freelance journalist/author based in India writing on travel, food, culture, identity, women, art, and luxury.
“Dakini represents the feminine energy in Buddhism,” says Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, 57. “It is a raw naked cognizance, like a baby: unaltered, uncontrived, unfabricated, uneducated.”
It is a broad statement, so broad as to be quite meaningless to me. In this age of #metoo, what is the role of “feminine energy,” even one that is about 5000 years old and lauded, quite contradictorily as one of Buddhism’s most fundamental yet subtle truths?
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Some things, you strive for. Some things happen because of divine grace. You know what they say– the universe conspires to make things happen. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a person like no other in today’s world. Statesman, Nobel Laureate, spiritual leader of the Tibetans who view him as God, or at least the manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, the Boddhisattva of compassion. After assuming this mantle at age four, the Dalai Lama has become a global teacher, part-time politician, leader of exiled Tibetans, right-royal celebrity, torch-carrier of a tradition dating back millennia, and perhaps most important to him, Buddhist monk.
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In a world full of noise, how do you define and use silence?
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MINT ON SUNDAY Home » Mint on Sunday » Big story Last Modified: Sat, Feb 27 2016. 11 35 PM IST How blind faith is choking the Ganga The mission to clean the Ganga will be a pipe dream as long as Indians have no problem in perceiving and accepting the river as both pure and dirty Photo: Shoba Narayan…
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MINT ON SUNDAY Home » Mint on Sunday » Big story Last Modified: Sun, Feb 21 2016. 06 59 PM IST Of dead cows and the Ganga: The paradox of religion In her quest to embrace faith, the ultimate feel-good pill on the rocky road called life, this writer looks for divine intervention in Kashi Photo: Shoba Narayan Shoba Narayan…
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Home » Mint on Sunday » Sacred Food Last Modified: Fri, Jan 01 2016. 04 19 PM IST What use is temple cuisine? Dining locally and seasonally is a fad now. Most traditional societies used to do just that. The second of a three-part series from Puri Photo: Shoba Narayan Shoba Narayan In 1810, Robert Southey, a somewhat effeminate-looking British…
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MINT ON SUNDAY Home » Mint on Sunday » Sacred Food Last Modified: Sat, Sep 12 2015. 11 30 PM IST Azhagar Kovil’s excellent dosai The humble dosai, a staple at breakfast tables in south India, takes a divine turn in the kitchen of Madurai’s Azhagar Kovil Photo: Shoba Narayan Shoba Narayan It is sunset when I walk into the…
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MINT ON SUNDAY Home » Mint on Sunday » Big story Last Modified: Mon, Aug 10 2015. 07 12 PM IST Palani’s heavenly panchamritham The prasadam of the popular hill temple not only tastes out of this world, but is also a healing potion Photo: Shoba Narayan Shoba Narayan Carnegie Hall has nothing on Hindu temples. I think of this…
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MINT ON SUNDAY Home » Mint on Sunday » Sacred Food Last Modified: Sun, Feb 12 2017. 02 42 AM IST Rolling rotis in Amritsar’s Golden Temple In the latest instalment of the long-running Sacred Food series our correspondent marvels at the serene supply chain at Harmandir Sahib Photos: Shoba Narayan Shoba Narayan Amritsar: The family standing at the long, snaking…
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Home » Mint on Sunday » Silence and Sound Last Modified: Sat, Aug 27 2016. 11 37 PM IST Silence is an underrated tool in the arsenal of parenting When I don’t snap to judgement or bark out orders, it gives my kids the space to choose, decide and make mistakes Photo: iStock Shoba Narayan I am trying something that…
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