Podcasts about brahmins

Brahmins and Kings: Royal Counsel in the Sanskrit Narrative Literatures (Oxford UP, 2025) examines some of the most well-known and widely circulated narratives in the history of Sanskrit literature, including the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, Visnusarman's famed animal stories (the Panchatantra), Somadeva's labyrinthine Ocean of Rivers of Stories (the Kathasaritsagara), Kalhana's Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir (the Rajatarangini), and two of the most famous plays in the history of Sanskrit literature, Kalidasa's Abhijnanasakuntala and Harsa's Ratnavali. Offering a sustained close, intertextual reading, John Nemec argues that these texts all share a common frame: they feature stories of the mutual relations of ksatriya kings with Brahmins, and they all depict Brahmins advising political figures.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Brahmins and Kings: Royal Counsel in the Sanskrit Narrative Literatures (Oxford UP, 2025) examines some of the most well-known and widely circulated narratives in the history of Sanskrit literature, including the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, Visnusarman's famed animal stories (the Panchatantra), Somadeva's labyrinthine Ocean of Rivers of Stories (the Kathasaritsagara), Kalhana's Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir (the Rajatarangini), and two of the most famous plays in the history of Sanskrit literature, Kalidasa's Abhijnanasakuntala and Harsa's Ratnavali. Offering a sustained close, intertextual reading, John Nemec argues that these texts all share a common frame: they feature stories of the mutual relations of ksatriya kings with Brahmins, and they all depict Brahmins advising political figures.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brahmins and Kings: Royal Counsel in the Sanskrit Narrative Literatures (Oxford UP, 2025) examines some of the most well-known and widely circulated narratives in the history of Sanskrit literature, including the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, Visnusarman's famed animal stories (the Panchatantra), Somadeva's labyrinthine Ocean of Rivers of Stories (the Kathasaritsagara), Kalhana's Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir (the Rajatarangini), and two of the most famous plays in the history of Sanskrit literature, Kalidasa's Abhijnanasakuntala and Harsa's Ratnavali. Offering a sustained close, intertextual reading, John Nemec argues that these texts all share a common frame: they feature stories of the mutual relations of ksatriya kings with Brahmins, and they all depict Brahmins advising political figures.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/south-asian-studies

Brahmins and Kings: Royal Counsel in the Sanskrit Narrative Literatures (Oxford UP, 2025) examines some of the most well-known and widely circulated narratives in the history of Sanskrit literature, including the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, Visnusarman's famed animal stories (the Panchatantra), Somadeva's labyrinthine Ocean of Rivers of Stories (the Kathasaritsagara), Kalhana's Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir (the Rajatarangini), and two of the most famous plays in the history of Sanskrit literature, Kalidasa's Abhijnanasakuntala and Harsa's Ratnavali. Offering a sustained close, intertextual reading, John Nemec argues that these texts all share a common frame: they feature stories of the mutual relations of ksatriya kings with Brahmins, and they all depict Brahmins advising political figures.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/indian-religions

Brahmins and Kings: Royal Counsel in the Sanskrit Narrative Literatures (Oxford UP, 2025) examines some of the most well-known and widely circulated narratives in the history of Sanskrit literature, including the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, Visnusarman's famed animal stories (the Panchatantra), Somadeva's labyrinthine Ocean of Rivers of Stories (the Kathasaritsagara), Kalhana's Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir (the Rajatarangini), and two of the most famous plays in the history of Sanskrit literature, Kalidasa's Abhijnanasakuntala and Harsa's Ratnavali. Offering a sustained close, intertextual reading, John Nemec argues that these texts all share a common frame: they feature stories of the mutual relations of ksatriya kings with Brahmins, and they all depict Brahmins advising political figures. 

In this engaging episode of the Bharatvaarta Podcast, host Sharan is joined by Dr. Vikram Sampath to discuss his latest book on the controversial history of Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan's contrasting reigns. The conversation covers various aspects including Tipu Sultan's controversial policies, the methodological challenges of historical writing, and the nuances of presenting an impartial account in a polarized field. Dr. Sampath also shares insights into the importance of documenting contemporary lives for future historians and discusses his initiatives to support upcoming historians through the FIHCR (Foundation for Indian Historical and Cultural Research). Topics: 00:00 Introduction 01:06 Meet Dr. Vikram Sampath 01:36 The Haider and Tipu Saga 03:47 Balancing Historical Perspectives 05:23 The Craft of a Historian 05:34 Tipu Sultan's Documentation 07:21 Contemporary and Oral Sources 18:05 Comparing Haider and Tipu 26:49 Tipu's Language Policies 30:55 Tipu's Dreams and Interpretations 34:34 Toxic Masculinity and Treatment of Women 37:24 Historical Movies and Controversies 39:29 Challenges in Indian Historical Cinema 42:21 Religious Policies and Temple Grants 51:07 Role of Brahmins and Administrators 55:21 Controversial Historical Figures 57:52 Future of Historical Research 01:04:51 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

ਸੂਹੀ ਮਹਲਾ ੪ ਘਰੁ ੬    ੴ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥ ਨੀਚ ਜਾਤਿ ਹਰਿ ਜਪਤਿਆ ਉਤਮ ਪਦਵੀ ਪਾਇ ॥ ਪੂਛਹੁ ਬਿਦਰ ਦਾਸੀ ਸੁਤੈ ਕਿਸਨੁ ਉਤਰਿਆ ਘਰਿ ਜਿਸੁ ਜਾਇ ॥੧॥ ਹਰਿ ਕੀ ਅਕਥ ਕਥਾ ਸੁਨਹੁ ਜਨ ਭਾਈ ਜਿਤੁ ਸਹਸਾ ਦੂਖ ਭੂਖ ਸਭ ਲਹਿ ਜਾਇ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥ ਰਵਿਦਾਸੁ ਚਮਾਰੁ ਉਸਤਤਿ ਕਰੇ ਹਰਿ ਕੀਰਤਿ ਨਿਮਖ ਇਕ ਗਾਇ ॥ ਪਤਿਤ ਜਾਤਿ ਉਤਮੁ ਭਇਆ ਚਾਰਿ ਵਰਨ ਪਏ ਪਗਿ ਆਇ ॥੨॥ ਨਾਮਦੇਅ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਿ ਲਗੀ ਹਰਿ ਸੇਤੀ ਲੋਕੁ ਛੀਪਾ ਕਹੈ ਬੁਲਾਇ ॥ ਖਤ੍ਰੀ ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣ ਪਿਠਿ ਦੇ ਛੋਡੇ ਹਰਿ ਨਾਮਦੇਉ ਲੀਆ ਮੁਖਿ ਲਾਇ ॥੩॥ ਜਿਤਨੇ ਭਗਤ ਹਰਿ ਸੇਵਕਾ ਮੁਖਿ ਅਠਸਠਿ ਤੀਰਥ ਤਿਨ ਤਿਲਕੁ ਕਢਾਇ ॥ ਜਨੁ ਨਾਨਕੁ ਤਿਨ ਕਉ ਅਨਦਿਨੁ ਪਰਸੇ ਜੇ ਕ੍ਰਿਪਾ ਕਰੇ ਹਰਿ ਰਾਇ ॥੪॥੧॥੮॥ ਅਰਥ: ਹੇ ਸੱਜਣੋ! ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦੀ ਅਸਚਰਜ ਸਿਫ਼ਤਿ-ਸਾਲਾਹ ਸੁਣਿਆ ਕਰੋ, ਜਿਸ ਦੀ ਬਰਕਤਿ ਨਾਲ ਹਰੇਕ ਕਿਸਮ ਦਾ ਸਹਿਮ ਹਰੇਕ ਦੁੱਖ ਦੂਰ ਹੋ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ, (ਮਾਇਆ ਦੀ) ਭੁੱਖ ਮਿਟ ਜਾਂਦੀ ਹੈ।੧।ਰਹਾਉ। ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! ਨੀਵੀਂ ਜਾਤਿ ਵਾਲਾ ਮਨੁੱਖ ਭੀ ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦਾ ਨਾਮ ਜਪਣ ਨਾਲ ਉੱਚਾ ਆਤਮਕ ਦਰਜਾ ਹਾਸਲ ਕਰ ਲੈਂਦਾ ਹੈ (ਜੇ ਯਕੀਨ ਨਹੀਂ ਆਉਂਦਾ, ਤਾਂ ਕਿਸੇ ਪਾਸੋਂ) ਦਾਸੀ ਦੇ ਪੁੱਤਰ ਬਿਦਰ ਦੀ ਗੱਲ ਪੁੱਛ ਵੇਖੋ। ਉਸ ਬਿਦਰ ਦੇ ਘਰ ਵਿਚ ਕ੍ਰਿਸ਼ਨ ਜੀ ਜਾ ਕੇ ਠਹਿਰੇ ਸਨ।੧। ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! ਭਗਤ) ਰਵਿਦਾਸ (ਜਾਤਿ ਦਾ) ਚਮਾਰ (ਸੀ, ਉਹ ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦੀ) ਸਿਫ਼ਤਿ-ਸਾਲਾਹ ਕਰਦਾ ਸੀ, ਉਹ ਹਰ ਵੇਲੇ ਪ੍ਰਭੂ ਦੀ ਕੀਰਤੀ ਗਾਂਦਾ ਰਹਿੰਦਾ ਸੀ। ਨੀਵੀਂ ਜਾਤਿ ਦਾ ਰਵਿਦਾਸ ਮਹਾਂ ਪੁਰਖ ਬਣ ਗਿਆ। ਚੌਹਾਂ ਵਰਨਾਂ ਦੇ ਮਨੁੱਖ ਉਸ ਦੇ ਪੈਰੀਂ ਆ ਕੇ ਲੱਗ ਪਏ।੨। ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! ਭਗਤ) ਨਾਮਦੇਵ ਦੀ ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਨਾਲ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਿ ਬਣ ਗਈ। ਜਗਤ ਉਸ ਨੂੰ ਛੀਂਬਾ ਆਖ ਕੇ ਸੱਦਿਆ ਕਰਦਾ ਸੀ। ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਨੇ ਖਤ੍ਰੀਆਂ ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਪਿੱਠ ਦੇ ਦਿੱਤੀ, ਤੇ, ਨਾਮਦੇਵ ਨੂੰ ਮੱਥੇ ਲਾਇਆ ਸੀ।੩। ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦੇ ਜਿਤਨੇ ਭੀ ਭਗਤ ਹਨ, ਸੇਵਕ ਹਨ, ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦੇ ਮੱਥੇ ਉਤੇ ਅਠਾਹਠ ਤੀਰਥ ਤਿਲਕ ਲਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ (ਸਾਰੇ ਹੀ ਤੀਰਥ ਭੀ ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦਾ ਆਦਰ-ਮਾਣ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਨ) । ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! ਜੇ ਪ੍ਰਭੂ-ਪਾਤਿਸ਼ਾਹ ਮੇਹਰ ਕਰੇ, ਤਾਂ ਦਾਸ ਨਾਨਕ ਹਰ ਵੇਲੇ ਉਹਨਾਂ (ਭਗਤਾਂ ਸੇਵਕਾਂ) ਦੇ ਚਰਨ ਛੁੰਹਦਾ ਰਹੇ।੪।੧।੮। ਨੋਟ: 'ਘਰੁ ੨' ਦੇ ਸ਼ਬਦਾਂ ਦਾ ਸੰਗ੍ਰਹਿ ਖ਼ਤਮ ਹੋ ਗਿਆ ਹੈ। ਅਗਾਂਹ 'ਘਰੁ ੬' ਦੇ ਸੰਗ੍ਰਹਿ ਦਾ ਇਹ ਪਹਿਲਾ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਹੈ। ਕੁੱਲ ਜੋੜ ੮ ਹੈ। SOOHEE, FOURTH MEHL, SIXTH HOUSE: ONE UNIVERSAL CREATOR GOD. BY THE GRACE OF THE TRUE GURU: When someone of low social class chants the Lord's Name, he obtains the state of highest dignity. Go and ask Bidar, the son of a maid; Krishna himself stayed in his house. || 1 || Listen, O humble Siblings of Destiny, to the Unspoken Speech of the Lord; it removes all anxiety, pain and hunger. || 1 || Pause || Ravi Daas, the leather-worker, praised the Lord, and sang the Kirtan of His Praises each and every instant. Although he was of low social status, he was exalted and elevated, and people of all four castes came and bowed at his feet. || 2 || Naam Dayv loved the Lord; the people called him a fabric dyer. The Lord turned His back on the high-class Kh'shaatriyas and Brahmins, and showed His face to Naam Dayv. || 3 || All of the devotees and servants of the Lord have the tilak, the ceremonial mark, applied to their foreheads at the sixty-eight sacred shrines of pilgrimage. Servant Nanak shall touch their feet night and day, if the Lord, the King, grants His Grace. || 4 || 1 || 8 ||

JESUS IS THE COMING KING-BE ENCOURAGED AND ENDURE PATIENTLYA Survey of the Bible For the bulletin in PDF form, click here. Message SlidesRevelation Chart - WilsonBrief Insights on Revelation #1 - Michael HeiserBrief Insights on Revelation #2 - Michael HeiserIntroduction to Revelation - Robert W. WallInterpreting Revelation - Dennis JohnsonThe Structure and Plan of John's Apocalypse - Greg BealeThe Sevenfold Pattern of Woes in Revelation - Greg BealeThe Main Theological Messages of Revelation - Greg BealeNumbers in the Book of Revelation - Mark. W. WilsonThe Symbolic Significance of Numbers in Revelation - Greg BealeThe Significance of the Use of Symbols in Revelation - Greg BealeThe Christology of Heaven - Buist FanningThe Theology of Revelation - Buist FanningThe Nature and Purpose of the Millennium - Buist FanningReading Revelation Politically - Patrick SchrinerContext: Who, Where, When and Why?• Who composed Revelation?• Who was John's original audience?• When was Revelation written? • Where were the author and his readers?• Why was Revelation written? Content: How and What?Prologue: Introduction to the Vision (1:1-8)The PAST - The Things which You have Seen - The Vision of the Exalted Christ (1:1-20).The PRESENT - The Things Which Are - The Messages to the Seven Churches (2:1-3:22).The FUTURE - The Things Which Shall Take Place After These Things (4:1-22:21). - Setting: The Throne of God (4:1-11) - The Seven Seal Judgments [1-6] (6:1-17) • Parenthesis: The Redeemed [144,000] (7:1-17) - The Seven Trumpet Judgments [7th Seal] (8:1-15:19) • Parenthesis: Little Scroll (10:1-11) - Two Witnesses (11:1-14) - Wars in Heaven and Earth (12:1-17) - The Beast: Political Leader (13:1-10) - The False Prophet - Religious Leader (13:11-18) • INTERLUDE: Witnesses and Angels (14:1-20) - Seven Angels with Seven Plagues (15:1-8) - The Seven Bowl Judgments (16:1-21) - The Harlot: Religious Babylon (17:1-18) - The City: Political Babylon (18:1-24) • Parenthesis: Hallelujah in Heaven (19:1-10) - Armageddon: The Second Advent of Christ (19:11-21) - The Millennial Reign of Christ and End of History (20:1-15) - The New Heaven and New Earth (21:1-27)Epilogue: Final Words and Admonition (22:6-21)• What is the message of Revelation? Conviction: So What?• Where does Revelation fit? - The book of Revelation sets forth the culmination of the plan of God.• What should we believe? - Jesus, the exalted Warrior King will return and set all things right in a New Heaven and Earth.• How should we behave? - Patiently waiting for the Lord to set all things right and redeem all of creation. - Patiently enduring the persecution of the evil one and his corrupt world system. - Patiently expecting the Return of Christ in glory to rule and reign over all.Next Steps • Wait patiently for the Lord. • Endure courageously no matter what. • Expect victory as the final outcome.This Week's Growth GuideGod's Word is both central and critical to your spiritual growth. We invite you to utilize the Growth Guide during the week to further your application of the Truth from the message.•. Monday - Revelation 1:1-20•. Tuesday - Revelation 2:1-3:22•. Wednesday - Revelation 4:1-5:14•. Thursday - Revelation 6:1-17•. Friday - Revelation 19:1-21•. Saturday - Revelation 20:2-15•. Sunday - Revelation 21:1-22:21 Home Church Questions1. What stood out to you from Ken's message that affects how you live now? 2. Working together as a team, retrace the historical story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. You might want to refer to the list of books in the front of your Bible. Remember that historically the Old Testament ends with the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.3. How would you describe God's story as contained in the Bible? 4. Read 21:1-8 and 22:12-13. Discuss how we as believers should live in the present in anticipation of this our eternal destiny.5. How has Ken's foray through the books of the Bible strengthened your understanding of and commitment to His word?MISSION HIGHLIGHT - Pray for the Unreached: The Brahmin in India The Brahmins, historically a priestly and influential caste in India, continue to hold high social status, though many now pursue modern professions instead of traditional religious roles. Changes in India's economy and education are reshaping caste dynamics, but less than 0.1% of Brahmins are Christians. Hinduism is the primary religion among the Brahmin, and an estimated 700 workers are needed to reach the nearly 35 million Brahmin in India. Pray that they recognize their true priestly identity in Jesus and embrace the joy of serving Him. Pray that servant leaders are brought up within the Brahmin, who draw all castes to Jesus. Pray that Scripture finds its way into their homes and hearts, helping them lead others into the presence and security of Christ.FinancesWeekly Budget 35,297Giving For 11/17 47,080Giving For 11/124 25,843YTD Budget 741,646 Giving 651,395 OVER/(UNDER) (89,845) Read Through The Bible - Today we finish “ A Survey of the Bible” with Revelation. On Monday, December 2, the worship center will be open for Fellowship to read through the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation, as an application of what we have learned. Time slots are broken into 30 minutes, sign up for as many as you like. To sign up go to fellowshipconway.org/register. New to Fellowship?We are so glad that you chose to worship with our Fellowship Family this morning. If you are joining us for the first time or have been checking us out for a few weeks, we are excited you are here and would love to meet you. Please fill out the “Connect Card” and bring it to the Connection Center in the Atrium, we would love to say “hi” and give you a gift. Fellowship Women's Potluck & P.J.'sLadies, put your comfy P.J.'s on, bring a dish to share and join us Thursday, December 5, 6-8:00 p.m. at 11 Skyland Dr. (home of Amy McKissack). Bring a friend or meet a new friend, and be ready for a night of hanging out together. Christmas OfferingThis December, Fellowship's Christmas Offering is for The Operation Christmas Child Special Pack (held in October 2025). The gifts received will determine the number of boxes we can send. To send each gospel opportunity (box) costs $20 for items, transportation, and the tools needed to share the hope found in Christ with a child. Please consider giving above and beyond your regular giving to the worthy cause of getting the gospel to sensitive areas that are difficult to reach. You can use an envelope by offering baskets or give online by selecting “Christmas Offering” from the options. For an idea of what we are trying to raise, we packed 2,800 boxes this year, which is equal to $56,000. Christmas at FellowshipJoin us for a Candlelight Christmas Eve Service on Tuesday, December 24, at 4 pm and 6 pm. The service is a Fellowship favorite of tradition, family, and a few surprises this year. Fellowship 101We invite you to join us on Sunday, January 12, at 9:00 a.m. to learn more about Fellowship. This is a great opportunity to hear about our mission, values, and our ministries. If you're new to Fellowship, join us in the conference room (first floor) to hear what God is doing and where He is taking us. During this time, you will meet some of our ministry leaders and get to ask questions. Register at fellowshipconway.org/register. Perspectives Classes begin on January 14Perspectives is a fifteen-lesson discipleship course exploring different aspects of God's global purpose in a multi-faceted learning experience. Tuesday evenings beginning January 14 from 6:00-9:00 PM at the Summit Church. The first week is free to check it out. For more information, go to perspectives.org/courses/conway-ar-s25/.

