Summa Iru: On Desire, Ignorance, and the Vicious Cycle That Isn’t — What I Wrote to My Kalyana Mitra and Claude’s Critique of It

What is Vedanta’s final instruction, once the four yogas, the scriptures, and the practices are stripped away? Summa iru — be still. But if stillness is the goal, why does the mind refuse it? This letter traces a four-link chain — ignorance, desire, thought, action — to argue that the “obstacles” of Buddhist Abhidharma’s kleshas are symptoms of desire, and desire itself is a symptom of the deeper ignorance that we are body-mind alone. A companion critique examines the circularity this seems to create, and asks whether stillness must be achieved through effort, or simply uncovered by inquiry.

Hermann Hesse on Solitude

Most men, the herd, have never tasted solitude. They leave father and mother, but only to crawl to a wife … More

When Feelings Turn into Strangers: Purity, Compassion, and the Loosening of Worldly Bonds

In isolation, even once-intense emotions can begin to feel like strangers seeking attention — a sign, if genuine, that one’s bonds with the world are loosening. But this loosening is not an end in itself: its authenticity is tested by what remains. Where being is pure, feelings coalesce into compassion alone; where the ego persists, they remain self-serving, whatever else they resemble. Drawing on the Bhagavad Gita’s vision of the sage who sees a Brahmin, a cow, and an outcaste with equal eyes, this piece explores why true compassion is never particular — and how to tell purity apart from mere numbness.

Don’t Worry About the Future — It is Already Fixed

Here is the email I wrote to my younger sister Kavitha just now, who is travelling with her family in … More

No Happiness Outside

Here I am sitting alone At past 1 am, mulling on What never was the case One which I thought … More

The 2nd Verse of Ashtavakra Gita

The 2nd verse of Ashtavakra Gita is this reply by Ashtavakra: “If you are seeking liberation, my son, avoid the … More

The Noumenon

When I experience these days An emptiness in the heart A sorrow or a loss The missing of a friend … More

Jnani as a Pure, Transparent Mirror

Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi] sometimes used to say, “The Jnani weeps with the weeping, laughs with the laughing, plays with the … More

I am in a Mood to Blame God

God, you, you, you, If the meaning of life Was to go in search of you Why create the women … More

Do The Needful

“End the dream before life ends.”