VITHAL C NADKARNI
Croc Mama
For Augustine, as compared to God, all of physical creation was prope nihil, or next to nothing. Of course, the Saint didn’t mean that literally.
Fang O' fury
The book display in the mall makes our scribe jump back involuntarily. It flaunts a massive fanged cobra wrapped around Shiva’s muscular arm.
Cobra is king!
Ananta (Endlessly Eternal) is the name Indian mythology gives to the serpent that supports the world on its head.
Grinning gorgon
As for Medusa’s much-maligned drop-dead stare, only by looking at her through a reflection, from a mirror or a burnished shield, could one escape her curse.
Wedded to a wood apple
In the traditional Newari culture of Nepal, which traditionally has had deep roots with Sikkim, the bael tree is part of a fertility ritual for girls known as the bel baha.
Nones, or Ayes?
Elsewhere on the planet, the number of believers seems to have gone down to 47% from 69% just five years ago! Does that mean atheism is the new opium of the masses?
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Selfish Savvy
In the US, long regarded as the nation of and for Narcissists, the incidence of the disorder, named after the boy who fell in love with his own reflection, seems to have risen 100% in 10 years!
Bird Bliss
But what’s more gratifying, the turns and phrases that the Swamiji used in that story are almost the same as those found in the popular versions narrated in Maharashtra, 900 years later!
Road Rishi
Lurking among the wizened roots and mossy rocks are miniature Taoist figures, animals and birds, which the whistle-stop tourist in break-neck frenzy is likely to miss.
Great guise
Shiva comes disguised as a tribal to test the mettle of the warrior-prince Arjuna. Initially fooled, he intuits to the divinity within us all: Tat tvam asi!
Net of unity
The idea of a web of cosmic connections spun by the deity Shakra or Indra originated in Atharvavedaand and it became one of the pillars of Buddhism, Rajiv Malhotra says.
Family of Man
Ishwara-nishtanchi mandiyali, a meeting of those who believe in the transcendent principle called Ishwara.Contrast this with the starker "fellow-travellers".
Tricks or treats?
Mangalore abounds in places of spirit worship, they have Annappa, Panjurli, Ullalthi, Varahi, Guliga, Koragajja, and Raktesswari.
Festive Flyers
Booted warblers chuck-chuck among the trees as your columnist walks in the garden. They come to Mumbai every winter all the way from central Asia. AEuropean Chiffchaff also trills in the shrubs along with adesiwarbler called Darzi (Tailor Bird).
Full or Empty?
Emptiness is a mode of perception in which one neither adds anything to nor takes anything away from the isness of the present.
Live life king-size
Anonagenarian friend was bereaved after 58 years of marriage. As a rationalist, his first impulse was to say no to funerary rituals.
Moon and money
Lakshmiji's festival celebrates harvest and the end of monsoon with vigil kept during the night of the full moon (Sharad Purnima).
Novel therapy
As he scribbled away to crank up masterpieces such as La Comédie humaine, French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac consumed prodigious amounts of black coffee.
Do gooding as policy
Renowned as the Ethical Warrior — an oxymoron to Pacifist ears — Bhishma saw purity as being inseparable from his core concept Dharma.
Vibe freely, fearlessly!
Many moons ago, your columnist, on a journey to the land of Miss Liberty, met Lady Freedom on Capitol Hill.
Easy to be Wise
The pseudoscience alternative to the feat would be to bestow qualities of the mythological Jupiter on to the newly-discovered Jove.
World as a Vengi Tree
We are rafting on the river Kaveri that once marked the boundary between the rival kingdoms of Chalukyas and Pallavas.
Home Fire
Press coverage of the meteorite hit in Russia has this quote by sci-fi master Larry Niven, "Dinosaurs aren't around.
Mama Mia
We meet throngs of devotees on the road to the shrine to Ashapura renowned simply as Mother’s Fort, Mata no Madh, in Kutch.
Lives of compassion
Good friend and fellow columnist Vithal C Nadkarni informed us here a couple of days back how the Dalai Lama brought the house down during the launch of World Compassion Day.
Myth & Money
An automated trading system from the UK called Superstitious Trading Fund has been launched to check out the chances.
Flying flower
When your goddesses love to fly, don't put in the roof on their 'house'. That seems to be the logic of the stunningly superb roofless Chausat Yogini shrine at Hirapur. Such a shrine is called hypaethral, from the Greek ('open to the skies'). Orissa's 'open-air' temple is obviously meant for deities that just love to drive on their vehicles, which could be anything from a dromedary to a dragon, not to forget a flame or a flower!
Cosmic Coils
An awesome nine-hooded serpent carved on a single sheet of limestone dominates the ruins of the Buddhist Stupa unearthed at Kanaganahalli in Karnataka. This is the Naga Muchilinda, who protected the Buddha under his hood for seven days and nights during torrential rains that occurred soon after the Master’s enlightenment.....
Salt of the Earth
The traveller has two birthdays. The first celebrates his birth and the second his rebirth!
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