Tag: Bhagavad Gita

What Would You Do? A New Daily Tavamithram Series

Posted on by Tavamithram Sarvada

You probably have a fairly clear idea of the kind of person you are.

You know what you consider right and wrong. You know what you would tolerate, what you would never do, whom you would trust, when you would walk away and when you would stand your ground.

At least, that is what most of us think.

But put yourself inside a real situation, remove the comfortable distance, add money, loyalty, friendship, family, betrayal, ambition or fear, and suddenly the answer is not always so obvious.

That is where it becomes interesting.

I have started a new daily Tavamithram series called What Would You Do?

Every day, you are given three real-life situations.

You read the situation. You decide what you would do. Then you see a short reflection that may make you look at your choice again.

There is no need to impress anybody. There is only one person whose answer matters here: you.

Your choices stay in your browser for the day. They are not displayed publicly.

And if you are someone who prefers to think rather than simply follow what everybody else says, you may find this rather addictive.

Three situations. Three decisions. Every day.

So, how well do you actually know your own mind?

Practical Bhagavad Gita for Modern Life

Posted on by Tavamithram Sarvada

Bhagavad Gita Companion: Ancient Wisdom for the Problems You Face Today. Learn to apply the knowledge of the Gita to Real Life.


Bhagavad Gita Companion by Tavamithram web app

When you are facing a serious problem, whom would you rather speak to? Someone as confused, stressed and disturbed as you are, or someone with a calmer mind who can look at your situation from a little distance, see what you may not be seeing, and help you think it through rationally?

Every one of us meets situations in which the mind becomes disturbed. There are choices to make, relationships to handle, losses to accept, fears to overcome, anger to control, and moments when we simply do not know what to do. This is ordinary and human.

The Srimad Bhagavad Gita can itself be read as an externalisation of that inner turmoil. Arjuna’s crisis becomes the setting in which questions about action, judgement, responsibility, fear, attachment and life itself are examined.

The One-of-a-kind Bhagavad Gita Companion by Tavamithram puts that examination within immediate reach.

Rather than expecting you to know in advance which chapter or shloka to look for, it lets you begin with what you are actually facing: anger, fear, relationships, confusion, loss and grief, attachment, uncertainty, difficult decisions, inner conflict, and other concerns that arise in life. Seventeen of them are covered, each taking you through the problem, the principles involved, and the teachings of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita that bear on it.

The purpose is not to hand you another quotation. It is to help you think clearly at the moment your thinking is under most pressure.

Distress often makes people confide in whoever is nearby, and they later regret what they revealed. The Gita Companion by Tavamithram offers a private space instead: somewhere to examine the situation, understand yourself better, and gradually absorb what is needed to think for yourself. A firm grasp of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita enables a person to be guided by their own intellect rather than led about by uncontrolled senses, emotions and impulses, or left permanently dependent on the counsel of others.

Many years of study, analysis and painstaking work lie behind this web app, all of it directed at one purpose: making the philosophy of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita understandable, accessible and applicable to daily life.

The concern-based section is only one part of it. The Companion also carries all 18 chapters and 701 shlokas in the original Sanskrit, with romanisation, English translation and audio recitation.

You do not need to wait until you are old before you ‘study’ the Srimad Bhagavad Gita and someday learn to use it. Use it while you are living your life, when you are confused, when emotions are interfering with your judgement, when a difficult decision is in front of you, and when life tests you.

As the knowledge becomes internalised, you increasingly learn to recognise the relevant principles yourself when situations arise. The Gita Companion by Tavamithram thus helps you develop the clarity and intellectual independence to rely less on others for counsel and increasingly on your own informed and disciplined intellect.

You should not merely own a copy of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita. You should carry its knowledge with you.

Your Gita is waiting.
Just begin.


bhagavadgita.tavamithram.com

Modern Rishi logo beside the words “Are you ready to call yourself a Modern Rishi?”

Are You Ready to Call Yourself a Modern Rishi?

Posted on by Tavamithram Sarvada

The Modern Rishi does not escape life, but transcends illusion.

For many years I have said that Vedanta is not blind belief, ritual repetition, personality worship or spiritual entertainment. It exists to produce clarity. It helps us examine what we have assumed, see the forces that shape our thinking, and recognise what is real beneath inherited identity, fear and conditioning.

