Prabhupāda’s Commentary on Rape In the purport to Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.25.41, Prabhupāda makes the following remarks about rape that have led to much controversy: In this regard, the word vikhyātam is very significant. A man is always famous for his aggression toward a beautiful woman, and such aggression is sometimes considered rape. Although rape is …
How Bhāgavata Purāṇa Changes Science
The Process of Creation in Bhāgavata Purāṇa The Three Stages of Material Creation The 3rd Canto of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa describes a process of creation that is almost never discussed and hence it can be said that it is almost never understood. In this post, I will describe this process and then discuss one aspect …
The Invention of Mythology and How to Escape It
Two Distinct Flavors of Mythology Analytic vs. Synthetic Mythologies Mythology means the science of lies. It can have two further flavors—Analytic and Synthetic. Analytic mythology is the scientific study of how rational arguments are used to justify lies. Since most people like rationality, they can be made to think that because it seems rational therefore …
Is Spiritual Practice Standardization of Humanity?
The Basic Problem of Universalism Vedic Texts vs. an AI Chatbot Someone recently asked me a question about AI. The specific request was to convert Vedic knowledge into an AI chatbot so that people could easily ask it questions. As and when a question would arise, they would enter the question into the chatbot and …
Good and Bad Measures of Economic Progress
What is measured is improved. Economic progress is currently measured using GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and PPP (Purchasing Power Parity). In this article, we will discuss how the methods of growing GDP and PPP simply grow the debt. We will then describe three alternative measures that grow the economy without growing the debt.
On Children’s Education
The Nature of Industrialized Society The Problem of Industrialization Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, every new generation in industrial society has, on average, enjoyed more comfort than the previous one. As people get more comfort, they begin to believe that a comfortable life is just a normal thing. They feel entitled to comforts …
When God Spreads Delusion
The Fear of Missing Out on Religion There is a new internet slang called FOMO. It means fear of missing out. It arises because of jealousy. We see someone else doing something and we fear that they will get something good that we will not. That jealousy makes us want the other thing too. But …
On Women’s Intelligence
Treacherous Translations We can ask anyone walking the street what intelligence is, and he will probably equate it to the result of an IQ test measured in various college undergraduate and postgraduate aptitude test examinations. Women do well in these tests. In fact, most women do better than men in examinations and in school or …
Western vs. Vedic Elitism
There is general opposition to all kinds of elitism at present. This is due to the exclusivist nature of Western elitism. The bad attributes of Western elitism are applied even to Vedic elitism when it is inclusivist. In this short post, I will briefly discuss the nature of two different elitist societies.
The Modern Consciousness Studies Misnomer
Consciousness vs. Content Distinction One of the hardest problems in the scientific study of consciousness is to distinguish consciousness from its contents. In the simplest sense, consciousness is the knower, and content is the known. However, in an experience, we cannot distinguish the knower from the known because the two are combined. Hence, when philosophers …
The Great Deluge
Nearly all great civilizations have a flood story. It is almost always the precursor to a new age or a new civilization. Nearly all big civilizations talk about their advent after a flood. Some of these are stories about floods in rivers. Their cataclysmic effects are not anywhere close to those of global floods. There …
Three Responses to Advaita Impersonalism
There are numerous and widespread misconceptions about Advaita Vedānta at present. Most people in the West dismiss it as Solipsism or Idealism in which the external world doesn’t exist when Advaita clearly states that the world does exist as a myth, a false story, a sort of TV imagery, or a fantasy movie. They neither …