Between Series
A collection of independent essays from The Broken Tusk exploring history, art, and consciousness through a Vedantic lens. These writings don’t fit within a single series, yet each reflects the same inquiry into truth, perception, and the human condition.
Why Vedanta Will Never Be Popular
In an age obsessed with methods, progress, and self-improvement, Vedanta stands alone: a teaching that offers nothing to gain and no one to gain it. This essay explores why its uncompromising truth will never capture the masses — and why it will never die out.
The Art of Remembering - On Writing, Forgetting, and the Drift of the Mind
A contemplative essay on the purpose of writing as remembrance. The Art of Remembering explores how words anchor consciousness against the drift of maya—how insight fades, returns, and becomes a quiet rhythm of awakening.
From Mysticism to Method: Why Vedanta Doesn't Bend
Neo-Vedanta arose from Ramakrishna’s mysticism and Vivekananda’s synthesis, but modern teachers increasingly sound like Advaita itself. Why Vedanta cannot bend to interpretation.
Myth Over Method: Christ for the West, Yoga for the East
Christianity survived not because of its historical truth but because of its mythic power. In grief, followers of Jesus transformed their teacher into a savior, and empire turned the story into a unifying force. Asia, meanwhile, carried forward yoga and Vedanta as systematic methods of inquiry into the Self. This essay explores how myth overshadowed method in the West, why it endured, and what Vedanta reveals about the half-truths of religion.
Nisargadatta: Poet, Philosopher, or Teacher?
Nisargadatta Maharaj was brilliant, blunt, and bewildering. To some, he seemed like a poor teacher, leaving seekers frustrated and confused. To others, he was a poet-philosopher whose presence and words worked like medicine. With help from David Godman’s recollections and a closer look at Maurice Frydman’s translation of I Am That, we can see him more clearly—not as a traditional acharya, but as one of Advaita’s most radical improvisers of truth.
The Mind's Stage: How Science Confirms the World is an Illusion
A methodical exploration of why, in Vedanta, the world is not ultimately real — backed by everyday science, clear definitions, and traditional teachings.
Cosmic Man: Vedanta's Vision of the Whole
Explore Vedanta’s Cosmic Man—not as a metaphysical myth, but as a teaching tool to understand the ego, the cosmos, and the formless Self behind both.
Art, Emotion and the Self: A Vedantic View of Art
A personal essay tracing the path from artistic expression to spiritual insight. What began as a need to create evolved into a deeper desire to understand reality. Through meditation and the teachings of Advaita Vedanta, the search turned inward—toward the Self, the silent witness behind all thought and feeling.
Is prayer useful in Advaita Vedanta? Its usefulness depends on what you're praying for.
The Unplayed Note: A Vedantic Reading of Keith Jarrett’s “October 17, 1988”
Keith Jarrett’s Paris Concert contains one of the most extraordinary improvisations ever played — a 38-minute journey that behaves more like scripture than music. In this essay, we explore how “October 17, 1988” seemingly mirrors the ancient structure of Om, from emergence through dissolution to silence. A rare moment when a musician steps aside and the deeper intelligence of reality plays through him.
A reflection on wonder as a form of understanding—how recognizing the universe’s order, intelligence, and beauty draws the mind into quiet participation rather than belief.