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Gargi Joshi

@gargiuvacha

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On the path to exploring Motherhood through a Dharmic lens

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My Punjabi husband used to think that Shivaji Maharaj was a local hero, so it’s okay that he doesn’t know much about him!

I made a boardgame (can’t tell stories) so that my daughter as well as my husband learn about this great leader. #parenting by @gargiuvacha

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9 months ago

Today, my daughter came home from school in tears after a disagreement with her friend.

As I sat with her, I realized that simply asking her to learn a Gita shloka on anger (krodha) is not enough. Wisdom must come with a workable method — a concrete way to handle emotions when they actually arise.

That’s when Modiji came to my rescue — not just with a thought, but with a practical mechanism. One that quietly entered a small, tearful conversation between a mother and her daughter. #parenting by @gargiuvacha

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9 months ago

Matrutva: The beginning of My Journey!

When I became a mother, I realized love alone wasn’t enough.
To raise a child with clarity, I had to first gain clarity myself.

So I left comfort. I chose courage.
I began unlearning what colonized me—and learning what could root my child in Dharma.

This isn’t just my journey.
It’s ours. As mothers. As teachers. As guardians of the next generation.

Let’s walk this path—together.
🪷 With Gargi | On Path of Decolonization
#parenting #traditional #decolonization by @gargiuvacha

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a year ago

We are seeing this happen in Europe today…

A lesson Bharat must learn from Europe’s mistakes, BEFORE we end up in the same situation. by @gargiuvacha

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17 hours ago

Kanya Pooja - On Ashtami we wash young girls' feet and worship them as the Devi. It reminds us of who we have always been.

Our oldest text, the Rig Veda, has hymns composed by women rishikas. Lopamudra, Ghosha, Apala. The Devi Sukta was revealed by Vāk Ambhṛṇī, a woman seer of the Rig Veda, where she says, "I am the queen, the gatherer of wealth."

In the Upanishads, Gargi questioned the greatest sage of her time in King Janaka's court, in front of everyone. Maitreyi was offered wealth and asked for knowledge instead.

Our princesses chose their own husbands in swayamvaras. Savitri went out herself, chose Satyavan and then argued with Yama to bring him back.
And women ruled. Ahilyabai Holkar built and restored temples across the length of Bharat. Rani Abbakka fought the Portuguese for decades.

Even the Devi herself is worshipped as a young girl at Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of our land.

We don't need to borrow the ideas of feminism from somewhere else. We only need to remember our own.

Kanya Puja is that remembering, once a year, so we live it all year.

Tonight, tell your daughter about one of these women. Which one will you start with? by @gargiuvacha

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3 days ago

So many years, so many CONTROVERSIES.
ONE QUESTION: WHO’S HOLDING THE GUARDIAN ACCOUNTABLE?

From Galwan to Kashmir. From COVID to the ballot box. From the Supreme Court to the temple verdict.

When India is the subject, are we getting journalism, or a narrative shaped by selective headlines, loaded language, and facts that deserve closer scrutiny?

A headline can frame a story. It shouldn’t replace the truth.

Question the framing. Check the facts. Challenge double standards. No publication deserves a free pass, not even one that claims to hold power accountable.

If the press demands scrutiny of governments, the press must withstand scrutiny too.

See the evidence. Share if you believe every media house should be held to the same standard. by @gargiuvacha

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4 days ago

Teach your daughters both - to be Sweet and strong - and more importantly, when to be which.

The Devi Mahatmya shows us exactly how the Devi does it.

When the gods come to her helpless and scared, she is pure compassion. She comforts them and promises to protect them.

When the asura king sends her a marriage proposal, she doesn't shout. She replies calmly: "I made a vow. Only the one who defeats me in battle can have me." Polite, but her answer is clear.

Then, before any war, she sends Shiva himself as her messenger to the asuras: "Give the heavens back to the gods and go home, if you want to live." She gives them a chance for peace.

Only when they choose war does she fight. And when she fights, she doesn't hold back.