The Modern Rishi Movement is the next step in that work.

It is for people who question what others repeat, who examine what others merely believe, and who would rather face an uncomfortable truth than live inside a convenient illusion.

This movement is not for everyone.

If you repeat mantras daily without ever asking what they mean, you will find nothing here. If you prefer inherited belief to direct understanding, or want another guru to follow, another personality to worship, another comforting system to tell you what to think, look elsewhere. And if you are unwilling to question your own assumptions, identities, loyalties and conclusions, you are not ready for this yet.

A mantra is not a mechanical refuge from thought. A teaching memorised while life continues unchanged has achieved nothing. The words of Vedanta and the Srimad Bhagavad Gita have to be examined and understood before they can mean anything at all. They exist to transform perception, bring clarity to action and free the mind from confusion.

Who is a Modern Rishi?

A Modern Rishi lives fully in the world without being ruled by its noise, acts with awareness rather than reaction, and values truth above emotional convenience.

There is no withdrawal from responsibility here. The Modern Rishi works, creates, leads, protects and serves, but is not imprisoned by status, praise, fear, ideology or the demand for approval. Divisions of gender, religion, nationality, class and wealth are recognised as conditions of human life, not as the truth of what one is.

None of this means passivity, detachment or indifference to suffering. It means living with greater attention, discipline, courage and compassion.

Why this movement now?

Information has never been more abundant. Clarity is still rare.

People inherit beliefs before they are capable of examining them. They are taught whom to admire, whom to fear, what to defend and what must never be questioned. Political identity, religious identity, social labels, media narratives and group loyalty colour perception until people can no longer separate what they see from what they have been trained to see.

The Modern Rishi Movement begins with the willingness to examine that colouring. It asks:

What do I actually know?
What have I only repeated?
What has shaped the person I take myself to be?
Am I seeing clearly, or through filters handed to me?

How Tavamithram Led to the Modern Rishi Movement

Through Tavamithram, I have presented Vedanta and the Srimad Bhagavad Gita as instruments of understanding and freedom, never of religious authority or blind faith.

The Modern Rishi Movement carries that work into a wider space. It examines perception, identity, social conditioning, inherited belief and intellectual courage, and how these forces shape the way we think, react and live. Its foundation is Vedanta; what it addresses is life as it is lived now.

The movement formally begins on 15 August 2026. Until then, the new Modern Rishi site will introduce its vision, principles, films and reflections.

Discover the Modern Rishi Movement

Are you ready?

You do not need to agree with me, accept a doctrine or surrender your intelligence to anyone. You do need to be willing to look. Question what you have inherited, investigate what you repeat, and examine whether your convictions arise from understanding or from conditioning.

If you are ready for that, enter.

Enter the Modern Rishi Movement
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Self-Enquiry in Advaita Vedanta: What Remains?

Posted on by Tavamithram Sarvada

Sometimes you identify with your body and say, ‘I look good,’ ‘I am fat,’ ‘I am getting old,’ ‘I am sick.’ Other times, you identify with your mind and say, ‘I am excited,’ ‘I am depressed,’ ‘I am angry.’ When life is going well, you say you have a great life, and when you feel low, you say your life is terrible.

Your body changes. Your mind changes. Your story changes.

What are you, then, when everything you call yourself keeps changing?

Give me less than ten minutes.

1: You Are Not the Body

The body is known.

You see it and feel it; you watch it change. It was small once. It is different now. One day it will be frail and unrecognisable. It has never stopped changing since the moment it appeared.

Now, here is the question: can the known be the knower? Obviously not.

You have a body. But you are not the body.

2: You Are Not the Mind

Thoughts appear and disappear. Anger arrives and leaves. Fear comes and goes. Even the silence between thoughts comes and goes.

So, if everything in the mind is passing through, what are you? You are the one in whom all of it is happening. The knower of the mind cannot be the mind. You are not the thought. You are not the thinker. You are what remains when the noise stops.

3: You Are Not Your Story

Your name was given to you by others. Your past is memory. Your identity is a collection of recorded experiences that the mind calls “mine.”

Stop at that word. Mine.

