Anuradha Sridharan

  Certain Modern Feminists view of today's  “Empowered Woman”  – A woman who’s told that empowerment means peppering every sentence with swear words. – One who’s encouraged to smoke because it supposedly symbolizes rebellion. – One who’s expected to drink alcohol as a badge of liberation. – One who’s taught to blame “patriarchy” for every minor inconvenience — from bad weather to traffic jams. – One who embraces batch-cooking and frozen meals as the only “progressive” lifestyle. – One who’s pushed to look down upon women who prefer freshly prepared food, as if choosing tradition automatically makes them lesser. – A woman who is expected to stay perpetually angry at society, wearing victimhood like a proud badge of honour. – One who must reject anything tied to culture or tradition, automatically labeling it “patriarchal” without a second thought. – One who is encouraged to fight endlessly for her rights while treating any mention of duty or responsibility as an out...

In June 2023, I felt completely lost—physically drained, mentally exhausted, and worn down by ego-driven attitudes that blocked progress. It was painful to watch health being marketed through fear, supported by the vocabulary of modern psychiatry. The only thing that kept me grounded during that phase was my practice of Yoga. On an impulse, I signed up for a Yoga Instructor Course (YIC), eager to change direction as quickly as possible. I was even a little annoyed to learn that the batch would begin only a month later, in August. Those two months of the instructor course opened my eyes to a much wider world—Vedas, Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, yoga texts, chanting, Indian culture, history, and so much more. Completing YIC felt like catching the first glimpse of the vast streams of Yoga and our Shastras. Wanting to go deeper, I enrolled in the MSc Yoga program.  January 2024:  Back to student life once more—only now, my motivation was entirely different from what drove me du...

  In Viveka Chudamani, Adi Shankaracharya reflects on the five senses in Verse 76, illustrating his point with five vivid examples: A deer is undone by its attachment to sound. An elephant is overpowered by its sense of touch. A moth is drawn helplessly to what it sees, especially sources of light. A fish falls prey to its irresistible attraction to taste. A bee is captivated by the fragrance of flowers, its sense of smell becoming its downfall. In each of these creatures, a single dominant sense becomes a vulnerability that enslaves them. Shankaracharya then poses a striking question: what fate awaits a human being who is attached to all five senses at once? We can already see the consequences. Our excessive fascination with taste alone has led to widespread deterioration of physical health. Overindulgence in the other senses is expressing itself as a rise in various mental and emotional disorders. Modern technology only accelerates this. Apps that track engagement care little abo...

 One of the most prominent gadgets on our kitchen counter is the microwave oven. It offers multiple features and functionalities and comes with various modes, such as grill and convection. But the most popular use case is to reheat leftovers. In many households, the rest of the functionality is hardly explored. Yoga offers complete transformation and evolution of a human being. This profound wisdom enables all-round personality development of the individual - physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual wellbeing. But it is unfortunate that we end up relying too much on one aspect of it - Asanas, leaving the rest unexplored. One of my Gurus often refers to an analogy - our present approach to Yoga is akin to chopping off the wings of an airplane and driving on the road to buy vegetables from a nearby shop. The extreme focus given to physical aspects dilutes the entire philosophy. Success in Yoga Sadhana is often projected as one’s smooth performance of complex twists an...