India is a land of stories which, apart from their age-old charm, are a simple way of communicating profound truths. This book is an attempt to bring alive some of the deepest mysteries of existence through the narrative of stories.
The Battle for Consciousness Theory: A Response to Ken Wilber’s Appropriation of Sri Aurobindo’s Work and Other Indian Thought is a compelling and meticulous account of the digestion and subversion of the work of one of India’s greatest sages—Sri Aurobindo. The book uncovers the systematic co-opting of Sri Aurobindo’s seminal ideas by the American theorist Ken Wilber and their reformulation into his own ‘Integral Theory’. Based on extensive research spanning a quarter century, the book provides deep insights into the developments that shaped (and distorted) the Aurobindonian discourse in recent decades. It discusses the ramifications of the enhancement of Western Universalism at the expense of Vedic and other Indian traditions while analyzing certain limitations in Wilber’s work.
The IITs are under attack.
This has serious legal implications and severe consequences for the IITs across India, its students, and faculty. More broadly, it impacts India’s engineering education. Such concerted attacks will follow the IIT engineer and other tech professionals to their workplace anywhere in the world. Harvard University’s Woke machinery is behind this attack and we need to understand the sophistication that backs it.
This book’s evidence-based rebuttal gives IITians and other engineers the toolkit to tackle false accusations of being casteist bigots.
The Collector’s Mother is a story of grit and perseverance. An ‘unwanted’ woman from an underprivileged background is attacked and, along with her husband, dragged on the village road and humiliated, and the family’s land grabbed by a local land mafia. In the godforsaken village deep into the hinterland, such excesses are not uncommon, but her steely resolve makes her stand out. How she weathers through such soul-sapping encounters to beat all odds and inspires his son to become a collector is at the heart of this extraordinary story set against the backdrop of abject caste oppression, absence of rule of law, persistent traditional power structure, pitiable education system, food insecurity, drought, famine, lack of health care and communication, hatred and domination by fellow villagers.
A woman is not just a form and a figure; though her form itself is significant of deep-guarded secrets and the capacity to create marvels out of a seed state. She is the Force, Shakti, Wisdom, Strength, Beauty, Love, Delight that is everywhere and in all beings. This book is not just an attempt to discover and evoke her through myths and legends of India, but to unravel the mysteries of the ‘Eternal Feminine’ with a view to discover the truth behind what a woman truly represents as seen through the awakened eyes of the mystics and the spiritual culture of India.
How do we know that we are living in actual reality? Can we trust our memories? Have you ever wondered about the possibilities of extraterrestrial species visiting Earth in the prehistoric era? What would happen if a rare mutation halts aging in a man?
All these questions, and many more, are answered through six superbly crafted stories penned by breakout author, Ankush Sam Thorpe. In the stunning title story, a man’s journey to investigate his father’s mysterious death leads him to the nation’s best kept secret. ‘A Stitch in Time’, follows a soldier’s quest to finish a mission in a world long forgotten, with a gut-wrenching revelation. In ‘Down Memory Lane’, the protagonist learns that the reality is not what it seems amidst an imminent political coup. In ‘The Representative’, a man suddenly wakes up billions of light years away, in an intergalactic conference, representing Earth. And in ‘Hera’, a group of Neanderthals are visited by a guest from a hyper-advanced civilization, forever changing the course of evolution on Earth.
Fighting Fourth or 4th Battalion, The Kumaon Regiment, raised in 1788, has fought and etched its name in the annals of Indian military history with honour and pride. From fighting the Pindaris to quelling the Boxer Rebellion in Hong Kong, the battalion saw extensive action in both the World Wars and the Indo-Pak War of 1947–48, where the gallant actions of the unit saved Kashmir Valley for the Indian Union and changed the course of history in the region. Brigadier Jasbir presents an intimate, personal account of the glorious history of this fine battalion that has contributed no less than two Chiefs of Staff of the Indian Army and is among the most highly-decorated ones.
Little known in his own country, Sri Aurobindo was nevertheless one of the more significant personalities of twenty century-India. After studying humanities in England, he embarked on a political struggle to challenge Britain’s colonial domination over India. In 1906, he founded the newspaper Bande Mataram, laying the groundwork of India’s future independence, notably through Passive Resistance, which was later adopted by Gandhi. But far from Gandhi’s pacifism, Sri Aurobindo was convinced that freedom could only be achieved via action, and even via armed struggle.
Absorbed by India’s century-old wisdom, his commitment to his country was doubled by an unremitting inner spiritual quest.
In 1910, Sri Aurobindo began another life in Pondicherry. In his written works, notably The Life Divine, published in 1920, he propounded an “Integral Yoga” describing the conditions of the “The Great Passage”, meant to lead to the next evolution of mankind.
His work influenced and attracted disciples from around the world to his ashram, founded in 1926 with his companion Mira Alfassa, and later to the Auroville community, a few kilometres from Pondicherry.