Now look at her hands. One is raised in blessing, saying "don't be afraid." The others hold the trishul, the chakra, the sword and the bow. It's the same Devi, blessing with one hand and ready to fight with the others. Each hand knows its moment. by @gargiuvacha

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5 days ago

We have heard the White Man’s Burden narrative before. Elon Musk is not the first to arrive with a saviour’s promise. The British came claiming to bring education and civilisation. We know how that story unfolded.

Today, the promises come wrapped in technology, but high costs and security concerns remain.

Doodh ka jala, chhaachh bhi phoonk phoonk kar peeta hai. We need not reject technology, but we must question the narrative, examine the risks and protect our interests before placing our trust in a billionaire’s promises. by @gargiuvacha

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6 days ago

Avengers vs Great-Grandfather!

Your child can name 5 Avengers. Can she name her great-grandfather?

This summer holidays I requested my father in law to teach my daughter the names of last 5 generations. My father has taught me too.

Our civilization was obsessed with remembering. In Haridwar, family priests still keep handwritten registers called bahis, with family names going back many generations. People walk in and find ancestors they never knew they had.

And every time we say our gotra in a puja, we are naming a rishi we come from. We carried memory for thousands of years without Google.
Lesson: A child who knows where she comes from doesn't get lost easily. Roots don't hold you back. They hold you up.

Our children will face many winds: peer pressure, screens, people telling them our culture is backward. Roots are what keep them standing.

When she knows whose name she carries, she thinks twice before accepting false narratives about our history. by @gargiuvacha

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11 days ago

Mahabharat - is it still relevant? by @gargiuvacha

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11 days ago

That one moment explains Pitru Paksha.

I heard this story. Bhishma lies on a bed of arrows. Yudhishthir sits beside him, asking about dharma. In the Anushasana Parva, Bhishma tells him something that happened in his own life. When his father Shantanu died, Bhishma went to Gangadwar, today's Haridwar, to offer the pinda, a ball of rice. He spread kusha grass on the ground. Suddenly a hand wearing ornaments rose out of the earth. His father's hand, waiting. This is the father for whom Bhishma gave up his throne and never married. Any son would have placed the pinda straight into that hand.

But Bhishma placed it on the kusha.
That night, the ancestors, all of them, came to him in a dream and said, "We are pleased with you."

Look at when Pitru Paksha comes. It's harvest time, and the first grains go to those before us as pinda. Without them, we would not exist. Pitru Paksha is gratitude to the whole lineage.
Honour it, don't be bound by it. Bhishma loved his father deeply. Yet he chose the ritual over his emotion. Why? Because Pitru Paksha is bigger than one relationship. We bow to the lineage we came through, without making our whole identity about it.
Our body carries the memory of our parents and grandparents: their habits, their temper, their fears. If we're identified with that memory, we'll only replay their life. To become a fresh possibility, we need a little distance from it.

Bhishma understood this. That's exactly what Bhishma did. The pinda wasn't a meal for one father's hand. He placed it on the earth for the whole line of ancestors, with full respect and with that distance. That's why all the pitrus blessed him, not only Shantanu.

Which family habit would you NOT want to pass on to your kids? Tell us.. by @gargiuvacha

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14 days ago

What happens when a civilisation forgets its ancestors?

The story of the Bhutta/Bhutto lineage opens a larger question about ancestry, conversion, political identity and civilisational memory.

From the Chalukyas and medieval Bhuṭṭā references to the Rajput-origin traditions preserved in colonial records, and eventually to the political Bhuttos of modern Pakistan—the historical trail is complex, fascinating and, in parts, still open to further genealogical investigation.

This carousel is an adaptation and synthesis inspired by the research and arguments presented in Dharma Dispatch Digest on Substack, particularly its exploration of the Bhurṭṭaka–Bhuṭṭā–Bhutto question.

Source / Credit: Dharma Dispatch Digest, Substack

Pitru Paksha reminds us: we did not begin with ourselves.

Remember the ancestors.
Study the past.
Carry the memory forward. by @gargiuvacha

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16 days ago