clay.

This is name-and-form analysis (nāma-rūpa vicāra), and this book makes an audacious claim: this one analytical tool, applied with complete rigor, generates the entire edifice of Advaita Vedanta — its metaphysics, its psychology, its doctrine of liberation, and its practical consequences for how a life is lived.

What the analysis reveals, step by step:

Everything is Consciousness. Body, mind, world — traced to their ultimate ground, all are names-and-forms whose sole substance is pure Consciousness, exactly as every clay vessel is only clay in different shapes.

The ego is not the doer. A name-and-form has no agency independent of its substrate. The pot does nothing that clay is not doing. The ego’s claim to authorship of actions is the pot claiming it shaped itself.

The world was never created. Pushed to its extreme, the analysis arrives at Gaudapada’s ajāta vāda — the doctrine of non-origination, Advaita’s highest and most startling teaching: no creation, no bondage, no liberation, no seeker. Only Consciousness, ever unmodified.

Happiness is your own nature. A meticulous dissection of desire and its satisfaction shows that no object ever contained the happiness attributed to it. The world is a mirror of your own bliss, never its source.

Along the way, the book shows how every central doctrine of Advaita — Brahman, Ātman, māyā, avidyā, the jīva, Īśvara, the three states, neti neti, sat-cit-ānanda, mokṣa itself — is simply name-and-form analysis applied to a different domain. What looks like a sprawling philosophical system turns out to be one insight, endlessly restated.

The exposition is grounded throughout in the classical sources — the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, the Māṇḍūkya Kārikā, the Bhagavad Gītā — and in the living testimony of three modern masters: Ramana Maharshi’s self-enquiry, Nisargadatta Maharaj’s radical pointing, and Ramakrishna Paramahansa’s instrument model of the body-mind. Comparative sidelights from Buddhism, Stoicism, and Taoism confirm the analysis from outside the tradition.

Written by a long-term practitioner in the Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj traditions with the help of explanations by Claude, this book is neither a survey nor a devotional tract. It is a sustained demonstration — patient, logical, and uncompromising — that the deepest truth of Vedanta is also its simplest.

The clay alone is. The pot was always only clay. Brahman alone is. And you are That — not as a future achievement, but as present fact, obscured only by an unexamined name and form.

For seekers who suspect that beneath Vedanta’s vast literature lies a single key, this book places that key in your hand.

My Latest Book Available Now on Amazon — The Mind Itself Is a Digression: Poems, Reflections, and Dialogues of a Restless Seeker

Kindle eBook

In India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0H4X9NFMB

In USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H4X9NFMB

Paperback

In USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H58FG4VK

The mind itself is a digression — or so I am told.

Somewhere between a poem scribbled past midnight and a four-hour phone call about God, China, and the meaning of it all, this book was born. It is a collection for the seekers, the misfits, the over-thinkers, and the quietly restless — the “slightly weird folks” who have spent a lifetime chasing the Truth, only to be told that whatever the mind understands is still not it.

D. Samarender Reddy writes from that beautiful, maddening edge. Across more than a hundred pieces — original poems, candid confessions, and probing philosophical dialogues — he moves with disarming honesty between the sacred and the absurd, the sublime and the everyday. One moment he is arguing with God (“As I see it, it is all your fault”); the next he is sitting in silent reverence before the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, J. Krishnamurti, and the Upanishads.

This is a book about the spiritual life as it is actually lived — not the polished version. It asks the questions most of us are too busy to ask:

• Does companionship help or hinder the search for the Self?
• Is the relentless pursuit of “more and more” the root of our suffering?
• What remains when thought finally falls silent?
• Can one be deeply devoted to the inner path and still ache with love, loneliness, and longing?

Drawing on Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Western philosophy, and world poetry — from Wordsworth and Neruda to Frost, Rimbaud, and Nietzsche — Reddy weaves Eastern wisdom and Western thought into a single, intimate conversation. His poems range from the tender to the irreverent; his reflections from razor-sharp clarity to playful self-mockery. Throughout, there is the warmth of a fellow traveller who refuses to pretend he has arrived.