Krishna says, "I have created four varnas (divisions) based on differentiation of gunas and karmas, but know Me to be the non-doer and immutable (4.13). Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras perform karmas according to the gunas springing from their nature" (18.41). Firstly, our divisive mind builds hierarchies around us. Secondly, falsehood is nothing but a manipulated truth. Together, a falsehood was built that the divisions are based on birth and are hierarchical. But, the simple truth is that humans are of four types because of the gunas and karmas. Moreover, this division is not a tool to judge a person. These facts need to be kept in mind while understanding verses dealing with varnas or castes which still dominate the social and political fabric of our society. While explaining gunas, Krishna says, "Three gunas of satva, rajas and tamas bind the soul (14.5). Satva binds through attachment to knowledge (14.6). Rajas binds the embodied soul through attachment to action (14.7). Tamas binds through sleep" (14.8). Essentially, each guna binds us in one way or another. One guna may be dominant in us throughout our lives determining our personality. But, each day of our life is a product of the interplay of these gunas.  For example, when we are given a task in the office which requires additional knowledge, satva helps us to attain it. Rajas is the desire to execute tasks as per the deadline. By the end of the day when we get tired, tamas helps us with sleep. Similarly, if we are driving to a new place, knowing the direction is satvik and driving is rajas. Binding is another name for guna and dependence on them is bondage. Golden handcuffs don't make bondage any better than iron ones. Guna-ateeth is transcending this bondage to attain ultimate freedom where gunas become tools.

Welcome to What Just Happened, a Recall This Book experiment. In it you will hear three friends of RTB reacting to the 2024 election and discussing the coming four years. Mark Blyth (whose planned February 2020 appearance was scrubbed by the pandemic) is an international economist from Brown University, whose many books for both scholars and a popular audience include Great Transformations (2002), Angrynomics (2020; with Eric Lonergan) and (with Nicolo Fraccaroli) Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers (New York: Norton 2025). Mark sees 2008-9 as a true economic and political volta, one that the world has been busily ignoring to its peril in the years since. Early on, Mark mentions his 2016 article "Global Trumpism." Piketty's "Brahmins vs Merchants" explains the diploma divide. The top two employers in America are Amazon and Walmart, both warehouses for foreign goods coming for American consumers. Mark invokes the business cycle theory pioneered by Nikolai Kondratiev known as Kondratiev waves. He also invokes Piketty's "R over G"; that if return on investment among the rentier class exceeds growth, inequality will grow and grow. In the short term, Mark sees immense financial gains mainly for the top but for the middle and bottom as well. The Republicans are in a pole position to capitalize on this. Higher ed is a legitimate site of concern: Blyth points to the Agenda 47 commitment to hamstringing private and public universities in various ways. Is there hope? Well, sort of. US carbon emissions will make less of an impact on global warming than you might think--and yes it is still the most creative and technologically advanced country. Cheers! Tune in tomorrow to hear another perspective from Vincent Brown, and finally from David Cunningham. Listen and Read Here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

BAARAH MAAHAA ~ THE TWELVE MONTHS: MAAJH, FIFTH MEHL, FOURTH HOUSE:ONE UNIVERSAL CREATOR GOD. BY THE GRACE OF THE TRUE GURU:ਮੰਘਿਰਿ ਮਾਹਿ ਸੋਹੰਦੀਆ ਹਰਿ ਪਿਰ ਸੰਗਿ ਬੈਠੜੀਆਹ ॥ ਤਿਨ ਕੀ ਸੋਭਾ ਕਿਆ ਗਣੀ ਜਿ ਸਾਹਿਬਿ ਮੇਲੜੀਆਹ ॥ ਤਨੁ ਮਨੁ ਮਉਲਿਆ ਰਾਮ ਸਿਉ ਸੰਗਿ ਸਾਧ ਸਹੇਲੜੀਆਹ ॥ ਸਾਧ ਜਨਾ ਤੇ ਬਾਹਰੀ ਸੇ ਰਹਨਿ ਇਕੇਲੜੀਆਹ ॥ ਤਿਨ ਦੁਖੁ ਨ ਕਬਹੂ ਉਤਰੈ ਸੇ ਜਮ ਕੈ ਵਸਿ ਪੜੀਆਹ ॥ ਜਿਨੀ ਰਾਵਿਆ ਪ੍ਰਭੁ ਆਪਣਾ ਸੇ ਦਿਸਨਿ ਨਿਤ ਖੜੀਆਹ ॥ ਰਤਨ ਜਵੇਹਰ ਲਾਲ ਹਰਿ ਕੰਠਿ ਤਿਨਾ ਜੜੀਆਹ ॥ ਨਾਨਕ ਬਾਂਛੈ ਧੂੜਿ ਤਿਨ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਸਰਣੀ ਦਰਿ ਪੜੀਆਹ ॥ ਮੰਘਿਰਿ ਪ੍ਰਭੁ ਆਰਾਧਣਾ ਬਹੁੜਿ ਨ ਜਨਮੜੀਆਹ ॥੧੦॥ਅਰਥ: ਮੱਘਰ (ਦੇ ਠੰਢੇ-ਮਿੱਠੇ) ਮਹੀਨੇ ਵਿਚ ਉਹ ਜੀਵ-ਇਸਤ੍ਰੀਆਂ ਸੋਹਣੀਆਂ ਲੱਗਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ ਜੋ ਹਰੀ-ਪਤੀ ਦੇ ਨਾਲ ਬੈਠੀਆਂ ਹੁੰਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ। ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਮਾਲਕ-ਪ੍ਰਭੂ ਨੇ ਆਪਣੇ ਨਾਲ ਮਿਲਾ ਲਿਆ, ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦੀ ਸੋਭਾ ਬਿਆਨ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੋ ਸਕਦੀ। ਸਤ-ਸੰਗੀ ਸਹੇਲੀਆਂ ਦੀ ਸੰਗਤਿ ਵਿਚ ਪ੍ਰਭੂ ਦੇ ਨਾਲ (ਚਿੱਤ ਜੋੜ ਕੇ) ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦਾ ਸਰੀਰ ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦਾ ਮਨ ਸਦਾ ਖਿੜਿਆ ਰਹਿੰਦਾ ਹੈ।ਪਰ ਜੇਹੜੀਆਂ ਜੀਵ-ਇਸਤ੍ਰੀਆਂ ਸਤਸੰਗੀਆਂ (ਦੀ ਸੰਗਤਿ) ਤੋਂ ਵਾਂਜੀਆਂ ਰਹਿੰਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ, ਉਹ ਇਕੱਲੀਆਂ (ਛੁੱਟੜ) ਹੀ ਰਹਿੰਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ (ਜਿਵੇਂ ਸੜੇ ਹੋਏ ਤਿਲਾਂ ਦਾ ਬੂਟਾ ਪੈਲੀ ਵਿਚ ਨਿਖਸਮਾ ਰਹਿੰਦਾ ਹੈ। ਇਕੱਲੀ ਨਿਖਸਮੀ ਜਿੰਦ ਨੂੰ ਵੇਖ ਕੇ ਕਾਮਾਦਿਕ ਕਈ ਵੈਰੀ ਆ ਕੇ ਘੇਰ ਲੈਂਦੇ ਹਨ, ਤੇ) ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦਾ (ਵਿਕਾਰਾਂ ਤੋਂ ਉਪਜਿਆ) ਦੁੱਖ ਕਦੇ ਲਹਿੰਦਾ ਨਹੀਂ, ਉਹ ਜਮਾਂ ਦੇ ਵੱਸ ਪਈਆਂ ਰਹਿੰਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ।ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਜੀਵ-ਇਸਤ੍ਰੀਆਂ ਨੇ ਪਤੀ-ਪ੍ਰਭੂ ਦਾ ਸਾਥ ਮਾਣਿਆ ਹੈ, ਉਹ (ਵਿਕਾਰਾਂ ਦੇ ਹੱਲੇ ਵਲੋਂ) ਸਦਾ ਸੁਚੇਤ ਦਿੱਸਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ (ਵਿਕਾਰ ਉਹਨਾਂ ਉਤੇ ਚੋਟ ਨਹੀਂ ਕਰ ਸਕਦੇ, ਕਿਉਂਕਿ) ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦੇ ਗੁਣਾਨੁਵਾਦ ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦੇ ਹਿਰਦੇ ਵਿਚ ਪ੍ਰੋਤੇ ਰਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਨ, ਜਿਵੇਂ ਹੀਰੇ ਜਵਾਹਰ ਤੇ ਲਾਲਾਂ ਦਾ ਗਲ ਵਿਚ ਪਾਇਆ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਹੈ।ਨਾਨਕ ਉਹਨਾਂ ਸਤਸੰਗੀਆਂ ਦੇ ਚਰਨਾਂ ਦੀ ਧੂੜ ਮੰਗਦਾ ਹੈ ਜੋ ਪ੍ਰਭੂ ਦੇ ਦਰ ਤੇ ਪਏ ਰਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਨ ਜੋ ਪ੍ਰਭੂ ਦੀ ਸਰਨ ਵਿਚ ਰਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਨ। ਮੱਘਰ ਵਿਚ ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦਾ ਸਿਮਰਨ ਕੀਤਿਆਂ ਮੁੜ ਜਨਮ ਮਰਨ ਦਾ ਗੇੜ ਨਹੀਂ ਵਾਪਰਦਾ।10।BAARAH MAAHAA ~ THE TWELVE MONTHS: MAAJH, FIFTH MEHL, FOURTH HOUSE:ONE UNIVERSAL CREATOR GOD. BY THE GRACE OF THE TRUE GURU:In the month of Maghar, those who sit with their Beloved Husband Lord are beautiful. How can their glory be measured? Their Lord and Master blends them with Himself. Their bodies and minds blossom forth in the Lord; they have the companionship of the Holy Saints. Those who lack the Company of the Holy, remain all alone. Their pain never departs, and they fall into the grip of the Messenger of Death. Those who have ravished and enjoyed their God, are seen to be continually exalted and uplifted. They wear the Necklace of the jewels, emeralds and rubies of the Lord's Name. Nanak seeks the dust of the feet of those who take to the Sanctuary of the Lord's Door. Those who worship and adore God in Maghar, do not suffer the cycle of reincarnation ever again.|| 10 ||ਸੂਹੀ ਮਹਲਾ ੪ ਘਰੁ ੬ ੴ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥ ਨੀਚ ਜਾਤਿ ਹਰਿ ਜਪਤਿਆ ਉਤਮ ਪਦਵੀ ਪਾਇ ॥ ਪੂਛਹੁ ਬਿਦਰ ਦਾਸੀ ਸੁਤੈ ਕਿਸਨੁ ਉਤਰਿਆ ਘਰਿ ਜਿਸੁ ਜਾਇ ॥੧॥ ਹਰਿ ਕੀ ਅਕਥ ਕਥਾ ਸੁਨਹੁ ਜਨ ਭਾਈ ਜਿਤੁ ਸਹਸਾ ਦੂਖ ਭੂਖ ਸਭ ਲਹਿ ਜਾਇ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥ ਰਵਿਦਾਸੁ ਚਮਾਰੁ ਉਸਤਤਿ ਕਰੇ ਹਰਿ ਕੀਰਤਿ ਨਿਮਖ ਇਕ ਗਾਇ ॥ ਪਤਿਤ ਜਾਤਿ ਉਤਮੁ ਭਇਆ ਚਾਰਿ ਵਰਨ ਪਏ ਪਗਿ ਆਇ ॥੨॥ ਨਾਮਦੇਅ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਿ ਲਗੀ ਹਰਿ ਸੇਤੀ ਲੋਕੁ ਛੀਪਾ ਕਹੈ ਬੁਲਾਇ ॥ ਖਤ੍ਰੀ ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣ ਪਿਠਿ ਦੇ ਛੋਡੇ ਹਰਿ ਨਾਮਦੇਉ ਲੀਆ ਮੁਖਿ ਲਾਇ ॥੩॥ ਜਿਤਨੇ ਭਗਤ ਹਰਿ ਸੇਵਕਾ ਮੁਖਿ ਅਠਸਠਿ ਤੀਰਥ ਤਿਨ ਤਿਲਕੁ ਕਢਾਇ ॥ ਜਨੁ ਨਾਨਕੁ ਤਿਨ ਕਉ ਅਨਦਿਨੁ ਪਰਸੇ ਜੇ ਕ੍ਰਿਪਾ ਕਰੇ ਹਰਿ ਰਾਇ ॥੪॥੧॥੮॥ਅਰਥ: ਰਾਗ ਸੂਹੀ, ਘਰ ੬ ਵਿੱਚ ਗੁਰੂ ਰਾਮਦਾਸ ਜੀ ਦੀ ਬਾਣੀ। ਅਕਾਲ ਪੁਰਖ ਇੱਕ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਸਤਿਗੁਰੂ ਦੀ ਕਿਰਪਾ ਨਾਲ ਮਿਲਦਾ ਹੈ। ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! ਨੀਵੀਂ ਜਾਤਿ ਵਾਲਾ ਮਨੁੱਖ ਭੀ ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦਾ ਨਾਮ ਜਪਣ ਨਾਲ ਉੱਚਾ ਆਤਮਕ ਦਰਜਾ ਹਾਸਲ ਕਰ ਲੈਂਦਾ ਹੈ। (ਜੇ ਯਕੀਨ ਨਹੀਂ ਆਉਂਦਾ, ਤਾਂ ਕਿਸੇ ਪਾਸੋਂ) ਦਾਸੀ ਦੇ ਪੁੱਤਰ ਬਿਦਰ ਦੀ ਗੱਲ ਪੁੱਛ ਵੇਖੋ। ਉਸ ਬਿਦਰ ਦੇ ਘਰ ਵਿਚ ਕ੍ਰਿਸ਼ਨ ਜੀ ਜਾ ਕੇ ਠਹਿਰੇ ਸਨ ॥੧॥ ਹੇ ਸੱਜਣੋ! ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦੀ ਅਸਚਰਜ ਸਿਫ਼ਤਿ-ਸਾਲਾਹ ਸੁਣਿਆ ਕਰੋ, ਜਿਸ ਦੀ ਬਰਕਤਿ ਨਾਲ ਹਰੇਕ ਕਿਸਮ ਦਾ ਸਹਿਮ ਹਰੇਕ ਦੁੱਖ ਦੂਰ ਹੋ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ, (ਮਾਇਆ ਦੀ) ਭੁੱਖ ਮਿਟ ਜਾਂਦੀ ਹੈ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥ ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! (ਭਗਤ) ਰਵਿਦਾਸ (ਜਾਤਿ ਦਾ) ਚਮਾਰ (ਸੀ, ਉਹ ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦੀ) ਸਿਫ਼ਤਿ-ਸਾਲਾਹ ਕਰਦਾ ਸੀ, ਉਹ ਹਰ ਵੇਲੇ ਪ੍ਰਭੂ ਦੀ ਕੀਰਤੀ ਗਾਂਦਾ ਰਹਿੰਦਾ ਸੀ। ਨੀਵੀਂ ਜਾਤਿ ਦਾ ਰਵਿਦਾਸ ਮਹਾਂ ਪੁਰਖ ਬਣ ਗਿਆ। ਚੌਹਾਂ ਵਰਨਾਂ ਦੇ ਮਨੁੱਖ ਉਸ ਦੇ ਪੈਰੀਂ ਆ ਕੇ ਲੱਗ ਪਏ ॥੨॥ ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! (ਭਗਤ) ਨਾਮਦੇਵ ਦੀ ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਨਾਲ ਪ੍ਰੀਤ ਬਣ ਗਈ। ਜਗਤ ਉਸ ਨੂੰ ਛੀਂਬਾ ਆਖ ਕੇ ਸੱਦਿਆ ਕਰਦਾ ਸੀ। ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਨੇ ਖਤ੍ਰੀਆਂ ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਪਿੱਠ ਦੇ ਦਿੱਤੀ, ਤੇ, ਨਾਮਦੇਵ ਨੂੰ ਮੱਥੇ ਲਾਇਆ ਸੀ ॥੩॥ ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦੇ ਜਿਤਨੇ ਭੀ ਭਗਤ ਹਨ, ਸੇਵਕ ਹਨ, ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦੇ ਮੱਥੇ ਉਤੇ ਅਠਾਹਠ ਤੀਰਥ ਤਿਲਕ ਲਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ (ਸਾਰੇ ਹੀ ਤੀਰਥ ਭੀ ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦਾ ਆਦਰ-ਮਾਣ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਨ)। ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! ਜੇ ਪ੍ਰਭੂ-ਪਾਤਿਸ਼ਾਹ ਮੇਹਰ ਕਰੇ, ਤਾਂ ਦਾਸ ਨਾਨਕ ਹਰ ਵੇਲੇ ਉਹਨਾਂ (ਭਗਤਾਂ ਸੇਵਕਾਂ) ਦੇ ਚਰਨ ਛੁੰਹਦਾ ਰਹੇ ॥੪॥੧॥੮॥Meaning: Soohee, Fourth Mahalaa, Sixth House: One Universal Creator God. By The Grace Of The True Guru: When someone of low social class chants the Lord's Name, he obtains the state of highest dignity. Go and ask Bidar, the son of a maid; Krishna himself stayed in his house. ||1|| Listen, O humble Siblings of Destiny, to the Unspoken Speech of the Lord; it removes all anxiety, pain and hunger. ||1|| Pause || Ravidaas, the leather-worker, praised the Lord, and sang the Kirtan of His Praises each and every instant. Although he was of low social status, he was exalted and elevated, and people of all four castes came and bowed at his feet. ||2|| Naamdev loved the Lord; the people called him a fabric dyer. The Lord turned His back on the high-class Kh'shaatriyas and Brahmins, and showed His face to Naamdev. ||3|| All of the devotees and servants of the Lord have the tilak, the ceremonial mark, applied to their foreheads at the sixty-eight sacred shrines of pilgrimage. Daas Nanak shall touch their feet night and day, if the Lord, the King, grants His Grace. ||4||1||8|| 

In this powerful and historically rich podcast episode, we dive deep into the untold stories of Hyderabad's past, featuring the iconic Pasham Yadagiri Sir. Known for his extensive knowledge of the region's history and his fearless critiques of modern society, Yadagiri Sir sheds light on many hidden aspects of Hyderabad, the Nizams, and their rule. We begin by revisiting the famous “Bandi Venaka Bandi” song, which leads us into a detailed discussion about Hyderabad's Nizam era, particularly what transpired on September 17th. This was a turning point for many, especially for farmers and certain communities like the Brahmins and Padmashalis, who faced brutal killings. Yadagiri Sir unpacks the complexities of the British taxation system and how the Nizams acted as allies to the British crown. He touches on significant events such as the hanging of 1,000 Gonds in Nirmal and emphasizes the need for a 'mosaic vision' to truly understand the British rule in India. We explore how the Nizams first came to power in India and whether there is any confusion between the Nizam army and the notorious Razakars. Yadagiri Sir breaks down the difference between the regular and irregular armies, drawing parallels to contemporary cases like Disha and Nayeem, showing the long-lasting impact of these historical systems on today's society. We discuss infamous cases such as Belle Lalitha's death and the mysterious ways in which these deaths are often brushed under the rug. Yadagiri Sir raises concerns over critical thought in journalism and why cases like Nayeem's death were never properly filed. The conversation also takes a turn towards Operation Polo, the military action that led to Hyderabad's annexation into India. Yadagiri Sir speaks passionately about the massacre that occurred afterward, often referred to as the second Jallianwala Bagh, and the forgotten figures like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Chaakali Ellamma who played crucial roles during this period. He shares insights into the once-wealthy regions of Hyderabad, such as Vagul and Adilabad, which were richer than Kashmir. Yadagiri Sir also discusses how the oppressive 'Dhora' taxation system and violent events like the Puligiri massacre shaped Telangana's fight for survival. The podcast delves into intriguing questions about Belle Lalitha's death and its connection to Nayeem, exploring the larger political context that led to her tragic end. From the closure of all CBM factories, including Asia's largest sugar factory, to the Charminar cigarette industry, Yadagiri Sir points out how these economic collapses affected common people. He argues that certain political parties, like TRS, TDP, and BJP, have ultimately put an end to the vision of Graama Swaraj, leaving us in a cryptocracy rather than a democracy. Moving on to caste dynamics, Yadagiri Sir explains the historical origin of caste titles like Reddy and Choudary, clarifying that these were originally professions rather than social hierarchies. In the case of Reddys, they were land contractors, while Choudary referred to tax collectors. With his trademark candor, Yadagiri Sir also delves into human evolution and how the rise of industrial economies disrupted natural societal progress. With the rise of social media, Yadagiri Sir ponders whether YouTube could become the next mainstream platform for journalism. Citing the example of Dhruv Rathee, who has reportedly influenced up to 20% of voters, he discusses how mobile phones have become the new 'AK47s' in the hands of the people, reshaping political discourse and the flow of information. Finally, Yadagiri Sir shares his thoughts on the Emergency of June 25th, 1975, revealing the harsh conditions of the time, including mass sterilization and the draconian actions of Sanjay Gandhi. In a thought-provoking discussion, he touches on the long-term changes to India's Constitution and the rise of systems like HYDRA that continue to influence the nation today.

