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The Present Minds
Writing archive195 published pieces

All writing.

Long-form essays, personal perspectives and writing on psychology, mental health, the self and modern life.Page 5 of 17

49 Purusharth8 min read

Draupadi’s Question in the Mahabharata Nobody Could Answer

Draupadi's question in the Mahabharata was not rhetorical. She needed an answer. She asked it in a room full of the wisest, most senior men in the…

Navneet ShuklaRead article →
50 Purusharth5 min read

Abhimanyu Knew How to Enter the Chakravyuha. Nobody Taught Him How to Leave

Abhimanyu learned the Chakravyuha meaning before he was born. His father Arjuna was explaining it to his mother Subhadra one night. The chakravyuha was a military formation…

Navneet ShuklaRead article →
51 Psychology7 min read

What Your Brain Is Actually Building While You Are Unconscious

A new study from UC Berkeley has now mapped the brain circuit behind deep sleep growth hormone release. The jellyfish does not know it is sleeping. It…

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52 The Margin8 min read

A Horse and Two Goats by Rk Narayan: The Funniest Sad Story Ever Written

A Horse and Two Goats by RK Narayan is the only story on this list that will make you laugh. It will also, if you sit with…

Navneet ShuklaRead article →
53 The Margin8 min read

The 5 Best AI Chatbots for Building a Website for Free

Building a website with AI is now something any person can do in a single afternoon, with zero coding knowledge and nothing but a free chatbot account.…

Navneet ShuklaRead article →
54 Purusharth5 min read

The Bhagavad Gita Described Your Work Problem 3,000 Years Before Psychology Did.

Nishkama karma meaning, in its most direct translation, is this: action without attachment to its outcome. Three words. One of the most demanding instructions ever given. The…

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55 Psychology6 min read

The Universal Flood Myth: Collective Memory or Genetic Inheritance?

The universal flood myth is one of the most documented phenomena in the study of human culture. Over 200 distinct flood narratives exist across world religions and…

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56 Purusharth7 min read

Savitri and Satyavan: 3 Days That Defeated Death Itself

Savitri and Satyavan story meaning and why it is the oldest argument against the idea that love is a feeling. It is not a feeling in this…

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57 Psychology4 min read

The Real History of Gaslighting (and Why Knowing It Changes Everything)

The gaslighting history most people know stops at the definition. You probably know the word. Someone makes you doubt your own memory. Tells you the thing that…

Navneet ShuklaRead article →
58 The Margin6 min read

What I Learnt from a Support Dog in Scotland

What I learnt from Louie, a missing dog in Scotland, I only understood when three strangers walked out of the dark toward a fire I had built…

Navneet ShuklaRead article →
59 Purusharth5 min read

Shakuni Did Not Want the Kauravas to Win. He Wanted the Kurus Destroyed.

The Shakuni story begins not in a dice hall but in a prison. Shakuni walked with a limp. He had walked that way for as long as…

Navneet ShuklaRead article →
60 Psychology5 min read

Lebanon Is Still Being Governed by a Headcount from 1932

Why Lebanon is broken is a reason most people cannot name. Not the bombs. Not the banks. Not Hezbollah, not Israel, not the politicians who have spent…

Navneet ShuklaRead article →
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