For readers of Rumi, Kahlil Gibran, Mary Oliver, and Nisargadatta — and for anyone who has ever felt out of step with the world and wondered whether the fault lies with them or with the world.

If you have ever marched to a different drummer, if silence speaks to you louder than words, if you suspect that happiness was never “out there” to begin with — this book was written for you.

Take heart. You are not alone.

My Latest Book Available Now on Amazon — The Mind Itself Is a Digression: Poems, Reflections, and Dialogues of a Restless Seeker

Kindle eBook

In India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0H4X9NFMB

In USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H4X9NFMB

Paperback

In USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H58FG4VK

The mind itself is a digression — or so I am told.

Somewhere between a poem scribbled past midnight and a four-hour phone call about God, China, and the meaning of it all, this book was born. It is a collection for the seekers, the misfits, the over-thinkers, and the quietly restless — the “slightly weird folks” who have spent a lifetime chasing the Truth, only to be told that whatever the mind understands is still not it.

D. Samarender Reddy writes from that beautiful, maddening edge. Across more than a hundred pieces — original poems, candid confessions, and probing philosophical dialogues — he moves with disarming honesty between the sacred and the absurd, the sublime and the everyday. One moment he is arguing with God (“As I see it, it is all your fault”); the next he is sitting in silent reverence before the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, J. Krishnamurti, and the Upanishads.

This is a book about the spiritual life as it is actually lived — not the polished version. It asks the questions most of us are too busy to ask:

• Does companionship help or hinder the search for the Self?
• Is the relentless pursuit of “more and more” the root of our suffering?
• What remains when thought finally falls silent?
• Can one be deeply devoted to the inner path and still ache with love, loneliness, and longing?

Drawing on Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Western philosophy, and world poetry — from Wordsworth and Neruda to Frost, Rimbaud, and Nietzsche — Reddy weaves Eastern wisdom and Western thought into a single, intimate conversation. His poems range from the tender to the irreverent; his reflections from razor-sharp clarity to playful self-mockery. Throughout, there is the warmth of a fellow traveller who refuses to pretend he has arrived.

For readers of Rumi, Kahlil Gibran, Mary Oliver, and Nisargadatta — and for anyone who has ever felt out of step with the world and wondered whether the fault lies with them or with the world.

If you have ever marched to a different drummer, if silence speaks to you louder than words, if you suspect that happiness was never “out there” to begin with — this book was written for you.

Take heart. You are not alone.

My Latest Book Available Now on Amazon — The Mind Itself Is a Digression: Poems, Reflections, and Dialogues of a Restless Seeker

Kindle eBook

In India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0H4X9NFMB

In USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H4X9NFMB

Paperback

In USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H58FG4VK

The mind itself is a digression — or so I am told.

Somewhere between a poem scribbled past midnight and a four-hour phone call about God, China, and the meaning of it all, this book was born. It is a collection for the seekers, the misfits, the over-thinkers, and the quietly restless — the “slightly weird folks” who have spent a lifetime chasing the Truth, only to be told that whatever the mind understands is still not it.

D. Samarender Reddy writes from that beautiful, maddening edge. Across more than a hundred pieces — original poems, candid confessions, and probing philosophical dialogues — he moves with disarming honesty between the sacred and the absurd, the sublime and the everyday. One moment he is arguing with God (“As I see it, it is all your fault”); the next he is sitting in silent reverence before the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, J. Krishnamurti, and the Upanishads.

This is a book about the spiritual life as it is actually lived — not the polished version. It asks the questions most of us are too busy to ask:

• Does companionship help or hinder the search for the Self?
• Is the relentless pursuit of “more and more” the root of our suffering?
• What remains when thought finally falls silent?
• Can one be deeply devoted to the inner path and still ache with love, loneliness, and longing?

Drawing on Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Western philosophy, and world poetry — from Wordsworth and Neruda to Frost, Rimbaud, and Nietzsche — Reddy weaves Eastern wisdom and Western thought into a single, intimate conversation. His poems range from the tender to the irreverent; his reflections from razor-sharp clarity to playful self-mockery. Throughout, there is the warmth of a fellow traveller who refuses to pretend he has arrived.