In 2023, 94 non-Brahmins, three of them women, completed priesthood course at archakar training schools. But with process held up by SC case, none have got practical training or jobs.  

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The seventeenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is titled Shraddha Traya Vibhaga Yoga where Krishna explains about the three sides of each aspect of life and existence. Krishna says, "'Om Tat Sat' is considered the threefold representation of the Supreme Absolute Truth -Brahma.  From them came the knowers of truth (Brahmins), scriptures (Vedas), and sacrificial rites (yagna)" (17.23). 'Om Tat Sat' is the most commonly used phrase in the context of Vedanta. Om is a fundamental sound or vibration but not a word and hence, no meaning is assigned. It is believed that the world was created out of these vibrations and science confirms that every matter is in the state of vibration which is called frequency. This vibration of Om consists of three syllables of A-U-M. 'Tat' is translated as 'that'. It looks natural to call Paramatma as you -either in singular or plural form. Accepting paramatma as 'you' implies that 'I' in us will remain and hence, Krishna mentions 'tat'. 'Tat' is what remains when both you and I unite like the melting of a salt doll to be the ocean. Essentially, it is being one with existence. 'Tatva masi' -you are that, is often used to describe the relationship between man and Paramatma. Krishna further says, "Therefore, acts of daan (charity), tapah (austerity) and yagna (sacrifice), as prescribed in scriptures, are begun always uttering Om (17.24). The seekers of liberation without desiring results perform various daan, tapah and yagna while concentrating on 'tat' "(17.25). While seeking or desiring is bondage, this verse talks about the desire for liberation (moksha) which looks paradoxical. The first stage is the desire for material things, the next one is the desire for moksha and the final stage is dropping the desire to attain moksha. Basically, it is moving from Kindergarten to post graduation and Krishna guides us through this gradual transition.

ਸੂਹੀ ਮਹਲਾ ੪ ਘਰੁ ੬    ੴ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥ ਨੀਚ ਜਾਤਿ ਹਰਿ ਜਪਤਿਆ ਉਤਮ ਪਦਵੀ ਪਾਇ ॥ ਪੂਛਹੁ ਬਿਦਰ ਦਾਸੀ ਸੁਤੈ ਕਿਸਨੁ ਉਤਰਿਆ ਘਰਿ ਜਿਸੁ ਜਾਇ ॥੧॥ ਹਰਿ ਕੀ ਅਕਥ ਕਥਾ ਸੁਨਹੁ ਜਨ ਭਾਈ ਜਿਤੁ ਸਹਸਾ ਦੂਖ ਭੂਖ ਸਭ ਲਹਿ ਜਾਇ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥ ਰਵਿਦਾਸੁ ਚਮਾਰੁ ਉਸਤਤਿ ਕਰੇ ਹਰਿ ਕੀਰਤਿ ਨਿਮਖ ਇਕ ਗਾਇ ॥ ਪਤਿਤ ਜਾਤਿ ਉਤਮੁ ਭਇਆ ਚਾਰਿ ਵਰਨ ਪਏ ਪਗਿ ਆਇ ॥੨॥ ਨਾਮਦੇਅ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਿ ਲਗੀ ਹਰਿ ਸੇਤੀ ਲੋਕੁ ਛੀਪਾ ਕਹੈ ਬੁਲਾਇ ॥ ਖਤ੍ਰੀ ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣ ਪਿਠਿ ਦੇ ਛੋਡੇ ਹਰਿ ਨਾਮਦੇਉ ਲੀਆ ਮੁਖਿ ਲਾਇ ॥੩॥ ਜਿਤਨੇ ਭਗਤ ਹਰਿ ਸੇਵਕਾ ਮੁਖਿ ਅਠਸਠਿ ਤੀਰਥ ਤਿਨ ਤਿਲਕੁ ਕਢਾਇ ॥ ਜਨੁ ਨਾਨਕੁ ਤਿਨ ਕਉ ਅਨਦਿਨੁ ਪਰਸੇ ਜੇ ਕ੍ਰਿਪਾ ਕਰੇ ਹਰਿ ਰਾਇ ॥੪॥੧॥੮॥ ਅਰਥ: ਹੇ ਸੱਜਣੋ! ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦੀ ਅਸਚਰਜ ਸਿਫ਼ਤਿ-ਸਾਲਾਹ ਸੁਣਿਆ ਕਰੋ, ਜਿਸ ਦੀ ਬਰਕਤਿ ਨਾਲ ਹਰੇਕ ਕਿਸਮ ਦਾ ਸਹਿਮ ਹਰੇਕ ਦੁੱਖ ਦੂਰ ਹੋ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ, (ਮਾਇਆ ਦੀ) ਭੁੱਖ ਮਿਟ ਜਾਂਦੀ ਹੈ।੧।ਰਹਾਉ। ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! ਨੀਵੀਂ ਜਾਤਿ ਵਾਲਾ ਮਨੁੱਖ ਭੀ ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦਾ ਨਾਮ ਜਪਣ ਨਾਲ ਉੱਚਾ ਆਤਮਕ ਦਰਜਾ ਹਾਸਲ ਕਰ ਲੈਂਦਾ ਹੈ (ਜੇ ਯਕੀਨ ਨਹੀਂ ਆਉਂਦਾ, ਤਾਂ ਕਿਸੇ ਪਾਸੋਂ) ਦਾਸੀ ਦੇ ਪੁੱਤਰ ਬਿਦਰ ਦੀ ਗੱਲ ਪੁੱਛ ਵੇਖੋ। ਉਸ ਬਿਦਰ ਦੇ ਘਰ ਵਿਚ ਕ੍ਰਿਸ਼ਨ ਜੀ ਜਾ ਕੇ ਠਹਿਰੇ ਸਨ।੧। ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! ਭਗਤ) ਰਵਿਦਾਸ (ਜਾਤਿ ਦਾ) ਚਮਾਰ (ਸੀ, ਉਹ ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦੀ) ਸਿਫ਼ਤਿ-ਸਾਲਾਹ ਕਰਦਾ ਸੀ, ਉਹ ਹਰ ਵੇਲੇ ਪ੍ਰਭੂ ਦੀ ਕੀਰਤੀ ਗਾਂਦਾ ਰਹਿੰਦਾ ਸੀ। ਨੀਵੀਂ ਜਾਤਿ ਦਾ ਰਵਿਦਾਸ ਮਹਾਂ ਪੁਰਖ ਬਣ ਗਿਆ। ਚੌਹਾਂ ਵਰਨਾਂ ਦੇ ਮਨੁੱਖ ਉਸ ਦੇ ਪੈਰੀਂ ਆ ਕੇ ਲੱਗ ਪਏ।੨। ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! ਭਗਤ) ਨਾਮਦੇਵ ਦੀ ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਨਾਲ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਿ ਬਣ ਗਈ। ਜਗਤ ਉਸ ਨੂੰ ਛੀਂਬਾ ਆਖ ਕੇ ਸੱਦਿਆ ਕਰਦਾ ਸੀ। ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਨੇ ਖਤ੍ਰੀਆਂ ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਪਿੱਠ ਦੇ ਦਿੱਤੀ, ਤੇ, ਨਾਮਦੇਵ ਨੂੰ ਮੱਥੇ ਲਾਇਆ ਸੀ।੩। ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦੇ ਜਿਤਨੇ ਭੀ ਭਗਤ ਹਨ, ਸੇਵਕ ਹਨ, ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦੇ ਮੱਥੇ ਉਤੇ ਅਠਾਹਠ ਤੀਰਥ ਤਿਲਕ ਲਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ (ਸਾਰੇ ਹੀ ਤੀਰਥ ਭੀ ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦਾ ਆਦਰ-ਮਾਣ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਨ) । ਹੇ ਭਾਈ! ਜੇ ਪ੍ਰਭੂ-ਪਾਤਿਸ਼ਾਹ ਮੇਹਰ ਕਰੇ, ਤਾਂ ਦਾਸ ਨਾਨਕ ਹਰ ਵੇਲੇ ਉਹਨਾਂ (ਭਗਤਾਂ ਸੇਵਕਾਂ) ਦੇ ਚਰਨ ਛੁੰਹਦਾ ਰਹੇ।੪।੧।੮। ਨੋਟ: 'ਘਰੁ ੨' ਦੇ ਸ਼ਬਦਾਂ ਦਾ ਸੰਗ੍ਰਹਿ ਖ਼ਤਮ ਹੋ ਗਿਆ ਹੈ। ਅਗਾਂਹ 'ਘਰੁ ੬' ਦੇ ਸੰਗ੍ਰਹਿ ਦਾ ਇਹ ਪਹਿਲਾ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਹੈ। ਕੁੱਲ ਜੋੜ ੮ ਹੈ। When someone of low social class chants the Lord's Name, he obtains the state of highest dignity. Go and ask Bidar, the son of a maid; Krishna himself stayed in his house. || 1 || Listen, O humble Siblings of Destiny, to the Unspoken Speech of the Lord; it removes all anxiety, pain and hunger. || 1 || Pause || Ravi Daas, the leather-worker, praised the Lord, and sang the Kirtan of His Praises each and every instant. Although he was of low social status, he was exalted and elevated, and people of all four castes came and bowed at his feet. || 2 || Naam Dayv loved the Lord; the people called him a fabric dyer. The Lord turned His back on the high-class Kh'shaatriyas and Brahmins, and showed His face to Naam Dayv. || 3 || All of the devotees and servants of the Lord have the tilak, the ceremonial mark, applied to their foreheads at the sixty-eight sacred shrines of pilgrimage. Servant Nanak shall touch their feet night and day, if the Lord, the King, grants His Grace. || 4 || 1 || 8 || SOOHEE, FOURTH MEHL, SIXTH HOUSE:ONE UNIVERSAL CREATOR GOD. BY THE GRACE OF THE TRUE GURU:

The significance of Raksha Bandhan is known to all of us, but do you know why the worship of the sea is done on Raksha Bandhan day? Why do Brahmins tie rakhi on their patron's hands on this day? To know, listen to this episode till the end only on Audio Pitara and share your Rakhi experience in the comments. Stay Updated on our shows at audiopitara.com and follow us on Instagram and YouTube @audiopitara. Credits - Audio Pitara Team Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pandavas hear about the Swayamvara of the beautiful princess of Panchal- Draupadi and attend it dressed as poor Brahmins. Will they go unnoticed? Who will Draupadi marry? Listen to find out…

--{ "The Miner Called His Lamp Non-Linear Thinking"}-- What is the Aryan Invasion Theory? - Phone Call with Listener - Balfour Declaration - Who was behind the Society for Psychical Research? - Psychology - Science - Alan Watt: Non-Linear Thinking - Book Club "Tragedy and Hope" - Sykes-Picot Agreement - Who is Vivek Ramaswamy? - Brahmins, the Priestly Class - Secret Brotherhoods and the Taking of Oaths - Iran (Persia) and the 1953 coup d'etat - Mark Sykes and the Balfour Declaration - Why does Leonardo DiCaprio want to "Rewild" Scotland? - The Role of the Media - How far ahead is Science? - Francis Bacon and The New Atlantis - Israel, Iran and the New World Order - Colossus of Rhodes - The Profane - Stonemasons and the Building of Cathedrals in the Middle Ages - Music Industry, Fashion, the Destruction of the Family - Miltary, Uniform.

Agree if preserving food to chilling daily essentials from dairy products, fish, meat, fruits and vegetables had often challenged mankind dating back to prehistory times. Determine if prior to Mid Nineteenth Century's arrival whether most Americans truly had proper means behind relying on a commodity that's been taken for granted. Go behind the scenes and get to know Scottish Physician, Chemist, & Professor William Cullen whom experimented with refrigeration. Learn how Benjamin Franklin & British Chemistry Professor John Hadley conducted an experiment using a Mercury Thermometer which resulted in lowering object's temperature past water's freezing point of 32 Degrees Fahrenheit. Get an in depth analysis behind how far back ice itself was first acquired and preserved by people of various ancient civilizations. Learn why Ice itself had a unique place amongst well to do Europeans starting around Sixteenth Century and onward. Discover how United States come first decade of Nineteenth Century witnessed various unique firsts. Understand how one New Englander named Frederic Tudor come 1806 envisioned something grand where ice once harvested from Massachusetts's Ponds, Lakes, & Rivers could get exported domestically & internationally. Learn how Frederic Tudor's Family Ties were part of Boston, Massachusetts's Upper Elite Class better known as the Brahmins. Decide if it's fair to say when learning about famous inventions that we instantly get caught up in the success element factor versus all past trial & error experiments. Understand why Frederic Tudor's story must be told from all sides including the ups and downs he faced with experimentation to enduring ridicule from within Boston's Elite Group, the Brahmins. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kirk-monroe/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kirk-monroe/support

To answer the question of why Boston needs to go begging to the statehouse to increase our liquor licenses you need to know A LOT of history, which I provide for you! Irish immigration, the Know Nothings, Eugentics, Disease, Alcohol, the Kennedys, this one has it all! Definitely a part 1 of who knows how many.

Caste is one of the oldest systems of exclusion in the world. It negatively impacts 1.9 billion people worldwide, crippling their quality of life. Brahmins, who created this system in Hindu scripture, are at the top of the caste system and have benefited from centuries of privilege, access, and power because of it. Dalits, who sit at the bottom of this hierarchy, are branded “untouchable” and sentenced to a violent system of caste apartheid with separate neighborhoods, places of worship, and schools. Dalit American activist and author Thenmozhi Tenmori Soundararajan has been working to end caste oppression around the world for decades. In her work, she endeavors to help Dalit individuals and families heal through international solidarity with other oppressed people, working together to dismantle caste apartheid. In this episode, author, meditation teacher, and law professor Rhonda Magee has a powerful conversation with Thenmozhi about the ongoing trauma of the caste system and Dalit people's fight against oppression. This episode was recorded during a live online event on February 16th, 2023. You can also watch it on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube channel. A transcript is available at ciispod.com. To find out more about CIIS and public programs like this one, visit our website ciis.edu and connect with us on social media @ciispubprograms. We hope that each episode of our podcast provides opportunities for growth, and that our listeners will use them as a starting point for further introspection. Many of the topics discussed on our podcast have the potential to bring up feelings and emotional responses. If you or someone you know is in need of mental health care and support, here are some resources to find immediate help and future healing: -Visit 988lifeline.org or text, call, or chat with The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 from anywhere in the U.S. to be connected immediately with a trained counselor. Please note that 988 staff are required to take all action necessary to secure the safety of a caller and initiate emergency response with or without the caller's consent if they are unwilling or unable to take action on their own behalf. -Visit thrivelifeline.org or text “THRIVE” to begin a conversation with a THRIVE Lifeline crisis responder 24/7/365, from anywhere: +1.313.662.8209. This confidential text line is available for individuals 18+ and is staffed by people in STEMM with marginalized identities. -Visit translifeline.org or call (877) 565-8860 in the U.S. or (877) 330-6366 in Canada to learn more and contact Trans Lifeline, who provides trans peer support divested from police. -Visit ciis.edu/counseling-and-acupuncture-clinics to learn more and schedule counseling sessions at one of our centers. -Find information about additional global helplines at https://www.befrienders.org.

I remember the story of a bunch of strangers taking shelter under a tree on a stormy night. They could see bolts of lightning falling all around and charring trees. They looked around and saw that they were all high caste Brahmins except for one poor simpering low caste Sudra, who could suddenly see all eyes on him. One particularly arrogant Brahmin pointed his finger at him and said “He is the one who will bring us bad fortune!” And in a flash he was thrown out into the storm, above all entreaties. The poor man ran into the forest, soaked to the skin, looking for some other shelter. And right then, a bolt of lightning fell on that tree and all the high caste Brahmins were charred to death. It was actually the Sudra's presence which was protecting them all.   I remember this story every time my loved one and I have a tiff. The commonness of daily life chips away at the magic of bonds inexorably. Plus life extends far beyond our most primary relationships: the hours of a day are appurtenant to the time we spend with them. There is so much more which goes on in our lives over and above one relationship. And we need to keep floating through those also, so we come out of them richer, unscathed, protected.   And in the ups and downs of my trajectory in the world, I know I'm protected because of her. How do I know? I know it in my bones. I know it because of the purity she brings into us - her unrelenting unapologetic unstinting stand beside me, the unblemished crystal of presence, the absoluteness of her continuing forgiveness. She is nature's inexorability -  just as the sun finds its way every morning, just the way a bud bursts in spite of not being noticed - in spite of everything, she never leaves my side when it matters. She is inexhaustible - when I'm about to give up she somehow transfers her energy, her very being to me, and is luminescent in spite of being empty. So much of our lives needs to be spent in utter gratefulness - the inexhaustible supply of grace which we encounter, is enough to put us forever into the universe's debt.   But nature  has simplified it for us - we just need to look out for that one magical person - and know where our universe resides.   If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems about those who are just that much more special: I Fell In Love With You (Again) Beside The Tin of Sardines As We Meet Again At The End of The Day Gather Me Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup. Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com Subscribe to my incandescent and poetic newsletter The Uncuts here - https://theuncuts.substack.com.   Following is the music used in this episode - Music: Adventure by Alexander Nakarada Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/6092-adventure Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

SN 12:11 Āhārasutta (Fuel) SN 12:13 Samaṇabrāhmaṇasutta (Ascetics and Brahmins) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downwiththedharma/message

https://www.jstor.org/stable/42942895 sound is consciousness... #2023 #art #music #movies #poetry #poem #photooftheday #volcano #news #money #food #weather #climate #monkeys #horse #puppy #fyp #love #instagood #onelove #eyes #getyoked #horsie #gotmilk #book #shecomin #getready 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/42942895 sound is consciousness... #2023 #jews #india #aristotle #brahmins #history #greece #megasthenes #middleeast #philosophy #art #music #movies #poetry #poem #photooftheday #volcano #news #money #food #weather #climate #monkeys #horse #puppy #fyp #love #instagood #onelove #eyes #getyoked #horsie #gotmilk #book #shecomin #getready

In this monologue, Kushal shares his thoughts on the constant accusation being made in some "intellectual" circles in India, where vegetarianism is often called brahminism. What are its roots in India? And even if something is introduced by Brahmins, does it become bad by default? #sudhamurthy #vegetarianism #casteism ------------------------------------------------------------ Listen to the podcasts on: SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/kushal-mehra-99891819 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1rVcDV3upgVurMVW1wwoBp Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-c%C4%81rv%C4%81ka-podcast/id1445348369 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-carvaka-podcast ------------------------------------------------------------ Support The Cārvāka Podcast: Become a Member on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKPx... Become a Member on Fanmo: https://fanmo.in/the_carvaka_podcast Become a Member on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/carvaka UPI: kushalmehra@icici To buy The Carvaka Podcast Exclusive Merch please visit: http://kushalmehra.com/shop ------------------------------------------------------------ Follow Kushal: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kushal_mehra?ref_... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KushalMehraO... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecarvakap... Koo: https://www.kooapp.com/profile/kushal... Inquiries: https://kushalmehra.com/ Feedback: kushalmehra81@gmail.com

In Episode 44, what is needed to show devotion to God is continued from the previous episode. In addition to that another major topic is discussed.In chapter four Bhagavan said that he is the creator of the four fold varna division. So far the focus was on kshatriyas, arjuna being a kshatriya. Since Arjuna wanted to take to sannyAsA, Bhagavan also talked about brAhmins who focus their life on Self knowledge and Self realization. So far he has not talked about the other two varnas viz., vaishyas (merchants) and sudras (workers). Also ArjunA brought up women becoming corrupt etc and Bhagavan has not said anything about women. What about all these people? Can they attain moksha? In addition to that, this episode also addresses the question of whether Bhagavan is partial to those who worship only Him?Lot of controversy has been created by one of the verses that addresses these questions. This episode will look into the controversy and give some common sense refutations before we will see the real meaning of that verse.

