A New Start

Hello,

If you have no idea why you're getting this email, it's because you signed up for my newsletter on my website or subscribed to the Jayary - my writings about the Mahabharata - way back when. If you still don't know why you're getting this letter, unsubscribe now or forever hold your breath.

If you're still reading, I hope you had a wonderful 2017. Happy new year!

Now that we have the elementary courtesies out of the way, let's get to work. As usual (as in I have done it once before), I want to explore one central object of Indian culture and flesh it out using all the tools I have at my disposal. Two years ago, it was the Mahabharata. I haven't forgotten or finished the Jaya but I am going to try something new: let the story osmote through the background as I focus on an abstract concept: samsara, the conditioned world. After all, isn't the Jaya about an abrupt ending to one samsaric age?

Here's a dhansu question:

What does "samsara" mean in the anthropocene?

I am going to live with that question for a year in the hope that constant proximity will yield insight. Since ideas wither when left alone in the interior darkness, I am going to share my gleanings in this newsletter as a way of sparking conversations. The plan is to act like a river in reverse: start slow and pick up pace as the year progresses.

thanks,
Rajesh

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