For readers of Rumi, Kahlil Gibran, Mary Oliver, and Nisargadatta — and for anyone who has ever felt out of step with the world and wondered whether the fault lies with them or with the world.

If you have ever marched to a different drummer, if silence speaks to you louder than words, if you suspect that happiness was never “out there” to begin with — this book was written for you.

Take heart. You are not alone.

My Latest Book Available Now on Amazon — The Mind Itself Is a Digression: Poems, Reflections, and Dialogues of a Restless Seeker

Kindle eBook

In India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0H4X9NFMB

In USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H4X9NFMB

Paperback

In USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H58FG4VK

The mind itself is a digression — or so I am told.

Somewhere between a poem scribbled past midnight and a four-hour phone call about God, China, and the meaning of it all, this book was born. It is a collection for the seekers, the misfits, the over-thinkers, and the quietly restless — the “slightly weird folks” who have spent a lifetime chasing the Truth, only to be told that whatever the mind understands is still not it.

D. Samarender Reddy writes from that beautiful, maddening edge. Across more than a hundred pieces — original poems, candid confessions, and probing philosophical dialogues — he moves with disarming honesty between the sacred and the absurd, the sublime and the everyday. One moment he is arguing with God (“As I see it, it is all your fault”); the next he is sitting in silent reverence before the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, J. Krishnamurti, and the Upanishads.

This is a book about the spiritual life as it is actually lived — not the polished version. It asks the questions most of us are too busy to ask:

• Does companionship help or hinder the search for the Self?
• Is the relentless pursuit of “more and more” the root of our suffering?
• What remains when thought finally falls silent?
• Can one be deeply devoted to the inner path and still ache with love, loneliness, and longing?

Drawing on Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Western philosophy, and world poetry — from Wordsworth and Neruda to Frost, Rimbaud, and Nietzsche — Reddy weaves Eastern wisdom and Western thought into a single, intimate conversation. His poems range from the tender to the irreverent; his reflections from razor-sharp clarity to playful self-mockery. Throughout, there is the warmth of a fellow traveller who refuses to pretend he has arrived.

For readers of Rumi, Kahlil Gibran, Mary Oliver, and Nisargadatta — and for anyone who has ever felt out of step with the world and wondered whether the fault lies with them or with the world.

If you have ever marched to a different drummer, if silence speaks to you louder than words, if you suspect that happiness was never “out there” to begin with — this book was written for you.

Take heart. You are not alone.

My Latest Book Available Now on Amazon — The Mind Itself Is a Digression: Poems, Reflections, and Dialogues of a Restless Seeker

Kindle eBook

In India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0H4X9NFMB

In USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H4X9NFMB

Paperback

In USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H58FG4VK

The mind itself is a digression — or so I am told.

Somewhere between a poem scribbled past midnight and a four-hour phone call about God, China, and the meaning of it all, this book was born. It is a collection for the seekers, the misfits, the over-thinkers, and the quietly restless — the “slightly weird folks” who have spent a lifetime chasing the Truth, only to be told that whatever the mind understands is still not it.

D. Samarender Reddy writes from that beautiful, maddening edge. Across more than a hundred pieces — original poems, candid confessions, and probing philosophical dialogues — he moves with disarming honesty between the sacred and the absurd, the sublime and the everyday. One moment he is arguing with God (“As I see it, it is all your fault”); the next he is sitting in silent reverence before the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, J. Krishnamurti, and the Upanishads.

This is a book about the spiritual life as it is actually lived — not the polished version. It asks the questions most of us are too busy to ask:

• Does companionship help or hinder the search for the Self?
• Is the relentless pursuit of “more and more” the root of our suffering?
• What remains when thought finally falls silent?
• Can one be deeply devoted to the inner path and still ache with love, loneliness, and longing?

Drawing on Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Western philosophy, and world poetry — from Wordsworth and Neruda to Frost, Rimbaud, and Nietzsche — Reddy weaves Eastern wisdom and Western thought into a single, intimate conversation. His poems range from the tender to the irreverent; his reflections from razor-sharp clarity to playful self-mockery. Throughout, there is the warmth of a fellow traveller who refuses to pretend he has arrived.

