Hinduism is ‘not a definite dogmatic creed, but a vast, complex, but subtly unified mass of spiritual thought and realization. - Shashi Tharoor

I do not look to history to absolve my country of the need to do things right today. Rather I seek to understand the wrongs of yesterday, both to grasp what has brought us to our present reality and to understand the past for itself. The past is not necessarily a guide to the future, but it does partly help explain the present. One cannot, as I have written elsewhere, take revenge upon history; history is its own revenge.

इसका दायरा इतना व्यापक था कि गुजरात के महान कवि, दार्शनिक और धर्मोपदेशक नरसी मेहता से लेकर मिथिला के विद्यापति और बंगाल के चैतन्य देव तक कितने ही महापुरुष इस महाधारा से जुड़ते रहे। (चैतन्य देव ने कीर्तनों और कृष्ण के भजनों के माध्यम से बंगाल में एक वैष्णव आन्दोलन ही शुरू कर दिया था।) महाराष्ट्र के सन्त ज्ञानेश्वर, सन्त तुकाराम, सन्त एकनाथ और सन्त नामदेव, कर्नाटक के बसवन्ना और तमिलनाडु के त्यागराज इत्यादि सभी इस आन्दोलन का हिस्सा बनकर अपनी-अपनी भूमिका निभाते रहे और भक्ति का सन्देश फैलाते रहे। कृष्णभक्त शंकर देव देश भर का

We Indians are notoriously good at being resigned to our lot. Our fatalism goes beyond, even if it springs from, the Hindu acceptance of the world as it is ordained to be. I must tell you a little story - a marvellous fable from our puranas that illustrates our resilience and self-absorption in the face of circumstances. A man is pursued by a tiger. He runs fast, but his panting heart tells him that he cannot run much longer. He sees a tree. Relief! He accelerates and gets to it in one last despairing stride. He climbs the tree. The tiger snarls below him, but he feels that he has at last escaped its snapping jaws...