The Loom & the Silence

 

The “Why” of O Yasmeen…

I wrote O Yasmeen... to bypass the forensic history of 1947, for example, who killed whom, where the border lies—and replace it with a spiritual cartography. The novel opens in Chand’s Tea House, a metaphysical space that wasn’t "built" but “arrived” between a cobbler’s stall and a heap of broken radios. Here, the visitors are not merely characters but archetypes of moral injury, and the book itself becomes a testament to the dignity of the unfinished.

In most trauma literature, the goal is “recovery”—an attempt to put the pieces back together. O Yasmeen... argues the opposite. My protagonist, Bose, fails precisely because he tries to “repair” the past—to find Aslam, to recover Yasmeen, to suture a wound that history intended to stay open. The book posits that some betrayals, like the Partition, are absolute. To try to “fix” them is to lie about their gravity.

This narrative establishes a moral boundary: we do not own the pain of others. We cannot narrate it away, fix it, or redeem it; we can only witness it. This book seeks a language for the feeling of displacement that has no place in official history books. It is a prayer for those who have no country__a post-testimonial liturgy for the millions who lost their homes and identities and were told to “move on” by new nations. This book exists to say: your grief is valid, even if—especially if—it has no resolution.

Compared to Kul Pralay, which evolved in parallel, the destruction of Dwarka is not a problem to be solved but a destiny to be absorbed. When Dwarka crumbles, the question is not “What is right?” but “What survives after the right is done?” Just as Dwarka’s end was a “civilizational fatigue” rather than a punishment, the grief in O Yasmeen... is an ontological state, not a temporary illness. In Kul Pralay, the Flying Fortress "Saub" is not just a machine but a “flying curse” made of “Shalva’s humiliation, Shishupala’s ashes, and Amba’s silent gaze.” 

Likewise, O Yasmeen... maps physical objects and places using the coordinates of emotion and memory.

I thank everyone who took time out of their busy lives to attend the book launch and graced us with their esteemed presence.

Rajiv Mudgal’s novel The Loom of Time uses the metaphor of a loom to reflect on the nature of time and history. It presents history not as a fixed, linear narrative, but as a dynamic and flexible weave—one that shapes human existence and, at the same time, is shaped by it. Here, time is not merely a measure but an experience—lived, felt, and continually rewoven. The novel questions the stability of space and time, suggesting that they too are subject to influence and transformation. It also emphasizes the cyclical nature of time, where events and themes echo and reappear across generations.

Within this framework, the novel interlaces philosophical reflection with the intimate stories of its characters. It explores the tension between ideals and lived reality, the quest for truth and meaning, and the fragile yet enduring power of personal narratives. The book suggests that the story of the world is never whole or permanent; it remains fragile and in constant need of repair with threads of truth, hope, and understanding. Ultimately, The Loom of Time reveals that individual lives are inseparable from the larger weave of history, and that each personal journey adds an essential thread to the collective saga we call the story of humanity.

In the Novel ‘The Loom of Time’, Appendix the protagonist explores truth and perception through an encounter with Jiddu Krishnamurti. In a pivotal scene, a child challenges Krishnamurti’s words, asking, “What is the source behind these words?” This question rejects both metaphysical absolutes (the “eternal sky”) and materialist reductions (the “clouds” of material thoughts and emotions as being a by-product of economic production, the daily economic activity by individuals, people and nations generating historical, social, political and religious realities). The loom, initially an abstract concept, becomes the live process of projection and reception, weaving the guru–audience dynamic. The child’s unfiltered gaze, free from bargains or roles, embodies the “first and last freedom,” completing the novel’s arc from a cosmic loom to the liberation of unmediated seeing.

In “The Ghost” chapter of The Loom of Time, मृत्यु (Death) and महाकाल (Mahākāla, the cosmic embodiment of Time) come alive as structuring principles of existence. Death is not just an end but a threshold into the vast, impersonal flow of Mahākāla—where individuality dissolves into cosmic temporality. Here, death appears both as rupture and revelation: the breaking of embodied existence, and at the same time the unveiling of impermanence beneath all things. The ghostly figure embodies this in-between state—neither fully alive nor wholly dissolved—echoing humanity’s uncertainty in confronting mortality. To face death is to face the fragility of memory, identity, and attachments, all of which are eventually absorbed into Mahākāla. Mahākāla emerges as the loom itself—Time eternal—ceaselessly weaving destinies and dissolving forms back into the formless. Unlike मृत्यु, which is felt personally, Mahākāla is universal and impersonal, erasing boundaries between self and other, life and afterlife. In the ghost’s wandering, Mahākāla is the silent backdrop, the vastness in which individual shadows flicker for a moment before fading away. The chapter suggests that मृत्यु is the doorway, while महाकाल is the architecture within which that doorway opens. Death as a singular event gives way to Mahākāla, the timeless continuum. The ghost dramatizes this transition—caught between the immediate shock of death and the all-absorbing expanse of cosmic time. This vision resonates deeply with classical Indian thought: मृत्यु as a necessary dissolution, and महाकाल as the eternal witness who devours even gods and galaxies. Death, then, is not an isolated end but a rhythm in the loom of time—where Mahākāla, the cosmic weaver, ceaselessly weaves and unweaves all forms, living or spectral.