For readers of Rumi, Kahlil Gibran, Mary Oliver, and Nisargadatta — and for anyone who has ever felt out of step with the world and wondered whether the fault lies with them or with the world.

If you have ever marched to a different drummer, if silence speaks to you louder than words, if you suspect that happiness was never “out there” to begin with — this book was written for you.

Take heart. You are not alone.

Seven Lucky Gods

In Japanese mythology, the 7 Lucky Gods that are believed to grant good luck & are often represented in netsuke & in artwork. Netsuke is a miniature sculpture, beginning in 17th century Japan. 1 of the 7, Jurojin, is said to be based on an actual historical figure.

These deities mostly have their roots as ancient gods of fortune from religions popular in Japan like: from Mahayana Buddhism (Benzaiten, Bishamonten, Daikokuten, Hotei), which came to Japan via China but began in India; & from Chinese Taoism (Fukurokuju & Jurojin); the last 1 (Ebisu) is has a Japanese native ancestry.

In the beginning, these gods were worshipped by merchants as the first 2 (Ebisu & Daikokuten) were gods of business & trade. Other classes of Japanese society looked for gods that could parallel with their professions: Benzaiten as the patron of the arts, Fukurokuju as the patron of the sciences, etc.

In ancient times, these gods were worshipped separately. This rarely happens today. Only when it’s required for the specific god to act on behalf of the applicant.

The 7 Gods of Fortune started being mentioned as a collective in 1420 in Fushimi. This was in order to imitate the processions of the feudal lords, daimyos, of pre-modern Japan.

It’s said that Buddhist priest, Tenkai, picked these gods after speaking with the shogun he served, Iemitsu Tokugawa. This was at the order of seeking whoever possessed the perfect virtues: longevity, fortune, popularity, sincerity, kindness, dignity, & magnanimity. Shortly after this, Kano Yasunobu, a famous artist of the time.

List of the deities:

