I woke up to an email from The New York Times titled The Morning: A major religious shift:
“Spirituality is not declining. And in fact, it’s high; it’s stable,” said Penny Edgell, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota.
What attracted my attention was the share of US adults who believe in soul and afterlife:
So, I decided to riff on:
On the Origin of Species is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin that is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. The book was written for non-specialist readers.
On the Origin of Sridhara is a work of spiritual literature by Sridhar Tayur that can be considered to be the foundation of MyAmpleLife. The post is written for non-Vedic readers.
As you know from Live and Let Die, I decided to execute the 13-day Vedic funeral rituals on the passing of my dad.
Grieving the loss of a loved one is a universal experience, but the way we process that grief differs across cultures.
In Hindu tradition, the 13 day mourning period, culminating in the Terahvin ceremony (from the Hindi word “Terah,” meaning 13), is a sacred time of reflection, remembrance, and ritual.
According to Hindu beliefs, the soul remains connected to the earthly plane during these 13 days before finally transitioning to the afterlife. The rituals performed during this time help guide the soul on its journey, ensuring it finds peace and release from the cycle of reincarnation, or samsara. During these 13 days, family members observe specific practices, including daily prayers and rituals.
The aim is to provide spiritual aid to the departed soul while also allowing the family time to process their grief in a structured and meaningful way.
I must gratefully acknowledge the amazing support my mom, my sister and I received from all the family members and friends in Bengaluru, who were (and still are) very helpful, participating (and guiding me) through all the rituals and being there for us.
I also want to admit that going through the rituals has indeed been very helpful, in line with its intended purpose.
Each day, I periodically asked the (pretty-laid back) priest (who described these rituals as a “send-off” party for the soul) to pause so I could take photographs on my iPhone!
The rituals of Day 12 – Sapindikarana – were particularly thought provoking as their primary purpose is to unite the soul (of my dad) with those of his (and my!) ancestors, elevating it from its spirit (Preta) to ancestor (Pitru). It marks the deceased’s official entry into the ancestral lineage and concludes the primary mourning rituals.
Four rice balls (pindas) are involved: three representing past generations and one the recently deceased.
Gotra? The priest inquired softly.
Vasiṣṭha.
Father’s name?
Raghavendra.
Father’s father’s name?
Narasinga.
Father’s father’s father’s name?
Ananda.
The priest plugged in the ancestral information into the Sanskrit hymns, and started to methodically merge the separate balls of rice into each other, symbolically uniting the departed soul with its ancestors.
So, where am I originally from?
Sarasvati, flowing with her strength, pure and great,
She has vast waters, invincible, and full of sustenance.
She nourishes all life with her powerful stream,
The best among rivers, fostering righteousness.
Four millenia ago (sometime around 1900 BCE), on the banks of River Sarasvati, not far from the Indus Valley, lived a poet-sage, one of the Sapta Rishis (Seven Sages), named Vasiṣṭha, whose hymns (including the one above) have been memorialized in Mandala 7 of the Rig Veda, by his great-grandson, Krishna Dwaipayana, literally Dark-dude (who is) Island-born, later renamed, for obvious reasons, as Veda Vyasa, The Veda Arranger (Compiler).
As some of you already know, I have been studying the Rig Veda for the past few years, because, after all, I am a man of considerable leisure (see Conspicuous Leisure and Weston Brahmin), and Rig Veda falls squarely in the intersection of Mythology and Poetry.
On my father’s side, I am a direct descendent of Vasiṣṭha (see My History of Eternity). That is my gotra, the paternal lineage traced back to a common ancestor, typically one of the seven legendary sages or one of forty-one other revered figures. [Yes, there are 48 gotras.]
The lineage of Vasiṣṭha is blessed and holy,
Rooted in truth and nourished by divine grace.
Their hymns resound across the heavens and earth,
Calling the gods to grant blessings to all.
The rituals did not inquire about the mothers, or their ancestors.
But: I am curious.
My mother’s father’s last name was Sirsi, descendant perhaps of the Havyaka Brahmins who moved to the South at the request of Mayurasharma, the founder of Kadamba Dynasty, whose capital was Banavasi, sometime during 345-365 CE, from Achichchatra, known in the middle and late Vedic times (1100 – 500 BCE) as the legendary capital of Panchala Kingdom, that was allied with the Kuru Kingdom, which was formed by the Bharatas, after Sudas won The Battle of The Ten Kings, see A Brief Time-line of Pre-history, thanks to the hymns of Vasiṣṭha!
Chosen by Sudas, the Bharata’s great king,
Vasiṣṭha leads with prayers in times of need.
His words call forth Indra’s thunderous power,
That crushes foes and upholds cosmic law.
O Indra, you brought victory to Sudas,
You defeated the mighty armies of the ten kings.
They came united, full of pride and arrogance,
But you shattered their forces with your strength.
Their chariots were shattered, their banners fell,
As your thunderbolt struck fear into their hearts.
You delivered justice on the battlefield,
And preserved the glory of the virtuous king.
That is my Puranic Iti-ha-sa (“So indeed it was”).
For Day 13 rituals – called Terahvin (in Sanskrit) and Hadimoorne Dinada Karya (in Kannada) – I decided (with the support of my uncle, my dad’s younger brother) to provide sumptuous lunch to 50 poor people at Raghavendra Swami Matha in Jayanagar, which is affiliated with the one in Mantralaya, as the latter was my dad’s spiritual center.
Now that we are on Day 14, and I have resumed my normal life, it was great to catch up on:
The Wild Economics Behind Ferrari’s Domination of the Luxury Car Market
Robb Report’s 2025 Car of the Year: The 10 Contenders
Winner. McLaren. (See True Grip.) Runner-up. Aston Martin. (See Stotras to the Artificial.)
And, literally, as I was about to finalize the post, we received this email (see To Split, or not to Split):
26-Feb-2025
Dear authors (names omitted for double-blind review):
I am pleased to accept your manuscript for publication in Operations Research based on the Area Editor’s recommendation. I thank the bcc’ed Associate Editor and Referees for their help during the Review Process.
Congratulations on your work on split liver transplants! Your paper is a nice blend of theory (explicit solution from a fluid model and novel fluid limit decomposition) and applied study (simulation study based on data from STAR and PTR).
Sincerely,
Prof. Amy Ward
Editor in Chief
Operations Research
