Tag: Religion
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Jai Golu Devta …
Jai Golu Devta … So what are the requests like, that the worshippers of Goludev ask from him? They write their petitions on paper, which allows us to take a closer look at some of them. “Jai Golu Devta! My name, Priyanshu Gagola! Make me successful in finishing the 12th standard! May I get a…
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Goludev the bell lover
Goludev the bell lover I have never been able to really understand the meaning of the word ‘praying’, or maybe I should say ‘the act of praying’. One prays to god – at least according to my catholic upbringing – but since I can’t imagine anything when hearing or reading the word ‘god’, praying to…
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Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari Popular belief or the folklore of faith is, in general, what religion means to the common man. It is its most widespread manifestation, not only in Catholicism, but in other religions as well. There’s a lot of suffering in the world and people are often subjected to great stress, either…
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Treasure trove Venice
Treasure trove Venice One of the delightful aspects of the Italian pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale was the sense of continuity you experienced when you left the exhibition space and stepped into the various nooks and crannies of this ever-enchanting city. Both inside and out, you felt surrounded by the same blend of folkloric…
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The art is not our thing
The art is not our thing Art critic and politician Vittorio Sgarbi was appointed curator of the Italian pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011). Given that he is known for his opposition to modern art – and certainly to the ‘mafia’ that organises the art world – his appointment was rather controversial. He decided…
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Where I stand
Where I stand After my comments in the previous posts on the Fall of man and Redemption of man, you may like to know where I stand. Well, I’m standing here under this tree and look up and think it’s beautiful. Through our observations of nature, and our thoughts and studies, we have come to…
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Redemption of man
Redemption of man or the cross in the mountains If God is in the details (“Der liebe Gott steckt im Detail”, Aby Warburg), then He is more present in the fly on the cross than in the man nailed to it. In any case, I have always admired the fly resting for a moment on…
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Fall of man
Fall of man Adam and Eve, driven out of paradise by an angry god. What had they done wrong? They had committed the first, original sin. They had eaten the fruit of ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’, which God had expressly forbidden. As a result, the first man and woman lost…
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Silent witnesses
Silent witnesses As I walked amongst the thousand-year-old Khmer monuments, with the guardian deities on the gopuras gazing out over the land in all four directions with their inward-turned faces, I could not help but see them as silent witnesses to the horrors that had ravaged Cambodia only a few decades ago. They had all…
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The lonely slipper
The lonely slipper or Shiva and Parvati in a courtyard “Shiva is man and Parvati is woman; they are the causes of creation. All men have Shiva as their soul, and all women are Parvati. Shiva has the form of the male sign, the lingam, and the goddess has the form of the female sign,…
καιρός remembered 