• Ebisu: From the era of the gods Izanami & Izanagi, Ebisu is the only 1 whose beginnings are purely Japanese. He’s the god of prosperity & wealth in business, & of plenitude & abundance in crops, cereals, & food in general. He’s the patron of fishermen & is shown with fishermen’s costumes such as a typical hat, a fishing rod in his right hand & a fish that is either a carp, a hake, a codfish, a sea bass, or any large fish. In general, that symbolizes abundance in meals, like a feast or banquet. It’s now common to see his figure in restaurants where fish is served in huge amounts of in household kitchens.
• Daikokuten: He’s the God of commerce & prosperity. He’s sometimes considered the patron of cooks, farmers, bankers, & a protector of crops. He’s also considered a demon hunter. Legend says that the god Daikokuten hung a talisman on the branch of a tree in his garden &, by using this as a trap, was able to catch a demon. This god is known for his smile, his short legs, & the hat on his head. He’s usually shown with a bag full of valuable objects. Daikokuten’s popular imagery started as a syncretic conflation of the Buddhist death deity, Mahakala, with the Shinto deity, Okuninushi. Syncretic conflation is a blending of different belief systems practices or traditions into a new, single, & often confusing or contradictory whole. The Japanese name Daikoku is a direct translation of the Sanskrit name Mahakala, which means “Great Blackness.” Per the Butsuzozui compendium of 1690, Daikoku can also manifest as a female known as Daikokunyo (literally, She of Great Blackness) or Daikokutennyo (literally, She of Great Blackness of the Heavens).
• Bishamonten: Bishamonten’s origins can be traced back to Hinduism. But he has been adopted into Japanese culture. He comes from the Hindu god Kubera & is also from the name Vaisravana. He’s the god of fortune in war & battles. He’s also connected with authority & dignity. He’s the protector of those who follow the rules & behave properly. As the patron of fighters, he was represented dressed in armor & a helmet. He’s often seen carrying a pagoda. He also acts the protector of holy sites & important places & wields a spear to fight against the evil spirits. He’s usually shown in pictures with a hoop of fire.
• Benzaiten: Benzaiten’s origin is found in Hinduism. As she comes from the Hindu goddess Saraswati. She’s the only Fukujin in modern grouping. She’s named in a number of ways: Benzaiten, Benten, Bentensama, or Benzaitennyo. When she was adapted from Buddhism, she was given the qualities of financial fortune, talent, beauty, & music among others. Often she shows up with a Torii. She’s depicted as a smart, beautiful woman with all the aforementioned attributes. She carries a biwa, a Japanese traditional lute-like instrument, & is normally accompanied by a white snake. She’s the patron of artists, writers, dances, & geisha.
• Jurojin: He’s considered the incarnation of the southern pole star, Jurojin, is the god of the elderly & of longevity in Japanese Buddhist mythology. It’s said that the legendary Juroujin is based on a real person who lived in ancient times. He was approximately 1.82 meters (or 5.97 feet) tall with a very long head. Besides his unique skull, he’s shown with a long white beard, riding a deer, & is often accompanied by a 1500-year crane (the bird) & a tortoise. These are symbols of his affinity with long lives. In addition, he is usually represented under a peach tree. The fruit of this tree is considered, by Chinese Taoism, being able to prolong life. In his hand, he holds a crane & a book or a scroll. The wisdom of the world remains written in its pages. Jurojin enjoys rice & wine &is a very cheerful figure.
• Hotei: He’s the god of fortune, guardian of children, patron of diviners, & barmen. He’s also the god of popularity. He’s shown as a fat, smiling, bald man with a curly moustache. He always appears half-naked. His clothes aren’t wide enough to cover his huge belly. He blessed the Chinese. They nicknamed him “Cho-Tei-Shi” or “Ho-Tei-Shi,” meaning ‘bag of old clothes.’ Hotei was a Zen priest. His looks & some of his actions were against their moral code. His looks made him look like a naughty person & he didn’t have a fixed place to sleep. He carries a bag on his shoulders. The bag was loaded with fortunes for those who believe in his virtues. Hotei’s traits & virtues are contentment, magnanimity, & happiness. Hotei’s original Chinese name was Kaishi. According to legend, he passed away in March 916. The Japanese began to believe in Hotei during the Edo era. The reasoning for why the Japanese have such a great respect for this god comes from a legend that says that, before Zen Buddhism came to Japan, an alternative Buddhist thought was extended by a priest of suspicious aesthetic, who was actually was a manifestation of Miroku. Miroku was the patron of those who couldn’t be saved by the beliefs of Buddha. Hotei was later observed & accepted by the Japanese as a 2nd Miroku.
• Fukurokuju: (Sometimes omitted) The god Fukurokuju also has his beginnings in China. It’s believed that he used to be a hermit during the Chinese Song dynasty. He’s distinguished for being a reincarnation of the Taoist god, Hsuan-wu. He’s the god of wisdom, luck, longevity, wealth, & happiness. This god receives certain credits, such as being 1 of the Chinese philosophers who could live without eating called breatharian. He’s the only god who was said to have the ability to resurrect the dead. Fukurokuju is portrayed by the size of his head, being almost as large as the size of his whole body. He’s represented wearing traditional Chinese costumes. He normally carries a cane in 1 hand & a scroll with writings about the world in the other hand. He’s usually accompanied by a turtle, a crow, or a deer. These animals are frequently used in Japan to symbolize a long life. It’s also said that he likes to play chess. He’s the patron of chess players. The characteristics of Fukurokuju & Jurojin overlap as they both trace back to the Chinese Taoist deity. Nanjilaoren, which is why Fukurokuju’s position is sometimes granted instead to the goddess Kichijoten, as in Butsuzosui compendium of 1783. The Butsuzosui compendium is a collection of Buddhist iconographic sketches said to have been painted by Hidenobu Tosa of the Tosa school. Originally published in 1690 in 5 volumes.
• Kichijoten: (Sometimes omitted) She’s also known as Kisshoten or Kisshoutennyo. She was adapted via Buddhism from the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. Kisshoten has the traits of beauty, happiness, & fertility. In the 1783 edition of the Butsuzozui compendium, Kichijoten replaced Fukurokuju as 1 of the Fukujin. Kichijoten’s iconography is distinguished from the other Fukujin goddesses by the Nyoihiju gem in her hand. When Kichijoten replaces Fukurokuju, & Daikoku is regarded in feminine form, all 3 of the Hindu Tridevi goddesses are then represented among the 7 Fukujin.

