There is an ancient fable. One day a caravan of 100 camels and drivers is traveling in the desert. The caravan loses its way and ends up outside a village at dusk. The travelers put up their tents and start…
Author Archive for Dr. Mandar Pattekar
Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | True nature of things (Swabhava)
by Dr. Mandar Pattekar • • Comments Off on Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | True nature of things (Swabhava)
During adversity, a person’s true nature (Swa- self, bhaava- essence) gets exposed. In normalcy, many of us take on covering to fool others and sometimes ourselves. We take on roles to fit into what we believe is expected from us…
Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Charity
by Dr. Mandar Pattekar • • Comments Off on Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Charity
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…
Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Detachment
by Dr. Mandar Pattekar • • Comments Off on Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Detachment
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 • • Comments Off on Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Art of debate
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 • • Comments Off on Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Lighting the light within
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 • • Comments Off on Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Raksha-Bandhan: A potential world festival
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 • • Comments Off on Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Non-Anger (Akrodha)
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 • • Comments Off on Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | The wish granting tree – Kalpataru
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 • • Comments Off on Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Sewa
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…