A very good post. Would love to read more about Hindu -Sanatan Dharma- philosophy. Will appreciate if you write more on this subject in
near future.

Some blogs have glorified this crook as hindu samrat etc. Then they deduce that india is a land of ppl who has hindu ancestors so technically he divided hindus themselves – marathis VS southerners and then the baby cub goes after northerners. Justice katju has a good one on this guy.

http://justicekatju.blogspot.no/2012/11/why-i-cant-pay-tribute-to-thackeray.html

“As my toddler son discovered the wonderful world of storytelling, I treated the two of us to a collection of fairy tales, stories that you and I, and possibly every school-going child in the world are familiar with, stories like Rapunzel and Hansel and Gretel. [...] the darker side of such tales and what do you expect from authors that call themselves Brothers Grimm, but believe me, you don’t want to explain to a two-and-a-half-year-old why someone would want to steal a baby to punish someone for stealing from their garden! Yes, that’s the setting of the lovely-blonde-hairwashed-sweet-smelling Rapunzel story. And imagine telling your kid the story of a father who plots to abandon his children in the forest — it totally makes sense to me why my parents never read Hansel and Gretel out to me when I was a kid: It was probably out of kindness.“

Now a 21 year old girl is arrested for question Mumbai’s shutdown after Bal Thackeray’s death:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com//articleshow/17276979.cms?intenttarget=no

It is the same Mumbai police that arrested a cartoonist two months back but was never able to arrest Bal Thackeray himself for his hate speeches.

The way people worship balasaheb , the same way jhollawals worship the gandhi-maino clan.

IMO,this is the reason we as a society have never been able to retrospect what is wrong with our economy.

What is the total amount of economic activity denied to law abiding citizens because of this thug? The economic cost of having a thug like this destroying commerce on his whims is astronimical. Its a shame that thug like this is lionized.

Also, it would be great if you could clarify whether there is any particular reasoning behind you believing in Advaita / Brahman etc. (as opposed to say just being a materialist) other than a blind faith in the Upanishads etc.? (just rephrasing Hari’s question above)

I’ve been following your blog for 5 years now. You’ll perhaps feel happy to know that it has been a great source of learning for me in all kinds of things — philosophy, science, economics, politics — of which I knew nothing having been taught by mediocre teachers at schools with meager infrastructure. If you don’t mind a bit of feedback, here’s my two cents. I find your posts about philosophy, science the best. While I understand that you subscribe to Milton Friedman school of economics, I was surprised to find very little discussion about the recession and the subsequent debate about the role of government. (bailout etc)

To me, personally, reincarnation and brahman mean nothing, although they sound very grand; I’d like to know if they are true or not. If they are only concepts for me, then I don’t see a difference between reincarnation and the concept of heaven. Both are just that: concepts.

The only reality I know is the one that my senses in conjunction with my “mind” allow me to experience. Is there anything outside of it? I have no idea; I cannot disprove anything of course, but I really have no idea. What if this is all that is there?

The problem is that many of us — myself included — conveniently believe in this Hindu/Buddhist jargon that is fed to us. Oneness/Non-Duality/Advaita are very attractive concepts, but the I personally know only duality. No matter where I turn, my “I” is there and so is the “world” that is separate from me.