The Ragas Behind Bollywood's Greatest Songs — Best of the Raag Series
Before this channel decoded Sanskrit words hiding in English, it spent two years decoding the classical ragas hiding inside Bollywood's bigg...
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Discover India Podcast by Professor Pankaj Jain, Ph.D.
The Discover India Podcast is about Indian Culture, Indian Classical Music, Sustainability, Hindu/Buddhist/Jain Studies, Film Studies, and Diaspora Studies. Episodes include presentations at...
Episodes
20 of 358 episodesThe Matrix ← Māyā: Reality Isn't What You Think
The Matrix ← Māyā. The highest-grossing sci-fi film of its era asks "what is real?" — a question Sanskrit philosophy put at its center 2,500...
Pitru Paksha: A Pause for Where You Came From (Shraddh, Explained)
If you grew up in an Indian home, you probably touch a book to your forehead when your foot brushes it. Nobody taught you that. And yet, som...
The Sixth Sense ← Sākshi: Who Is the "I" That Sees?
The Sixth Sense ← Sākshi. Cole Sear sees what others can't — but the film never asks what the "I" that sees actually is. Sanskrit philosophy...
Hanuman Is a "Forest-Being" — What the Title Hanuman Ansh Really Says (Vānara, Decoded)
You saw Hanuman Ansh. The boy talking to a tree, the pot that never runs dry — both are explained by the title. Ansh, aṃśa, is a fragment. H...
Volkswagen Is Half a Sanskrit Word — But Not the Half You Think
Volkswagen means "the people's car," and one half of that name is cousin to a Sanskrit word — just not the half most people guess. Wagen and...
Gaṇeśa and ‘Republic’ Share the Same Sanskrit Word
Gaṇeśa’s name doesn’t mean “remover of obstacles” — that title came later. Gaṇa + īśa: lord of the many. The samelittle word gave India gaṇi...
The Highest-Grossing Film in History Has a Sanskrit Title
The biggest film franchise on earth carries a Sanskrit name, and its director himself said so back in 2007, calling it an incarnation of one...
The Complete Life of Mahavira: Prince to Tirthankara — Full Documentary
He was born a prince — and walked away from everything. This is the complete life of Mahāvīra, the 24th Tīrthaṅkara of Jain dharma: his birt...
Krishna's Name Literally Means "The Dark One" — Here's Why That Matters
Kṛṣṇa is not a title or a metaphor — in Sanskrit it is simply the word for dark. Born at midnight, in the dark fortnight, on its eighth nigh...
Arise, Walk, Arrive: Three Sanskrit Lines That Map a Whole Life
Three lines of Sanskrit, from three different texts written centuries apart: "Arise, awake" (Kaṭha Upaniṣad), "keep walking — caraiveti" (Ai...
Raksha Bandhan and Sanskrit Day Are the SAME Day — That’s Not a Coincidence
Raksha Bandhan and World Sanskrit Day fall on the same day this year — and it's not a coincidence. Rakṣā-bandhana literally means "the bond...
Onam: “Kerala’s Biggest Festival Celebrates a ‘Demon’ King — Here’s Why”
Kerala’s biggest festival honors Mahābali — a king the texts call an asura, whom the people call their greatest ruler. Vāmana’s three steps,...
Why India Has Two Official Names — in One Sentence of the Constitution
“India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.” The Constitution’s very first sentence carries two names — one born from a river seen f...
Homer and the Rigveda Use the Same Word for Fame — Kléos & Śravas
English took one word from Homer's Odyssey — odyssey , "the long journey out." But the word that poem is really about has a Sanskrit twin. G...
Friendship Day & the Gita: What Krishna Teaches Us About True Friends
On Friendship Day, we turn to the oldest wisdom on what real friendship means — the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna didn't rescue Arjuna from the bat...
The Hymn That Takes Away Everything You Depend On | Gatistvam, Decoded
Not your father. Not your mother. Not your wealth. Not even your knowledge. The Bhavani Ashtakam — traditionally attributed to Adi Shankarac...
"Guru" Doesn't Mean Teacher. It Means Heavy. | Guru Purnima, Decoded
You say it constantly — tech guru, business guru — but the Sanskrit word guru doesn't mean teacher. It means HEAVY, and it shares an ancient...
Why a 500-Year-Old Hindu Sect Sent Salman Khan to Jail
539 years ago, a guru in the Rajasthan desert gave his followers a code: never cut a living tree, never kill an animal. In 1730, 363 Bishnoi...
The Ride Home — Bahuḍā Yātrā & Suna Beṣa
English kept one word from India's biggest chariot festival — "juggernaut," the unstoppable chariot rolling out. But it only kept half the s...