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वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सूर्यकोटिसमप्रभ।
निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव सर्वकार्येषु सर्वदा॥

O Lord (Ganesha), with your curled trunk, your big belly, and your splendor equalling an infinite number of suns, may you remove the hurdles that arise in any task that I undertake at any time.

सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यं वरदे कामरूपिणि।
विद्यारंभं करिष्यामि सिद्धिर्भवतु मे सदा॥

O Saraswati, granter of wishes, with desire as your very form, my prostrations unto you. I am about to begin a task of knowledge; may I achieve success always.

अज्ञानतिमिरान्धस्य ज्ञानाञ्जनशलाकया।
चक्षुरुन्मीलितं येन तस्मै श्रीगुरवे नमः॥

Prostrations to that Guru who is responsible for opening my eyes from the impenetrable blindness of ignorance by using the liberating eye-ointment of Knowledge.

Having been inspired to add an intelligent and informed Hindu voice, or indeed a Hindu voice at all, to the milieu of voices addressing the larger questions of today, including contemporary social, political, religious, and philosophical issues, we begin this blog.

What does this blog seek to achieve? In the ancient days, great Hindu leaders who uncovered and taught new interpretations of their scriptures were aware of their own ephemerality as teachers and as psychophysical beings. They knew that they, as individuals, were just one point on the infinite timeline of existence, and that just as their ideas had superseded older views held to be the established norm, so too would the new ideas of future teachers, appropriate to the times, supersede their own.

This blog serves as a space to introduce and churn new ideas and revisit, ruminate on, interpret, and update old ideas within Hinduism for the 21st Century. It also serves as a space to address contemporary issues from the Hindu perspective.

The lack of knowledgeable and discerning Hindu voices in the field of worldly affairs is concerning. It is a side effect of an observable trend among Hindus to be pushed to one of two antipodes on the scale of political expression. On the one hand, we turn towards the spiritual and wholly deemphasize the political, the social, the psychological, and the corporeal. On the other hand, we turn to a physically dominating, “culture”-asserting, spiritually bereft politics. But must we fall into the trap of either dwarfing human value in the face of the grandiosity of our cosmic teachings or asserting ourselves with angry, fearful propaganda devoid of spiritual foundations? Must we succumb to the idea that we are inferior or unworthy simply because we are either not immediately pursuing Self realization or unthinkingly fighting our perceived victimization?

This great chasm between severely depoliticized spirituality and spiritually hollow political bullying seems to have left no room for engaging with political issues through an authentically Hindu lens. But does that mean there is no room for societal considerations in our scriptural teachings, or scriptural influence in our social theory? There is. The framework is there, the teachings are there, but our understanding of them appears to be lacking. This blog is to reemphasize the humanity in our world from the Hindu perspective. Here we ask the question that will guide our investigation:

What would ethical Hindu engagement in the world look like?