Essays

I find everywhere the sanskrit word paap (pāpa) routinely translated as sin. I’m not happy about this because the word sin, especially for westerners, carries baggage of the Abrahamic tradition. Unlike Abrahamic sin, paap is not at all an absolute, not-contextual punishable something. Nor a transgression of some God-decreed law of acceptable behaviour. In the […]

Premise: God is perfect and therefore everything that comes from God is perfect. Us and this world included. How so? Especially if you regard this world as primarily a place of suffering. I propose that at least part of the perfection of this place is that here, where it serves us* to whole-heartedly believe something […]

Proposal: Suffering, for example separation from a loved one, is the stage setting for a beautiful future experience, i.e. reunion. Suffering is not the Grand Finale (GF). Not unless you enjoy suffering. The biggest problem with this idea is that it requires a huge leap of faith, especially where that pain of separation is caused […]

According to Wikipedia In Abrahamic religions, forbidden fruit is a name given to the fruit growing in the Garden of Eden that God commands mankind not to eat. In the Biblical story of Genesis, Adam and Eve disobey God and commit the original sin, eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of […]

If one sees that everyone is pursuing fascination with some aspect/facet or another of God, albeit sometimes via a mind and senses flavoured with denial of God’s very existence, then it becomes possible to not only be genuinely non-judgemental but able to celebrate the life of everyone as both worthy and perfect regardless of their […]

I believe, far from being a flaw, our inherent by-design tendency to accept maya’s illusions as reality serves positive divine-worthy purpose. I propose it enables areas of experiential expression and exploration of divinity (i.e. God, God’s energies, and ourselves included) otherwise out of reach to an all-cognisant being. Thus making an important contribution to an […]

I propose that as a divine being your goal of life is to explore and express divinity in whatever way you choose. In so doing you automatically, by dint of your simultaneous oneness and difference with/from God, perfectly serve both the reason for your very existence and the greater purpose of God. The question for […]

The popular understanding of karma, especially if one wants to think in terms of good karma and bad karma outcome absolutes, to me requires an established/predefined something to measure action and thought against … for example pre-determined moral codes, laws of acceptable behaviour, and logically therefore also ultimately a prescription of the goal of life […]

The word sin normally refers to transgression of absolute (non-contextual) laws of acceptable behaviour decreed by God. A sinner is defined as one to transgresses such laws in much the same way that a criminal is one who transgresses the law of the land. But in my opinion sin is not an actual thing … […]

A confession … or at least an explanation for my Hare Krishna friends who wonder why that previously humble/submissive Divyasimha das now sometimes refuses to bow to authority of guru, sadhu and sastra. Well, it all comes down to first principles. According to Wikipedia … In philosophy and science, a first principle is a basic […]