Life and Spirituality

Jungle Geranium A friend of mine from Engineering School days, Ramakrishnan Ramanathan,  recently put up a photo of a flower that I instantly recognized as one that has been growing in my garden for years on a flowering bush. It is not very common in our area and no one knows the name here, however, the plant is native to South India and it seems popular in Florida too, so I asked him the name. He gave a complicated botanical name, Ixora something as well as the common one Jungle Geranium. The next step was to look up on the net if the plant has any medicinal use. I am a fan of herbal medicine and like to know the uses of plants growing at home. As a matter of fact, the plant has several uses, one being to treat loose stomachs. Next time I know where to head for after a visit to the very spicy snack shop nearby that invariably gives me a runny tummy. Apparently the plant used properly also prolongs age. The interested reader may read more about it at http://www.medicalhealt...

In some parts of the world, particularly the less developed and tribal parts, there is a belief that harm can come to one from the evil eye. Such a belief still exists in parts of Africa, India and Arab countries, especially rural areas, particularly amongst the superstitious and less educated. To ward of such evils many antidotes are prescribed such as throwing salt and red pepper over and around the heads of the affected, putting black dots on bodies, an assortment of amulets, hanging of lemons and chilies on a thread outside homes etc. all depending on local customs. In primitive cultures, including Europe some centuries ago, they even used to burn witches and women suspected of an evil eye. They still do in some parts. From a modern educated, even post modern point of view, a human needs to answer two questions in this regard, 1. Is there any such thing as an evil eye at all? Is it at all possible? 2. If it is possible, what is the best way to ward it off...

My new book ' The Babaji Affair' is full of stories of Himalayan Hermit Mystics, based on my experience with them over the last thirty years or so. These are real sincere mystics not those pretending to be one as a business venture. The cover ( front, spine and back is shown here from the designing stage) It is shown on the global best seller list at the rather long link below it: The Babaji Affair by Dr. Ashok Malhotra http://www.amazon.de/philosophy-eastern-Fremdsprachige-B%C3%BCcher-AmazonGlobal-bestellbar/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=Philosophy%20%2F%20Eastern&page=1&rh=n%3A52044011%2Ck%3APhilosophy%20%2F%20Eastern%2Cp_n_publication_date%3A183072031%2Cp_n_shipping_option-bin%3A2019341031 Hope you read the book. It is available only in the paperback format and that perhaps is the only reasonable way to read a book of this size and type of content. The book contains stories composed by the author and real life experiences of the author with one of the most well ...