Author: Maria Wirth

I saw it for the first time when I was in my early 20s and liked it at first sight. I had been in Mexico City and took a plane from there to a small town near the sea. At that time I was a management trainee with Lufthansa and could take aeroplanes as easily as I take busses now. The name of the town was Villa Hermosa, i.e. beautiful town. I remember those details, because there, for the first time, I encountered a mosquito net in a small hotel. I was thrilled to sleep under it. It felt like…

India is an amazing country and unique in several aspects. For example, in every age great spiritual personalities appear who are aware of their true nature and act as guides to the truth. One such outstanding personality in recent times was Ramana Maharshi, who left his body in April 1950 at the foot of Arunachala Hill in Tiruvannamalai. His teaching is as up to date as it can be. He has distilled the essence of India’s ancient wisdom into one single question. It is the ultimate science and the ultimate fulfilment: to know “Who am I?” What made this man…

A national newspaper carried an article in July 2014 that bemoaned (rightly so) the disparity in education between the haves and the have-nots, between the 20 per cent who study in English medium private schools and the 80 per cent who study in vernacular government schools. The author proposed an outlandish solution to bridge the disparity: ‘Introduce English in government schools right from nursery to bring the education standards on par for all children.’ I was amazed at this proposal. How can an Indian want more colonisation instead of getting rid of the remnants? Why would Indians want to hold…

All over India, an interesting phenomenon can be observed. On one hand, materialism is on the rise, and on the other hand, the popularity of rituals and religious festivals is also on the rise and very much so. Even festivals, like the Kanvar Mela, which involves great hardship, attract huge crowds, most of them young men (called Kanvarias).  It shows that in spite of modern life style and western influence, the ancient bond to the spiritual dimension is strong. The majority of Indians still feel connected with the invisible power behind the visible forms and to the Gods who represent…

Some five years ago there was a small news item in a national paper. At that time Jairam Ramesh was the minister of state for environment and forests and he had stated, ”India is losing at least 2000 patents every year on traditional formulations as the knowledge on these has never been documented.”I wondered whether the politicians, administrators and academics actually knew where their ancient tradition is documented and what it contains. There is a big gap between the English speaking academics and the Vedic pandits. The former tend to think that they are superior and represent India’s intelligentsia. However…

लगभग तीन साल पहेले जब मैं ने एक टीवी खरीदा तब मुझे पता लगा कि, समभाव या स्थितप्रज्ञता का अभ्यास करने के कितने मौके मैं ने अब तक गंवाए थे। शुरुआत के दिनों में समाचार चेनलोंपर चर्चा करनेवाले विशेषज्ञों की बातें एक घंटे के लिये सुनते हुए कितनी तीव्र भावनाओं का तूफ़ान मेरे मन में उठता था और सभी स्थितियों में शांत रहना मेरे लिए तो असंभव ही था। तथापि, धीरे धीरे मैं ने अपने आप पर काबू पाया।आज भी मैं उन विशेषज्ञों की हाजिर जबाबी और दुसरों की बातें सुनते सुनते खुद की बात कहने की या चिल्लाने की…

For years I did not know what opportunities to practice equanimity I had missed, till I finally got a TV set some 3 years ago. In the beginning, I certainly did not remain calm under all circumstances. What intense emotions in just an hour of listening to panelists on the news channels! However, slowly I learned to sit back. I could admire the quick-wittedness and the amazing ability to talk or rather shout while listening. These anchors and panelists are no doubt intelligent, nevertheless their choice of topics is often pathetic, and they get some points consistently wrong. One such…

Whenever news about India make it to the local Nuremberg newspaper, my mother reads them out to me on phone. Usually, those news portray India in a poor light, like ‘people died from cold on the streets of Delhi’ or, especially in the past year ever so often, ‘another gang rape’, conveniently ignoring the gang rapes on home turf. During recent months, however, one term clearly dominates the western media, and going by the language used, it seems to be the most dangerous and heinous trait that any Indian could have, and that needs to be condemned by one and…

Some time ago much was made in the media of a dress code order by some Kanpur Colleges. Female students were not allowed anymore to wear jeans or other western attire. A lot of eve teasing had happened right at the gate of the colleges and the management felt that the way the students dressed, encouraged eve teasing. The media took up the cause. They felt that it was an infringement on the personal freedom of the students and quoted some girls who supported this view. The new dress code sans jeans was called draconian – a strong word.I am…

 My article “When Germany is Christian, is India Hindu?” got amazingly good response with thousands of facebook likes. However, some readers felt I made a mistake by not distinguishing between good, tolerant Hinduism, which is a private belief, and bad, intolerant Hindutva, which stands for the ‘communal agenda of an extreme right Hindu party’ that wants to force uniform Hinduism on this vast country, an act which is completely un-Hindu and against the pluralism of India.Is Hindutva really different from Hindu Dharma and dangerous? Or have those, which coined the term, an interest in making it look like that? No…