During the first 3 days of the New Year, the 7 Lucky Gods are said to pilot through the Heavens the Takarabune or Treasure Ship. A picture of the ship forms an essential part of traditional Japanese New Year celebrations.

There are 4 shrines:

• Imamiya Ebisu Shrine, Osaka
• Nanyo Kanjizai, Shikoku
• Nishinomiya Shrine, Hyogo
• Toka Ebisu Shrine, Fukuoka

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The Fundamentals of Tawheed (Islamic Monotheism) by Dr. Bilal Philips Foreword | #Audiobook Preview

#islam #audiobooks #theology #religion #spirituality #monotheism #tawheed #tauheed #tawhid #tauhid #aqeedah #sunnah #internationalopenuniversity #bilalphilips #islamicstudies #christianity #judaism #hinduism #astrology #witchcraft #blackmagic #magic #sorcery #jinn #devils #demons #superstition #sufism #unitarian #trinity #god #faith

#التوحيد #العقيدة #كتاب_صوتي #الإسلام #القرآن #القرآن_الكريم

The Fundamentals of Tawheed (Islamic Monotheism) by Dr. Bilal Philips Foreword | #Audiobook Preview

#islam #audiobooks #theology #religion #spirituality #monotheism #tawheed #tauheed #tawhid #tauhid #aqeedah #sunnah #internationalopenuniversity #bilalphilips #islamicstudies #christianity #judaism #hinduism #astrology #witchcraft #blackmagic #magic #sorcery #jinn #devils #demons #superstition #sufism #unitarian #trinity #god #faith

#التوحيد #العقيدة #كتاب_صوتي #الإسلام #القرآن #القرآن_الكريم

The Fundamentals of Tawheed (Islamic Monotheism) by Dr. Bilal Philips Foreword | #Audiobook Preview

#islam #audiobooks #theology #religion #spirituality #monotheism #tawheed #tauheed #tawhid #tauhid #aqeedah #sunnah #internationalopenuniversity #bilalphilips #islamicstudies #christianity #judaism #hinduism #astrology #witchcraft #blackmagic #magic #sorcery #jinn #devils #demons #superstition #sufism #unitarian #trinity #god #faith

#التوحيد #العقيدة #كتاب_صوتي #الإسلام #القرآن #القرآن_الكريم

The Fundamentals of Tawheed (Islamic Monotheism) by Dr. Bilal Philips Foreword | #Audiobook Preview

#islam #audiobooks #theology #religion #spirituality #monotheism #tawheed #tauheed #tawhid #tauhid #aqeedah #sunnah #internationalopenuniversity #bilalphilips #islamicstudies #christianity #judaism #hinduism #astrology #witchcraft #blackmagic #magic #sorcery #jinn #devils #demons #superstition #sufism #unitarian #trinity #god #faith

#التوحيد #العقيدة #كتاب_صوتي #الإسلام #القرآن #القرآن_الكريم

The Fundamentals of Tawheed (Islamic Monotheism) by Dr. Bilal Philips Foreword | #Audiobook Preview

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#التوحيد #العقيدة #كتاب_صوتي #الإسلام #القرآن #القرآن_الكريم

The video of Gauri Lankesh’s speech that her assassins used to whip up hate

Investigators say that the trigger for the killers to identify Gauri as a target was not only her body of journalistic work, but also this video clip from a speech discussing Hinduism.

#GauriLankesh #HJS #karnataka #hindutva #HJV #BJP #BJPkarnataka #hinduism #FreedomOfSpeech #PostcardNews #disinformation #ReligiousViolence #india

https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/video-gauri-lankesh-s-speech-her-assassins-used-whip-hate-173325