You say “my childhood,” “my pain,” “my reputation,” “my achievement,” and even “my life”! If it is “my,” it is not the final “I.” The story is known. You are not the story.

4: What Remains?

When the body is set aside as known, when the mind is set aside as known, when the story is set aside as known, what is left?

Awareness. Not a theory, not a religious claim, not something you need to practise into existence. It is the simple, undeniable fact of knowing. Before thought, it is there. During thought, it is there. After thought fades, it is still there.

You do not create it. You have simply been overlooking it.

That is what you are.

5: Why Suffering Begins

Now look at this carefully.

The body changes, and fear begins. The mind changes, and confusion begins. People’s opinions shift, and insecurity begins. Circumstances move, and anxiety begins.

Why? Because you placed yourself inside what was changing. You took the known to be the knower. You took the passing story to be the real “I.”

That single error is the entire root of human suffering. Not sin. Not karma. Not fate. One misidentification. That is bondage.

6: Do Not Turn This Into Another Idea

At this point, the mind may try to grab the teaching and convert it into a new identity.

“I am awareness.” “I know Vedanta.” “I understand Brahman.” “I am beyond the body and mind.”

Careful.

That may only be the ego wearing new clothes.

Vedanta is not a sentence to repeat. It is not a badge. It is not a spiritual status.

The question is not whether you can say “I am awareness.” The question is whether you still collapse when the body is criticised, the mind is disturbed, the story is threatened, or your image is insulted.

That is where the enquiry becomes real.

7: What Vedanta Actually Does

Vedanta does not hand you a new belief to replace the old one.

It removes error.

You already are the awareness because of which the body, the mind, the thought, the memory, and the entire world are known. Vedanta does not manufacture this truth. It exposes the confusion that has been covering it.

It does not say, “Become something else.” It says, “See clearly what you have been mistaking yourself for.” Nothing is added. Everything false is removed.

8: What Brahman Actually Means

Brahman is not a bearded ‘god’ above the clouds. Not a cosmic authority watching from a throne.

Brahman is the reality because of which anything is known at all. The body appears in it. The mind moves in it. The world arises in it. Even this moment of reading or listening is happening because of it.

Not an object to be reached. Not a reward to be earned. It is the ground that is already here, making all experience possible.

9: What Liberation Actually Means

Liberation is not escape to another world. It is not joining an ashram, acquiring a title, or becoming someone others regard as spiritually elevated.

Liberation is the collapse of the central error.

The body continues to act. The mind continues to think. Life continues with all its weight and texture. But the root mistake is gone: the belief that “I am this body-mind story” is gone.

Once that error is genuinely seen, and not merely understood as an interesting idea, life stops being driven by fear, vanity, and borrowed identity.

10: Final Strike

Do not believe me.

See it.

Everything you have ever called “I” has been known. The body, known. The mind, known. The story, known. The fear, the desire, and the confusion, all known.

You are the knower. You have never been the known.

That is Vedanta.

No costume. No institution. No borrowed holiness. No performance.

If the false “I” survives this enquiry untouched, nothing has happened. Sorry. But if the false “I” collapses, Vedanta has done its work.

Costume cannot replace clarity. Institution cannot replace enquiry. And no teacher has done the job if the false “I” walks out intact.

The special clothes were never the point. The real “I” was always the point.

The ‘I’ you have been protecting all your life was never you.

What you truly are has never been born, has never suffered, and has never needed saving.

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Continue the enquiry into the “I”

If this question has become real for you, continue with Modern Rishi. It is built around the same enquiry into identity, the mind, the Self, conditioning, ego, responsibility and living with clarity.

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What Next?: The End of Inner Conflict

Posted on by Tavamithram Sarvada

He Who Conquers His Mind Is the Mightiest Warrior

People think strength is aggression. They think power is domination. Many think victory means defeating an external opponent.

That understanding does not survive scrutiny.

Real strength has nothing to do with overpowering others. It has everything to do with … CONTINUE READING ON SUBSTACK

Experience the Bhagavad Gita: A Dynamic Approach

Posted on by Tavamithram Sarvada

Now Is the Time. Experience the Srimad Bhagavad Gita Like Never Before!

