Life and Spirituality

In any part of the world one might be living in there are some varieties of trees that are really easy to plant. For example, where I live at the moment - Jaipur – all one needs to do in the monsoon months is stick a drumstick branch into the ground and within months it turns into a pretty tree with elegant lace like foliage. I have planted six of them around my urban home here and now that it is raining they are all a brilliant green. Planting a tree is one of the easiest services or expression of gratitude for Mother Earth because trees are her ornament. They feed so many of her offspring from insects to birds to humans. I have been an urban person all my life but I have planted trees wherever I have found room for them around my home, by the sides of the streets and in parks where access has been permitted. If I owned a farm I would have turned most of it into a forest in a matter of years. Often trees come up by themselves on vacant land. The seeds fly in through the wind and bird ...

Everyday, every moment, all of us undergo a range of experiences. With each experience is associated a memory. Unlike our word processors that ask us every time if we wish to save a file or not, the human brain stores all the memories, of all our experiences, by default. During an average lifetime the storehouse of such memories is vast indeed. Far more than any computer can probably hold. A very neat trick of the human brain is to organize these memories in layers, the uppermost layer being the conscious mind. Below this are the near infinite layers of the subconscious mind that store not just the memories of this lifetime, but for those who believe in reincarnation, the memories of previous lifetimes as well. Some mystics believe that the deepest layers of memories are in the soul and contain knowledge of the entire universe. Reaching this layer is what is described as enlightenment. Nevertheless, restricting ourselves to the most immediately accessible layers of the mind, we ...

V egetarianism is the practice of not eating meat or poultry. Many forms of vegetarianism exclude the eating of fish as well. The most extreme form of vegetarianism known as veganism excludes all foods of animal origin including eggs and diary products. The basis of vegetarianism is the prevention of cruelty involved in killing animals. Land, energy and water required for producing meat and poultry are several times that for producing an equivalent amount of plant food. Thus production of meat results in greater damage to environment than the production of an equivalent amount of plant food. If farming is done organically damage to the environment is further reduced. The resulting food is healthier as well. Vegans exclude eggs and diary products from their diets because commercial production methods of milk and eggs result in cruelty to animals. However, although vegetarians and vegans help prevent cruelty to animals, they disregard the cruelty perpetuated on plant life. Farming...

S ome days ago I noticed that every time I opened the front door to my home a small bird (a red tailed bulbul) would screech frantically. At first I thought it was because she was hungry. We keep a pan to feed birds in the garden and on some mornings various common birds that live in and around my garden wait patiently for us to place some left over bread pieces in their plate or millet grains that we store especially for the birds. However, on closer examination I discovered that the screeching was not about food but about the two young bulbul chicks that had recently come into the world. An asparagus creeper hangs in the porch near my front door and hidden within its branches was the bulbul nest. The screeching was from fear that some harm may come to the chicks. A few days later the little chicks were climbing out of the nest on to the branches. Then a couple of days ago while we were away from home we discovered that both the chicks had flown out of their nest and jumped...