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Why Must Philosophy Have a Passport?

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Sometimes I feel that the philosophies we have in India are incredibly deep. And before someone throws Aristotle’s Metaphysics at my head, let me clarify, I am not saying Plato and Aristotle are useless. They are important......extremely important. They have shaped philosophy for centuries and ignoring them would be foolish. But sometimes, honestly, I sit with some of their metaphysical systems and think: Why does this feel so far away from me? Maybe the problem is not Plato. Maybe the problem is not Aristotle. Maybe the problem is that we sometimes study philosophy as if it were a museum. “Please do not touch the philosopher. He is from 384 BCE.” We carefully preserve the concepts, memorise the definitions, write examinations about substance, form, matter, actuality, potency, universals, and particulars, and then go back to our rooms wondering why our own lives still make absolutely no sense. Somewhere inside me, a question keeps growing: Is philosophy supposed to remain abstract, o...
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Highest Wisdom? Not a piece of Chicken

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What Happens When Consciousness Meets Shakti? Recently, I visited the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, and honestly, it was an experience. Not the kind of experience where you come back, post three aesthetic pictures, write “Peace” under them, and then immediately start fighting with someone in the WhatsApp group. No. Something about the place stayed with me. There are also other things—some painful, some disturbing, and some deeply hurtful—that I am going to put forward in this blog. But I think they are necessary. Sometimes a thought hurts because it touches something we have been successfully avoiding for a very long time. One of the ideas that remained with me was this: consciousness and Shakti have to come together so that there is life. And that is where my journey into Sri Aurobindo began. Sri Aurobindo was not just another philosopher sitting somewhere and writing complicated sentences so that philosophy students like me could spend the next hundred years trying to unders...
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Is It Wrong to Be Radical, or Is This Something Else?

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                      Sometimes I genuinely don't know what is happening to me. And the question that keeps coming back is: Is it wrong to be radical, or is this something else altogether? I don't even know what I wanted to become anymore. I only know what I am today—and the strange part is that I never wanted to be what I am today. There is something deeply uncomfortable about that sentence. When you are younger, you imagine yourself becoming someone. You have some vague picture of the person you will eventually become. And then life happens. People happen. Experiences happen. Responsibilities happen. Systems happen. And suddenly you look at yourself and think, "Bhai, when did all this happen?" Sometimes I think too much. And sometimes I genuinely wonder whether something is happening to me......something like what happened to Spider-Man. Maybe there has been some mutation. Maybe one morning I will wake up and discover that I can ...
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Are We Really Free?

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Or Have We Just Become Very Good at Calling Our Chains "Choices"? There are some questions in life that simply refuse to leave you alone. You try distracting yourself. You watch a movie. You scroll through Instagram. You eat biryani. You even convince yourself, "Bas yaar, enough philosophy for today." And then, when you least expect it, the question quietly comes back, sits beside you, and smiles. "Are you really free?" I don't know why this question troubles me so much. Maybe because of certain things that have happened in my own life. Maybe because every choice I have made has given me something beautiful while taking away something equally precious. People often say, "Follow your heart." Nobody tells you that the heart also comes with terms and conditions. The moment you choose one road, a hundred others disappear forever. Then life has the audacity to ask, "Happy?" Happy? Brother, I am still reading the user manual. So what does...
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मेरा अंतःकरण कहाँ है?

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  कभी-कभी मैं सोचता हूँ कि क्या इतिहास केवल उन्हीं लोगों को याद रखता है जो जीत गए, या फिर वह चुपचाप उन लोगों को भी याद रखता है जिन्होंने तब खड़े होने का साहस दिखाया, जब बाकी सब मौन थे। पिछले कुछ दिनों से एक प्रश्न मेरे हृदय का पीछा नहीं छोड़ रहा है— हम कहाँ हैं? एक ईसाई के रूप में नहीं। एक जेसुइट के रूप में नहीं। किसी धर्म विशेष के सदस्य के रूप में भी नहीं। बल्कि एक मनुष्य के रूप में। जहाँ भी मेरी नज़र जाती है, मैं लोगों को अपने-अपने बोझ उठाते हुए देखता हूँ। कोई शोक में है, कोई भूखा है, कोई अपने भविष्य को लेकर भयभीत है, और कोई ऐसा है जिसकी आवाज़ कोई सुनना ही नहीं चाहता। चाहे वह हिन्दू हो, मुसलमान हो, सिख हो, ईसाई हो, बौद्ध हो या किसी भी धर्म से न जुड़ा हो—उसका दुःख सबसे पहले मानवीय है, उसके बाद वह किसी पहचान का हिस्सा बनता है। और मैं स्वयं से बार-बार पूछता हूँ— ऐसे समय में मेरा विश्वास मुझसे क्या अपेक्षा करता है? डॉ. भीमराव रामजी आंबेडकर ने हमें याद दिलाया था कि अधिकार तभी तक सुरक्षित रहते हैं, जब तक लोग न्याय की रक्षा करने का साहस रखते हैं। उन्होंने केवल नारे नहीं दिए, बल्कि एक ...
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माझे अंतःकरण कुठे आहे?

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  कधी कधी मला प्रश्न पडतो—इतिहास फक्त जिंकणाऱ्यांनाच लक्षात ठेवतो का? की तो शांतपणे त्यांनाही स्मरतो ज्यांनी सर्वजण गप्प बसले असताना उभे राहण्याचे धैर्य दाखवले? गेल्या काही दिवसांपासून एक प्रश्न माझ्या मनाचा पिच्छा पुरवत आहे— आपण कुठे आहोत? ख्रिस्ती म्हणून नाही. जेसुइट म्हणून नाही. कोणत्याही एका धर्माचे सदस्य म्हणून नाही. तर माणूस म्हणून. जिकडे पाहतो तिकडे लोक आपापली ओझी वाहताना दिसतात. कोणी दुःखात आहे, कोणी उपाशी आहे, कोणी आपल्या भविष्याबद्दल चिंतेत आहे, तर कोणी स्वतःचा आवाज ऐकला जात नाही असे अनुभवत आहे. ते हिंदू असोत, मुस्लिम, शीख, ख्रिस्ती, बौद्ध किंवा कोणत्याही धर्माचे नसोत—त्यांचे दुःख आधी मानवी आहे, नंतर धार्मिक. आणि मी स्वतःलाच पुन्हा पुन्हा विचारतो— अशा वेळी माझा विश्वास माझ्याकडून काय अपेक्षा करतो? डॉ. बाबासाहेब आंबेडकरांनी सांगितले होते की न्याय टिकवण्यासाठी धैर्य आवश्यक असते. त्यांनी दिलेला मंत्र— "शिका, संघटित व्हा आणि संघर्ष करा" —हा केवळ घोषवाक्य नव्हता; तो मानवी प्रतिष्ठा आणि समानतेची जबाबदारी होता. त्यांचे शब्द आजही प्रत्येक पिढीला प्रश्न विचारतात. काही दिवसा...
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