Posts by: Shruti Gupta

Simplicity and Story Sharing

I came into the semester fresh off a surgery I’d been waiting two years for. My recovery was not the slow, beautiful process I had wanted it to be. When BU told us to stay home, I was actually relieved. I was so tired of running around with my three healing incisions and a newly […]

Week One:

As expected, there are several things that have happened in the past few weeks that have shaped my understanding of both God and humanity. The pandemic is terrifying; I am shocked, continually by the goodness of people in these troubling times. I watch the community build itself up. Protecting one’s own. We all have those […]

On Mentorship

It was not without trepidation that I stepped into Marsh Chapel for the first time. I was uncomfortable. Of course I was. The space is beautiful, but I’m a queer brown woman, so I simply did not know whether yet to trust this burgeoning interest within me that had called me here. The stained glass […]

Acts of Faith: Lessons from Las Casas

“El entendimiento conoce voluntariamente cuando aquello que conoce no se le manifiesta inmediatamente como verdadero, siendo entonces necesario un previo raciocinio para que pueda aceptar que se trata en el caso de una cosa verdadera[…] procediendo de una cosa conocida a otra desconocida por medio del curso de la razon […] El entendimiento es el […]

Hell or High Water

In a murderous time The heart breaks and breaks and lives by breaking. (Stanley Kunitz, The Testing-Tree) “So part of it is the humility of realizing this is my piece, and I want to tend to this piece the best that I can, but I’m not in charge of the whole garden.” (Vicky Sifter, former […]

On the Devotion of Self

yo la espero y me envuelve, y así tú, pan y luz y sombra eres. (Pablo Neruda, Oda y germinaciones)   I’ve talked about the slow viscous drip of winter before, but it lives within me too, permanently hollowed into my right shoulder. A hollow: an inch and a half wide, my labrum separated from […]

the breath in the mouth

In a murderous time       the heart breaks and breaks and lives by breaking. —STANLEY KUNITZ, “The Testing-Tree” When the sun rises it sings as Udgâtri for the sake of all creatures. When it rises it destroys the fear of darkness. This (the breath in the mouth) and that (the sun) are the same. […]

Lessons in Queerness

LESSON 1:  I was talking about my work at Marsh a few days ago with another music student. He told me he didn’t know that I worked at Marsh, and hadn’t foreseen it because I’m a Hindu. I told him that right now I’m working on studying queer theology through an interfaith lens. “In what world […]

A Stranger’s Sahasranama

Vasuḥ: One in whom all beings dwell and one who dwells in all beings. (Vishnu Sahasranama Stotram, 104) Aprameyātmā: One whose nature cannot be grasped by any of the means of knowledge. (Vishnu Sahasranama Strotram, 248) I’ve noticed I always begin these blog posts with a quote, a text to reflect on, though rarely is […]

Winter Thoughts

Early in the day it was whispered that we should sail in a boat, only thou and I, and never a soul in the world would know of this our pilgrimage to no country and to no end. (Tagore) Winter for me always conjures introspectivity. It’s a quiet place, and I grew up craving it […]