So at the sacrifice Vajasravas, the son of one whose reputation is based on giving food, he's trying to outdo his father maybe, or he certainly is striving for a result to go to the heavenly planets, and as a result he's cutting a few corners in his sacrifice, giving away these old cows that are good for anything and are just going to be a burden on the Brahmins that receive them. NEW! Complete ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠transcriptions⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ of all our videos:  Get deep answers to your spiritual questions from our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Genie AI⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/shivadyuti/message

Throughout history, across diverse societies, nations, and eras, Christians who carried the Gospel into pagan cultures defended and protected abandoned and abused children. In his new book, 32 Christians Who Changed Their World, Senior Colson Fellow Dr. Glenn Sunshine tells the stories of Christian heroes, most of whom are unknown today, whose courage and faithfulness changed the way children are seen and treated. You can receive a copy of 32 Christians Who Changed Their World with a gift of any amount this month to the Colson Center (please visit colsoncenter.org/July).  For example, 19th-century India was a particularly brutal place for girls. Women were considered inferior to men and were not allowed to be educated or employed. Child marriage was a fairly common practice. Though the practice of sati (burning widows on their husband's funeral pyres) had been abolished, the treatment of widows remained harsh. They were considered cursed and often subjected to terrible abuse at the hands of their husband's family.  The family of Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922) was different. As Dr. Sunshine explains, Pandita's father, a member of the priestly caste known as Brahmins, encouraged her to read the Hindu scriptures. Not only did she learn to read, her skills and mastery of the text earned her acclaim. Her study also led to growing doubts about the truth of Hinduism.  After she was married, Pandita found a copy of the Gospel of Luke in her husband's library. Drawn to Christianity, she invited a missionary to their home to explain the Gospel to her and her husband. Tragically, not long after hearing the Gospel, her husband passed away.  Shortly thereafter, Pandita was visited by a child widow looking for charity. Pandita not only took her in as if she were her own daughter but, moved by the situation, started an organization called Arya Mahila Samaj to educate girls and advocate for the abolition of child-marriage.  It was while traveling to England that Pandita Ramabai formally converted to Christianity. Returning to India, she set up a school for girls and widows in what is now called Mumbai. At first, to avoid offending Hindus, she agreed not to promote Christianity and to follow the rules of the Brahmin caste. However, these concessions were not enough. Within a year, the school was under attack, and local financial support dried up. Pandita moved the school to Pune, about 90 miles away.   In 1897, when a famine and plague struck the area, Pandita established a second school about 30 miles away. Among the subjects taught in her schools were literature (for moral instruction), physiology (to teach them about their bodies), and industrial arts such as printing, carpentry, tailoring, masonry, wood-cutting, weaving, needlework, farming, and gardening.   At first, because Pandita had only two assistants, she developed a system to care for and educate the girls, first teaching the older ones who would then take care of and help teach the younger. This allowed for a growing number of girls to be taken in and cared for. In fact, by 1900, 2,000 girls lived at Pandita's schools.  In 1919, the British king awarded Pandita Ramabai the Kaiser-i-Hind award, the highest honor an Indian could receive during the colonial period. Her life is an example that living in a pagan society means confronting bad ideas and caring for their victims. In her culture, like in ours, these victims are very often children.  To decide, as many have, that speaking up on controversial cultural issues is “too political” is to leave these victims without care and protection. It is out of step with Christian history. It also is an embrace of an anemic, truncated Gospel.   This month, for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center, you can receive a copy of 32 Christians Who Changed Their World by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. Just visit colsoncenter.org/July.   This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.  This Breakpoint was revised from one originally published on March 30, 2021.  

When you hear the word Brahma, you might think of the three-headed Hindu god of creation and his associated priestly caste the Brahmins. Or you might think of Brahman, the universal goal of reincarnation, where everything eventually returns. But what does that have to do with chickens? Nothing! Brahma Chicken is an entirely different thing, so let's learn more.  Full:  Brahma Chicken: Everything You Need to Know

5.191 Ancient traditions of the brahmins that are these days only seen among dogs. 5.192 The brahmin Doṇa accuses the Buddha of not respecting brahmins, so the Buddha responds by analyzing the different kinds of brahmin. 5.193 Saṅgārava the brahmin asks why memorized hymns are sometimes clear to the mind and sometimes not. The Buddha answers with the five hindrances. 5.194 The brahmins Kāraṇapālī and Piṅgiyānī extol the good qualities of the Buddha. 5.195 During a visit by the Licchavis, the brahmin Piṅgiyānī utters a verse in praise of the Buddha. 5.196 Before his awakening, the bodhisatta had five great dreams that foretold profound aspects of his awakening and dispensation. 5.197 Weather forecasters remain ignorant of these five obstacles to rain. 5.198 Five factors of good speech. 5.199 When a renunciate visits a family, they make merit on five bases. 5.200 Five kinds of escape, showing how different aspects of suffering are escaped by different practices.

Designing SanghaSangha is the fruitOf all of our endeavors —If harmonious.* * *angha is also an operative dynamic of our world. Community already exists; it is just not always very harmonious. Why would Buddha have established the original Order of monks and nuns, when he had a perfectly serviceable community in the form of the Shakya clan, and enjoyed a position of high honor and privilege within it? Why do we seek out groups of like-minded folks, often turning away from the family and friends we grew up with? Why do we reject the smorgasbord of ersatz communities on offer in the wider society, and turn instead to groups who insist on sitting quietly for irrationally long periods of time, occasionally inviting someone to hit us with a stick? It is because, as Matsuoka Roshi would often say, “Civilization conquers us!”One could argue the case that Buddha was basically a late-blooming adolescent, a rebel who rejected his father's plans for his future; and potentially a draft-dodger who, as a member of the warrior caste, did not relish the idea of taking orders from the Brahmins, for instance to wage war on the neighboring tribes. One could also reasonably wager that had he been of the lower castes — an untouchable, for example — he would not likely have gotten away with his renegade movement. I submit that we are doing essentially the same thing in America today that Buddha did when faced with the dilemma of introducing a “third way,” in contrast to the probably polarized choices that denizens of proto-Hindu India faced in his day and time. In my recent book, “The Razorblade of Zen,” I delve into the choices we face today between the extremes of theism and religion on one end of the societal spectrum, with rationalism and science at the other end. Zen presents as the Middle Way, positioned between, and inclusive of, the extremes. You don't know where the middle is until and unless you go to the extreme.This vacillation, from high to low, from sensations such as exhaustion or hyper-energetic, or swings in emotions from anxiety to serenity, extreme states from depression to mania, or from one concept to its opposite, seems to be built-in to the very manner in which our mind functions. As Master Dogen reminds us in Fukanzazengi:Think neither good nor evil right or wrongThus stopping the functions of your mindGive up even the idea of becoming a BuddhaSo thinking good or evil, right or wrong is the natural functioning of the mind — monkey mind, that is.Such thoughts, emotions and states can be experienced on a strictly personal level, but they tend to influence our behavior and reactions in the social sphere as well. Which is where Sangha comes into play. One of the prevailing memes about the residential or community practice in vogue today in Zen circles is that the process is akin to stones in a fast-running creek or river — they become smooth by rubbing against each other. This analogy to rubbing off the rough edges simply by being tossed into the same tumbler for some time has its limitations. Most communities are highly intentional in their design. They often include “mindfulness gotchas” built into the day-to-day routine of the practice place.Consider that we all have other choices these days. Whether or not we live in an intentional community, and for how long, is largely dependent upon other factors, such as resources and alternatives, otherwise known as “privilege.” Most Americans practicing Zen today are vastly more affluent and thus more privileged, than was Buddha in his environ. This is one factor explaining the predominantly white and upper-middle-class skew of the leadership of American Zen. My generation is the second, after those members of my father's cohort, the “greatest generation” who went overseas in WWII. They became the first generation of American Zen practitioners and priests, having been exposed to the virus in the Pacific basin. My teacher, like theirs, was Japanese. We are now beginning to see the first generation of younger Zen students who came by it honest — their parents were into Zen.The current influx of 20- and 30-something Zen seekers are a different animal, having grown up in a post-digital and highly interconnected world, with access to most of its intellectual resources. This naturally affects how they engage with the world, and calls into question the place of Zen training, with its emphasis on face-to-face transmission of the Dharma. Why are they coming to Zen? Same reasons you and I did. I was in my mid-20's when I met Sensei; he was in his mid-20's when he came to America, as was Dogen when he travelled to China, all to find the secret of Zen, which was missing from life.Sensei would often say the secret to Zen is “Confidence in everyday life.” I would add balance to that claim, recognizing the many more tugs and pulls that are keeping us off-balance today. But we also now have many more avenues for outreach and engagement. Pre-and post-COVID, I have enjoyed many long-term, robust Dharma dialogs online, with students I have never met in person. We are actively redesigning the interface of the teacher-student relationship in all fields, including Zen.If we are to give up even the idea of becoming a Buddha, what about taking up the role of Bodhisattva?The “idea of becoming a Buddha” is relatively easy to dissect and dismiss, along with the idea of becoming anything we are not already. Or giving up the idea may create a higher likelihood of actually realizing Buddhahood. In any eventuality, it would certainly change our relationship with our community. Or would it?If we are already Buddha — that is, awake but not fully so — what effect would becoming even more awake have on our relationship to our Sangha? And by extension, to the community-at-large? Awake to what? is the question begged. Awake to the community as harmonious, that is, as genuine Sangha? Awake to our personal role in assuring that the community is as harmonious as possible, and maybe improving our performance in playing that role?We have a relatively recent usage in the realm of politics of the adjective, “performative.” This points out what some may regard as the hypocrisy of certain pols who represent positions and policies as if they truly believe in them, as we say in the religion of ideology; but an underlying suspicion suggests that they are only performing for the audience to gain or retain the votes of their constituency. Whatever the utility of this critique, and its potential influence on the future of governance, it seems we might benefit from adapting and applying it to our own role within Sangha, and by extension to society in general. While “performing” in front of others, we might pay attention to the fact that we are performing, and consider whether our actions are merely performative, or genuinely in line with our intention.Sangha is a two-way street. At least. We affect the practice of the community and the community affects our practice. It can go either way. Too much emphasis on fitting into the community, and your zazen may be neglected. Too much emphasis on personal practice, and disharmony may result. It's a balance, like most things. And Sangha is not really necessary on the personal level: see Bodhidharma. On the social level, however, the design of the community becomes crucial to its survival and success, which is measured by its beneficial effect on its members Zen lives, no matter how many or how few. If we can strike a balance between the three legs of the Zen stool — Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha — we may have a chance at experiencing the liberation that the Ancestors have assured us hangs in that balance. Zen is about true freedom or liberation: from self-imposed as well as societal constraints; it is innately apolitical. Freedom from cultural memes and mores, yes, but the Zen worldview is not a form of license; the “Zen person has no problem following the sidewalks,” as Sensei would often remind us. We followers of Zen are already the ultimate in non-conformity — no need to make a point of it. Finally, freedom from anxiety, analysis paralysis, weariness and confusion; but not based on a belief system about reality but a direct transformation of our grasp of reality.In the next series we will look at the intersection of certain selected pairs of phenomena that I find to be related to both Zen and Design Thinking. Of course I would be hard-pressed to find anything that does not relate to both of these parallel influences on my life. Meanwhile please practice-practice-practice Buddha-Dharma-Sangha.* * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Shinjin Larry Little

Each year, Yulin in the Guangxi province of China catches the worlds attention for its dog meat festival, and receives harsh criticism. Closer home, activists have been trying to ban the dog meat among the tribes of Nagaland, even though the tribes enjoy protection under section 371A of the constitution. This week, we travel back in time, browse through the Manumriti and the Upanishads, discover the connections between dog eating and caste, and why we must not judge people for their food choices. Till then Check out the other episodes, Anne Frank, Lootera and Endless Life of TreesThe Trees that built VeniceElm Trees, National Revolutions and Modern PaperEuropean Impressionism, Japanese Nationalism and Cherry Blossom TreesThe tree that built New ZealandLiving Fossils, National Identities and 200 MM year old trees You can check previous episodes of 'Podcasts from Nowhere' on IVM Podcasts websitehttps://ivm.today/3xuayw9You can reach out to our host Utsav on Instagram: @whywetravel42(https://www.instagram.com/whywetravel42 )You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: IVM Podcasts - Apps on Google Play or all other major audio platforms.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So who really spearheaded India's Freedom Struggle? Millions of ordinary people-farmers, labourers, homemakers, forest produce gatherers, artisans and others-stood up to the British. People who never went on to be ministers, governors, presidents, or hold other high public office. They had this in common: their opposition to Empire was uncompromising. In The Last Heroes, these footsoldiers of Indian freedom tell us their stories. The men, women and children featured in this book are Adivasis, Dalits, OBCs, Brahmins, Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus. They hail from different regions, speak different languages and include atheists and believers, Leftists, Gandhians and Ambedkarites. The people featured pose the intriguing question: What is freedom? They saw that as going beyond Independence. And almost all of them continued their fight for freedoms long after 1947. The post-1947 generations need their stories. To learn what they understood. That freedom and independence are not the same thing. And to learn to make those come together. This episode of BIC Talks is adapted from a conversation between P Sainath and Indu Prasad at Bangalore Literature Festival 2022. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.

