Potpourri

An Introduction

By Editors

This theme is intentionally called “Potpourri”; it is a potpourri of ancient Indian wisdom, culture, and tradition. Potpourri is a collection of naturally fragrant vegetable products like dried flowers, bark, and pieces of wood from certain unique, aromatic trees such as sandalwood; it is kept in an open bottle so that the perfume seeps and spreads throughout our dwellings. Ancient Indian wisdom, apart from its profound and abstract philosophy, disciplined teaching and pathways for enlightenment, abounds in colorful, sparkling gems of tradition, rituals, worship, and other ingredients for living an interesting life, full of delight. It is this miscellaneous, magical collection of such items that we have loosely packed into this theme. Let us enjoy the fragrance and aroma of Hindu culture, to refresh the air we breathe in our homes.

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The ingredient subthemes in the potpourri bottle include a variety of snippets, stories, anecdotes, and extractions from writings that reveal the many faces of Hinduism, and its colorful traditions and practices, and art and culture, including verse and humor. This theme is presented as a visual content-rich infomercial. This section also contains writings on “Hinduism — A World View”.

Much as the world appreciates the antiquity and profound wisdom contribution of the ancient Indian civilization in its checkered history, this civilization also has been maligned, distorted, and slighted by prejudiced thinkers and writers of the country’s colonial past, as well as today, including by some who profess to be experts in Indology. While it may be judicial to ignore such critics and biased thinkers, we thought that the facts related to such perversions of history need to be rectified, and explained to the readers. To this effect, in the special theme, entitled “Hinduism—A World View” we dispassionately present this much-maligned culture, and its undying spirit.

A word for our Website readers: This section is dynamically and continuously upgraded to bring as many fresh and fragrant ingredients as possible. We urge you, therefore, to visit and revisit this section as often as you desire, and frequently.