Author: Maria Wirth

I was recently at a conference on India’s soft power in Delhi organized by India Foundation and the Center for Soft Power. On the first evening, after the inauguration by the Vice President of India, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev was in conversation with Professor Subhash Kak and answered question on varied topics. The plus points of Hindu Dharma were stressed, yet the elephant in the room – the two dogmatic religions, which have absolutely no regard for those plus points, and still claim that Hindus are very wrong and need to be corrected if they want to be saved, was left…

My book got ready just in time for the Dehradun Litfest. If you like my articles, I am sure you will also like the book. It has 46 chapters and some 30 b/w photos in the text. I will copy the table of content after the links. It’s available in India for Rs 499. Signed copies are also available. For a gift pack of 5 there is a 20 per cent discount (separate link) Since it is not yet available on Amazon.com (it is coming i am told), the publisher will send it abroad, too. Please contact adm@garudabooks.com In India,…

How confused, uninformed and maybe mischievous the discourse on religion and extremism has become, was obvious again at the recent General Assembly of the United Nations. A Pakistani diplomat, in his reply to the speech by Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, lambasted the “unabashed Hindu extremist Yogi Adityanath”, the chief minister of UP, for “advocating the religious superiority of Hindus”. He also bemoaned that in India claims of religious superiority get patronage all across the country. Did anybody get the irony of it all? Pakistan’s grouse is that there are Hindus who advocate Hindu Dharma as superior to Islam and…

This is my first videographed talk. I accepted the invitation by Srijan Foundation not because I know more about Sanatana Dharma. Many among you know more than I, but because I grew up as a Christian and maybe can better appreciate the value of it. Also, I realised that many of you find it difficult to talk frankly about the doctrine of Christianity and Islam. The talk is in 4 parts: Why Sanatana Dharma is the best option? Why is it portrayed as worst? common and differing aspects between Sanatana Dharma and Christianty/Islam we need to bring truth back into…

This was a question on Quora. Here is my reply: I assume you mean by God That which is upholding this universe, responsible for it, the highest authority. So the answer is: God is everywhere, including in us. This answer is based on the insights of the ancient Indian Rishis and modern science also points to it by claiming that the different objects in the universe are not really ‘there’, when you search deeply. You end up only with one and the same energy. The Rishis however say, this energy is conscious, alive. They call it Brahman or Paramatman or…

My reply: I assume this question is asked by a Hindu who does not quite know what Islam (and also Christianity) claim: Both claim that the Supreme Being (called Allah in Islam and God in Christianity) has revealed the full truth only to one person – in the case of Islam to Prophet Mohammed and in the case of Christianity to his son Jesus. This truth is contained in the Quran in the case of Islam, and in the Bible in the case of Christianity. So this is the reason that Christianity claims that all must become Christians to be…

This was a question on Quora to which I replied. Yet again, I got a message from Quora that “the question has been marked as needing improvement and will be in a restricted state until edited.” So I post it here because there is nothing wrong with the question or my answer. Here it is: Both points in the question are right: Hinduism is the most reasonable system of living and it is being denigrated. In case some people, who don’t know much about Hinduism and believed those who denigrate it, have doubts if it is indeed the most reasonable…

There was a strange question on Quora recently: Is India becoming the most hated country? It reminded me of the years after Nirbhaya’s rape and murder, when a massive campaign was launched worldwide to portray Indian men as rapists. It was so massive that it reached not only local papers in Germany and probably everywhere else, but a local paper in Nuremberg dedicated half a page to her memory even one year AFTER it had happened.  The impact of this campaign was extraordinarily “successful” if one could use this term:  in March 2015 a biochemistry professor at the University of…

Again one of my answers on Quora collapsed. I replied to the above question 7 months ago. Now it was taken down. Here it is: I will restrict my answer to the three religions with the most followers. Hinduism (the term is used today to cover many different strands) is based on the Vedas. One could call the Vedas the most ancient, original ‘revelation’, because the Rishis are not the authors of the Vedas. Due to their Tapas (austerities), they ‘saw’ (Sanskrit: drishtih = see) the mantras in cosmic awareness through the veil that prevents ordinary eyes from seeing them.…

I was asked to write a message on Earth Day for students. I share it here Dear Students, Namaste to all of you, Today, Earth Day is celebrated all over the world and your Principal Sir has asked me to send a message for you. You may wonder who I am. So I briefly introduce myself: I am from Germany. When I had finished my studies and had earned some money, I wanted to go to Australia. On the way I stopped in India and landed up in Haridwar at the Kumbh Mela. This was a turning point in my…