Life and Spirituality

A Modern Uncle Tom R ecently a lot of hue and cry is being made about the fact that an American agency has been spying on a lot of communications around the world. Personally I do not think much of it because if there is nothing to hide in one's doings then one need not worry about being overheard, even all google and yahoo communications. There is often something unethical in a communication one wants to keep secret. Criminals and Terrorists definitely want to do so and it is here this American agency helps by disrupting such activities and making the world a safer and better place. However, it seems that this agency got carried away with its ability to snoop and even eavesdropped on friendly leaders such as Angela Merkel. True when such snooping is done American laws may not have been broken. It is always possible to carry out the dirty work on foreign soil to prevent that as it is possible to incarcerate fellow human beings forever on Guantanamo Bay.  But, wh...

Outside my home just near the gate was a bougainvillea bush that produced lovely red flowers with little maintenance. However, with time, especially this monsoon it became so huge and massive that it was blocking sunlight into the garden. Fortunately Hari a village lad who comes to work in the city every now and then and gets a room from me in return for some help in the garden was around. Therefore today morning I asked him to work on clearing away the thicket down to just a couple of feet from the ground. It was a massive exercise especially because the bush has nasty thorns and it required a whole day and I had to ask Hari to stay for the day in return for a day’s wages, about three hundred rupees (six dollars). We have just finished clearing the thicket and the result was pleasant as shown in the photo. The picture has Hari in it. Lot of birds used to rest on it in the evening but they have just moved to an adjacent tree. Fortunately there were no nests in the thicket. Howeve...

A Newly Planted Tree Outside the front boundary of my home and before the street there is a patch of vacant land on which I have planted four trees and some flowering bushes ( Jasmine and bogain villea). At one time a lovely perfumed oleander bush with rose like blossoms grew here. It produced lovely deep pink blossoms. With age it died about a couple of years ago and there was an empty spot. However, I have since discovered that oleander is poisonous. Therefore rather than replant a new oleander, this morning I replanted it with a tree that was earlier in a flower pot and had become rather large for the pot. It is shown in the photo. The area around it looks barren just now because it had become full of weeds during the monsoons and we have pulled all that out just two days ago. New grass will come up there in a few weeks. I do not know the name of the tree put it has lovely shaded foliage, does not become very big and produces a fruit that birds like. I have no idea yet ...

Golden Bricks Recently, a religious mystic of Northern India by the name of Shoben Sarkar informed the government of India through his foremost spiritual associate Swami Om ji Maharaj that he had knowledge of a huge cache of gold buried at a depth of fifteen feet or so under an old ruined fort near his Monastery/Ashram. The claim was made on the basis of some old records and the divine perceptions of the mystic. The Mystic wished that the government should recover this gold and use it to restore the faltering economy of India. The government took cognizance of the mystic’s claim and ordered a geological survey of the grounds. Scientific tests declared the presence of buried material and the possibility that it could be Gold. Thereupon, the government ordered the Archeological Survey of India to carry out excavations of the area. Perhaps a better organization to have been given the task would have been a building organization that would have excavated the site within a day a...

Jack Nelson and the blue Flamingo In an earlier blog post, children’s books by Jim Andersen were mentioned. There is a new one that has an essential message about trees for children. The story is about a flamingo that turns blue because a wicked witch made her nibble on some poison mushrooms. As a result the Flamingo is driven out of the flock and separated from the children. Jack and his friends try to help restore the color of the flamingo. For this they have to seek the help of Tweedy the magician (he is called so because he wears tweed only). The magician gives them a spell that has to be chanted to an interesting dance that is done by a group hopping in circles around a fire. The song is Curdie Curdie Hwa Hwa Curdie Curdie Hwa Hwa Magic Tweedy In a blink Make our birdie Blue to pink Lol lol Ha ha ha The name of the dance is Tweedy dance. Some people might confuse the Tweedy dance with the Curdie Dance because of the words in the song but tha...

A Spiritual Message In your Journey through life you shall meet and interact with other humans. Some of these relationships shall be worth cherishing. Blessed are such persons and relationships for as long as they last because in the long run everything must change as all things do in this universe. May such relationship last long. In life you shall also encounter persons that are in the main quarrelsome, tense, abusive, argumentative, bitterly jealous, irritable or angry, some are all of the things that make human relationships painful and unworthy. In such cases either move away from such persons or move them away from you, whatever appears the appropriate course, for the fight of such persons is not with you, it is with themselves. You do not have to share in it. You shall also encounter some that come near you for the sole purpose of exploiting or using you rather than for solace and sharing the joys and sorrows of life. These latter deserve a similar treatment on a...

Jack Nelson and the Emerald Princess Some half a century ago as a boy my favorite author was Enid Blyton. I simply loved her books and read each one of them. There are hundreds.    Now that I have grand children I shall recommend the same books besides the classic fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson and Grimm’s. As a child one read a book for fun but in later years I realized that besides their entertainment value the books also encouraged moral and courageous behavior. Therefore in later years when I had my own children, Enid Blyton was my first recommendation for my own children as well as others. I do realize that in the half a century or so since my own childhood other even nicer authors may have emerged who have published worthy books that one can recommend to one’s children. However, not knowing about them I inevitably fall back on the choices of my own childhood. There is an interesting one on Amazon recently called “Jack Nelson and the Emerald Pri...

Copra and Almonds F rom time to time this blog has indicated natural foods that are a gift from the Mother Goddess, our planet being one glorious aspect of her. There are posts on the health benefits of tree foods, almonds and coconuts in this blog if you search through. The following recipe combines the benefits into a healthy delicious treat. Here is a very simple recipe of coconut and almonds that in my belief has three glorious health benefits. These are Regular consumption of this chutney/sauce will fight and perhaps reverse Alzheimer’s Disease in some cases. It would take about three weeks of daily consumptions for a noticeable change. Vegetarians who consume this chutney regularly will not suffer any weakness that some vegetarians especially new ones face when they give up on meat. Students who consume this chutney regularly for a month or two before examinations will improve memory and recall. Therefore they will do better in ex...

Ashok at Raj Bhavan, Nainital A s global citizens watch the current budget scenario in the US, the world cannot help but cheer Obama for standing so strongly to help provide medical care for the poor of his country. On the other hand the world cannot appreciate three of the stances of the republicans: The world does not understand how it is humane to deprive the poor of affordable or free medical care as is available in Canada or UK and many other humane countries. The world cannot but deplore the rigidity of the Republicans in providing much access to assault weapons for citizens. This author and numerous others feel the policies of UK and Australia that ban such weapons and mass killings is much more humane. The world also does not understand why the republicans do not want the rich to pay a higher tax and would have felt better if the US would follow advice of Warren Buffet or emulate Sweden that keeps the ri...