Life and Spirituality

S ome of the most highly revered spiritual personalities such as Buddha and Jesus have recommended in their teachings that it is better for humans to work for their liberation and eternal salvation rather than focus much on transient and temporary worldly gains such as wealth, power and fame. However they have made no bones about the fact that the journey is a long one and there are only a very small number of humans who reach that goal in any given lifetime. Why is it then that they recommend striving for that goal for all humans? Failing in that goal, would they also not miss worldly gains? This has been explained further in spiritual texts that it is not so; that when one works for liberation one has a greater chance even for worldly peace and joy in that journey. A mark of great evolved souls is that they feel the pain of others just as much as their own pain. They feel a deep sense of compassion for all life. Gautama Buddha was so moved with the pain of other humans a...

    "Some countries that fail to provide a bed under a roof for homeless persons is not because of lack of resources; it is more likely because of a selfish heart devoid of compassion and humanity. In addition, if they prohibit feeding the homeless hungry, they may be creatures of the universe of whom even evil beings would probably be ashamed of" W hile some homelessness has existed in the world from the beginning of time, two things are different in the modern era. Modern law and regulations tend to make it more persistent then it ever was in human history. In older times, with few regulations, a homeless person could gradually build up a shack on a vacant piece of land and even find land for some farming. Such land hardly exists in the modern era. The second even more distressing aspect is that it is happening in the richest countries of the world. If the unemployed son of a poor man becomes homeless it is not a surprise but when the son of one of the richest...

  A new headline was added to this blog mentioning – If you are looking for peace you are likely to find it in some of the posts of this blog. That was a conclusion based on seven years of experience with this blog. The various posts are on many assorted topics crucial to life and a visitor would have to browse or search through them to reach the ones that appeal to him or her. Peace really is a prerequisite to happiness and everything else worthwhile besides. When one has peace, a little some thing may produce happiness and when one lacks it, nothing will. Those who help promote peace in their interaction with other humans and the world, bring peace into their own lives through the eternal principle of reflection of deeds while surely making themselves more pleasing in the eyes of the Universe or the Lord in case they believe someone far mightier than them can govern this infinite universe. Persons like me believe in One considering we can not even make a single cell of ...

W hile listing the various means human beings use to evolve, Patanjali the father of yoga mentioned the knowledge gained from dreams as one of them. The subject of dreams is indeed a vast one and it is hardly possible to go into much of it here. A bit about them has been mentioned in earlier posts. Just two things may be mentioned though, when dreams are mostly traumatic and stressful, it implies that much emotional stress is stored up within the recesses of one’s personality. Time and dreams help to resolve these so that dreams become sweet and gentle most times as they should be. Leading a simple loving life,  in secluded green surroundings hastens this process and that is something that mystics have done from time immemorial to cleanse their souls of unnecessary burdens. However, leading a hectic life of greed, anger and stress will increase the problem.  For most humans, it appears to be a good idea to reflect on their dreams, or whatever part of it they remember soon...

Sushil Kumar (wrestling Champion), the strongest man in the world has been a vegetarian all his life   During my student days in Canada, influenced by eastern philosophies, a friend became a vegetarian. He had developed the notion that being a vegetarian meant not eating, meat, fish and eggs and eating vegetables instead. It goes without saying that he became weaker by the months until explained to him, that vegetables is something both meat eaters and vegetarians have to eat for good health and if he has stopped meat he must replace that with other protein matter not just more of vegetables. This friend studied the matter and took to beans until he began to phart like a cow and then I had to intervene again to explain to him that beans cause flatulence and will not help him to acquire a robust health although he might survive in an insipid and unpleasant sort of a way. He has since learned of the right and healthy way to become a vegetarian. Some of the strongest,...

A Compost Heap in a corner of the Garden I f one lives in a home with even a small garden, a lot of leaves, clippings, dried out flower beds, cut grass etc. collects. Some people just discard it with difficulty, others collect it and burn it but that is such a callous waste and also harmful to the environment. It is really beyond common sense and logical thinking as to why people do it. It is very easy to collect it in some corner of the garden or home and it does not look ugly if you care not to add kitchen waste to it, or if you do to take care to hide it under other stuff of the pile. In a year’s time it converts into wonderful organic compost that may be returned to the garden. That is exactly what we do and the photo shows our compost heap under a tree in the south-east corner of the home. If you would like to do the same, then find a spot for it in the garden, dig about a foot or two of some ground at that place and start dumping your leaves and cutting there. On...

Photo of the Himalayan foothills near Haidakhan and superimposed text by author T his note should have been entitled women and mystics but you know how the human mind is, it would have jumped to sexual connotations and that is not what this note is about although it does have a bit of that too. It goes without saying that it is nice sexual experiences very many humans look for soon as they have had nice food and when they are done with all that, they go about the world looking for fame, wealth, important positions in society and so on. It is pursuits such as these that drives much in the world. When these interests are in control, society runs reasonably well; when any such drive becomes excessive and when it involves ethical violations, for example when a few usurp most of the wealth of the world while others starve or worse, suffer homelessness, then we have an upheaval and people may rise to chop the head off a queen as they did in France or to have a communist revo...