Life and Spirituality

Whenever a human need arises a human often tends to seeks help from other humans. Thus when a human has a health problem he seeks a doctor that can help him. The trouble is that this world is made up opposites -   good and bad, truth and lies etc. For every genuine practitioner out there, there are also quacks willing to lie about their abilities or to exploit the need of a fellow human to satisfy their greed rather than any sincere desire to help. Unlucky persons can get trapped by such exploiters or agents of the devil and instead of getting real help end up loosing their health or money or both. It requires utmost wisdom to protect oneself from falling into the wrong hands. Such quackery and greed does not exist merely in the field of medicine but also in every other sphere of human need. What may be said though that more acute the human need, the more extensive  the exploitation. Unfortunately, spiritual quackery has also been widespread in human societies from...

A visitor to this blog – Sam- commenting on a title line of this blog wished to know which of the true virtues is greater – love or truth. I promised that I would write an entire post on that question but instead I composed the following story to illustrate the point King of Blue Mountain Once upon a time at the foot of the blue mountain lay the Kingdom of Blue Mountain. The kingdom had a pretty castle in which lived a fat King. The castle was surrounded by farms and homes of the five hundred or so citizens of this state. The citizens of this country did not have to farm much because it was surrounded by forests of trees that produced a lot of nuts and fruits round the year and they could get lots to eat by just gathering the fruit and catching some fish from the many small lakes and streams around the kingdom. Instead the farmers kept cows and allowed them to graze freely on their fields. In the days of the fat king, on top of the mountain, there used to...

The North-Western side of my home in Jaipur Most of my posts have been of an impersonal nature on topics such as trees, environment, food and the Lord. Perhaps it is time that I wrote one of a more personal nature for a few of my fans that are interested to know a bit more about my background. Yogis of the east rarely speak of their origins but I am no yogi but rather an academic who has tried to understand the world - both the manifest side of it and that which is not manifest. My father retired as a colonel from the Indian army after a long and eventful career. Subsequent to a few years in private and public corporations, he came and settled in Jaipur, the city that I presently live in. Originally, the family of both my parents belonged to a part of India that has now become Pakistan. Since the family was a Hindu one it migrated to India along with millions of other Hindus during partition of British India into India and Pakistan. Much of my father’s family lived betwe...

Sushil Kumar the Wrestler E ver since Buddha walked the land of South Asia around two and a half millenniums ago, vegetarianism has come to be an accepted part of human civilization particularly in South Asia. The Mighty Buddha proclaimed that all animals deserve human compassion and violence in all forms should be shunned. Since the production of milk from cows need not involve violence, South Asian vegetarians consume milk and milk products freely. However they avoid eggs, at least traditionally. In other parts of the world there is a diet known as Vegan diet that involves avoiding all foods of animal origin including milk and eggs. The argument probably is that much commercial production of milk and eggs involves ill treatment of farm animals. It need not though, especially when cows are kept in every home as pets in small numbers and not in large diaries and if they are allowed to roam for grazing. The same goes for chicken if they are free range. In an older articl...

A s all of us go about conducting the business of living, we make plans and put in the required effort to execute those plans. Simultaneously something else happens around us – Nature goes about unfolding our karma at the appropriate times throughout our lives – a timing known to Nature alone. We thus face the results of two types of actions, first our own and secondly those of others and the world around i.e. Nature. This second set of results is our karma, that some call fate or naseeb, executed for us by Nature through various means including the people we interact with and the lightening in the sky. Karmic results require no special effort on our part in order to unfold. Thus, whereas it takes a lot of effort to get a home built and many make that effort, it takes little effort to accept another as a part of an inheritance. The first home comes primarily as a result of our efforts whereas the second comes mostly from our karma – which too is a result of our own deeds, an ...

Nainital in the Evening Light A lthough all of us hope that life should run its course peacefully and happily, and that is the sincere wish of this blogger for all visitors to this blog, there are times that does not happen. Life goes through its ups and downs. My own view is that the best approach in good times is to use some of it for refreshing and cleansing the soul of past burdens, and, to involve oneself in meditation in bad times to enhance  knowledge for the soul. Recently I enquired from the Babaji of Nainital, my favorite spiritual master, as to how to deal with times of adversity. This was the answer I received, “ When one enters the dark phase in one’s life, when times are bad and more bad times to follow are feared, then sit back and reflect. Reflect first on the worst possible outcomes, then on what your best response to that would be. If you have done that honestly and with satisfaction then you will find a new and renewed confidence since the actu...

A honeycomb at home A t a time when modern medicine did not exist, humans depended directly on what was available in nature not just for food but also medicine. Ancient literature has sung glories for the medicinal and tonic virtues of honey. The Sanskrit Ayurveda has praised it and I recall a statement from the bible that went something like this, “Eat honey and the honeycomb, for it is good” I too am a fan of natural tonics and remedies, viewing modern ones with suspicion and caution. The reason being that the period of research into modern remedies is not as long as ancient ones and more so they are tainted by the greed of commercial interests. Recently the news was full of a leading Pharmaceutical company apologizing profusely for such practices when discovered just so that they can save on possible fines and not perhaps because they were really sorry. However, my study and experience of modern honey too is not a good one. Its beneficial properties come from its...