Saturday, September 12, 2026

Punt, Egypt, and Sisupalagada

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra

Truth of modern society:

The ones who are oppressed and discriminated against are quietly suffering. They don't have access to information, technology, many a times not even judiciary. 

The ones who are already uplifted are creating videos about how they are oppressed. Many of them don't even know what struggle is... 

It's as if there is India A and India B, and both of them are fighting completely different battles.

https://x.com/the_psyche_lab/status/2098553559357047260

Everything in India is cargo-cult. International airports with no international flight. Best airport has zero traffic. It has smart cities piled up with garbage. Common law institutions but only predation. Young population, which is not an asset but a liability. 

https://x.com/JayantBhandari5/status/2098476386143088779

Long before the term Smart City became a modern urban planning buzzword, a quiet revolution in geometry and civil engineering was carved into the red earth of Odisha. Just a 15 minute drive from the spires of modern Bhubaneswar lies Sisupalgarh.

To a casual passerby, it looks like a serene, green village dotted with weathered stone pillars. But if you look at satellite imagery / ground penetrating radar scans, the earth drops its disguise: Sisupalgarh is a near-perfect 1.2 x 1.2 kilometer square grid city, built 2,500+ years ago... 

The monolithic laterite pillars (Solakhamba) still stand in the center of the site like silent guardians of a lost world, a stark reminder that long before the modern world discovered urban planning, Odisha had already perfected it.

https://x.com/Fintech03/status/2098390775021350990

A long thread on Sisupalagarh (or properly Sisupalagada) which I had written a few years back hoping it to be a chapter of many unknown facets of Odisha history book I wished to publish but never came around to doing it. Anyway here it is (1/n)

https://x.com/guptanumis/status/2098569689328918727

It concedes the mainstream chronology of every monument it discusses. And it corrects its own errors in print — several numbers in the current edition replaced earlier ones I had got wrong, and the reasoning for each replacement is on the page. The gods came from Punt. The Egyptians said so for three thousand years, and nobody ever asked them what was there. The Kingdom of the Gods: The Afar Origin of Egyptian Theology amazon.com/dp/B0GTFKDC34

https://x.com/DSennfelt/status/2096989729082290399

Two modern classics essential for understanding what has become of current U.S. politics, left and right alike. Though to understand the deepest spiritual roots of the crisis, you need to look to Plato on democracy, Augustine on the libido dominandi, and Nietzsche on ressentiment

https://x.com/FeserEdward/status/2098501139239215605

We turn notifications off to preserve our attention on holidays, but sometimes notifications can be an early-warning system, surfacing information you don't know you need. @ShephaliBhatt has more on this

https://x.com/Mint_Lounge/status/2098275347741466845

Ditching the phone and making plans the old-fashioned way is gaining fans as travellers aim to avoid curated journeys and overphotographed hotspots, even as they hope to stumble upon the unusual, writes @anitaraokashi Travellers are not going off the grid or disconnecting entirely, but they're leaving phones behind and doing things the old way—asking for directions, looking at maps and recording travel impressions. @shalinimb writes in the issue note 

https://x.com/Mint_Lounge/status/2098617209568534730

“In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” Albert Camus on our source of strength and how to save our sanity in trying times

https://x.com/brainpickings/status/2098635717312233520

The BAPS and Durga Pooja debates show (yet again) why 'Unity' as a demand by showing the evil of Abrahamism is ineffective and not strategic. The pursuit must be coherence, which is the sbabhava-svadharma synthesis. Coherence leads to self organization at unit level and effective solidarity via a Truth principle at the system level. Unity is a dynamic outcome of such coherence and not an end state. 

Unity cannot be an 'on demand' performance at the expense of svadharma. And the Truth principle cannot be political. Dhirendra Shastri ji saying what he learnt from his tradition and Shaktas practicing their rituals fiercely is Sanatana Dharma de facto. Imagine asking them to let go of their ways because Abrahamism is at the door. It can gather emotional appeal that can be milked politically but not much purchase outside of that. 