It is rather ironic that in India, people solemnly place their hand on the Srimad Bhagavad Gita in a court of law and swear to speak the truth, yet many of them have never read it, let alone truly understood its message. How strange it is that a civilisation that produced the world’s most brilliant text on life, ethics, detachment, work, and clarity, treats it like a prop or a ritual object, rather than the supreme manual for life that it truly is.

This is why I, Tavamithram Sarvada, have taken it upon myself to make the Srimad Bhagavad Gita easily available, accessible, and comprehensible to all, not by mystifying it, but by bringing it to life.
And here is a rendition like no other.

🎙️ Each Shloka Delivered Powerfully, Not Sung Dully

Most recitations of the Gita are delivered in a monotonous and emotionless chant, often with all 700 Shlokas sung in a single flat tune. But remember that the scenario is that of war, and to ensure the energy and power apart from the wisdom the Bhagavad Gita imparts, I came to the conclusion that it needs to be delivered dramatically and powerfully.

With a background in acting and a deep grounding in Vedanta, I have delivered each Shloka with the tone, expression, and intensity its meaning calls for. This is not a performance – it is a sacred transmission, infused with clarity, emotion, and strength.

Each Shloka appears on-screen in Sanskrit, accompanied by its romanised transliteration, English transliteration, and meaning. Whether or not you understand Sanskrit, this immersive experience will draw you into the battlefield of Kurukshetra and place you right beside Arjuna and at the feet of Bhagavan Shri Krishna, both mentally and spiritually.

📽️ Why This Matters Now

In an age of confusion, disconnection, and identity crisis, the Srimad Bhagavad Gita remains the most powerful antidote to fear, sorrow, and indecision. But you must listen to it, not once, not just as a ritual, but as if your life depended on it.

Because in many ways, it does.

💡 Don’t Believe. Know!

This is the spirit of Timeless Vedanta, and this is your invitation to listen to the Srimad Bhagavad Gita as never before. There is no concept of belief in Vedanta as it is in organised religions. It is purely about realisation. Don’t leave this life without having at least heard the full message of Bhagavan Krishna.

If you haven’t yet read or heard the Srimad Bhagavad Gita even once in your life, start today. You owe it to yourself.

🎧 Now is the time. Experience the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, like never before!

👇🏼 Watch the full video here:

The Srimad Bhagavad Gita Explained Simply In English

SrimadBhagavadGita #BhagavadGitaRecitation #GitaWithMeaning #TimelessVedanta #Don’tBelieveKnow #SanskritGita #GitaForEveryone #PowerfulRecitation #ArjunaKrishna #SpiritualAwakening

Where Vedanta Begins, War Ends: How This Ancient Wisdom Can Transform The World

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From Dogma to Direct Experience: The Practical Power of Vedanta

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Most people live their lives filled with noise, dogma, and contradiction, making sense of life a challenging task. They have unanswered questions, such as, “Who am I?” or “What’s the point of all this?” They are either caught up in beliefs and rituals, have no inclination to engage with such questions, or, due to their beliefs, are afraid to question traditions, or simply too busy to stop and think.

Religions and ideologies claim to offer answers, but more often than not, they leave us confused and divided. They demand belief, but fail to encourage true understanding.

Vedanta is not another belief system. It offers a unique method – a way of seeing – that helps you distinguish between what is real and what is assumed. It doesn’t require blind faith. Instead, it invites you to look within and engage with your own direct experience.

The power of Vedanta lies in…READ ON SUBSTACK

Religion Failed You – Vedanta Won’t

Posted on by Tavamithram Sarvada

VEDANTA DOESN’T NEGATE ‘GOD’, IT ….. (READ ON AND WATCH THE VIDEO)

Vedanta gets you out of DELUSION.

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What if everything you’ve been taught about ‘god’, worship, and salvation is just the kindergarten of the path of the rational philosophy of Vedanta?

The ancient Rishis (wise, selfless sages) spoke in metaphors and extensive analogies—not to hide the truth, but because ultimate reality must be directly experienced. It cannot be handed to you as dogma or belief.

Yet what do the ignorant masses do? They take the allegories literally and spin them into entire new cults, sects, and traditions! Haven’t you seen all those ‘I-know-it-all’ bearded men in flowing robes strutting around like proud peacocks who spin yarns about being reincarnations of some old sages who existed 50,000 years ago and so on? Where does all that come from? How do those people even get there? One reason: The IGNORANCE of the masses strengthened by the disease of DUALITY infused into them – or rather, the lack of knowledge of NONDUALITY or universal oneness in them.

