On #GitaJayanti, I prostrate before Sri Krishna for conceptualising the Bhagwad Gita, Ved Vyasa for compiling these powerful spiritual ideas, and Sri Aurobindo for taking them to the next level.
A thread...

#Thread When Mahabali Bali, who drew half the power of the enemy, faced Hanumanji.

The Ramayana has an interesting episode of the war of Hanuman and Bali. This passage offers many lessons. No matter how strong a person becomes, no matter how rich he should be, he should not boast.

Bali had the boon that whoever comes before him for war, half of his strength will be absorbed in Bali. On the basis of this boon, Bali beat the big warriors to dust.

Bali used to challenge people here and there. One day, he was screaming in the forest that who can beat me.

Hanumanji was doing penance in the same forest and was reciting the name of his adorable Lord Rama. Bali's shouting disrupted his austerity. He said to Bali, Vanar Raj you are very strong, no one can beat you, but why are you screaming like this?

'Tera mera rishta kya, hindu, hindu,hindutva' is a clear take on 'tera mera rishta kya,la ilaha illallah'. As much as Hindutva hates the monotheistic religions especially Islam, there's a strange wistfulness and subliminal need at display now, to BE that they hate. 1

Charlie Hebdo doesn’t come up as a cautionary tale now but rather 'why cant we be like that'?
Growing up, Hanuman was an adorable deity for us, who swallowed the sun, or who couldn’t figure out what was Sanjeevani booti so he picked up a whole mountain and came back with it. 2

Or he was loyal, admirable and when he cleaved his chest, you saw both Ram and Sita. Now we have a lot of “Angry Hanuman” stickers. Why is a cute childlike God angry? We don’t know. It's a convenient blank space where to paint all the angst of Hindu Khatre mein hain narrative. 3

The other strange thing that has started happening is pictures of Ram appearing sans Sita. “Jai Siya Ram” has become “Jai Shri Ram”. Some people disingenuously explain it as being the same thing - because Shri is a name of Lakshmi. Not really. Siya is an apbhransh of Sita. 4

Shri is a prefix of respect in this case. Hinduism is being militarised. A woman/Sita has no place in it. Even the militaristic Goddess that is Durga has no place in this conception of neo-Hindu divinity, as evidenced by Dilip Mandal wondering where Durga came from. 5

PATTERNS - a thread.

what do dairy products, shampoo and the very first couple all have in common?

the answer is lines, shapes...or rather patterns that traders use to predict where price is going in the future.

for years now, i've used these patterns systematically and have no clue how i would navigate my trading without them.

if i'm being honest i mostly learned from studying and trying to replicate charts from legends like @inversebrah, @LSDinmycoffee and @LomahCrypto

now patterns are supposed to make your charts simpler rather than adding unnecessary noise.

i've made TONS of mistakes in terms of bad, low effort and flat-out invalid patterns with my charts.

with analysis its very easy to make your charts look they way you *want* them to.

there have been some very expensive lessons as a result of these mistakes, but if those mistakes lead to knowledge i can apply to the future then it makes it all worth it.

i guess you can have fun staying poor...anyways

what did I learn? a lot.

there are countless patterns, and if i'm being honest you can almost "create your own" to suit your bias.

but for now, lets focus on three: Adam & Eve, Head & Shoulders and Wedges.

It has long been a custom in the Islamic world to compose collections of 40 Hadith (sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad) for believers to memorize. Thread for the the era of Covid.

The most famous perhaps that of the thirteenth century Shafi’i jurist al-Nawawi, which I use in teaching.

Collections of Prophetic traditions also exist for specific subjects or according to specific transmitters. And, separately, since the beginning of Covid, Muslim jurists the world over have been handing down legal opinions (fatwa/fatawa) on how best to respond.

Most recently, and the first such collection I have seen since the spread of Covid, the South African Shafi’i mufti Taha Karaan published a collection of hadith dealing with epidemics along with his own extensive comments.

The collection is fascinating for various reasons, both for the degree that it builds on premodern hadith commentaries and that which it presents a new synthesis of premodern views. If you’re interested in the premodern stuff, check out my book.