List of posts

August 15, 2023

Swaraj and the Lizard (and Ninjas?!)

Today is “World Lizard Day” (August 14th). Tomorrow is the Independence Day in India (August 15th). So, the two were connected (in my head) with a nice little legend from Indian history and I felt like sharing the same. This is unlike my usual posts where I explore the intersections between Hindu/Indian culture and the
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August 3, 2023

Kuki Taishou and the Gaze of Nahusha

Nahusha was an ancestor of the Pandavas, who are the victors of the Kurukshetra War described in the Mahabharata. The Pandavas are something like the twenty second generation after Nahusha in the Chandravamsha++ (Lunar dynasty). Nahusha is one of the well-known ancestors of the Pandavas and an illustrious king during his time. He lived a
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July 20, 2023

Connect, Control – Part 2; Boons, Blessings, Curses & The Sakki Test

The test for the fifth dan in the Bujinkan is also called the “Sakki” test. Sakki here generally refers to “intuitive ability”. For those that are not a part of the Bujinkan, I am describing the test. The test involves two people, one administering the test and another who is being tested. There are other
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July 6, 2023

Connect, Control – Part 1; “Connect, Control = Shatrubodha in flow”

An interesting connection between Budo and Bharatiya tradition There are two concepts that are taught in the Bujinkan system of martial arts which are very simple to state but extremely difficult to express and achieve. The two concepts are “Connect” and “Control”. These concepts are mentioned to everyone practicing in the Bujinkan from their early
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June 22, 2023

When there are no solutions..

Training with knives is scary. It is scarier than training with swords or spears or sticks. I am of course referring to traditional martial arts and not considering fire arms or even historic projectile weapons like bows and arrows, crossbows, slings and other thrown/discharged weapons. In other words, using Bharatiya terms, I mean while training
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June 8, 2023

Martial Arts demonstration? – Be Uke, not Tori

One thing that all martial artists would have experienced in their training lives is having people ask them to show “something” of what they train or have learnt. This, if I am not wrong, is more often in the early part of one’s training life when you are an oddball, for being a part of
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May 25, 2023

Yudishtira, Dharma, Awareness/Mindfulness – A case study through Budo

Early in the Mahabharata, there is an incident that occurs at the ashrama of Guru Dronacharya. He sets up a test for all his students, essentially all the Kuru princes. He has a model of a bird set up on a tree and tests the ability of the students to shoot an arrow at the
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May 11, 2023

MIGHT IS RIGHT, ALWAYS

Image created by Adarsh Jadhav In the Bujinkan system of martial arts, one concept that we are taught every so often is “Kyojaku jyugo arubekarazu”. This roughly refers to how there is no hard or soft, and no strong or weak; in other words, it means that there is no duality to explicitly discern. This
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April 27, 2023

Bhakti and Budo

Image generated with Jasper AI There is a term that is used every now and then in the Bujinkan, called “Kami Waza”. Typically, this is something that is trained, and an understanding attempted, after many years of training in the Bujinkan system of martial arts. Kami Waza is something I had referred to in my
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April 13, 2023

Vaali’s boon – A perspective through Budo

Image 1 – Vaali defeats Raavana Clarification – In this article I am referring to the great Vaanara king Vaali, who is the brother of Sugreeva. It is the Vaali who is seen in the Ramayana and is killed by Rama. I am not referring to Bali, who can also be called Bali Chakravarthy, who
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