Dhīti is a blog for long form essays, expressions of civilizational voice, cinema and literature review, and more.
A novel re-articulation of the understanding of Dharma, and Bhāratīya culture, as a quest for harmony. Here we contrast the 'Standard Model of Reality' and the biological concept of a 'selfish gene' with the Indian Model of Reality, and the consequent imperative it yields.
Colonization should be understood as both a process and an event. The svayaṃbodha that emerges from such a realization would make us understand how colonization was not just about the subordination of people and their traditions or the colonization of land and resources, but also about colonizing people's knowledge, their daily experiences, and collective imaginations.
The Hindu civilizational discourse has arguably entered the sophisticated phase. This is marked by a shift in the content of the discourse, a transition from the political to the cultural, civilizational and metaphysical. What then are the challenges and how can we develop the thinking resources to overcome those?
A journey through the history of Travancore's royal family, beginning from the Chera eras. And a reminder of the gratitude we owe to the ancient nobles who embodied vīra rasa and sevā bhāva.
Kalaripayaṭṭu must be elevated, as a traditional psychophysiological discipline, as a ‘scientific’ system of physical culture, and as an arena of experience and self-transformation: the crucible of the individual’s experience where embodied practice helps shape a self.
We celebrate the return of Rāma with a Festival of Lights, for if his journey- Rāma’s Ayaṇa- is recreated within us, it generates within us the Supreme Light. His journey within us is the journey from untruth to truth. From Darkness to Light. It is the rising of Agni from earth to sky, the ultimate union, or Yoga.
The festival of Ahoi Aṣṭamī instills the deep sense in Hindus that our actions have consequences; that human civilization destroys Nature by the sheer act of living in great groups and thus has to make extra efforts to respect and protect Nature; and that we have to give back to Nature as we take much from it.