This has nothing to do with the main topics I write about in this blog but I can’t resist writing about our test series victory in Australia. The reasons why this victory is special are threefold: firstly, it was an overseas win; next it was against a full-strength Australian team which is one of the […]
Author Archives: nikhilmg
The Self Immolation of Thich Quang Duc
I had written an article last in April last year on why there is suffering in this world. Here is a link to that article Responding to that my niece sent me a WA message. Here is the message and my response to it My Niece: I would argue that suffering is a human construct. […]
Our Duty in Life
It is not my job to tell you what your duty in life is. As Emerson says in his essay on Self Reliance there are always people who think they know what your duty is better than you know it yourself. I do not wish to add myself to that number. I am assuming you […]
Why I believe in Traditional Religion
When I was young I did not believe in traditional religions or God. I was a fan of Bertrand Russell and thought myself to be an agnostic. That is, I was of the view that the existence of God cannot be proved one way or the other and it was best to keep an open […]
More thoughts on my Meditation Practice
This article is a continuation of my previous blog post. Link to that is below Quoting from the article above there is a key passage: Be without preferences or judgments as regards the arisings of the mind. The path is the goal. Respond with equanimity and empathy to the arisings of the mind. Now I […]
An Eye for an Eye and Mahatma Gandhi
It is written in the Bible – An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth. I hesitated for some time before writing this article as I am going to criticize the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi. But I told myself that Gandhi had given this country its freedom. God has given […]
Some Thoughts on my Meditation Practice
I have decided that for the time being I will not overthink the articles in my blog and will write about my day to day thoughts and challenges. So these are my thoughts for today as regards my meditation practice. I had earlier put up a post with a lot of points that I expected […]
Another Hodgepodge of Thoughts
I am sitting in front of the computer screen not knowing what I should write. Normally I have a good idea about what I want to say but today being a bit busy I have not been able to organise my thoughts to write a coherent blog post. But I need to maintain my goal […]
More on Envy
Why is there so much envy in India? According to Gurcharan Das, the well known author, the cause of envy in India is socialism. According to him in his book, The Difficulty of Being Good, If greed is the sin of capitalism then envy is the vice of socialism. When I was young Indira Gandhi […]
Guarding against Envy
I want in this article to summarize a few points that Francis Bacon makes in his essay on Envy. There is a link to the full essay at the end of this article. Please read the original essay. It is heavy going but it is less than 5 pages and Francis Bacon understood human nature. […]