Through this biography, Luc Venet reveals the unfolding of Sri Aurobindo’s exceptional force and opens up the path to a new evolution of humanity.
The Power of Future Machines is a collection of essays by experts exploring the future impact of Artificial Intelligence in various fields of human endeavor. Building upon the dialectical and analytical framework provided in the book Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Power: 5 Battlegrounds, experts from various fields (military, geopolitics, strategic affairs, physics, policy, and others) engage and describe for a wider audience the potential impact of AI. Given their specific vantage points and deriving from their areas of expertise, this anthology makes for a fascinating read. The essays discuss how AI will affect policy making, both in narrow areas of expertise as well as its effect on humanity at large. Aimed at policy makers, experts and a broader audience, these varied perspectives on AI add something vital to the current skewed AI discourse.
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, Dr Bhargava, the director general of Indian Council of Medical Research, assembles a crack team of India’s most brilliant minds, including Dr Nivedita Gupta, Dr Priya Abraham and Dr Pragya Yadav. Together they mount a mission to save humanity from the unseen enemy. The challenges they face are daunting. They must navigate the treacherous waters of international diplomacy and deal with excessive bureaucratic control. Often enough, they find themselves battling against time and misinformation fuelled by fake news. Along the way, they are forced into moral dilemmas to make life-ordeath decisions that affect the nation and its people. As they work tirelessly to develop and distribute a vaccine against the deadly coronavirus that threatened to ravage India, they face opposition from foreign interests and intense scrutiny from the media. The Vaccine War is an inspiring tale of scientific ingenuity, perseverance and the triumph of the human spirit. It celebrates the heroes who fought relentlessly behind the scenes to protect their nation and offers a poignant reminder that unity and science can overcome even the most formidable challenges.
We speak often of the Hindu religion, of the Sanatan Dharma, but few of us really know what that religion is…This is the Dharma that for the salvation of humanity was cherished in the seclusion of this peninsula from of old. It is to give this religion that India is rising. She does not rise as other countries do, for self or when she is strong, to trample on the weak. She is rising to shed the eternal light entrusted to her over the world. India has always existed for humanity and not for herself and it is for humanity and not for herself that she must be great.
These are the words of Maharishi Sri Aurobindo. But what is this Sanatan Dharma? Is it just the religion and rituals that Hindus follow or is it really the secret of life and consciousness that is embedded in the very fabric of our cosmic existence? This book reveals, layer by layer, the subtler spiritual dimensions of Sanatan Dharma, and its timeless relevance to human existence and civilization.
A Primer on Indian Social Structures Caste is being used as a major weapon to shame Hindus. This crisp and easy primer presents a powerful counter to Western Universalism’s harsh attacks on caste. It is a long over-due toolkit to help all open-minded people gain an understanding of the subtleties of Hinduism’s complex social order. This social structure has, after all, produced a civilization with unparalleled diversity. The Vedic world view along with the historical journey of Varna and Jati demolishes the prevailing myths about caste.
Veda Made Simple is an important book. In a strikingly clear, lucid and straightforward manner, the author reveals the rich and complex philosophy and symbolism of the Veda for anyone who is open in mind and heart to receive the wisdom of humanity’s oldest spiritual scripture. That the author does this in the light of Sri Aurobindo—inarguably among the very few who realized and lived the deepest and highest Vedic truths in their beings—makes it even more significant. This book comes at the right time too, as Indians globally begin to reawaken to their timeless Vedic and Sanatan heritage.
Few places in the world carry the heavy burden of history as effortlessly as Kashi, or Varanasi, has. The holy city embodies the very soul of our civilization and personifies the resilience that we have displayed over centuries in the face of numerous adversities and fatal attacks.
Waiting for Shiva: Unearthing the Truth of Kashi’s Gyan Vapi recreates the history, antiquity and sanctity of Kashi as the abode of Bhagwan Shiva in the form of Vishweshwara, or Vishwanath. Shiva himself assured his devotees of salvation if they leave their mortal coils in the city. The book delves into the history of this self-manifested swayambhu jyotirlinga shrine of Vishweshwara, which for centuries has been both a refuge for the devout and a target of the bloodiest waves of iconoclasm. However, each time an attempt was made to obliterate the temple by demolishing it, it managed to rise and prosper. Every iconoclastic storm was followed by an episode of persistence, tenacity and stubborn resolve. Shrines fell and shrines rose, but the Hindus of Kashi never gave up—not even once.
Waiting for Shiva documents these cataclysmic events in the temple’s history. The final death blow was dealt in 1669 by the Mughal despot Aurangzeb, who demolished the temple and erected few domes on the partially destroyed western wall to call it a mosque. The temple complex was desecrated and left strewn with ruins as a grim reminder of the humiliation and insult that Hindus had to face as a consequence of their holiest shrine being torn down to smithereens. The area that is now called the Gyan Vapi mosque and the surrounding land that lies adjacent to the new temple of Vishwanath, which came up towards the end of the 18th Century, has always been one of intense contestation. Bloody riots overran Varanasi over this issue multiple times in the past. During the colonial era, the doors of the British courts were knocked at to settle the occupancy issue, and they adjudicated the matter several times. Post-Independence, too, the desire to ‘liberate’ the complex has been seething in the Hindu imagination. A new suit filed in 2021 before the Varanasi civil court reopened a long-festering historical wound. Despite several appeals right up to the Supreme Court to dismiss the plaint, a survey by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was ordered, which would lay bare the truth in its findings by the end of 2023.