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Print: देवताओं का मौन (The Gods have gone silent) Hindi edition

देवताओं का मौन 

JOURNEY INTO THE VERY HEART OF NONDUALISM

Read by Shaily Mudgal

A RadioTalkies Production

भूमिका

Chapter 1  - देवताओं का मौन
Chapter 2  - वामन के तीन पद
Chapter 3  - क्वांटम मैकेनिक्स का स्क्रूड्राइवर
Chapter 4  - किसानों का सहज ज्ञान
Chapter 5  - भूतिया मंदिर
Chapter 6  - कल्कि अवतार
Chapter 7  - ज्ञानेश्वरी
Chapter 8  - मंदिर ब्रह्म का गीत है
Chapter 9  - स्वामी
Chapter 10  - भूतों का कॉनफेरेन्स
Chapter 11  - और प्रेम खिल उठा
Chapter 12  - वास और वासी का विवाह
Chapter 13  - एक था गृहस्थ और एक था सन्यासी
Chapter 14  - असली वशिष्ठ और विश्वामित्र हाज़िर हों
Chapter 15  - डेमोक्रेसी और परा-लोक सिद्धि
Chapter 16  - कौन है वो ऋषि
लेखक का परिचय     

Back Cover

वह क्या है जो हमारी दुनिया, हमारे जीवन को संचालित कर रहा है। वह कौनसी ऐसी सामाजिक और आध्यात्मिक समझ है जो आज हमारे वर्तमान स्थितियों को और भविष्य की संभावनाओं को रच रही है। क्या हम इसे जानते हैं! क्या हम इसे समझते हैं!

हमारा 'अस्तित्व', हमारी सामाजिक, राजनीतिक, धार्मिक और आर्थिक परिस्थितियों से उत्पन्न होता है। तो असलियत में उदारवादी लोकतंत्र, सांस्कृतिक निरपेक्षता और समाजवादी तकनीकी यूटोपिया का अस्तित्ववादी सत क्या है! और क्या हम आज मानव अस्तित्व को उसके मूल स्वरूप में अनुभव कर सकते हैं? और यह समझ और अद्वैतिक जन चेतना हमें कैसे संबोधित कर सकती है और यदि वह कर सकती है तो हम उसकी वाणी को, उसके शब्दों को, हमारी सीमित चेतना से कैसे समझ सकते हैं जो उसके अतीत में निहित है।

आधुनिक दुनिया और उसकी आत्म-समझ का भ्रम, अनिष्ट और पूर्ण विनाश का दस्तक, ऐसे कई सवालों से झूझता और हमारा दुनिया को समझने और देखने के नज़रिये को बदलता है ‘देवताओं का मौन’

Flap Matter

"देवताओं का मौन" एक आत्मकथात्मक शैली में लिखी गई अद्वैत वेदांत के सजीव हृदय में उतरती एक दार्शनिक यात्रा है। आज हमारा आधुनिक अस्तित्व, विज्ञान और प्रौद्योगिकी विकास के तथ्य-मूल्य के भेद की विस्मृति पर टिका है। यह पुस्तक हमारे कुछ सबसे महत्वपूर्ण आध्यात्मिक प्रश्नों के उत्तर देने का प्रयास करती है जैसे:

- यह आवास क्या है और यह निवासी जो उसमें वास करता है वह कौन है।

- निवासी अपने अस्तित्व के लिए अपना रास्ता किस शब्द, सोच और भावनाओं से तय कर सकता है।

- आधुनिक ऋषि कौन हैं और हम स्वयं अपने रचनात्मक प्रयोग से वह ऋषि कैसे हो सकते हैं।

- सत्य क्या है और यदि सत्य को सीखाया नहीं जा सकता, तो इसे किस स्वरूप में प्रसारित किया जा सकता है। यदि वह अवर्णनीय, अपरिभाष्य, अकथनीय है; शब्दों से परे, वर्णन से परे है, तो हम कैसे उसे जाने, हम किससे और कौनसे विज्ञान से उसके शरीर की तलाश करें।

आधुनिक मानव स्थिति और इस आधुनिकता के तनाव से उत्पन्न होने वाली विकृति से निपटने में हमारी अक्षमता के चलते, आध्यात्मिकता के हृदय को अनिष्ट और विनाश की ताकतों से कैसे सुरक्षित किया जा सकता है। यह आत्मकथात्मक विवेचन ऐसे कई सवालों पर प्रकाश डालता है।