In this episode, we talk about the festival of Holi with our special guest Neha who is the founder of Shaktitva.org.In this episode, we participate and soak in the reminiscences of Neha ji as she recounts her memories of playing Holi in India, growing up.General InformationSubscribers are requested to look for The Hindu Parenting notification emails for new podcasts/posts in their email promotions/spam tab and personally move these into the main inbox. Thereafter all posts will be delivered to their main inbox. Thank you!For questions that you'd like us to address, please use the form below:Hindu Parenting QuestionsFor comments and suggestions, please use the comments tab or write to us at contact@hinduparenting.orgPlease note that questions will not be answered on email.Do subscribe to our substack and follow us on our social media handlesTwitter: hinduparentingInstagram: hinduparentingTelegram: t.me/hinduparentingFacebook: facebook.com/groups/hinduparentingTranscriptRekha: Namaste. Welcome to the Hindu Parenting Podcast. Today, we will speak about the festival of Holi. Holi is celebrated on the full moon Purnima in the month of Phalgun as per the Hindu calendar.To help us understand the traditions, the stories and the issues surrounding the festival, we have a special guest today, Neha Ji, who is the founder of Shaktitva Foundation, a Devi Upasaka and many things besides. She is also a software engineer. Namaste, Neha Ji.Neha: Namaste, everyone. Really glad that you chose me to be here. Holi is definitely one of the top two festivals that we celebrate in North India and I'm glad to share it with you all.Rekha: Oh, we are very happy to have you on our podcast too. So this being a special Holi episode, could you tell us a little bit about your childhood memories? Where did you grow up?Neha: Yeah, so I actually am born and raised in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. As you can imagine, that's like the heart of what they call the Hindi heartland. So, you know, we have a very, very elaborate celebration of Holi. Like the anticipation starts building up honestly from like right after Basant Panchami. Holi and Diwali are the two major festivals where everything comes together. For the Western audience, I often compare that to like we have, this is like our Christmas. It's that big. So yeah, I grew up in Lucknow and Holi was like when we were even like younger, like Holi and Diwali are the two times when you definitely get new clothes. That's a guarantee. You may or may not get on your birthday or any other occasion, but these two, you are definitely going to get new clothes. You know, the growing up we, you know, the fondest memories are that most of my cousins who are usually busy with their, you know, daily lives, they're working in different cities and so on. They'll all they choose the Holi vacations to come to the hometown. And we had like a joint family sort of a setup. So we would get relatives we hadn't seen in, you know, months, sometimes even years, who will come over to celebrate with us. Shalini: Nehaji, so is there a concept of Holi vacations in the north? I've not heard of that. Neha: Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So like for example, right now, my niece has her board exam starting on 27th here. That is Monday, but she will get five days off around Holi. Shalini: Wow, really? This is news to me. I didn't know that, you know, there are vacations for Holi also. Neha: And in fact, my other niece is in the engineering school right now and she is getting her 10 day off. Shalini: 10 days for Holi? That's so lovely. I thinkNeha: what they do is they integrate Holi with whatever their summer like semester break is. So that it happens at the same time. So they say the same as spring break, right? But in this scenario, spring break and Holi are done together. Yeah, so we have this, people would come like, as you said, as because you get these longer vacations to take time to go back to family, if you're not living with them, also the preparations in the household start honestly, even months before. So there is this, so when you're celebrating Holi in the middle of it, like, you know, you're drenched in colors and you get hungry. But you can't sit down to eat your regular food, right? What are you going to eat? Because you're only literally like dripping with colors. So we have to prepare, you have to prepare snacks, right? That are like, that are sort of, you know, homemade fried snacks. So the sweets are offerings, you can eat those.So what we call Gujiya. But other than that, you can, the ladies will start preparing chips and papad. So chips is mostly potato chips, but also other kinds of chips. And papads, so I am sure if you don't know the process of making chips requires you, you know, slice the potatoes in a certain thickness, you lay it all to be dried in the sun. And only then for many, many days, and only then it's ready. Same is the story with papad. So for papad, like, aloo papad is easier, like potato papad is easier. But if you're making papad from tapioca, sabudana, then that one, you have to make that paste, spread it really thin on a plastic, and then again, put it out in the sun to soak, to dry. And if it's not dry, it's not going to fry. Okay, so this is a very, very elaborate process that's taken up almost weeks before. Like, I am sure like back in India right now, the process has started in my home. Shalini: So this all this happens even now? Neha: Yeah. I mean, it's honestly, it kind of depends on the person. Like, you know, you can be as, you know, you can do as much of this as you want. And sometimes you obviously the replacements are available in the market. So if you don't have time to make papad and chips, you can always buy them. But you know, you're talking about memories. So this was definitely, you know, in the, every family and every sister in law, mother in law that I knew whether it was a working lady or not, they're coming back and even entire families involved. To be honest, like my brother used to boil potatoes. And we used to help them, help them spread. Because it's a lot of work, you know, like one person can't do it. So literally, you know, kids will get involved. And also, it's fun because like we're not now all hanging around it and maybe we get to take a bite of it uncooked and raw. And then your tummy will hurt. But you know, children will be children. Shalini: Sounds like a whole load of fun, really.Neha: Yeah, it's a very, very elaborate process. So this is this starts weeks before then you have to plan for the, you know, the actual Holi, so you have to buy colors in advance and so on. And then if sometimes, you know, daughters will visit their Maika, like their mother's home with their husband, if they're local, usually, if they're local. So during the playing time, them, them and their, so usually what happens, you play for a little bit in your home. And then sometimes you, if you have local relatives, you kind of do a tour, you know, like you go to those other houses and play.So sometimes daughters will visit and then, you know, mothers will get very anxious that oh, she's going to visit. So now we have to prepare all of the stuff that has to be given to her and all that fun. So it gets like, you know, the preparations take a while. Then the day before Holi is the Holika Dahan. We'll talk a little bit more in detail about it. But that is the sort of the, it's very similar to how the day before Diwali is. So the Naraka Chaturadashi, that and this one is very similar where you basically the idea is that you clean your house, get all the impurities out of the house. And in this time, we actually put those impurities and burn it in the bonfire. So it's kind of like an evil warding ritual, right. And there is a mythological reason behind it or like I don't want to call it mythological, it's a legendary reason behind it. Shalini: Yeah. Okay. So and then after the, after the, I think the next day is the playing with colours, no? And then what happens after, after all the masti is over? Neha: And then you have to clean up yourself. Shalini: Is that something people looked forward to? Neha: No, no, no, that's the worst part obviously. And depending on how, you know, how, how should I say, how naughty your cousins and friends are, that will increase the intensity of the cleanup. So usually like if you're playing with dry powder colours, which is like Gulal is what we call it in Hindi, those are relatively easier to clean up. Like you can just shower and shampoo and it's more or less it cleans up fast. But these days, sometimes you start getting those wet colours, right? So you mix those, it comes taken a very crystallised form powder and you mix it in the water and then it becomes coloured water. So you throw water at each other. Again, that, that can also relatively get cleaned up. But the naughty part is now at least my brothers used to do this and I am, if you've never met me, but I'm short. So what they'll do is they'll get that entire box of the crystals and put it on my head, dry, not with water. So when I'm shampooing, now this thing is dissolving. So that's when it starts to dissolve and I get freshly coated as I'm shampooing because I'm showering. So for like hours, the water has to run from my head so that the colour and will keep coming out and out and out. So sometimes I'm actually more colourful after the shower than before the shower. So it depends. Rekha: It's a diabolical plan. Neha: People get very creative on Holi. So you must have heard like, you know, neighborhood boy, little young boys will, you know, or boys and girls in fact both. They'll make those balloons filled with water and they'll, you know, throw those from roof tops. The two tease, tease people, we all get yelled at for it. But you know, kids being kids. And then there's also like, sometimes the, some of the friends will hide on the balcony and they will target the people who are coming to the house, right? Like, so if you're knocking and if the balcony faces the door, you're standing on the balcony, hoping to not be noticed. And as soon as the, as you come to knock, we all pour, you know, colour from on top of you. But the fun part, you know, another interesting thing is Holi is in fact, there is an entire genre of songs, traditional folk songs about Holi. And then you'll notice a theme in there. Right? Those are very, very naughty songs. And by naughty, I mean, like, usually there is a, you know, a decorum of how you talk to people or how you behave with certain relations, right? So for example, you know, the daughter's husband is like a sort of a celebrity, like a mini celebrity in the daughter's home. So like, there's like a certain decorum, like, you know, you want to offer the best food to him and you want to treat him special. And also same thing with, you know, elders and some in law relationships are also like that, like daughters in law will be very respectful to brothers in law and so on. Yeah. But on Holi, we call it like, you know, all sins are forgiven. So, so there is a, in fact, there's a slogan called bura na mano Holi hai. Don't mind. So I have permission that I have. I have an implicit permission to, you know, break those barriers. So what that means is if I am a younger sister, usually I'll be very respectful towards my older brother or older sister. But on Holi, I can actually play all these tricks on them and they're not allowed to get angry at me.And the same thing, it will even transcend those boundaries of marriages and custom, you know, so like daughters in law will sometimes play pranks on their, you know, in fact, their mother-in-law or like even their brother-in-law and so on. So that kind of license to, you know, be completely free and enjoy the festival in your, you know, in your natural form. And that like, that laughter and joy that, you know, uncontrolled or rather uninhibited joy is what actually brings the beauty of the festival.Rekha: An opportunity to let off some steam also, right? Neha: Exactly, exactly. So people look forward to it. You know, if you've been, sometimes, like, you know, if you've had some say, let's say you've had a fight with your sister-in-law, you know, you haven't been seeing eye to eye, Holi is the time where you get to be, you know, where you get to talk about it. Or maybe that is exactly because she's not allowed to get upset. So there are songs, entire songs dedicated on how, you know, bura na mano Holi hai theme, essentially. Okay. Rekha: This part is so cultural. I, anybody who's not part of this culture, who hasn't seen it growing up, will have some trouble relating to it. And a chance of misinterpreting this is very high, I feel. Neha: Oh, absolutely. In fact, in fact, this is known, right? For example, if somebody even from other parts of India has moved recently to some part of North India, and they see it for the first time, you know, it will, in fact, appear weirdly rowdy. Oh, my God, what are these, you know, people who appear. It's honestly, we're having so much fun that sometimes we look drunk, but we're not. But like, but if people like so, like, you know, uninhibited that you would feel that they may be like high on something.And you'll see groups of these extremely colored people, you know, wearing weirdo clothes, walking around with bags of color in their hands and throwing it at random strangers and yelling, bura na mano Holi hai, it sounds very uncultured, right? And in fact, it's very common for you, like, maybe you're not expecting to be colored, but you know, suddenly somebody throws color at you and something like that can happen. And it can sometimes be a little off-putting. But you have to understand this is a very, very, Holi is probably one of the most authentic indigenous festivals that has maintained its nature throughout the, you know, two waves of colonization and even this modern, you know, fad of westernization. We have sort of at least Holi preserves that original authentic character.So, you know, it started off in villages where everybody knew everybody. So, first of all, like that, there was this implied sense of relationship, even if it wasn't blood relations. And then so they first sort of this was like a community level function, right? And that uninhibition or lack of inhibition can be a little, you know, I would even say jarring, which is why, you know? Shalini: Disconcerting…Neha: Yeah, exactly. Disconcerting or even maybe jarring, which is why you start seeing these, you know, tweets of hyper-civilized, hyper-westernized or colonized people tweeting about, oh my God, this is so rowdy, this is so rowdy. You know, I've even, I've even heard toxic masculinity pop up, but like, you know, if you see my behavior, then it's also very toxic masculinity on that day. But no, but I think, you know, but of course, there is at the same time, whenever you have some festival like this, there'll always be elements that try to misuse it and, you know, pull that off. But that's not the nature of the festival. Like you can't change a festival because there are criminal elements in the society. Shalini: Oh yeah, that's true. Yeah, absolutely. Neha: But yeah, to your point, you know, it is, it can be, you know, a little bit shocking, but that's also why so many people are attracted to this festival. Like in fact, I live in New York and, you know, ever since I moved here, I know that there is a grand Holi celebration that happens in New York. And there is a, I've actually even participated in a couple of them. Obviously, we can't do it on the actual date because it's too cold. So then the holy celebration in New York is delayed and usually happens in like May. And we book an entire park and have a sport park is booked for celebration and the colors are sold in the stalls right there. There is Indian dancers performing and there's like snacks and everything like it. They try to recreate that experience to the extent possible because it's just so intoxicating in that sense. If you see it vicariously, you want to be a part of it.Shalini: It's, I think that freedom to let go of any inhibitions is something very tempting for everybody no. I mean, you're always living a very rule bound, boundaries, not to violate them, which is, of course, I think required too, but this one occasion to let go is something very attractive.Neha: It creates that balance. Otherwise, we are a fairly conservative society. We live by so many rules that are implied and that sometimes are not even written somewhere, but we have these social norms and the society is very strongly structured around those rules that we have followed for millennia. So this one day where you get to be yourself and have fun and tease and play and be naughty and all of that and play pranks on people that otherwise would get upset is an amazing experience. It just lets you be. It creates that balance that is, I think, very necessary for us to survive. Rekha: Nehaji, in many ways, I wish I had known this growing up because I grew up mostly in South India and had spent a couple of years in Bihar in Patna. And I must tell you that my first Holi there was very unsettling for me because I had no background of Holi, witnessing Holi at all. And you're right. I did see many people wandering around looking colorful. It's just this whole thing. It makes you quite unsettled. And I just wish I had known this to understand it in its proper spirit then. Shalini: Correct. Actually, yeah, even I remember while growing up, Holi was one festival where we would get afraid. It was a bit fear inducing because you don't know who will jump out from where to throw those colors. Even I grew up in the South. So there was a sense of fear associated with Holi. It's just that you're not used to somebody coming and rubbing so much color on you and you looking like a ghoul after that.Rekha: We have all these concepts now of personal space and things like that that we have grown up with because we have internalized them so much. Maybe the modern Western thinking that we all grew up with. So Holi is one occasion that doesn't leave you with this concept of personal space. And that's what I remember thinking back then. But then it's always the lens with which you view these things. And knowing what I know now, it just seems like I should have relaxed and participated.Neha: So I think there's one more thing though. There is an important, you bring up a very important point. I think what I have noticed personally and I may be biased and if your experience is different, I'd be happy to hear it out. But from what my experience says, if I am passing by, you're all in the mood. And if I notice somebody who's clearly telling with me with their body language that they don't want to participate, then most people will leave them alone actually.Unless there's somebody trying to create nuisance, people will generally leave them alone. But of course, if you are participating, like if you're fully colored and you have a bag in your hands, even then I've seen like usually, especially with women and women you don't know, if somebody wants to play with you, they'll come and ask first, is it okay, didi, if I put color on you, something like that. So that kind of respect is still there. We don't completely forget who we are. But again, like, as you said, like, you know, very correctly observed that it's all about the lens that you see it from. If you weren't scared, and if you were willing to participate, the experience may be actually very beautiful. Shalini: It is, because the figure I remember listening to you, it sounds like real, you know, letting your hair down completely, you know, so much. But we never got this perspective growing up, you know, so, Neha: yeah, because your family wasn't participating. Yeah, I think that's the difference, right? Like when you start, like from like in the morning on the color playing day, you're actually not supposed to start playing unless you've offered color to the gods and then to the elders. So I was the youngest and I was obviously the most excited also to play holy. So the first thing I'll do the moment I get up, I'll brush my teeth, and mom will try to put some breakfast out, but I'm not interested. And I will, you know, wear whatever clothes have your marks to be destroyed by Holi. I'll wear those. And then I will put like a plate of all the various colors. And I'll go to the puja room, put it on the gods, offer it to the gods and come back and wake up every family member and put a tika on them so that, you know, I can start playing. So as soon as possible, like even if you have not woken up, the tika will be there because I need to go. So I'll, you know, once I'm ready and all the other cousins from other family and we used to live in a sort of joint family setting. So then I'll go around the rest of the place, offering the same thing. And then, you know, of course, every single time I had to be reminded that I should put oil on my body first. So we'll take mustard oil and we'll put it earlier so that it stains less, like the color stains less if you put oil. So we'll drench ourselves with mustard oil, including the hair, and then you wear those clothes. And so you've already, the moment I enter, you know, I'm prepared for what's about to ensue.So it starts like that, like it starts simple and all the, you know, every single family I'll visit, they'll have snacks on the table ready somewhere, hopefully outside where you don't have to walk too much inside too late. Otherwise you'll just, you know, spill colors everywhere. So they'll, whatever is their visitor's area, they'll put out like a whole plate of snacks right there and they'll offer you, oh, and then as I said mentioned, like, you know, that special sweet has to be prepared, Gujiya. So that is also a night. So in some families, there's a culture that you have to prepare it the night before, after the holika has burned, like that holika dahan has happened, that bonfire has happened. And that's also a decently elaborate ritual.So mostly all of the family would be involved in that also. So it's made from, like from Maida, which is like, you know, filtered wheat flour, and you use Maida and you add, like, you know, flatten it into a small puri. And then you fill it with a sweet mixture of milk solids, like the mawa. And before that, you have to fry mawa to a golden brown color, and then you add dry fruits in it and powdered sugar or gold, like jaggery. And so that mixture is prepared, that is the filling of that Gujiya. And then you seal it up in a semi, like it's a semi circle, sort of shape. And then you then it is fried. So again, everyone wants you to try out their Gujiya and then you have to praise the Gujiya. Shalini: Actually, we had a similar sweet in the south, you know, it's called, yeah, what? Rekha: In Telugu, we call it kajjikai. Neha: Yes. Yes. What you call it, but there is something very similar. Yeah. Yeah, it is slightly different, you know. Shalini: Yeah, the filling is different. In the south, I think they put either channa dal mixed with gud or they put coconut, coconut in it. Neha: We also put coconut, but the base is mawa. Shalini: Yeah, that's what. I've not seen milk solids in the southern version of this.Neha: But you know, by the way, there is a very interesting linkage here. So one interesting thing that my friend Sahana Singh has found is that during the reign of King Harsha, several families, and I'm talking hundreds of families of Brahmins, learned Brahmins were invited to live in the Agrahaara he was setting up in Karnataka. And they were all invited from the Ahi Chhatra part of Uttar Pradesh, which is now Bareli. So actually Sahana Singh's own family traces her origins to Ahi Chhatra area. So it is and that is why it's my personal observation also that the some specific traditions, whether it's wedding rituals or even this these, you know, folk traditions have a lot of commonality between Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.I don't know if this particular sweet is related or not, but I'm just saying like it's entirely possible that the, you know, the there is some cultural interchange that has caused this very similar sweet to have, you know, come into being. Shalini: Yeah, yeah, we should find a lot more of these linkages, you know, just to end this whole North-South divide, you know, completely. Neha: Oh, absolutely. The more you get to know each other, the more you find out it's so similar. You know, there's more common than there are more commonalities than differences.Rekha: Totally. The food, the customs, there's a lot in common. And this whole thing about, you know, UP and Bihar, I feel the culture is just so vibrant. And it's not really understood by a lot of people who have modernized. And the thing is that that area of India, I think holds on a lot still to respect for elders to tradition, and also has a very, you know, a playful way of bringing out these festivals. So it's a beautiful blend and it comes very close to, you know, I like to think of it as India that used to be. So I have a lot of admiration for that.Shalini: The Bharat that used to be perhaps, you know. Rekha: Bharat that used to be, I like that. Yes.Shalini: So Neha ji, we've had such a great time reminiscing about your Holi, you know, not our Holi, but your Holi and had a lot of fun. So I would just like to ask you what, you know, what is a primary story associated with the festival of Holi?Neha: Yeah, yeah. So there are actually several deity specific legends that exist around Holi. So Holi happens on a very specific time, like it's right before the wheat harvest, very close to the vernal equinox. Now, before I get into the legend of Holi, it's important to note that this is a very common time for most indigenous festivals, like, you know, most non-Abrahamic cultures around the world to celebrate equinoxes is a very common pattern to celebrate specific movements of the moon and the sun.So, you know, these kind of celebrations are very common. And so this one is also very similar. Also in other cultures, for example, Native American cultures and even Latin American cultures, pre-Christian ones, you can find similar bonfire rituals. Okay. So and also, I don't know if you know, but similar to Lohdi, like another bonfire ritual that we have, there is a very beautiful parallel in pre-Christian Ireland and Scotland even, where equinoxes and solstices are considered these very powerful times. So this one, Holi falls very close to the vernal equinox. And that is right before the time of the wheat harvest. So North India, you know, for several centuries now, wheat has become one of the most important crops. And so this is sort of a celebration and also an evil warding ritual, the bonfire serves as an evil warding ritual to ensure the health of the crops, to ensure the health of the people, and in general, well-being and prosperity. So that's the one important, like the indigenous commonality of it all. But speaking of our Shastras and Puranas, the first or the most important mention is found in Bhagavad Puran, which is also known as Srimad Bhagavatam. And there you find the story of the Narasimha avatar, which is related to Hiranyakakashipu , the demon and Bhakta Prahlad. So the story basically goes that, you know, Hiranyakashipu was one of the two sons of Sage Kashyap. And they, through both of them, through extreme penance, had gained several boons from Lord Brahma. And the hidden aspiration, sorry. Rekha: Who is it that has gained the boon from Lord Brahma? Neha: Hiranyakashipu, who is the son of Sage Kashyap, but he is him and his brother, both are demons. So Hiranyaksha is their brother and Hiranyakashipu is the other son. So there are two sons. So they've gained boons from Lord Brahma and he has the hidden aspirations, like pretty much all demon stories, to rule the entire universe. So his arch enemy in the story is Vishnu, because Brahma and Shiva both are sort of like, you know, distracted and don't really care about the running of the universe. So these demons always fixate on Vishnu for these purposes. So this fellow, he has now, so he gets a very interesting boon. So by the laws of nature, you can't actually ask for immortality. So when you do this extreme penance and you have to ask for a boon, these demons still want immortality or undefeatability. And so they get creative. So this guy gets really creative. Okay. And so he asks that I should not be able to be killed inside the home or outside the home. Okay. I should not be able to be killed during the day nor at night. I should not be able to be killed from any known weapon or any other thing. And then I should not be able to be killed by any human being or an animal. Or I should not be able to be killed either on the ground or in the sky. Yeah. Okay. So he thinks he's covered all the possibilities of how he can be killed. And so now because these, some of one of the criteria will be met. And so essentially he becomes invincible for the most intentional purposes. So now he is convinced that he is like the master of the universe. Nobody can defeat him, including Vishnu, because you know, all of these rules sort of apply to everybody. It doesn't matter who's killing him. So he is full of ego and greed and jealousy and, you know, confidence. And he establishes a rule in his kingdom that nobody except him can be worshipped. So he declares himself as the one true male jealous God. So he is now the only God that is allowed to be worshipped in his kingdom.Now, as you can imagine, the entire kingdom is full of people who've been practicing their dharma for years and years. And suddenly this diktat comes. So he reels out their terror on all of these people and anybody who tries to oppose this is instantly killed. So this goes on for in fact decades. And all of his subjects are, you know, reeling under this persecution, except for one person who is Hiranyakashupu's 10 year old son Prahlad. So he is fully defiant and he does not care whether he lives or dies. He is only going to worship Vishnu. So initially, you know, Hiranyakashupu is angered by his son's defiance. So he says he sends him to this pathasala where he already has convinced these acharyas to impart, you know, the teachings of Hiranyakashupu. So they are trying to convince Prahlad that he should forget about all other gods and he should only focus on Hiranyakashupu. Because Hiranyakashupu is undefeatable and that's not true for, so that makes him superior to Vishnu. But Prahlad, who's already well versed in the teachings of Sri Maha Vishnu, he defeats them in a philosophical debate. These, you know, sages are very upset and convinced in fact, but, you know, they will lose their heads if they start agreeing with him. So they are, you know, uncertain and they go back to Hiranyakashupu that I cannot convince this kid. So he is again angered. And this time he says, okay, I'm going to make an example out of you. So I'm going to punish you in such a, you know, tyrannical way that anybody else would think twice before disobeying me like this. And imagine this is a 10 year old son, his own son that he is waging this war against. Now, according to the Srimad Bhagavatam verse 7.5, he tries to crush him with an elephant. The Hiranyakashupu tries to crush his 10 year old son Prahlad by elephant, attack him with huge snakes, cast spell of dooms, throw him from heights, to conjure tricks, imprison him, administer poison and subject him to starvation, cold wind, fire and water. He threw rocks at him. But none of these means the demons succeeded in putting his son, the sinless one to death. With his prolonged efforts having no success, he got very nervous. So at this point, he enlists a list of long list of demons he had in his army, and he unleashes all of them on Prahlad. All of them fail. They are all, the Prahlad is saved from all of them because of the blessings of Sri Vishnu. So eventually, Hiranyakashupu finds his own sister Holika. Now Holika also has a boon. She has a boon that she has been granted a cloak, or like a cloth that protects the wearer from being burned in the fire. So she can, if she dons herself with this cloak and she sits in the fire, she will not be burned. So on Hiranyakashupu's command, this woman lowers her young nephew into sitting on a pyre. She puts the nephew on her lap, puts the cloth on her own self and sits on a pyre and the pyre is lighted. So as the fire starts raging, the wind blows again from the blessing of Sri Vishnu and covers Prahlad and uncovers Holika. So instead of Prahlad getting burned, Holika gets burned and the innocent child is saved. Now eventually, and this is the relevant, this is the moment that is celebrated as Holika Dahan. Shalini: I think we will stop at this point for today and we will discuss further in our next podcast which will be coming up very soon. We have so much to discuss with Nehaji and there is just so much more fun awaiting you all in a few days time. So we will take a break for this podcast and come back to the second part of this podcast in just a couple of days time. So please hang in there and wait for the continuation of this episode. Thank you and Namaste. Get full access to Hindu Parenting at hinduparenting.substack.com/subscribe