Similarly BAPS having their charya is as essential as other Sampradayas rejecting the hierachy of Gods they espouse. There is never any clash between vishesha dharma and saamanya dharma. If there is an apada, then doing what is right to survive is apad dharma and essential. The effort to show persistent apada from outside to demand sacrifice of vishesha misframes both how Humans act and systems sustain. 

This prioritizarion of the political consolidation and therefore demands for unity by flattenning diversity is the gap in Hindutva vision, as it is espoused currently

https://x.com/Anviksiki/status/2098601681382670649

This article offers a cultural critique of a Marathi film, Gulabjaam, from an anti-caste and anti-Brahminical perspective. It looks at the film as a new attempt in strengthening cultural dominance of a caste and city identity.

https://x.com/epw_in/status/2098449090409316478

A recent study in Psychological Science suggests that human beings have a deep-seated need to feel their actions matter. This drive, emerging as early as age four, motivates us to choose effortful tasks over easy ones.

https://x.com/PsyPost/status/2098412814566351110

The experience of reading Meena Kandasamy’s (@meenakandasamy) new novel set in the terrifying universe of digital lynching is akin to a walk through a minefield. Ravikant Kisana (@ProfRavikantK) reviews.

https://x.com/frontline_india/status/2098438150997807286

Is tragedy a means of exploring suffering, or does it teach us to enjoy it? | bit.ly/42mr6a0 Paul Kottman argues that our appetite for tragic drama cultivates a dangerous sadomasochistic tendency, and that we must resist the temptation to aestheticise our suffering.

https://x.com/IAI_TV/status/2098437413907366018

You might think that having a meaningful life makes you more afraid to lose it. But studies show the opposite; the more fully alive we feel, the more meaning we have in our life, paradoxically, the more ready we are to die. Psychotherapist Julie Hannan argues that we fear death because we fear losing the opportunity to live the life we have always wanted to, but have lacked the courage to. If you're already living a fully meaningful life, the fear of death simply loses its sting. Tap here for the full article. iai.tv/articles/a-lif…

https://x.com/IAI_TV/status/2098465623290294411

Discover Sri Aurobindo and Philosophy by @PariksithSingh a fascinating exploration of his vision, philosophy, poetry, and spiritual legacy. Join the Book Talk and watch now! youtube.com/live/rx2PaSEBp… @MakrandParanspe @AmazingVedas

https://x.com/sriaurobindochr/status/2098471887030653229

Don’t miss this insightful conversation between @PariksithSingh & Dr. Omendra Ratnu! Discover time through Vedanta: Is only the present real? Is time itself Brahman—consciousness beyond past and future? Watch now! youtu.be/G2t-ax96MjI?si… @MakrandParanspe @AmazingVedas

https://x.com/sriaurobindochr/status/2098517185828106590

How the Veda Turns Darkness Into a Journey Toward Consciousness I Richar... youtu.be/NOqQnb4JEIc?si… via @YouTube @PariksithSingh @psitsgayatri @AmazingVedas @sriaurobindochr @sriaurobindofdn

https://x.com/MakrandParanspe/status/2098592143082459334

Sri Aurobindo, The Pioneer of The Future: Ex-Prof. Ranjan Mitra, IIM Joka

Sri Ramakrishna-Vivekananda-Sri Aurobindo Nilaya Barasat Gate, Chandannagar, Hooghly e-mail: niloyorg1992@gmail.com

https://youtu.be/uzcyJOyePgY?si=TFmfTCTk34Tkr-_J

Sri Ranjan Mitra speech on Rishi Aurobindo 154th Birth Anniversary of Sri Aurobindo Chapters :-

00:00​ Sanjay Bhattacharya
02:15​ Goutam Bandyopadhyay
04:28​ Ranjan Mitra

Chandannagar's Heroic Son, Revolutionary of the Fire Age Tribute to Kanailal Dutta on his 139th Birthday August 30, 2026, Sunday Reba Shil Memorial Lecture Speaker: Professor Ranjan Mitra Editor, Sri Aurobindo Institute of Culture, Kolkata Former Professor, IIM, Joka, Kolkata Subject: Sri Aurobindo, the Pioneer of the Future

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