Life and Spirituality

Shyamu with his son Golu in the garden B y chance, this morning, I examined the dining room cupboard that stores various items of crockery, cups and glasses etc. that are used on special occasions. The crockery that we use on a daily basis is kept in the kitchen. Probably more than five years have passed since I gave the contents of this cupboard a good look. To my surprise the cupboard has much unnecessary stuff, some that will probably never be needed during my lifetime. The story is not very different in the other cupboards, closets and stores of my home. Fortunately, the home is large enough so that all the stuff can be stacked away neatly, out of sight, and not cause clutter. I am also fortunate enough to have an extremely efficient domestic aide – Shyamu – who takes care of storing everything neatly and retrieving an item whenever required. However, now I am beginning to question the very basis of having acquired all the stuff in the first place. Everything that one possesse...

G od has been defined in this blog in several places as everything there is, the entire universe and even beyond if there is anything beyond the universe, both the seen and unseen aspects of the universe . However that is a rather bland definition, perhaps a bit scientific. A new beautiful definition of God by Vincent has appeared at http://perpetual-lab.blogspot.com/ A Presence, an attentive Presence, there in times of need; the need to give thanks and the need to beg, and the need to surrender one’s life to something higher. I fully agree with this definition and cannot  improve upon it or perhaps a just bit by adding the additional words “ A loving, truthful and attentive Presence, all powerful and fully in control of everything that happens in the universe ” instead of just an attentive presence . But perhaps then the definition would become cumbersome and lose some of its beauty. There is much older post in this blog about God here or if o...

Off you go into the countryside T here was a time when a very substantial portion of the human population lived off the land in rural areas scattered across the planet. Since the industrial revolution, large portions of human population began to move towards cities to engage themselves in industrial production and other pursuits related to an urban life.  Consumption of energy and industrial production began to increase and with advent of things like antibiotics,  human population too began to increase rapidly. Nations that could produce and consume at increasingly large rates or provide for increasing consumption to other parts of the world grew rapidly. It is here that an inherent paradox and contradiction began to be built into modern economies. Many realize that the current rates of consumption in the most developed economies such as the US are not sustainable. As resources like energy and materials diminish, the planet may run out of cheap resources. On the other ...

Song of the Angels by W. Adolphe O nce I read somewhere (I forget the reference) that many meetings are like a visit to the toilet. It involves much sitting, noise and eventually the outcome is flushed down the toilet. As Raymond pointed out as a comment to a post in this blog, as regards spiritual matters, much time is wasted in worthless spiritual discussions and arguments. Nothing could be truer. Spirituality involves many things that are felt rather than seen. It also includes abstract concepts and therefore a meaningless argument becomes all the more likely. As a simple example consider how meaningless is the argument between two men about whether a particular actress is sexy or not. What is sexy to one may be repulsive to another, since in such matters much personal experience and taste is involved. Just as beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, spiritual understanding is in the heart of the beholder. Consider the frequent argument between, theists and atheists whether G...

M ay the life of this sweet baby in the photo be blessed by the Almighty Lord. The beginning of human life is indeed inspiring and full of Joy. With some gentle care and a little foresight the joy may last a lifetime.In order to analyze human life one may use  the analogy of a lifetime with an average working day for convenience. A human life may be divided into five twenty year periods each and compared to the five periods of a working day – morning pre-work hours, morning working hours, afternoon working hours, evening and night. Each period of life involves fun and work. Presently this post is restricted to the work aspect. An important aspect of this work in each stage involves preparation for the following stage of life. Thus the morning preceding a normal workday consists of getting ready for work. The first approximately twenty years of life similarly involve getting ready for a working life. It is a time to develop disciplined, productive habits as well ...

In some earlier posts the issue of health and nutrition had been taken up. It was mentioned how some health issues may be addressed in a natural manner through a proper selection of food. The health issues that I had faced over the last three years are not uncommon with age. The ones I had to deal with are stiffness of muscles, chronic fatigue, disturbed sleep and some lapses of memory, particularly short-term memory. These issues had persisted for me since mid 2007, subsequent to a prolonged bout of ill health that lasted for about six months. The cause of that illness has not been fully found although inadvertent chemical poisoning has been suspected. That illness had disappeared without medical intervention but I did rely extensively on spiritual help during that period. The illness had disappeared but it left in its wake the sort of problems mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph. In the following three years, in spite of the fatigue, I have led a rather eventful life with ma...

  T here may be reason enough to reject a religion but that is not a reason to reject God; Because God is Love. It is unfortunate that some persons regard some religion or the concerned preacher in consideration as an authority on God and rejected God because of that. Such persons make another error when they refer to God, as this god or that god because there is Just one God. In a recent response to Stephen Hawking elsewhere who claimed that God may exist but theology was not necessary to explain creation, that could take place spontaneously by laws of gravity and quantum theory. I agree fully with Stephen Hawking. Theology of the many types that goes around is not necessary to explain creation, but Gravity is, and as mentioned elsewhere in this blog more than once, Gravity is one of the manifestations of God that makes Him create the universe spontaneously. There are many other manifestations of God. Another is love. Without the motherly love, one of the ...