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. This Thursday APEX Express proudly presents “South Asians and The Labor Justice Movement.” This episode highlights Sandhya Jha, a pastor, founder and former Executive Director of the Oakland Peace Center, and racial, housing, and labor justice activist. In the first half of the episode, we discuss Sandhya's life, their path into organizing, and what they're up to now. The second half is dedicated to their recent project with the South Asian American Digital Archive's Archival Creators Fellowship Program. This episode was interviewed, produced, and edited by Swati Rayasam Follow @Sandhya Jha on Facebook and check out Sandhya's website https://sandhyajha.com/    APEX Express is a weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Listen to the episode live on KPFA 94.1 in San Francisco, 89.3 in Berkeley, and online at KPFA.org.  References throughout the Show and Links: Without Fear Consulting Interfaith Alliance Oakland Peace Center Book – Blueprint for a Revolution Book – The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad Podcast – Bending Toward Justice: Avatar the Last Airbender for the Global Majority The Alliance of South Asians Taking Action – ASATA Bay Area Solidarity Summer South Asian American Digital Archive Archival Creators Fellowship Program Sandhya Jha's project, you can listen to all of the oral histories here. Solidarity Forever Online Exhibit Arab Resource and Organizing Center Block the Boat No Tech for Apartheid  University of California Labor Center Equality Labs California Trade Justice Coalition NAFCON – National Alliance for Filipino Concerns Filipino Community Center Madhvi Trivedi Patak Transcript: South Asians and Labor Justice  [00:00:00]  [00:00:00] Swati Rayasam: Good evening everyone and Happy Thursday, my name is Swati Rayasam. While I'm usually in the background of APEX Express editing, this week I'm honored to bring you a piece from a dear friend of mine Sandhya Jha. We explore Sandhya's background as a mixed race kid, a housing, labor, and racial justice organizer, and a faith leader.  [00:00:50] Swati Rayasam: And then we dive into an amazing project, Sandhya did for the South Asian American Digital Archive's Archival Creators Fellowship program. Stay locked in.[00:01:00]  [00:01:00] Swati Rayasam: I'm really excited actually today to talk to Sandhya Jha, who is a really close friend of mine. Hi Sandhya. Hi there. Sandhya is, a Pastor is a consultant and has been working on this really amazing project with the South Asian American Digital Archive that will get into later in the episode. But yeah, Sandhya I'm just really excited to learn more about you and to hear more of your story and, let's just dive in. [00:01:26] Swati Rayasam: Absolutely.  [00:01:27] Swati Rayasam: We should first talk a little bit about how we know each other, you have this long organizing background. I've been in the Bay Area for the past seven years and I would be totally lying if I said I have not historically been, or I'm not even currently an active fangirl of yours. You are literally a pastor. You are a movement worker, how did you get involved in organizing? [00:01:53] Sandhya Jha: Yeah. So I am the product of my parents who were generous, compassionate [00:02:00] people who thought about the world beyond themselves, but were never involved in organizing or activism or anything like that. I think for anybody who comes from immigrant backgrounds, it's hard to tell our stories without naming who we come from. Right. And so my father was Sunil Kumar Jha from the village of Tildanga in West Bengal. My mother, who is still alive is Jeanette Campbell Jha. She is from Glasgow. So I come from a mixed religion and mixed race home. My parents chose not to name me Sandhya Campbell Jha not to give me that kind of grounding, but I was called Sandhya Rani Jha, which is a lot to live up to, well, yes, Rani does mean Queen. But it was actually handed down to me, part of the reason they wanted that middle name was it was my aunt's name, Durga Rani Upadhyay and she was the one who really [00:03:00] brokered my mother's acceptance into the Indian family and I think that there was something about being accepted on the Indian side of the family and not for many, many years on the Scottish side. That caused my parents and particularly my mother to double down on making sure I knew who I came from and who I came from was my people in the village of Tildanga. [00:03:23] Sandhya Jha: I grew up in Akron, Ohio, so we immigrated to this country when I was a toddler, in the late 1970s, which was a complicated time for Asian immigrants to be in the Midwest because it was a time that the rust belt was rusting and there was a growing sense that we were the reason. But also I grew up alongside folks who were trying to figure out how to put food on the table. So I think that landscape shaped me in a lot of ways. And I also come from people who grew up in poor working communities. And[00:04:00] when I went off to college, there was an organizing campaign. The board of directors of the university had created a for-profit corporation with the exact same board.  [00:04:15] Swati Rayasam: Oh wow.  [00:04:16] Sandhya Jha: So that the universities could subcontract all of their catering, all of their custodial work to this… basically Shell corporation.  [00:04:28] Swati Rayasam: Are we telling on the university?  [00:04:29] Sandhya Jha: Mm, Yeah. Why not? It was Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and I think that's relevant because the tension between Black communities next to Johns Hopkins Medical School and the school itself were very real because this was part of a very long history of exploiting community members. So the workers were organizing, and you know, I had read about activism, I cared about it. I paid as much attention as I could for a high school student. But when I got to college, this organizing [00:05:00] campaign was going, and the workers were really clear, Hey, college kids who are excited about this, we do have a role for you. It's to fill the crowd. It's to cheer us on. It's to when we ask you communicate to the university that our well-being matters to you because they will listen to you in different ways. But the campaign centered the workers and was really clear with us about what our role was because we were the folks with all the privilege by getting to be there, right? We had tons of privilege and it was a really good lesson for me. I am so grateful. The first organizing campaign I was a part of was a labor campaign that understood what it meant to center the people who were the most impacted by injustice and I think that shaped the rest of my career.  [00:05:46] Swati Rayasam: And that's so special too because I think for many people who come into organizing, and I will definitely cop to this myself, like coming up and organizing through high school and college level organizing. When you are a student, nobody ever [00:06:00] tells you that actually you are the least useful kind of organizer that exists. Right. You are in this incredibly enclaved community. Your oppressor, the university, all they have to do is wait for you to graduate institutional memory will not keep you. Yeah. Right. And I think that it is, it's this perfect storm of, you have actually sometimes cool ideas, sometimes very rudimentary ideas, but you also have this turnover issue and you have this sense of self import, which often comes with your teens, early twenties. Yep. As you're just figuring all of that out. So Yeah, self differentiation, right? It's a narcissistic phase in our development. .  [00:06:46] Swati Rayasam: It absolutely is and I think that's so important, and I can't imagine how my life would be shaped if I didn't have to spend a lot of time unlearning the self import and narcissism that I had gained through student [00:07:00] organizing. [00:07:00] Sandhya Jha: Yeah. No, I am really, really grateful for it.  [00:07:02] Sandhya Jha: My first job outta college was working for a member of Congress, which sounds super fancy and pretentious, but, a member of congress from Akron, Ohio. So put that all in perspective. His name, believe it or not, was Tom Sawyer. Oh, wow. What I loved about Tom was back in those days, he believed very strongly that 80% of legislation was nonpartisan and that was the part that he spent most of his time on. He would weigh in with his party, when they were dealing with that 20% pretty consistently. But he was more interested in the stuff that everybody could agree on and I remember for about 15 years after I worked for him, I looked back and found myself thinking that was so naive. How did he not understand where we were about to head with the divisions between the political parties? But at this point in my life, I realize the people I respect most in organizing work keep pointing out that the binary of [00:08:00] left and right actually doesn't serve us very well. One of my biggest heroes in the movement right now is the Reverend Dr. William Barber,  [00:08:07] Swati Rayasam: Hometown hero of mine. Yes.  [00:08:09] Sandhya Jha: Poor People's campaign from North Carolina. And he always talks about how it's not about right and left. It's about right and wrong. And it turns out that when we engage in organizing with the awareness that there are huge swaths of things that most of us are well served by, we can do better organizing. And that was actually how Tom was legislating. And at a certain point I realized that my deep passion was around racial justice, but the distinct experience I had in a multi religious household was an awareness of how religion was being used as a weapon. I had an obsession. Every paper in college I wrote was about the Christian coalition, this right wing, organizing body in the nineties. So a friend of mine [00:09:00] said, You know, there's an interfaith organization working against the Christian Coalition. And it was called the Interfaith Alliance. Her mom had been a superintendent in Washington state in eastern Washington and was a pretty conservative person by my standards. [00:09:18] Sandhya Jha: But, Dr. Chow believed in multiculturalism and believed in teaching evolution. And the Christian coalition had organized to push her out of her position as superintendent and the Interfaith Alliance of Washington State had supported her in that time. [00:09:38] Sandhya Jha: And so Liz said, you know, they've got a national chapter, a national office. And that's where I ended up, cutting my adult organizing teeth which was great because talk about learning lessons for our current moment where religion is being weaponized in ways that are anti-trans, that are anti-queer, that are anti-women, that [00:10:00] are anti reproductive rights, that are anti-immigrant and refugee. I am really grateful to have experienced the power of multi-faith organizing, around a lot of those same issues. So that was what I did in the early two thousands and then I went to seminary and public policy school, and then I ended up out here pastoring a congregation of 10 people in a building of 40,000 square feet. [00:10:29] Sandhya Jha: And long story short, that's how the Oakland Peace Center was born, was out of this dream of cultivating deeper collaboration among nonprofits who were dedicated to a shared cause. The Oakland Peace Center, which is a collective of 40 different nonprofits committed to dismantling the root causes of violence in our community. I was the founder of that organization and it was when I was pastoring First Christian Church of Oakland that I asked the handful of folks who were members of that church, what they wanted to [00:11:00] contribute to the community, and they said they wanted to contribute peace in the midst of violence. And for a dozen folks to have given birth to a space that in non pandemic years, saw over a hundred thousand people do things like the Lawyers for Black Lives Conference and to do Kingian non-violence training and to be a part of food and clothing distribution, to participate in all the very diverse ways that we can create peace is pretty impressive.  [00:11:30] Sandhya Jha: And a couple of years ago, I left the Oakland Peace Center because a colleague of mine said, Anybody can run a non-profit. We need you to do what you're actually good at, and what she meant by that was we need more people of color doing diversity, equity, and inclusion work that is actually grounded in power analysis. That isn't just how do we be nicer to each other in the workplace, but how do we recognize the ways that systems of white supremacy [00:12:00] unconsciously often shape the culture of our workplaces? And what do we do to dismantle that white supremacy culture so that we can be building nonprofits and institutions of higher education and faith organizations, and even corporations that are dedicated to our full liberation, our liberation, the lands liberation. [00:12:23] Swati Rayasam: I mean coming, especially from the place that you come in grassroots organizing and in faith based organizing, what is it actually to transition into this kind of consulting space around racial justice and really interface with a lot of people that I feel like as organizers, we don't really talk to? [00:12:42] Sandhya Jha: One of my favorite things about this shift in my work is I love getting to work with folks who don't think of themselves as organizers, who, it turns out are organizers, Right. I think we sometimes create a cult of here's what an organizer looks like, you [00:13:00] have to be a Martin Luther King or a Cesar Chavez and what I love is getting to work with moms and with teenagers and with folks who think of themselves as caring, compassionate, individuals, and when I go into an organization and work with their handful of folks who care about this issue, the DEI team, I get to teach them how to strategically organize. I get to teach them how do you create culture shift over time? I get to teach them how do you figure out who your allies are? How do you figure out how to move people who are neutral? It turns out that there are a lot more organizers out there than we realize if we don't create one definition of what an organizer needs to look like.  [00:13:45] Swati Rayasam: I have been reading this political scholar Eqbal Ahmed, who really talks about the way the burden is on those of us who are deeply committed to movement work, narrow definition people, the burden is really on us to try and [00:14:00] create a liberatory future that feels both achievable. Mm-hmm. and safe for everybody. Because when people engage in mass struggle and in revolution, there are people who are a hundred percent willing to put their lives on the line. People who are willing to die for the cause. And we absolutely need those people. And there are many people along the spectrum who, if you can create a future that feels like it's within their grasp, they will come with you.  [00:14:30] Sandhya Jha: Yep. I teach a lot of organizing classes and have gotten a chance to teach alongside my beloved colleague BK Woodson at Allen Temple Baptist Church, they have a leadership institute there. And one of the books we use is Blueprint for a Revolution by Srđa Popović. And I feel like I learned a lot as we read that book together and thought about how to apply it to the work we're doing in Oakland. They talked about how by engaging in nonviolent direct action, [00:15:00] they created space for elders to be a part of their work and youth to be a part of their work and families to be a part of their work. By making the movement playful. They gave people hope and gave people courage because dictators are terrified of being mocked.  [00:15:17] Swati Rayasam: Yeah, exactly. And I think by being really restrictive or narrow about who we view as actually valuable organizers. And I think labor movements teach us this a lot, right? We really cut ourselves off at the knees on our ability to build a network or to be in touch with the general population, many of whom are more connected than we ever give them credit for.  [00:15:41] Sandhya Jha: Yeah. Yep. it's part of why I love labor organizing. I talk with a lot of people who are disenchanted with organizing who ask me how I can have stayed involved for the past 25 years. And why I've been able to stay in it is cuz I'm organizing alongside workers and they have [00:16:00] full lives. And the work that they're doing in the movement is so that they can live their full lives. And there's something about having that perspective and recognizing the why all the time instead of getting lost in the weeds of the what. Is so important in this work. I think that has been a big theme of my organizing life is how do we build to the greatest common denominator? As my friend BK often says how do we build towards those shared values that often get erased when we are engaged in the right versus left debate. [00:16:39] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. I think that it is so important and I also think that it's really hard in this moment of what feels like constant trauma and re trauma. [00:16:51] Swati Rayasam: And to some extent especially when we're talking about the left right dichotomy there are real concerns [00:17:00] about safety. Yep. And there are real concerns about security and who you are in community with and who you can find even the smallest level of acceptance from to ensure that you won't have violence visited upon you. And I think that these conversations of united front organizing, Right. trying to bridge across difference mm-hmm. for a shared goal, for a shared liberatory future Yep. Are really important. And they feel kind of impossible to achieve right now.  [00:17:31] Sandhya Jha: It's interesting cuz I think that in many ways that is true. There are a lot of conversations that I think people with privilege expect, people who are marginalized to engage in. And those expectations are unfair, what I found very frustrating was the number of people with a lot of privilege who would be like, Ugh, I just can't talk to those people. And I'm like, Then who's going to? Exactly. and so I do think that some of this is about being willing to have [00:18:00] hard conversations in the places where we have privilege and recognizing who's at actual risk and showing up in ways that are protective of who is at risk. But that doesn't mean walking away from people who aren't where we are. Right. Because the fact of the matter is everybody's on a journey. And I have watched at the same time some of the disposability culture in movements write off people without giving them any way to address harm, repair harm, and find a pathway back into community. [00:18:41] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. And I think that's why, at least I am feeling really hopeful about, what I've seen over the past couple of years, this really important track into transformative justice and restorative justice, to acknowledge that there is harm that has happened, there are harms that happen every day between people. [00:19:00] And also we are all on our own journey to unlearn the things that we have been taught either directly or indirectly by our upbringing, by our environment and that you cannot easily dispose of people and that people are able to come back into community. Now that comes with a very important caveat that like they recognize the harm. Mm-hmm. that. They have done or how they've been party to it, that they acknowledge that there is healing work that needs to be done both with the person that they harmed and also probably in internally.  [00:19:35] Sandhya Jha: Well, and the community, folks who don't do RJ on a regular basis tend to skip the community aspect. Yeah. That there is actually repair that needs to be done with community and there's work community needs to do to figure out how to re-embrace reabsorb people who have done harm in ways that still protect the person who's been harmed. [00:19:55] Swati Rayasam: Exactly. In ways that do not erase the harm that has happened, but [00:20:00] acknowledge, contextualize it and say, Okay, we are patching this and we are working to move forward in step with each other. Absolutely.  [00:20:09] Sandhya Jha: Can I just say that one of the other things that I think you and I have in common is a real passion for bringing joy back into the work of Justice I quote Fabiana Rodriguez a lot on this particular thing, because I was at an event she was doing eons ago, and she looked out at us and most of us were activists and she said, Listen, y ‘all you keep inviting people to a struggle. I'm on your side and I don't wanna join a struggle. I want to join a party. And that was like a call to arms for me when I heard her say that. I was like, Oh my gosh, you're right. We are so much more fun. Like, I've hung out with people who are anti-trans and anti queer and anti-immigrant and anti refugee. They are not fun people. No, no. We have all of the best parties. So I don't know why we don't [00:21:00] capitalize on that more. So I think the role of joy and justice is so important. And this is why I was so excited to have you on the podcast that I launched recently. [00:21:11] Sandhya Jha: Right. Bending Towards Justice Avatar the last Airbender for the Global Majority.  [00:21:15] Swati Rayasam: So literally like bringing it together. Two of my favorite things right, is like TV shows, wholesome TV shows like Avatar, The Last Airbender that I deeply love and organizing. Yes. All the work that I love. And I think it's true You know, what is actually really the important work is to work to build toward a future that is desirable Yep. That people want to be a part of. Yeah. That people can see happen. Yeah. And I think that is a lot of the difficulty that I have seen in some organizing circles. We are so well versed in what we are against and all of the things that are bad that so many people have a really hard time seeing or visioning or communicating [00:22:00] what it is that we are fighting for. Yeah. Right. And it's not enough to say, I'm fighting for a world where we can all be safe. Right. Yeah. I'm not, I'm fighting for a world where we can all take long naps in the middle of the day if we'd like to do that. Right. Yeah. But like really building and visioning that future of like, in this world in which we are all safe, there will be harm that happens. How do we deal with that? Yeah. What do we do with that? How do we make sure that it is able to keep everybody safe and also able to account for the times in which it is not able to keep everybody safe. [00:22:38] Sandhya Jha: Visionary does not have to mean naive. And we need it to be visionary. And sometimes I forget to do the visionary stuff. I've got a colleague, Dave Bell, he's a farmer who is also an anti-racism trainer and we do a lot of work together. He's a white guy who lives in White Swan, Washington, on the reservation and I remember being at a training with him and I [00:23:00] was all fired up and I was so excited about the conversations we were having and the people were really ready to do the hard work and roll up their sleeves. And Dave says to them, I would like to not have to do this work. And I'm like, What is he talking about? This is amazing. We're doing such good work. And he says, I would like for us not to have to talk about racism all the time. I would rather be farming. I would rather be, taking care of the cows in my field. [00:23:26] Sandhya Jha: I would rather be talking about my pottery work that I'm doing badly but learning how to do, I would rather be doing anything than have this conversation. But I don't get to be on the farm with the wheat, with the cows, with my bad pottery until we figured out how to do this anti-racism work. And it was a really humbling moment for me because I also get into that like I'm an organizer, that's my identity space. And it was this reminder of Dave's doing this. So he gets to live in a world where he gets to hang out in the fields and he [00:24:00] gets to, love on the cows. There's something about being reminded that we're doing this so that eventually we don't have to do it. That I think is actually visionary in its own way and it's important.  [00:24:12] Swati Rayasam: Moving into a little bit more of the grit of like why I asked you to be on the show today. I met you originally when I moved to the Bay Area when you were the executive director of the Oakland Peace Center because At that time I was doing organizing work with the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, which is a 20 year old bay area based organization, that was really founded around the Laki Reddy Bali Reddy sex trafficking. Yep. Caste and labor exploitation case that happened in Berkeley in 1999. And I was just so thrilled to be around and have in community so many rad desis. And you also did work with ASATA, right. Historically and are actively doing work with us.  [00:24:56] Sandhya Jha: Absolutely. One of the places I think I invested the most [00:25:00] energy in where we got to spend a lot of quality time in the kitchen was one of the projects, Bay Area Solidarity Summer, an organizing institute, camp, however you wanna refer to it. [00:25:10] Swati Rayasam: Political education, Summer camp.  [00:25:12] Swati Rayasam: Yeah, exactly. For young South Asian Americans who are committed to activism. What I think was the most beautiful part of that program when I was involved in it, and it's still the case today, is for young South Asians who think that they're the only ones who care about justice issues, who haven't met other people, who are South Asian, and identify as justice seekers first to meet each other and realize that there are people just like them. Then to look around and realize that those of us who are usually 10, 15, 20 years older than them are also committed to the work and have been doing it for decades. And then for them to get exposed to the long history of radical visionary organizing and activism of South [00:26:00] Asians here in the US and also in the homelands of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and diasporic countries all over the world. [00:26:13] Sandhya Jha: There's something about realizing, Oh, you have contemporaries, oh, you have elders, oh, you have ancestors. Mm-hmm. Especially in the face of the model minority lie that so many of us have had imposed on us, this lie that all we are all we're supposed to be is cogs in this larger capitalist machine that are non disruptive, which is why we're allowed to survive. And if we are non disruptive enough, we might even be able to be comfortable. And to discover that there's more to our story than that is so exciting and I love, love, love being a part of that.  [00:26:52] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. I think that is like fundamentally one of the most important kind of activities that [00:27:00] happens in the ASATA universe, I was a kid who also grew up thinking that there were no other South Asians like me, or there were no other folks who were interested in justice. I spent a lot of time doing, reproductive and queer justice in the south; I always think about what would it have meant if I came in, BASS for 18 to 24 year olds. Yep. what would it have meant if I had come in at a fresh 18 and been able to basically be apprised of the fact that I have this history Yeah. That it's not just me. And that actually, immigration and white supremacy and neo-colonial culture has created this project of assimilation that all of our parents have been in on, in a way to survive Yeah. And to be safe. And I tell my, I tell my mom that a lot because she's always a little surprised about the organizing work that I do. And I was just like, Your job was to survive. My job is to liberate. Yeah. [00:28:00] You know? Yeah. And I could not do that if you were not so focused on creating that environment for me. [00:28:07] Swati Rayasam: I love that.  [00:28:07] Swati Rayasam: we'll drop in the show notes, but, BASS – Bay Area Solidarity Summer is solidaritysummer.org. So we'll put that in the show notes as well as ASATA, the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action is ASATA.org. And yeah, I think that is a really good segue into how we got involved in this amazing project.  [00:28:31] Swati Rayasam: You're tuned in to APEX express at 94.1 KPFA and 89.3, KPFB in Berkeley. And online@kpfa.org.  [00:28:43] Swati Rayasam: I think it was Fall 2021 that you and I were talking. Yep. And you were telling me that you were involved in this amazing archival fellowship project. Is run by the South Asian American Digital Archive and [00:29:00] that you were going to do your project about labor. Mm-hmm. and South Asians. Yep. And my immediate, incredibly naive response was, how many South Asians are there in labor?  [00:29:12] Sandhya Jha: Exactly. And it's not naive. It's interesting cuz I think that this project actually emerged out of my favorite part of BASS, which was when the young adults would ask what their opportunities were in the world of justice. And I would say, you know, there's a place for us in labor justice. It had never crossed most of their minds. Right. We don't think of ourselves as having a role especially in formalized unions. And so SAADA, the South Asian American Digital Archives has an archival fellows project. And the whole purpose of it is to diversify their archives and collect the stories that are usually overlooked in the telling of South Asian American stories. [00:29:56] Sandhya Jha: And they have done a great job over the years of collecting the [00:30:00] stories of informal organizing, like the Punjabi Taxi Drivers campaign, the Bangladeshi Nail Workers Campaign. Those were informal labor organizing campaigns. That have been really well archived and they're amazing stories. I wanted to make sure that the next generation of South Asian activists knew about the South Asians who were actually part of the formal organized labor movement. [00:30:30] Sandhya Jha: And so I spent this past year interviewing, maybe a half a dozen or so South Asian American workers. Generally, not always, but mostly what would be classified as low wage workers who found a pathway into formal organizing bodies, unite here or the building trades or any number of the formal unions that keep [00:31:00] the labor movement alive across the country today. And I'm really proud of the fact that we do have South Asian workers who have moved up the ranks to be official organizers or to be at negotiating tables. And so that's part of the story I thought it was worth us telling. [00:31:19] Swati Rayasam: And I am, I'm so excited that we get to dive deeper into this project and I really love your framing too, around the three large bins that you have, solidarity, spirit and struggle. [00:31:34] Swati Rayasam: Right? Yeah. Yeah.  [00:31:35] Sandhya Jha: I started out with certain assumptions about what I was going to learn, partly because I've been doing labor solidarity work for 25 years at this point. I really thought I knew what I was gonna hear. And what I discovered was there were these consistent themes across, the interviews. that there were these notions of, Oh, what's meaningful to me is [00:32:00] getting to organize across cultures, getting to organize with people who, on the surface and even deep down are very different than me, but we share this vision of what our lives can be. And so that solidarity message I found really powerful. Also, and admittedly because I come out of a spiritual background, was probably looking for it. I was really struck by how many of the interviews ended up talking about the role of spirituality and shaping people's values. And in a couple of instances, organizers said, what my religion taught me was that religion needs to be challenged. And building up that muscle was what helped me challenge systems of injustice in other places. But others said that their journey with their faith tradition was what guided them into the work of labor organizing. [00:32:52] Sandhya Jha: And then that third bucket of struggle, I think is the lived experience of how [00:33:00] hard it is to take on oppressive systems of capitalism, how hard it is to take on decks that are stacked against us and what it means to have somewhere to turn in the midst of those struggles. I will say there were also a couple of lessons I was surprised by because my South Asian identity is so central to my organizing work, I was expecting to collect stories of people who were proud South Asians, who were also proud to be involved in the labor movement. And I assumed that they would see connections between those things because I certainly do. But what I discovered is for the most part, they were like, Yeah, I'm South Asian. I'm not saying that doesn't matter, but it's not super relevant to my organizing work. My organizing work is about [00:34:00] our cross-cultural solidarity. And that was something I hadn't been expecting that emerged as I did those interviews. Interesting. And I'm really grateful that the South Asian American Digital Archives likes telling all of the stories because I think I promised them that what they were going to get was, we're proud to be South Asian organizers. And what I got was, yeah, we're South Asian, we're proud to be organizers. And the that SAADA is like, yeah, that's part of our story too.  [00:34:28] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. And I think that's, that I think is incredibly important. We have this really, amazing series of audio clips from your SAADA interviews that really represent a lot of the themes that you were highlighting about solidarity, spirit, and struggle. And I'm just really excited to play them as we talk through these larger themes in your larger project and the experience of South Asian labor organizers. [00:34:55] Swati Rayasam: This clip is from somebody that you and I both know, which [00:35:00] is Prem Pariyar. I was so thrilled that Prem was a part of your project. I think Prem is an incredible organizer, so yeah tell our listeners a little bit about Prem. Prem  [00:35:09] Sandhya Jha: It was pretty exciting to get to work with him you know, he moved here from Nepal and in Nepal he had been a Dalit activist and he came to the United States and had this notion that in the United States there is no caste and he was disabused of that notion very quickly as a restaurant worker dealing with anti Nepali bias in Indian restaurants, dealing with caste bias in Nepali restaurants, well dealing with Caste bias in all the restaurants.  [00:35:35] Swati Rayasam: Hey, everyone, Narrator Swati here, I just wanted to put in an explanatory comma, a la W Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu to talk about some terms you just heard. Sandhya referenced that Prem was a Dalit activist and also talked about Caste bias. For those of you who don't know, Caste is a violent system of oppression and exclusion, which governs social status in many south Asian countries, although it is [00:36:00] most commonly associated with India. It works on an axis of purity and pollution, and it's hereditary. At the top of the caste system are Brahmins, by the way Sandhya and I are both Brahmin, and not even at the bottom, but completely outside of the system are Dalits who were previously referred to by the slur untouchable and Adivasis who are indigenous to South Asia.  [00:36:25] Swati Rayasam: Despite being “illegal” Caste bias, Caste Oppression, Caste apartheid, are still prevalent, both in South Asia and as Sandhya references, in the United States. It manifests in many ways that people experience racial injustice, via socioeconomic inequality, systemic and interpersonal violence, occupation, and through the determination of marriage and other relationships. You can learn more at EqualityLabs.org and APEX currently has a show in the works that delves into this more deeply. Now. Back to Sandhya  [00:36:58] Sandhya Jha: What is [00:37:00] delightful to me is Prem went on to get an MSW and is building out amazing mental health resources for Dalit communities for the Nepali community. Seeking to build out a program where there are more and more people in Nepal who are trained with MSW skills.  [00:37:21] Sandhya Jha: I met with one of his professors from CSU East Bay where he got his degree and she said, You know, that the entire Cal State system is adding caste to its anti-discrimination policies thanks to the work he started at CSU East Bay. And it was really beautiful to hear that because the focus of my conversations with him were more around how his experiences in the restaurants led him into the solidarity work with nail salon workers. [00:37:53] Swati Rayasam: To just, kick back to the caste abolition work that Prem has been doing, that caste abolition work [00:38:00] at CSU East Bay has been such critical work in these ongoing conversations around caste that have been in the South Asian community primarily, but have been percolating elsewhere. [00:38:13] Swati Rayasam: You know, the state of California filed a lawsuit against Cisco systems Yep. For caste discrimination in their workplace and there have been all these conversations around caste and tech work and interplay that with the no tech for apartheid work. Right. That has been happening in Palestinian liberation circles. Yeah. And really building that solidarity movement. So I think that Prem is an absolute powerhouse Yeah. In that regard. But yeah, let's listen to this clip.  [00:38:42] Prem: During that time, I got connected with other community organizer, like workers group. I got connected and so I was connected with nail salon workers, who were exploited at their workplace and with them, [00:39:00] I got to go to the capital in Sacramento. And so I thought I need to advocate for the restaurant workers. that was my first experience, like working with other workers and with the assembly members and like other other policy makers I shared what is happening what kinds of discrimination happening at the workplace. So I advocated for the restaurant workers at that time. I shared my stories and I supported the rights of nail salon workers. I was there to support them and they supported me as well, and it was wonderful. And finally that advocacy worked. And the bill was drafted and it was passed finally. And so it was huge achievement at that time.  [00:39:49] Swati Rayasam: I love that. I think that is such a perfect story of when you win, we all win.  [00:39:56] Sandhya Jha: And what I also love about it is he goes on [00:40:00] to talk about how he has remained in relationship with those nail salon workers. That they show up for each other, that they take each other food, that they show up to each other's baby showers and birthday parties, and there's this sense of community that emerges out of this shared struggle. And so that's a cross-cultural campaign. They were mostly Vietnamese. There were some Bangladeshi nail salon workers, but it was mostly people from a different culture than his. [00:40:27] Sandhya Jha: But somebody at the Asian Health Services program that he was at, saw his gifts, saw his passion, and he really responded to that in exactly, the most powerful way. I can imagine. [00:40:38] Swati Rayasam: And I think one of the nice things as well about that is that person at Asian Health Services connected Prem in and the Nail Salon Worker group, California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, Prem came from Nepal, I'm not sure, but the extent to which his organizing background and how comfortable he was in the US organizing space around labor [00:41:00] issues was probably significantly less that worker group took it upon themselves when they saw Prem come in to say, Oh, you are advocating on behalf of restaurant workers. Great. Why don't you join us? Let's help support and so the nail salon workers saw Prem, saw solidarity with Prem and said, It is our responsibility mm-hmm to bring you into this space to connect you in and to move in, struggle together. Yeah. Toward our shared goals of safety, of health, of rights. Yep.  [00:41:35] Sandhya Jha: Exactly.  [00:41:36] Swati Rayasam: So, we have this clip from Daljit, tell me a little bit about Daljit. Daljit [00:41:42] Sandhya Jha: Yeah. Daljit was an attorney who now reads tarot for people because she needed a break from the toxicity of that career and how it was taking her away from her family. Daljit is a deeply spiritual person and, [00:42:00] as I mentioned before, this theme of spirit showed up in some really beautiful ways in some of the interviews. I loved the way she understood her Sikh tradition as foundationally being connected with the land and foundationally connected with the people who work the land. [00:42:15] Daljit: Agriculture is our culture and the religion that I was born into, Siki, the founder of that faith was a farmer. And so a lot of the scripture, the analogies, the metaphors, the poetry, the music, the songs, the boon, the traditional folk songs, that can be taunting and teasing banter, all that stuff the land is the framework for that. And my most favorite line from the Guru Granth Sahib, our holy book, is, [speaks Punjabi] and that basically means that, the waters our guru, the airs our father, but our mother is Earth. And that's the greatest of all , and that's adherence to ecosystem. That's the [00:43:00] indigenous Cosmo vision that should be paramount. And that's what I try to teach my children. And so I think that's what I was taught as a kid without necessarily being able to pinpoint it, but it was just infused throughout our songs, our music, our food, the Harvest, there's two times a year that our celebrations, whether it Baisakhi or Lohri. It's so connected to the harvest and what is coming out of the soil or not. And you're connected to the cycles of nature. [00:43:28] Swati Rayasam: The connection between nature land, spirituality the way that it shows up in so many faith backgrounds and so many faith organizers, I think is really, really beautiful.  [00:43:41] Sandhya Jha: And I love that Daljit Kaursoni who was raised in this tradition, has found her way to Buddhism and is raising her kids with those connections, but without ever losing this grounding in the liberation of the land, the liberation of the [00:44:00] people. [00:44:00] Sandhya Jha: And for that to be a key element of her spirituality, even as her spirituality evolves, I think it's pretty powerful.  Tafadar [00:44:08] Sandhya Jha: One of the other people I got to interview ,Tafadar, he's a Bangladeshi American in the building trades and is a deeply committed Marxist. For me, this was a particularly exciting interview because I'm Bengali, so from West Bengal, before partition, Bangladesh and what's now West Bengal, were one state. And so it was fun to get to talk with him and to say, Hey, this is our legacy as Bengalis is radical worker organizing. [00:44:40] Sandhya Jha: And I remember saying to him, Some people in the building trades are not super excited to be working with brown people. And some people in the building trades are a little biased against women. And as a very, very progressive South Asian? How do you navigate that [00:45:00] space? [00:45:00] Sandhya Jha: And he said, Here's the thing is, yeah, I organize alongside some moderate to conservative white folks from New Jersey and he said, but in the building trades, if that moderate to conservative white guy from New Jersey decides he doesn't like my feminist politics, or he doesn't like my brown skin, if he decides that's a reason not to train me, he might die. And it was really interesting because even though I've been doing labor justice work for a long time, it was one of those moments I was like, Oh, right. Your work is very dangerous and you all have to rely on each other whether you like each other or not. That is the magic of organizing that no one ever talks about. This is why we can do cross class, cross-cultural work because literally you have to trust each other with your lives. Right. That was a really clarifying moment for me. And it was one of those interesting moments where I was like, [00:46:00] Solidarity is not a romantic thing. Uh, it is very much a matter of life and death. [00:46:05] Sandhya Jha: And I think that is really important and that exact thing that you brought up, you don't even have to necessarily trust somebody. Right. But you do need them. Yep. Right. And like that really clear understanding that like your fates are intertwined and it is truly in everybody's best interest. If you are trained well, irrespective of whether or not at lunch, I'm interested in sitting anywhere near you. I think that's really great. [00:46:32] Sandhya Jha: One of the things that was really exciting about talking with Tafadar was the reminder that labor organizing and formal union organizing at its best can be in solidarity with other movements really worker justice and housing justice and racial justice are inseparable, on some level. And so, one of the most inspiring stories I got to hear across all of these interviews [00:47:00] was a campaign that brought together folks across the anti- gentrification, the immigrant rights, and the labor justice movement. [00:47:14] Tafadar: It's ironic, building affordable housing with deadly exploitation. And, um, to do this, the de blassio administration, they embark on massive major rezonings of poor areas to relax the local zoning laws to be able to bring in these developments. And a couple of years ago, my, my union in local 79's. Took a very sharp turn towards a community organizing approach because labor can't win on our own, and that's the perspective that all of labor should adopt. In order to fight against the sweatshops in our industry. We united with a lot of community organizations in the South Bronx. [00:47:53] Tafadar: We formed the South Bronx, Safe Southern Boulevard Coalition. And along with these groups, we [00:48:00] protested and did a whole lot of activism, lobbying, community organizing to stop the rezoning of Southern Boulevard, which is a massive stretch in the South Bronx, while the De Blassio administration had succeeded in another part of the Bronx where there's like massive displacement still underway right now. And we were determined to stop it there. And it was a beautiful thing that we can unite because on our end as labor, we had to prevent all these trash companies from coming in and exploiting workers. And we were working with these tenants who are afraid of being displaced. And people generally, we do need revitalization of our neighborhoods. We do need investment. We do need things to be changed and made better. For us. If it's not for us, if it's done without us, then eventually we're not even gonna be here anymore. So we had that alliance going on and not only did we manage to stop that rezoning, we also educated the local city councilman on why his position was wrong and supporting the rezoning. And he eventually completely flipped this [00:49:00] position. And now chairs the land use committee of the city council from the perspective that we educated him on, which it's just been a very interesting dynamic. But, there's a lot of rezoning battles all over the city that's like the main front of anti gentrification struggles. And I've been watching those kinds of campaigns go on since I began organizing about 15, 16. I've seen very different approaches to them, but I've never seen any model really work until that one kicked in where Labor and the community came together. So that was one of my favorite campaigns because of that lesson that we were able to concretely put into practice and set as an example for not only for community movements all over New York City, but also for Labor. [00:49:43] Sandhya Jha: I think this hit me in particular because I've done so much work around antis displacement in Oakland, and my experience has been. [00:49:53] Sandhya Jha: That while for most of us on the ground, the connection between housing justice and labor justice is really clear. When you [00:50:00] start getting into the technical policy issues and the funding issues, the folks who are running labor and housing justice or affordable housing, struggle to find ways to collaborate. And it's been one of my consistent heartbreaks for at least a decade at this point because I work at the intersection of those things and sometimes I despair of us being able to find ways to move forward together. And so to hear a story like this one and to be reminded at core, those justice issues can and must be we already knew, must be, but actually can function together to build a better community. That was actually really life giving for me to hear.  [00:50:45] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. I a hundred percent agree. And I think the point that Tafadar as well brings in the clip of just saying we knew that we could do this, but we knew we couldn't do this without community organizing. Right? Yeah. That labor couldn't do this alone. Yeah. [00:51:00] And I think that is a lot of what, when we talk about solidarity politics, it's not just a backdoor way of inclusion for inclusion's sake, we have to all do this. Actually, it is integral that all of us are involved in any of these campaigns because it impacts all of us. And because we are not going to win with only a single constituency and in the very same way that, Tafadar was identifying that labor couldn't do that alone. in community organizing spaces that you and I have been in mm-hmm. , like we are constantly talking about how we cannot do any of this without labor. Yep. And I think a beautiful example of that is the Block the Boat campaign yeah that the Arab Resource Organizing Center, started back in 2014 and then again during 2021 to block the Zim ship from the port of Oakland. And like this community organization [00:52:00] AROC could not do that without working with the longshoreman to collaborate with the port workers. And I think that when we see the marriage of community organizing and labor organizing, that is when we get the power of grassroots organizing. [00:52:16] Sandhya Jha: Something I wanna mention about the SAADA Fellowship that I was really grateful for: two things. First off, they did a really good job of making sure we got trained in grassroots oral history. So they took really seriously what it meant for this to be justice work. And they made sure we had exposure to methodology that was gonna lift up and honor and foster the voices of people whose stories don't get heard often enough. And that was a really big deal to me. The other thing is they made sure that we had an advisory board, people who are in this [00:53:00] work who could help us, figure out who to talk with, who could help us build out an event strategy. And you helped me build out my advisory committee. Anibel Ferris-Comelo who is with the University of California Labor Center,  [00:53:14] Swati Rayasam: Prem Pariyar, a Nepali Dalit restaurant worker, organizer pushing for Caste as a protected category with Equality Labs, a Dalit feminist organization, and a social worker supporting the mental health needs of his and many other South Asian communities in Alameda county.  [00:53:31] Swati Rayasam: Will Jamil Wiltchko with the California Trade Justice Coalition, Terry Valen who I did a lot of organizing with at the beginning of the pandemic, around the struggles that seafarers were facing with the onset of COVID-19. And he's the organizational director of the Filipino Community Center in San Francisco. The president of NAFCON which is the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns and just an all in all amazing organizer [00:53:57] Sandhya Jha: the last thing I wanna mention [00:54:00] is SAADA also helped me set up a digital exhibit with Art by Madhvi Trivedi Patak and I wanted to give them a shoutout because they're an incredible artist, but also they grew up in a working class family and didn't get exposed to what it looks like to do labor justice. And so as they developed the artwork to go with the digital exhibit, they got to experience the possibilities of labor solidarity that they hadn't gotten to experience as a child. And so I really loved that Madhvi was a part of this project as well [00:54:38] Swati Rayasam: All of the clips that you shared really identifying, again, these like huge fundamental pillars of solidarity and spirit and struggle. these clips were amazing. They are so rich and so layered with all of these people's varying and different experiences. Really showing in [00:55:00] all of these different walks of life at all of these ages with all of these experiences, that all of these people have this unified and shared identity in struggle, in spirit, and in solidarity for liberation. [00:55:14] Sandhya Jha: And one of the things that I think is worth celebrating is whether they see it as part of their South Asian identity or not. People who do identify as South Asian now have this resource that says there's a home for you in the labor movement. Yes, there are. There is a value to your voice. There is a value to your wisdom, there's a value to your experience in the labor movement. [00:55:36] Swati Rayasam: I think it's a beautiful project. Sandhya, I think it has been an amazing amount of work I've watched you do over the past year. These stories are so wonderful. I really encourage people to check it out. Where can they find your project? [00:55:49] Sandhya Jha: The website's www.saada.org/acfp [00:56:00] /exhibit/solidarity-forever. We'll put that in the notes. We'll definitely put that in the show notes. [00:56:05] Swati Rayasam: I just wanna make sure that we replug your podcast Bending Toward Justice Avatar, The Last Air Bender for the Global Majority and you can find that at tinyurl.com slash ATLA podcast, Capital P (tinyurl.com/ATLAPodcast). And then the last thing that I also wanna make sure that we plug is Without Fear Consulting. [00:56:27] Sandhya Jha: I love working with folks who know that their organization could be a little more liberative, and are, just not quite sure where to start. I love working with a team of folks who want to be about the work of incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion into the DNA of their organization and I love setting them up so that they can keep doing that long after I'm working with them. So please do find me withoutfearconsulting.com. If you're interested in that.  [00:56:58] Swati Rayasam: Amazing. Sandhya [00:57:00] Jha, Pastor, Racial Justice consultant, podcast host, archivist, singer songwriter, amazing cook. You can do it all. I think you deserve a nap. it has been amazing talking to you. I am so glad to be able to hear about your project and also to hear a lot more about your life.  [00:57:23] Sandhya Jha: Yay. Thank you so much. [00:57:25]  Miko Lee: Please check out our website, kpfa.org backslash program, backslash apex express to find out more about the show tonight and to find out how you can take direct action. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating and sharing your visions with the world. Your voices are important. Apex express is produced by Miko Lee Jalena Keane-Lee and Paige Chung and special editing by Swati Rayasam. Thank you so much to the KPFA staff for their support have a great night.  The post APEX Express 1.5.23 South Asians and The Labor Justice Movement appeared first on KPFA.

