Republished from my article in the New Indian Express on Sunday 20th October 2020 When Rishi Markandeya sat up in the valleys of Yamunotri composing the Puranas named after him, little did he realize that his epic representation of Chandi or Ma Durga would thousands of years later become one…

Imagine a gathering of hundreds of the world’s leading minds in consciousness research today and then discovering that only two were there representing India’s ancient wisdom traditions. …

I really am tired of the evangelical zeal with which Mindfulness, Meditation, and Yoga are now bandied around as the panacea for all ills in ourselves and society. In my experience real changes only occur when we turn inwards, focus on our intention, visualize it and surrender our desires to…

Watching Kamala Harris’ dramatic rise in the first Democratic Party debate left Indians all over the world nodding knowingly as to how this very ancient Indian name became synonymous with justice, anti-corruption, race balancing, and gender leadership in America. To them, Kamala represents two main aspects of their consciousness. First…

How Tantra and Kundalini can empower Gender Equality and Planetary Balance Do the ancient teachings of Tantra, Shaivism and Shaktism have a message for us in this age of hashtags like #metoo and #timesup? Can they play a role in the growing consciousness of gender activism and awakened living? …

In 1870’s India, a mostly forgotten Calcutta philosopher and a leading member of the Brahmo Samaj at the time, Keshub Chandra Sen, formed his own movement called “The New Dispensation” which, unusually formed an alliance with the Unitarian Church of America that had evolved out of the Transcendentalist Movement. In…

In a talk I gave in 2015, I explored the origins of Vedic and Zoroastrian religious thinking in the Soma/Haoma Schools in the Indus Saraswati Valley, Egypt, Turkmenistan and Turkey as well as the use of Psychedelic Plant Wisdom across ancient India and all over the World. As Marijuana gets legalized in many countries and new scientific research into Psilocybin and Ayahuasca/DMT at Imperial College and elsewhere shows amazing results for depression, addiction, and well-being, I think it is time once again for us to explore our relationship with plants and with the Earth especially as we have become so disconnected from nature and will continue to do so as 50% of humanity moves into cities in the coming years.

You fear death, we give you the afterlife and reincarnation and heaven. You fear life, we give you angels and light beings and prayer and meditation. You fear the future, we give you oracles and patterns to read. You fear pain and suffering, we blame it on your own choices…

At 6:45 am on 21st June 2015, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi sat on the dais at New Delhi’s Rajpath and brought about a cultural revolution. Singlehandedly, he was able to achieve a global diplomatic coup that would become the envy of China and Pakistan. 35,000 people at Rajpath and…