Vikram Sampath’s latest offering retraces the long history of this bitterly disputed site and the dramatic twists and turns in the checkered past of this hoary shrine. Piecing together numerous documents and accounts—Vedic and Puranic texts, Sanskrit literary sources, Agama shastras, Jataka tales, Persian accounts, travelogues of foreigners, archival records and copious legal documents detailing the contestation from the British era to modern Indian courts—the book recreates, for the first time with facts and cogent arguments, this stormy history right up to the present times. The long-suppressed secrets that lay hidden in Gyan Vapi finally finds a voice through this book.
చరిత్ర ఒక బరువు, ఒక బాధ్యత. ఆ బరువుబాధ్యతలను హుందాగా అలవోకగా మోస్తూ వచ్చిన న గరం కా శీ లే దా వా రణాసి. ప్ర పంచానికి వె లుగు చూ పిన ఈ దే శసంస్ కృతికి విలువైన ప్ర తీక. శతాబ్దా లుగా ఎదుర్కొన్న కష్టా లను, దాడులను భరిస్తూ , ఎదిరిస్తూ తలెత్తు కు నిలిచిన నగరం కాశీ.
“వెయిటింగ్ ఫర్ శివ: అనెర్తిం గ్ ది ట్రూ త్ ఆఫ్ కాశీస్ గ్యానవాపి” కు తెలుగు అనువాదం ఇది. శ కలాలుగా వు న్న చ రిత్ర ను ఒ క సూత్రం గా కూ ర్చిన ర చన, వి శ్వేశ్వరుడిగా విశ్వనాథుడిగా అనాదిగా ఈ జాతిని తరిం పచేస్తు న్న పరమేశ్వరుడి నివాసమై న కాశీ కథ ఇది. ‘కాశీలో తుది శ్వాస విడిస్తే చాలు ముక్తినిస్తా’ అని శివుడు స్వయంగా ప్ర కటించాడు. శతాబ్దా లుగా కాశీ పొందిన గౌరవమర్యాదలు, ముష ్కరుల దాడుల్లో శిథిలమై న కాశీ వ్యథలు, పడిన ప్ర తిసారీ కాశీని మళ్లీ లేపిన అచంచలమై న భక్తిప్ర పత్తు లు అన్నీ పేజీలలో మనను పలకరిస్తా యి. దెబ్బలు తినడం కాశీకి అలవాటే, అయితే చావుదెబ్బ కొట్టిం ది మటుకు 1669 లో ఔరంగజేబ్. ఆలయం ధ్వం సం చేసి, పడమటి గోడ మీద రెండు గుంబజ్ లు కట్టి, దాన్ని మసీదు అన్నా డు. గ్యా నవాపి మసీదు ఉన్న స్థ లం, ఆవరణ, 18 వ శతాబ్దం లో కట్టిన మందిరానికి మసీదుకు మధ్యలోని స్థ లం మొత్తం వివాదాలకు కారణమయ్యాయి. గంగ నెత్తు రు పులుముకుని రోదించిం ది. బ్రిటి ష్ హయాం లో ఎన్ని వ్యాజ్యా లలో తీర్పులు ప్ర కటించి నా పరిష్కారం లేకపోయిం ది. 1947 తరవాత కాశీ మందిరానికి స్వేచ్ఛ తేవాలన్న సంకల్పం మరిం త బలమై ంది. 2021 లోనమోదై న సివిల్ కేసు దేశాన్ని ఒక ఊపు ఊపగా, సుప్ర ీం కోర్టు ASIని సమగ్ర నివేదిక సమర్పిం చమని కోరిం ది. 2024 జనవరిలో బయటకు వచ్చిన ASI నివేదిక ఏం చెబుతోంది?
గ్యా నవాపి రహస్యాలను ఎంతో వివరంగా, ఆసక్తికరంగా, వివరిం చారు విక్ర మ్ సంపత్. పాఠకుల మనసు గెలుచుకునే, ఆలోచింపచేసే రచన. ఇదిగో, తెలుగులో మీకోసం.
This book is a lucid retelling of the triumphs, the many horrors, the challenges, and the many battles the soldiers fought and won within and outside, to put India first. A young officer who was taken prisoner, a Naval captain who left home days before his wedding, the fond memory of a martyred Lance Naik who threw himself before the enemy to help win a bigger battle, and so on. Fifty years later, Brig. B. S. Mehta brings together accounts from 29 brave Indian soldiers of the Eastern and Western Sector on what it meant to be young and in the line of fire.