The Heirs of Vijayanagara: Court Politics in Early Modern South India by Lennart Bes is a comparative study investigating court politics in four kingdoms that succeeded the south Indian Vijayanagara empire during the 16th to 18th centuries: Ikkeri, Tanjavur, Madurai, and Ramnad. Building on a combination of unexplored Indian texts and Dutch archival records, this research offers a new analysis of political culture, power relations, and dynastic developments. The monograph provides detailed facts and insights that contest existing scholarship. By highlighting their competitive, fluid, and dynamic nature, it undermines the historiography viewing these courts as harmonic, hierarchic, and static. Far from being remote, ritualised figures, we find kings and Brahmins contesting with other courtiers for power. At the same time, by stressing continuities with the past, this study questions recent scholarship that perceives a fundamentally new form of Nayaka kingship. Thus, this research has important repercussions for the way we perceive both these kingdoms and their ‘medieval' precursors. In this episode of BIC Talks author Anirudh Kanisetti speaks to Indologist and author Lennart Bes. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.  

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Both modern science and mysticism have permanently deflated the concept of linear time. Does this mean that time travel is possible and the technology is already available? How can the temporal law of paradoxes be overcome? Worry not, Kronos, for we had another heterodox minister visit the Virtual Alexandria. The brilliant Reverend Jonathan Barlow Gee returned to the show to share his mind-blowing and extensive research on time travel. The truth is that ancients like the Sumerians and Brahmins were already toying with time jumps. They might be standing by you next time you're in line at Starbucks.This is a partial show. For the second half of the interview, please become an AB Prime member: http://thegodabovegod.com/members/subscription-levels/  or patron at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aeonbyteGet the simple, effective, and affordable Red Circle Private RSS Feed for all full shows Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/aeon-byte-gnostic-radio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Is it frustration and anger at being caught that is making PFI cadres attack the residences of several RSS and BJP leaders in Tamil Nadu? What next? Target soft targets that house the elderly, made up mostly of TamBrahms? With the DMK refusing to condemn its own for its vitriolic statements at Brahmins, will the TN Police rise to the occasion? #PFI #PFIArrests #RSS #BJP #PFIRaids

Did Brahmins Really Monopolize Education in Ancient India? | Pankaj Saxena SrijanTalks

In this episode hear the six stanza Sanskrit praise of Vahiguru by Bhai Gurdas recited to the Brahmins of Kaanshi (Varanasi). This relates to Chapter 3 of Raas 7.

Host Shriya is joined by former vivisectionist, turned Anti-Caste, and Animal Rights activist Rama Ganesan. Rama comes from a South Indian background where hierarchy based on caste is prevalent. After reading Eating Animals by Jonathon Safran Foer, she decided that veganism resonated with her ethical beliefs on how one must show up in this world. Since then, Rama has been expanding her activism to reach communities less discussed in the mainstream Animal Rights movement—the South Asian diaspora inflicted by the oppressions of Casteism.While the normalcy of vegetarianism in India is celebrated in the Animal Rights communities, Rama urges activists to reconsider this narrative and recognize its hidden core that is rooted in inherent speciesism, commodification, and exploitation of humans and animals by societal elites.We talked about why it's imperative that the vegan movement incorporates an Anti-Caste stance, the humane myth that may underlie the word "ahimsa," and Rama's views on incorporating facets of different cultures that may not truly be rooted in collective compassion and respect for all beings.There is so much fascinating history in this chat and we hope this conversation offers nuanced insight into often overlooked perspectives on the relationship between consuming animals and one's status in society.Check out Rama's literary work here.Rama's Recommended Reads: Annihilation of Caste, Book Excerpt- Read what Ambedkar wrote on why Brahmins started worshipping the cow and gave up eating beef Follow and reach out to Rama on Instagram, Facebook------Upcoming AAM Events:Chicago Convergence: July 29 - Aug 7Ohio Occurrence: Sep 2 - Sep 4For more information on these events, our online workshops, and much more, visit our Linktree:linktr.ee/animalactivismmentorshipTo support our work: Patreon.com/AnimalActivismMentorshipFollow @AnimalActivismMentorship on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube to keep up with the podcast. Join the conversation in the AAM club on Clubhouse and the Animal Activism Mentorship Community Facebook group.Want to get active for the animals but don't know where to start? Sign up for a free mentor at AnimalActivismMentorship.comAAM is fueled by FARM (Farm Animal Rights Movement).Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast!

Be realistic —Give up your designs on life.It has its own plan.* * *In the last segment we addressed the first few questions that arose from the Zen community regarding the most recent mass shootings in the context of buddhadharma and daily life practice, concluding with the point that Zen Buddhism is not overly optimistic on these issues, but certainly not pessimistic, either, as generally regarded by the uninitiated, owing to its emphasis on confronting suffering rather than trying to avoid it. Zazen practice is thought to engender an attitude not of resignation or hopelessness, but a practical approach to problem-solving, beginning with the premise that some problems are not amenable to quick resolution. In fact, we may not see the end of this particular insanity in American life in our lifetimes. To continue where we left off:Someone asks: Thank you for your willingness to step forward and wade into these very painful events that occur, when so many spiritual and political leaders go silent, when a very massive loss of life occurs.I say: Well, you can't blame them. You're bound to be misunderstood and maybe vilified, no matter what tact you take in the context of these emotionally sensitive affairsYes. I am speaking to you out of an emotional place. This Uvalde, this shooting at this school, has triggered a lot of emotions. Sadness, tears, anger, frustration. Wanting to do something. Not wanting to just stand back while these things occur. Getting even more angry when I hear what our political leaders who are bold enough to step forward have to say about protecting my right to go publicly into the community with assault weapons and bags of ammunition, like somehow that‘s patriotic and the right thing to do. I have a sense to bolt. I live in a community that actually puts assault rifles on their campaign signs. It feels toxic, and there's actually a little bit of fear. To be fair, a lot of them are hard-working, good people. But I have this strong sense to bolt. But I don't know where to go. I don't particularly want to leave my state. But to find some kind of like-minded community, that would be required, I think, or maybe even leave my country. I am sharing these with you, and thank you for listening. I welcome your thoughts.Sure. Well, I would say, Welcome to the club. I think you're not alone. A lot of people have the same thoughts, escaping to Canada, and even fantasies of taking revenge. Why doesn't someone go shoot up the NRA convention, you know? Like — you guys seem to think this is a good idea — well, here it is.But you can understand the arguments on both sides, to some degree. Thich Nhat Hanh did a lot of work on world peace, and of course he came from Vietnam, where they saw massive atrocities that would probably make these look like child's play, no pun intended. But he said in order to work for world peace, you must be world peace. You cannot take a side. And that's hard. That's hard to do. It's really hard not to take a side, when some things seem so glaringly obvious, obviously wrong-headed.Even logical comparisons fall short in the face of the stubbornness of fixed opinions. One that stands out starkly for me as just being a neutral fact, is that every other country that has brought access to weapons under control does not have this problem. And they do have all the other problems that this is blamed on, such as mental health issues. So that's a glaring discrepancy to my way of thinking, but one that assumes that politics — unlike anything else in our culture — works on logic. And it is very clear that politics is probably one of the most emotional professions, or categories of activities, that we have in modern culture. Probably always was.Buckminster Fuller, as you may know, was an indirect mentor to me. I met him a couple of times. I never was his student, but he was an influencer of my generation of design professionals. He called his design approach “anticipatory comprehensive design science.” He tried to anticipate problems before they happened. This is how he taught his students. Come up with solutions. Do the definition, do the analysis, the prognosis and so forth, and come up with solutions so they are sitting there, ready to go, when the rest of society recognizes: This is a problem. So that's a big, heavy lift, to do that well. His geodesic domes were examples of that, along with a lot of other things that he did in his lifetime.He was a philosopher as well, and wrote about a lot of subjects, including politics. He said it all began with Malthus and Darwin. Malthus did a world resource inventory, and concluded there's not enough to go around, basically. Darwin developed his origin of species, which was then misinterpreted to mean survival of the fittest — meaning whoever is strongest, basically — and so the politicians said, Keep me in power, I'll make sure we get ours. And to hell with the rest of the world. I said that. That was the robber barons period. Might makes right.His other comment on politicians was something like, We turn to politicians for solutions to our problems. But if they had any solutions they wouldn't be politicians. Politicians' job number one is status quo — maintaining the status quo for themselves, for their constituents, for their sponsors. So that's the beginning of the corruption, right there.When we look at Buddha's example, he did not become a politician. He had the opportunity. He was warrior class and was slated to be chief of the Shakya clan, which is close to a political position. But he would be reporting to the Brahmins, who were the number one caste; the warrior caste was number two. So you could say that Buddha was basically a draft-dodger. He didn't want to do that. And he was highly placed and wealthy enough that he had the option to pull out of the usual social program assigned to people in his position.So we want to have a realistic view of what Buddhism is about, and how it probably started, as well. Buddha apparently did not go against the political structure of the time, the caste system, head-to-head. One of our members, a Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist, recently published a book titled “Caste,” in which she posits that actually, we live in a caste system, but we don't call it that. She considers race to be just one of many aspects or dimensions of the total caste system in this society. Read the book.What Buddha did — at least if the story has historicity — was to set up an alternative way of living. Like many of the communes in the 1960s into the 1970s tried to do here. I knew a lot of people who tried that. They were based on a lot of faulty premises, I think, which is why and how many or most of them failed. I think the difference is that Buddha's community was based on meditation. It was also based on the ideas of impermanence and imperfection, and so forth, Buddha's model of reality. But essentially it was based on the communal practice of meditation. That's the glue that held it together, in my opinion.I think we are doing something similar. We're a bit like a Tupperware marketing approach going underground, into peoples' houses, not going into the stores. We are trying to bring this practice into this culture as kind of an almost subversive activity. We are training people, if what I feel is true, we train people to think truly independently and find true freedom; and be able to act interdependently. It's the most subversive political thing you can do. Because every political system depends upon people thinking dependently, and acting co-dependently. The real revolution starts at home, with each individual. Every top-down solution we have ever seen has not worked. Just after the revolution, guess who owned the dachas at the lake? The Bolsheviks. Same system, different players. Shuffle the deck, that's all it is.If you become truly independent, and are willing to act interdependently, then by the ripple effect, we will build a better society. We are fortunate to be in a democracy where we can do this without being persecuted. So far.Someone asks: I'm hearing a lot of discussion about how to practice compassion and not let events like this just utterly annihilate you. You are called to witness suffering, to hear the cries of sentient beings and not turn away. We can't take a pass, we can't ignore the causes of suffering. We should avow our complicity in the structures here. I keep thinking about just how related we are as a species. Human beings do not have much genetic variation compared to other types of animals. We are all very similar. You are not more than fifteen, sixteen cousins away from most people on the planet. Just by the nature of life, you're fourteenth-million cousin of your cat, or something, you know what I mean?I say: And in terms of proximate causes, you're only one airplane ride away from anybody else on the planet. Many exacerbating conditions such as this have never existed before in society.Someone asks: That's what I think when I think about starting here with human nature, and not getting into the fear that is obviously the goal of these fascist strikes on the heart of open society. It is not hard to see what's really happening here. There is this act of terrorism, there is this radiating atmosphere of menace. It is intended to intimidate us. And Zen training is supposed to give us some impulse toughness, in order to persevere against that. And you're right, that can be freedom.I say: A historical claim of Zen has always been that it is a way of facing life, but it is also a way of facing death. That is why it has had such a tight relationship to the martial arts and the military throughout China and Japan. If you look at the consistent factor of Zen transitioning from India through China to Vietnam, Korea, Japan and the Far East, it's like this — I hate to use a cliché like “beacon of light” — it's just this constant thing that is moving through all this insanity. If you think that what we are facing is bad, try going back to China or Japan during their warring periods. Or Vietnam for that matter. The so-called history of humankind is “written in blood,” you know. And yet, Zen somehow survived.So I think it's pretty strong. I think you can't go too far wrong, by emphasizing Zen as kind of the core of what you do. The center to which you return and reconsider, maybe, you know, Well I blew that one. Like the other day I tried to hold our monthly ZENtalk open-ended discussion via Zoom. I thought I had it all set up, but I couldn't even find the way to get the meeting to start. Zoom Zen. Zen Zoom.One of the connections between Design and Zen is that we experiment. We take a risk, we take a chance, and we fail, again and again. As Dogen said, “Fall down seven times, get up eight.” Another expression he used was, “The bullseye depends on the hundred misses.” So in Zen, we are not afraid to take action. In Design, we try to define the problem thoroughly before taking action, just as a hedge on your bet, you know. So that you are not only going on gut level intuition with your own confirmation bias and all that kind of stuff. We mitigate the risk to the extent feasible, but without analysis paralysis. Design has historically been primarily a group process. Great inventions have come up in groups, not brilliant individuals in their ivory towers, as commonly thought. I think the same thing is true in Zen. Dogen, Bodhidharma, Buddha — they were all surrounded by groups of people who were all working together in a collaborative way to pull this off, make this Zen thing happen. It wasn't a Lone Ranger, individual genius kind of proposition.And I think that's what we need to do now. We need to bind together as much as we can, and take collaborative action to do our best to create an alternative to this insanity that we see. Doesn't have to be on a big scale. We don't have to go up against “them.” Of course, some of our people are supporting politicians. It's okay to get involved in the politics. I don't see any reason not to. But don't get your hopes up that that's going to provide the final solution, that political action is going to make it all different. Human nature is a stubborn thing. Especially when facts are no longer that stubborn.To be continued.* * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Kyōsaku Jon Mitchell

Devasahayam Pillai's new life became a cause of serious concern among high caste Hindus. They accused him of betrayal, and of insulting Brahmins and the royal throne.

4.181 How a mendicant is like a warrior. 4.182 There are some things no-one can guarantee. 4.183 What we say should never go beyond what we know; but it must also be meanungful. 4.184 Not everyone is afraid to die. 4.185 The Buddha redefines the truths of the brahmins. 4.186 A monk asks a series of questions, which are praised by the Buddha. 4.187 The Buddha explains to Vassakāra how only a good person can judge others. Meanwhile, the followers of Todeyya complain about the King. 4.188 If you criticize someone, you should have a good reason. 4.189 Different things are realized in different ways. 4.190 On the Uposatha night, the Buddha praises monks of great spiritual attainments in the Saṅgha.

On this episode of the Brown Pundits Browncast I had a long conversation with  Nikunj Trivedi and Pushpita Prasad of the Coalition of Hindus of North America. One of the things we talked extensively about during this podcast is the Carnegie Endowment study Social Realities of Indian Americans: Results From the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey. The survey is rich with data that might surprise (for example, there are as many Bengali speakers as Punjabi speakers in the US, though I suspect this might be due to many ethnic Punjabis putting Hindi down as their mother tongue). But for the purposes of this episode, we were interested in caste identity, and how it relates to Hindus in America. The Carnegie takes a shot at the 2018 Equality Labs survey that argues for the pervasiveness of caste discrimination: A 2018 survey of 1,500 South Asian Americans found that many low-caste members of numerous diaspora communities had endured firsthand experience of caste discrimination. However, the study is not based on a representative sample, raising questions about the generalizability of its findings. The figure above shows that most Hindu Indian Americans do not live in a caste-homogeneous environment. There are reasons for this. From the text: Forty-seven percent of Hindu respondents report identifying with a caste, which means the majority (53 percent) said that they do not personally identify with a caste group of any kind. However, there is marked variation by place of birth. Whereas 53 percent of foreign-born Hindu Indian Americans affiliate with a caste group, 34 percent of U.S.-born Hindu Indian Americans do the same. ... ...Overall, there are 632 respondents in the IAAS sample who belong to the Hindu faith but only 293 who report identifying with a caste group. Of this latter group, the overwhelming majority—83 percent—categorize themselves as General or upper caste. Sixteen percent identify as a member of OBC and 1 percent each identify as Adivasi/Scheduled Tribe (ST) or Dalit/Scheduled Caste (SC). The latter number, that about 80 percent of Hindu Indian Americans are not OBC, Dalit or Adivasi is exactly what I've seen in other data. But perhaps a more important aspect is that large numbers of Hindus in America don't "affiliate" with a caste group. Some of the American-born individuals may not actually even know their caste group, though the foreign-born ones clearly know their origins as noted in the text: Figure 21 looks more closely at the caste composition of social networks among Hindus. Seventy-four percent of Hindu respondents who report not identifying with a caste nevertheless know enough to be able to identify the caste identities of their social networks. Only 26 percent of Hindus who do not identify with a caste respond to questions about the caste composition of their social networks by answering “don't know.” This indicates that even though a large proportion of Hindu respondents say they do not identify with a caste, only a small fraction are unaware of the caste composition of their networks. What is also striking is how relatively small the differences are between respondents who identify with a caste versus those who do not. While the former report that a slightly higher share of their social network comprises people of the same caste, if one sets aside the “don't know” responses, the relative differences between caste identifiers and non-identifiers is marginal. For instance, 27 percent of Hindu respondents who identify with a caste report that all or most of their Indian friends share their caste affiliation. Nineteen percent of those who do not identify with a caste group answer similarly. Respondents who acknowledge a caste identity are only slightly more likely to report that some of their social network is made up of people of the same caste (41 percent versus 33 percent for those without a caste identity). So here is the subtle point: people who do not identify with a caste group nevertheless can often assess whether their social circle is mostly of their caste group or not. The dynamic here is that people are proactively disavowing or denying caste identity personally, but they clearly still know the provenance of their own lineage and that of their friends.  The landscape of caste and America is complex. Nevertheless, today's social justice activists are trying to reframe it as just another black-white dichotomy, with oppressed Dalits, etc., against oppressive Brahmins. Finally, we discuss the casual and not-so-casual anti-Hindu comments that are spreading across mainstream discourse. For example, an organization at UC Davis called the Other Collective has said some really bizarre things about Diwali:

Manikanta Pallikonda is a scholar from the University of Hyderabad. He is one of the strong anti-caste student voices from Hyderabad. His critical look at present-day politics sheds light on the impending dangers of Hindutva politics. In this podcast, he talks about the oppressive symbols, what they can forge into the imagination of people, his ideas on the notion of unity in diversity, the difference between soft Hindutva and hard Hindutva, and much more. If you like the podcast, please don't forget to support it. You can contribute to this podcast at www.buymeacoffee.com/billiontwenty