Author: Maria Wirth
Maria’s Wirth book is an ode to India and its wisdom. Stumbling into India on an accidental layover 1980, she got drawn into a seeker’s journey, searching for truth and encountering the many remarkable men and women, gurus and teachers, who would act as guides for her decades in India. From Sai Baba to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, from Anandamayi Ma to Amma, she records her close personal encounters and experiences. The journey will take us to secluded and unknown yogis in the Himalayas to the famous celebrity gurus, to colourful festivals and ascetic caves. But her real journey is…
Prince Siddhartha, who was later called Buddha, was a Hindu. He didn’t promote “Buddhism”. Emperor Ashoka, who was born a few centuries later, promoted Buddhism. He wanted his subjects to follow what Buddha had taught and what was compiled in some councils, long after Buddha’s death. The story goes that Ashoka felt so much repentance after a cruel war that he converted to Buddhism. This story may not be true. Another version says that, as he had killed his brother to get to the throne, he was censored by a Brahmin council. Consequently, he declared himself a Buddhist. Whatever may…
It is often said, Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life. Or is it a religion? What is true? It depends on how religion is defined. Most people probably would say that religion is: about believing in an invisible Supreme Being, which is the cause of our existence, about methods and rituals to worship it, about living according to its laws or will. In this case, Hinduism is definitely a religion. In fact, it is the Mother of all religions, because the Indian Vedas had postulated already in very ancient times the existence of such a Supreme…
By Maria Wirth At a seminar where Hinduism related topics were discussed, I asked some students during tea break, “Can you explain to me what Hinduism is about?” There was an awkward silence. After a while, a girl said “Hindus worship many Gods.” I asked, who created the many Gods?” Now the silence was permanent. Nobody ventured an answer. “Did you ever hear of Brahman?” I asked. “I do not mean Brahma the creator God, but Brahman the absolute Truth, the conscious Oneness behind this manifestation?” No, none of them had heard of Brahman. I hardly could believe it. How…
By Maria Wirth It’s finally out in the open even within India and Hindus must not ignore it: the call to eradicate Sanatana Dharma. The attitude “Sanatana Dharma is eternal. Nobody can eradicate it” is dangerous. True, the eternal Dharma, the knowledge about what is right in a given situation, cannot be eradicated. But look at the pitiful conditions of Hindus in Pakistan or Afghanistan! This fate must not befall Hindus in India, or humanity will lose its last beacon of light. What has happened? Udhayanidhi Stalin, a minister in Tamil Nadu and son of the present CM, stated what…
This is a most sensible question. But why does it not happen? Why don’t they sit together and solve their differences? The reason is that two of the three religions, Islam and Christianity, demand blind belief in only their story about the true God and his creation. Muslims need to believe what around 1400 years ago Prophet Mohammed supposedly said and what is written in the Quran. And in some verses, for example 8.39 or 9.29 the Quran says that Allah wants all to become Muslims, and Muslims even need to wage war to reach this goal. On the other…
Many Indians will remember the girl from Kathua, whose alleged gangrape and murder got huge media coverage in the spring of 2018, comparable only to the huge media coverage of Nirbhaya in 2012. In Nirbhaya’s case, all the accused mentioned by the media had Hindu names, as they withheld the Muslim name of a juvenile. In Kathua, too, all accused had Hindu names. Yet while in Nirbhaya’s case, there was evidence that the accused were involved, because they were all in the bus, in the Kathua case, there was no evidence whatsoever. The whole story was based only on the…
In August 2022, I was flying from Khajuraho to Delhi. Khajuraho is a small airport, and the passengers walk to the plane. A woman, walking next to me, pointed to a young Swami near us, “We are so lucky”, she said in a low voice. “The Maharaj of Bageshwar Dham is flying with us. Thousands come to his darshan, and here we are so close.” I had not heard of Pandit Dhirendra Krishna Shastri and Bageshwar Dham Sarkar till then, but when I came home and showed the photo, which I had taken, to my neighbour, she exclaimed, “you have…
The following article by me has gone viral on social media, including on WhatsApp some years ago. Its popularity had provoked V. Raghunathan, an NRI from Canada with a long and very impressive bio, to write a counter under the rubric ‘Outraged’ for the Times of India blog in January 2020. He titled it: “Why Maria Wirth is wrong”, which shows up even today when googling my name. Strangely, V. Raghunathan did not give a link to my original blog which had outraged him. I post it here, so that the reader can come to his own conclusion if I…
By chance I discovered only now a review of my book from 2019 at the website of the journal AUROBHARATI. It’s very flattering, but to be frank, I also feel, the book turned out well. However, nowadays only few people find time to read books and even fewer know about my book. Here I copy the review by Beloo Mehra: APRIL 1, 2019 / BOOK OF THE MONTH, NATION / BY BELOO MEHRA From time to time, Renaissance will feature a book which brings new light on some aspect of Indian culture – whether it be an invocation of the…