Watch the video presentation below to understand why such profound analogies exist in the Puranas, Itihasas, and Vedantic scriptures at all.

It is indeed comforting to believe in a ‘divine father’ watching over us—listening to our prayers, changing all his plans only because we were ‘good children’ or fasted sincerely, rewarding good, punishing evil. Temples and prayers sustain this. A necessary beginning, maybe, but it is like ‘spiritual kindergarten’. True awakening requires quitting kindergarten and progressing toward Vedanta’s university.

Below are a few points why Vedanta stands apart:
• It rejects all blind belief in any supernatural being or other such unintelligent stuff in favour of direct knowledge
• It transcends ritual worship through Self-inquiry
• Through studying the master-disciple dialogues, seekers systematically remove ignorance to recognise their true nature – which the Srimad Bhagavad Gita reveals as the highest state of consciousness – SBG 2:72

What we call “spiritual seeking” often becomes mental chasing. Vedanta ends this by revealing:
✓ The illusion of separation between seeker and sought
✓ That rituals cannot give what you already are
✓ How to recognise the eternal presence beyond birth and death
✓ That the ultimate goal isn’t conceptual – it’s a transformed state of mind (what the Gita calls “sthita-pragnyaa”) SBG 2:55

This isn’t about new beliefs – it’s about realising the truth that:
• Liberates from all mental conditioning
• Establishes one in natural peace
• Reveals consciousness as your fundamental state

This is not about adopting new beliefs—it’s about transcending belief itself, to know truth directly.

📽️ Watch “Vedanta vs Religion: The Truth Will Set You Free”
(For those ready to move from concepts to direct realisation)

The wave need not believe it is the ocean—it need only look and realise that it is the ocean.

Aum Tat Sat.

This knowledge isn’t “enlightenment” — it’s what remains when all illusions fall away.

🔄 I know few will read this or watch the myth-shattering video – truth tends to terrify the comfortable. But if these words stir even the faintest doubt in some corner of your conditioned mind, share it with someone still trapped in ‘spiritual kindergarten’. They might just deserve their first taste of freedom.

Monk Mindset, Modern Life

Posted on by Tavamithram Sarvada

The myth of needing perfect conditions for peace

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What does true peace look like?

Is it a secluded beach at sunset? A mountaintop retreat? The moment after you achieve a long-sought goal?

A photography contest once asked this same question—and the winning answer stunned everyone.

It wasn’t the most beautiful image. It wasn’t the most dramatic. But when the judges saw it, they immediately knew: This is it. This is real peace.

What did they see that moved them so deeply?

And more importantly – how can you access that same unshakeable calm, no matter your circumstances?

I explore this in my new video, “The Essence of Peace: A Journey Beyond Fear and Attachment.” It’s not what you might expect.

You’ll discover:

  • The hidden trap in how we chase peace (and why it keeps slipping away)
  • The 2-word mental shift that dissolves worry instantly
  • What predators, bouncing cups, and your deepest fears all have in common
  • Why “preparing for the worst” is actually the key to fearless living

This isn’t theory. It’s a revelation hiding in plain sight—in a poor village, in life-threatening crises in my life, and in the quiet space between your thoughts.

Peace isn’t something you find. It’s something you stop losing.

Watch here:

“The battle was never with the world. It was always in the mind—and the mind was never really you.”

P.S. The most extraordinary truths often wear the disguise of ordinary moments. This one might catch you by surprise.

Truth Doesn’t Care About Your Beliefs: Uncover the Ultimate Reality

Posted on by Tavamithram Sarvada

READ AND WATCH THROUGH MY SUBSTACK

You’ve been told what to think. You’ve been conditioned to accept, obey, and conform. But what if everything you believe—everything you rely on—has been carefully placed there to keep you from seeing the truth?

What if the world around you isn’t what it seems?

This isn’t just another talk. It’s an experience—one that might shake the very foundation of what you think is real. But be warned: once you step through this door, there is no going back.

Are you ready to challenge everything? Watch now.