Meri pitta prakruti hai, isliye teekha bahut priya hai. Spice enthuses me," says Bhante Dhammadipa, 68, in clear Hindi as he looks lovingly at his plate of pithla-bhakri-thecha at Vidyavihar's Aaswad. Next, he will have thalipeeth with loni or white homemade butter.

The staff at the Maharashtrian eatery knows the drill. The Buddhist monk, who hails from the Czech Republic, has been a regular at Aaswad since he began teaching at the KJ Somaiya Centre for Buddhist Studies next door, where he introduces a motley bunch to the Mahayana Sraddhotpada Sastra (Awakening of Faith in Mahayana), a synthesis of doctrines of the Mahayana stream of Buddhism which was influential in the development of the faith in east Asia. He says he concentrates on the flexible, inclusive approach of Mahayana practices. "The cultivation of the mind is key to everything. If you train your senses with skillful means, you transcend the cycle of sorrow that shackles you. Mahayana Buddhism teaches you that enlightenment can be achieved during the course of an ordinary life too, and that you need not be an ascetic to reach there," says the monk.