Translation or Random Substitution: Worship and Puja
1. Firstly, you want to know whether there is anything intrinsically wrong with performing idol worship the way it is with robbery. Let us assume that we agree we know…
Read moreWhy study the Western culture?
Two substantial questions have been raised in response to what I wrote: (a) why do we need to study and understand the Western culture in order to access our own…
Read moreAd hoc explanations: why do puja to cows?
1. When we provide explanations, we should also look at their contrastive nature: why do puja to cows and not to buffalos? The problem in this case, however, is this:…
Read morePuja and Worship
X says: if “pujya” means “worthy of worship”, wouldn’t “puja” mean worship? ‘Pujya’ means “deserving of ‘puja’”. If ‘puja’ translated as ‘worship’, quite obviously one translates ‘pujya’ as you do. You…
Read moreGod, Devil (Satan), and Polytheism
It is true that the modern Jewish thought, which is more influenced by the Rabbinic than by apocalyptic or Qumranic literature, places less emphasis on the Devil. Rabbinic Judaism was…
Read moreAre Muslims ‘Mohammedans’?
Let me begin by Mujeeb’s objection to calling the Islamic people ‘Mohammedans’. Mujib’s objection was that the Muslims do not worship Mohammed, and Naseem spoke of it as an insulting…
Read moreMultiple meanings: puja, thondam—S.N. Balagangadhara
About the multiple meanings for the Puja of Ganesha. Of course, there is no one ‘meaning’ to this act either now, or before, or in the future, as far as…
Read moreWhy Insider/Outsider game is sterile?—S.N.Balagangadhara
1. The first point is the difficulty involved in specifying what the “real meaning of an experience” consists of. Asking an insider would not help us here: the insider may…
Read moreDenying Experience: Do Hindus ‘worship’? Do they do Pooja to phallus (linga)?
Someone, let’s say her name is Wendy Doniger, comes along and sniggers ‘when you worship the lingam, you worship a phallus’. I do not identify Wendy’s statement as an ‘ad…
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