Sitting here in Florida, half an earth away, I look back at the land of my birth with mixed feelings. I see a great civilisation rising again, economically and militarily, but still unsure about its true moorings even after more than 75 years of Independence.

Why do I say so? Here I am delving deep into the Bhagavad Gita and the Veda, trying to understand what they mean with the help of a few clues that are available to me here via the Internet and with the help of Amazon. The task is made difficult since I was brought up in English as my primary language and had no introduction to even the right way to chant the Gita or any other Sruti.

In the 8th grade, we studied the poems of William Wordsworth and William Butler Yeats. Both great poets, for sure. Why did we not study the ‘Agni Suktam’ (the first lyric of mankind) or the ‘Nasadiya Suktam’ (the first existential foray into the nature of our existence and God)? Even as literature they are brilliant works. I am sorry but I must accept then that we are colonised because we do not see the value of our great literature and do not teach that to the new........

© News18