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The Sunday Guardian
28 Jun '26The Sunday Guardian
14 Jun '26The Sunday Guardian
05 Apr '26The Sunday Guardian
01 Mar '26The Pioneer
14 Feb '26The Pioneer
24 Jan '26The Pioneer
17 Jan '26The Sunday Guardian
21 Dec '25The Pioneer
20 Dec '25The Pioneer
22 Nov '25The Pioneer
20 Oct '25The Sunday Guardian
05 Oct '25The Sunday Guardian
28 Sep '25The Sunday Guardian
24 Aug '25The Sunday Guardian
27 Jul '25The Sunday Guardian
13 Jul '25The Sunday Guardian
27 Apr '25The Sunday Guardian
28 Dec '24The Sunday Guardian
15 Dec '24The Sunday Guardian
01 Dec '24Patrika
20 Feb '24Dainik Jagran
23 Jan '24Amar Ujala
07 Oct '23Dainik Jagran
26 Aug '23Dainik Jagran
24 Aug '23Dainik Jagran
29 Jul '23Rashtriya Sahara
06 Apr '23Dainik Jagran
24 Mar '23Rashtriya Hindi Mail
22 Jan '23Lokdesh
08 Sep '2230 op-eds and columns
The Sunday Guardian
28 Jun '26 "A pilgrimage that disappoints is rarely blamed for being a pilgrimage. It is blamed for being the wrong one, and the disappointed traveller sets off for the next shrine with the same hope intact, undiminished by the failure of the last. A guru who cannot deliver is replaced, not abandoned as a category. The search survives every one of its own failures, because the failures are always assigned to the destination and never to the act of searching itself. Something in this arrangement protects the search from ever having to answer for itself."
The Sunday Guardian
14 Jun '26 The theme I was asked to speak on at the House of Lords in the British Parliament this week was lovely: Indian roots, global wings. Lovely things charm us, and a charmed audience nods before it has time to look. So I begin by declining the nod, because both halves of that phrase mean something quite different from what they are taken to mean, and that difference is the whole of what India can offer.
The Sunday Guardian
05 Apr '26 "The decision to depart, when genuine, must be the person’s own, arrived at in full awareness, not extracted by family exhaustion, economic pressure, or a system that has run out of ideas. It cannot come from pain alone, because suffering without self-knowledge produces desperation rather than clarity, and desperation and dignity are not on the same register."
The Sunday Guardian
01 Mar '26 "Most education concerns itself with objects. Chemistry studies substances, physics studies matter and energy, economics studies exchange, etc. Even psychology studies behaviour as something observable from the outside. The curriculum grows more detailed each year. Our grasp of the world becomes more precise. But you, the self, are not an object in that world. You are the one to whom the world appears. And that fact is seldom examined."
The Pioneer
14 Feb '26 "Every few years, a similar pattern keeps repeating. A set of names tumbles into public view, and the world performs its ritual of shock. And then, quietly, the cycle completes itself: the outrage fades, the names are absorbed into the archives, and the pattern continues."
The Pioneer
24 Jan '26 "Without self-enquiry, rationalism turns outward-only. It scrutinizes religion, superstition, tradition, politics, and the beliefs of others, but it never pauses to examine the psychological centre doing the scrutinizing. The ego remains untouched, and rationality becomes its armour."
The Pioneer
17 Jan '26 "The believer says ‘Exists’ and clutches scripture, the atheist says ‘No’ and clutches logic. In either case, the ego experiences some relief after speaking. In questioning the existence of God, the ego successfully hides its own non-existence."
The Sunday Guardian
21 Dec '25 "Meditation techniques, however sincerely adopted, rarely produce transformation. A technique reassures the ego that it can remain intact while adding a spiritual activity to its repertoire. Such methods become refined forms of dishonesty because they divert attention from the real task of examining the seeker, and instead keep the seeker busy with well-intentioned rituals."
The Pioneer
20 Dec '25 "The test is straightforward. Whatever aligns with Shruti is dharma. Whatever defies Shruti, however old or beloved, is not. Shruti demands only one thing: self-knowledge. Everything else is ornamental."
The Pioneer
22 Nov '25 "Marxism is not wrong for seeking justice. It is incomplete in believing justice can come without awakening. When awakening does come, whether in a Kolkata adda, a Dakshineshwar temple, a Russian factory, a Wall Street floor, or a village panchayat, one sees that every great outer revolution begins when one has the courage to challenge one’s inner structures."
The Pioneer
20 Oct '25 "In their own ways, all three ideologies protect the ego’s independence, form, or memory. And because they begin from ignorance of the true Self, none can lead to real welfare. All rest on the same foundation: the belief that the ego deserves preservation. Where the ego is sacred, suffering is inevitable."
The Sunday Guardian
05 Oct '25 "Buildings, rituals, and identities all come and go. They cannot be the heart of religion. What is timeless is our love for truth, for reliability, for eternity itself. That love explains why we shrink at dishonesty, why we resist betrayal, and why we fear death. Deep within, something in us yearns for the changeless."
The Sunday Guardian
28 Sep '25 "Navratri’s point is simple: what is beyond form is reached only by going through form. The task, then, is to meet life as it comes, without shortcuts or avoidance. In these nine nights, the real ‘vrat’ should be simple and exact: approach the Durga Saptashati with your whole heart, as a ‘sankalp’ not to remain as you currently are."
The Sunday Guardian
24 Aug '25 "Integrity does not mean balancing desire and duty; it means seeing they were never separate. True integrity means no division between oneself and the world. One who lives from clarity does not need to 'add on' responsibility; their very living becomes responsible."
The Sunday Guardian
27 Jul '25 "Most people do not arrive a t religion through inquiry but inherit it— through tradition passed down by parents, neighbors, and priests. They often put sacred texts on a high shelf, calling them holy, but hardly examine them with genuine curiosity. "
The Sunday Guardian
13 Jul '25 "True religion does not start with belief. It starts with a question: Why am I not at peace? It begins when a person, tired of running, pauses and looks within. That’s how religion came into being, not as a tradition or community, but as an honest response to the suffering within."
The Sunday Guardian
27 Apr '25 "When powerful narratives in all walks of life are seeking to monopolize public conversation and crowd out, or forcefully silence dissenting voices, freedom of expression becomes even more valuable."
The Sunday Guardian
28 Dec '24 "Meditation is the submergence of the ego in its essential nature. It is at the root of all self-knowledge and wisdom. However, most often, what we call meditation is just escapism—using some ‘method of meditation’ to superficially soothe our restlessness or gain temporary and deceptive relief from stress."
The Sunday Guardian
15 Dec '24 "You look at the world, you look at two or twenty things, and an immediate discrimination arises within. You pick one of those things, thinking that one particular element, object, or option is better than the rest."
The Sunday Guardian
01 Dec '24 "As humans, we often find ourselves trapped in an elaborate illusion—the belief that life is a perpetual negotiation between self-interest and collective welfare."