Rahul Joshi

A confused soul in search of a lot of answers....

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

@lunadreaamy It is 15

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

@softboywin Add some saffron and name the dish Zafrani something..

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

@noconversion @TaraBull Can we have this instead - If you can't pay them well, you should not be running a business.

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

@ajeetbharath Summed it up perfectly.

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

This is by far one of the best reads for me on what I call spiritual encounters with the divine.

[Rama Seshan Chandrasekaran @maa_bhaishiiH]

I was taking to @rohitshinde121 and went into a deep discussion about theology and religion. Despite my tussle with Christians and Muslims in this platform, the fact is that from the bottom of my heart, I am a kind of person who dislikes putting down another person's faith (if only everyone reciprocated). Rohit and I started discussing a lot about theophanies then.

Theophanies as Universal Gateways to the Sacred

@rohitshinde121 first started by saying that moments like the Vishwaroopa darshana in the Bhagavad Geeta sounded implausible to him. The things that I talked about to him subsequently led to a deep insight and refinement of both of our beliefs in theophany.

The Vishwaroopa Darshan - Krishna’s cosmic revelation to Arjuna on the Kurukshetra battlefield strikes many modern minds as implausible. How could a charioteer suddenly manifest as the infinite universe, encompassing all time, space, and beings? Yet this discomfort of many is not unique to this episode of the Bhagavad Gita. The same skepticism, for example, by an atheistic mind, greets Paul’s blinding encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, Muhammad’s visions in the Cave at Arabia, or Ravana’s ecstatic composition of the Shiva Tandava Stotram under divine influence, or a shaman's claim of divine encounter with the spirit world as he enters into a trance. These are theophanies - direct, unmediated encounters with the divine ; and they form the beating heart of every living religion.

To dismiss some of these as hallucinations or mere "myths" while cherishing others as divine revelation or miracle is selective faith masquerading as skepticism. This is what I hate about Christian and Muslim fundamentalists with their claims of exclusivity over theophany, miracle, and salvation.

For those who also ask regarding the bad moral conduct of Christians and Muslims throughout history, also note that theophany is not reserved for the morally immaculate. It is an eruption of the sacred into human consciousness, often unannounced and unearned. Even the gods of the Hindu tradition, grant boons to all sorts of demons - Hiranyakashipu’s invincibility, Ravana’s mastery in war - all these without auditing their ethical baggage. Arjuna, a warrior paralyzed by doubt, did not earn the Vishwaroopa through flawless ethics ; he received it through surrender. Paul, a persecutor of Christians, was knocked off his horse by a light and voice he could not deny. Ravana, the archetypal asura, composed one of Shiva’s most sublime hymns.

If divine access required moral perfection, most of world mythology would collapse. The point is clear: theophany is ontological, not ethical. It reveals Being, not tied to behavior. The recipient’s character (whether it is daivik or asurik) shapes the interpretation and application of the visions and determines whether the power born from the theophany is dharmic or adharmic - not its authenticity.

The Hindu framework here offers a subtle insight. Both devas and asuras descend from the same primordial parents. Both worship the same gods. Both receive boons. The difference lies in their disposition. A daivik consciousness channels theophany toward harmony, dharma, and transcendence. Arjuna lays down his bow, then picks it up with clarity. An asuric consciousness bends the same energy adharmically towards domination, conquest, and ego - Ravana uses Shiva’s boon to terrorise the three worlds. Muhammad and his followers or that of newly Christian Emperor Constantine did the same.

The visions of Moses, Paul, Constantine, or Muhammad, were undeniably theophanic. That they led to lot of bad adharmic things is an entirely different issue but it is indeed undeniable that there indeed was huge power of some kind contained in them which is why they shattered his world for all time yet to come, reordered the lives of many peoples, and launched a movement that conquered or transformed many. The “daivik” or “asurik” nature of their theophany depends on the character of the person who receives it who then shapes its outcome - not on its origin itself. The same fire that warms a home can burn it down. The divine does not discriminate ; human temperament does.

The Hypocrisy of Selective Skepticism

Herein lies the rhetorical trap of modern religious discourse. The same Christian wignat who mocks Hindu revelations like the Vishwaroopa or the other miracles of Hindu gods as “myth” will defend Paul’s Damascus experience as genuinely divine and “historically transformative.” This is not consistency - it is primitive tribal epistemology.

The skeptic atheist though reduces all revelations to “epileptic seizures”or “stress-induced hallucination” or “opium of the masses”.

"Hallucination" is what an atheist says about ALL theophanies. A religious person sees them *everywhere*. A religious hypocrite sees them only in his tradition.

The West trained us to pathologize the supernatural. Colonial education equated rationality with materialism, leaving us uneasy with anything that cannot be measured.

But, people don't end up doing extraordinary things for a lie. Paul did not travel and evangelise across the entire breadth and length of the Roman Empire - from Jerusalem to Spain, on foot and by ship, in a pre-industrial age - because of a “bad mushroom.” Muhammad did not unite warring Arab tribes under a single banner because of a “heat stroke.” Ravana did not compose Sanskrit poetry of cosmic intensity while crushed under a mountain because of “delusion.”

Similarly, all the daivik Hindu miracles and theophanies ranging from Krishna's revelation to Arjuna in ancient times to Namagiri's revelations to the mathematician Ramanujan quite recently, still reverberates and reshapes the lives of millions or billions not because they had seizures and imagined things.

These were world-altering encounters with a reality beyond the veil. To reduce them to brain chemistry is not skepticism - it is ontological cowardice.

