There is a story of a famous poet Māgha in the 6th century who was carefree with his wealth and lived in poverty towards the end of his life. One day, a poor man came to his door asking for…
Author Archive for Dr. Mandar Pattekar
Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Detachment
by Dr. Mandar Pattekar • • 1 Comment
My new year’s resolution for 2020 is to internalize the principle of detachment. Over the years, as we meander along the path of self-realization, attachment to people, material things, achievements and identity have been a heavy ball and chain around…
Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Art of debate
by Dr. Mandar Pattekar • • 0 Comments
As our next presidential election looms closer, the sheer barbarism of the public arena vocalization filled me with great anguish. On the current political debate stages, behavior like blatant lying, interrupting the opponents, childish insults have become a norm for…
Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Lighting the light within
by Dr. Mandar Pattekar • • 1 Comment
My family has had some ancestors who were highly spiritually evolved individuals. My paternal grandmother’s father was a householder yogi (yogi- one who seeks union of individual consciousness with the Universal consciousness) who held a day job as a government…
Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Raksha-Bandhan: A potential world festival
by Dr. Mandar Pattekar • • 0 Comments
I am an optimist. I sincerely believe that if every human felt a bond with another, we may be able to overcome greed, lust for power, and insecurities and end all wars and resultant carnages. The more things we have…
Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Non-Anger (Akrodha)
by Dr. Mandar Pattekar • • 2 Comments
There is a fable of a boy who is prone to angry outbursts. His father tells him to hammer a nail in the wooden fence post every time he is angry and abuses someone, and then remove that nail after…
Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | The wish granting tree – Kalpataru
by Dr. Mandar Pattekar • • 1 Comment
In prehistoric times the good and the evil forces churned the ocean of the cosmos, and one of the unique objects which the Divine granted to the churners was a wish granting tree. One day a traveler comes across this…
Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Sewa
by Dr. Mandar Pattekar • • 3 Comments
Sewa is selfless service performed without expecting anything in return. It is an act performed by humans as a basic property of being a human, not guided by the expectation of joy dependent on desire fulfillment. As a human, we…
Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Guru
by Dr. Mandar Pattekar • • 0 Comments
My salutations to the guru who opens the eyes of the one who is blind due to the darkness of ignorance with an ointment of knowledge. The first full week of May is celebrated as Teachers Appreciation week in the…
Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Debts of a human
by Dr. Mandar Pattekar • • 1 Comment
Yesterday, I was at a dinner hosted at a friend’s house when the person sitting opposite me introduced himself. In turn I introduced myself by just the name and expected to return to casual polite conversation with everyone. But he…