Dhīti is a blog for long form essays, expressions of civilizational voice, cinema and literature review, and more.
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.
Our individual and social conundrums are as old as time, but civilizational essence is timeless. What can we learn from new arenas of creative activity, to rediscover the eternal essence? This essay is an exploration of the meta and meaning-making significance of culture and Dharma, via game design.
Dharma is sanātana, but civilizational emergence follows a worldly trajectory where the technologies we develop shape and form us in turn. Here we look at an ancient technology, the ratha or chariot, and unpack its significance in the Indian civilizational trajectory.
We read here a personal account from Smt. Kate Herse, and find that being born in the United States did not prevent her from learning the Upaniṣads, leading a dhārmika life, and living as a Hindu. Caste played no part at all in her journey. What is required though is adherence to duties and norms of the sampradāya that she has chosen.
When Devi or supreme Goddess is worshipped as the primary power, how is the primacy of Devi established in Śākta traditions?
There is a reason that as a culture we were more interested in ‘what happens’ than ‘what happened’. ‘What happened’ becomes dated. ‘What happened’ is limited. While ‘what happens’ is timeless and limitless. The great seers of this great land observed the world from a śuddha citta and created analogies capable of reflecting the timeless and divine principles and messages which are still relevant to us. And they did this through poetry, literature and art.
In this essay we engage in emic freethinking, and look at some names from Indian itihāsa in a new light. How many such stories might we find in the Purāṇas, Epics and other texts? And if we did, would we not understand our past better?
The first article in this three part series takes a comprehensive and detailed look at the Aghorī-s, drawing from personal experience and insider’s knowledge of this rare and much misunderstood tradition.