Secularity

In my opinion, true secularity, properly understood, is not the rejection of the sacred - it should mean refusal to privilege one sacred over another. I believe in theophanies across traditions: Arjuna’s vishwaroopa darshana, Moses at the burning bush, Rumi’s whirling ecstasy, the shaman’s vision quest under the stars. Each is a crack in the eggshell of ordinary perception. Each demands a leap of faith - not blind, but experiential.

Christianity deconsecrates Hindu theophanies with historical criticism. Hinduism can return the favor: the Gospels were written decades after Jesus, by non-eyewitnesses, in Greek, not Aramaic. The resurrection accounts contradict each other. Apply the same lens, and Christianity crumbles as quickly as any other faith under the scalpel of “scientific” atheism.

But why wield the scalpel at all? All religions stand on the same precipice of faith.

The divine does not submit to our imagination and theories. It shatters it while revealing itself to us. And in that shattering, something powerful is born - sometimes, it is a dharmic daivik force like a discovery of a new equation or a bhakti movement or mass transformation , while sometimes it is an adharmic asurik force like conquest and bloodshed. Theophany is not a puzzle to solve. It is a fire to enter.

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

@bhAratenduH Very curious to know your interest in DVG's Kagga which is a pretty difficult book for even those who know Kannada. I appreciate your effort here in putting this to Hindi. That dense text needs a wide reach.

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

@GunduHuDuGa Sir bittbidi. This post was in response to Supreme court's order to send stray dogs to shelter.

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

@samaraveera85 ಇವರಿಗೆ ವಿಷ್ಣುವಿನ ದಶಾವತಾರದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಏನೂ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ವ?

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

Thanks a lot. Will check it out

[yajnadevam @yajnadevam]

@rahulajeet https://t.co/dA0CZ7Subz search dholavira

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

@yajnadevam So excited to see this. Do we have a way to use this deciphering method by ourselves? I am interested in reading the famous signage at the Dholavira site.

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

@MadhukumarVP1 ಸಿಡ್ನಿ ಹಿವತ್ತು

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

@CultChron @Indicaa02 @ShreeHistory Krishnadevaraya from Vijayanagar dynasty. He consolidated the kingdom and stopped the invaders from their venturing into South. Built many temples at Hampi.
Krishna Raja Wodeyar - Practically built the modern Mysore state. Was called Rajarshi.

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

@Sassy_Soul_ To be honest, most of the words he spoke are of Sanskrit origin and fairly decent Kannada speaker will get the gist though.. It is always good to hear chaste language.. any language for that matter

[Raghava Krishna | రాఘవ కృష్ణ @Anviksiki]

Profound.

Hindu sprituality is ritualized.

So, inane justifications like 'am spiritual not religious' etc reflect our inadequacy.

Spirituality is the quality of attention we pay to our deities via rituals.

Religion is the transmission of the benefits to society - Nishta.

[The Seeker @TheSeeker268]

If this post gets to 500 RTs, I'll share a mysterious Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) project conducted on behalf of the Chinese military.

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

@venkatesham @samaraveera85 I think when I read Dharmashree, I found the reasoning not very convincing enough. The protagonist, who was so Dharmic in nature along with being rebellious, succumbed to a shallow expression of human existence. His way back was not very strong was what I felt. Time to revisit.

[Varun Kumar Rana @VarunKrRana]

Defeating Congress in 2024 is more necessary than 2014 & 2019.

Repost, if you agree.

[saket साकेत ಸಾಕೇತ್ 🇮🇳 @saket71]

#RamNavami #HappyRamNavami When human society was being formed in around 12000 BC, the rules of conduct was being set, #ShriRam embodies how a society which is moving away from Matsya Nyay should operate. Women are contributor not utility. So from Dashrath with three wives, Ram moves towards Ek Patni Vrata, making the man woman relationship, institutionalised by Sage Uddalak into a holy association, for lifetime and beyond.

Another thing which is stressed is the truthfulness of words through Sri Ram. Imagine a world freshly being formed into families and societies and the rule of mutual trust. #Dharma forms from Sanskrit word ‘Dhri’ - what holds together. Satya is basic component of Dharma and ‘Pran Jai par Vachan na Jaaye’ establishes that as a social norm or Maryada.

One aspect of Shri Ram is taking everyone together. Whether it it Vanvasi of Kishkindha, childhood friend of the Prince NishadRaj or Abandoned Ahilya, Sriram takes everyone along.

Long before West conceptualised Caesar’s wife, Shri Ram in Agni Pariksha demonstrated that proximity to power doesn’t end your accountability to the masses.
It isn’t about place of #woman, it is about probity when in power. As for place of woman, it is defined when Ram refuses to have second marriage with Soorpanakha. It is defined when someone like Vashishtha who is an authority on Dharma proposes the Sita gets on the throne to rule in absence of Sri Ram. What a powerful empowerment statement!
Vishwamitra is the Rajrishi, knows all there is to know about the art of war. But when his hermitage is attacked, he doesn’t take law into his own hands. He approaches authority to address the issue and demands that the king sends Sri Ram and Lakshman for their protection. That is how civilised societies are created and a civilisation emerges from Matsya Nyaya (what the West refers to as big fishes eat small fishes).
He helps Sugreeva and makes him King to rule as per Veda and Shastras, not as his vassal or governor. That is the seed of federalism, independent but bound by same rules of Dharma.
My prayers to the Divine who set the Maryadas for a civilised world, not through his words (we had them in Manusmriti and Rigveda), but through his being, his existence. He elevated Bharat out of the darkness which haunted the rest of the world for thousands of years. Jai Shri Ram.

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

@Kar_Bharadwaj Sir, I think the war was in 1565 not 1563. Can you please confirm the date once?

[Rahul Joshi @rahulajeet]

Do you remember when you joined X? I do! #MyXAnniversary