The lived religion — festivals, utsavas, ritual cycles, temple-going, Navadurga, and the practice of civilizational reconnection through tradition.
Connected Knowledge - 24
svayambodha
Ahoi Aṣtamī – How Hindu Dharma Teaches Deep Ecology through FestivalsA festival most Hindus have forgotten exists - Ahoi Aṣṭamī as a window into how Hindu civilization transmits ecological and relational wisdom through the devotional practice of mothers, one week before Diwali.
Pankaj Saxena
svayambodha
Brahmacāriṇī | Navadurgā - Part 2Second in the Navadurgā series - the theology and iconography of Brahmacāriṇī Devī - the form of Durgā who represents austerity, renunciation, and the discipline through which the soul approaches the absolute.
Padmavathy Manavazhahan
svayambodha
Candraghaṇṭā | Navadurgā - Part 3Third in the Navadurgā series - the theology and iconography of Candraghaṇṭā Devī - the warrior form whose crescent-bell emblem signals the transition from inner austerity to active, world-facing śakti.
Padmavathy Manavazhahan
svayambodha
Chaṭh - a Living Tradition and Cultural HomecomingChaṭh as lived civilizational memory - a personal account of returning to Bihar for the festival, and what the survival of this demanding, water-centered rite reveals about the deep roots of Hindu devotional practice in the body and the land.
Akshay Jha
svayambodha
Kālarātri | Navadurgā - Part 7Seventh in the Navadurgā series - the theology and iconography of Kālarātri Devī - the most fearsome form, destroyer of darkness and ignorance, whose terrifying appearance conceals absolute protection for the devotee.
Padmavathy Manavazhahan
svayambodha
Kātyāyanī | Navadurgā - Part 6Sixth in the Navadurgā series - the theology and iconography of Kātyāyanī Devī - the fierce warrior form born to destroy the demon Mahiṣāsura, and the deity invoked for strength in the face of civilizational threat.
Padmavathy Manavazhahan
svayambodha
Kṣetra, Śāstra, UtsavaOn the axis connecting festival (utsava), sacred geography (kṣetra), and scripture (śāstra) - how Hindu festivals are to time what temples are to space - gradients of divine access that structure both the year and the land.
Pankaj Saxena
svayambodha
Kūṣmāṇḍā | Navadurgā - Part 4Fourth in the Navadurgā series - the theology and iconography of Kūṣmāṇḍā Devī - the form who created the universe with her smile, and who is propitiated for health, vitality, and the removal of darkness.
Padmavathy Manavazhahan
svayambodha
Mahāgaurī | Navadurgā - Part 8Eighth in the Navadurgā series - the theology and iconography of Mahāgaurī Devī - the luminous, peaceful form that follows Kālarātri, representing the purity and grace that emerge after the destruction of all that is false.
Padmavathy Manavazhahan
svayambodha
My Journey with AnveshiThe origin story of Anveshi, Bodha's structured temple-visit practice - how collective temple-going became a form of civilizational reconnection - and what it reveals about how living tradition actually perpetuates itself.
Pankaj Saxena
civilizational-consciousness
Rāma’s Journey – the Avatāra in You, a Fractal Maṇḍala EssayRāma's exile and return as inner journey - reading the Rāmāyaṇa as a map of the soul's trajectory - and why Dīpāvalī marks a cosmological reorientation of consciousness.
Amritanshu Pandey
svayambodha
Recollection: The Glory of Śrī Kṛṣṇa JanmāṣṭamīA pilgrimage to Mathurā, the city of Kṛṣṇa's birth - how a journey through the geography of the Kṛṣṇa legend becomes a direct encounter with the living presence of the divine in place, available to anyone who knows how to look.
Pankaj Saxena
svayambodha
Śailaputrī | Navadurgā - Part 1Opening the Navadurgā series - an introduction to the Navarātrī tradition followed by the theology and iconography of Śailaputrī Devī - daughter of the mountain, first of the nine forms, embodiment of primal śakti.
Padmavathy Manavazhahan
svayambodha
Siddhidātrī | Navadurgā - Part 9Ninth and final in the Navadurgā series - the theology and iconography of Siddhidātrī Devī - the granter of all siddhis, the form who completes the Navarātrī cycle and whose worship is the culmination of the entire nine-day journey.
Padmavathy Manavazhahan
svayambodha
Skandamātā | Navadurgā - Part 5Fifth in the Navadurgā series - the theology and iconography of Skandamātā Devī - mother of Skanda (Kārttikeya), the form that holds together the energies of motherhood, courage, and cosmic order.
Padmavathy Manavazhahan
svayambodha
The Problem of Culture TransmissionTradition is a living chain of transmission - an examination of the specific mechanisms by which Hindu civilization has carried its deepest knowledge forward, and where those mechanisms are breaking today.
Pankaj Saxena
svayambodha
Towards Dharma-centric Polity - Lokmanya Tilak and the Universalization of Gaṇeśa UtsavaAs dharma recedes from both personal life and public governance, what would a genuinely dharma-centric political order look like - and is it achievable within or only beyond the current Indian constitutional framework?
Pankaj Saxena
svayambodha
Turners of Time - How Hindu Festivals Rotate the YearHoli and Hindu festivals as turners of time - how the festival calendar structures experience, transmits ecological wisdom, and keeps alive the felt relationship between human life and cosmic rhythm across generations.
Pankaj Saxena
Popular overview of Hindu beliefs, practices, festivals, symbols, and philosophical foundations.
Sri Swami Sivananda
Essay by S. Radhakrishnan presenting Hindu dharma as a living, adaptive, and philosophically grounded religious tradition.
S. Radhakrishnan
Reference study of dharmashastra literature with focus on ritual, samskara, and normative practice.
PV Kane
Reference study of dharmashastra literature continuing discussion of rites, duties, and normative institutions.
PV Kane