Life and Spirituality

    Image shared from: https://twitter.com/worthSeeingPic/status/627317306184437760/photo/1 Nothing made by man comes anywhere near the beauty created by God. Men may only build a path through it, or a build a monument to honor it. If they build a monument to desecrate the beauty and goodness that emanates from God then a time shall surely come when they shall be crushed even as insects are crushed by the wind. B y nature humans are a mixture of good and evil. In their journey through life humans do both kinds of things. Differences arise because some do more of one than the other at different times. Looking back at my own life, at this age of 65, it was so with me too. When I did good, its source was discerned to be an inner self, the true and essential part of life, a part of Universe and therefore there was hardly anything for me in person to be proud of except for the fact that at those moments of good one may draw satisfaction from the f...

Image source: http://foodswol.com/candle-light-dinner-wallpaper-hd-for-mac.html I t is a long time since this blog focused on food. To make up here is a dinner idea that is simple to rig up in a hurry, is delicious and full of goodness. It consists of hot sandwiches that are fried, grilled or toasted. For a fried sandwich fry slices of bread in butter, coconut oil or peanut oil until crisp and brown on both sides and add a filling, cut into triangles and serve two or four such triangles on a plate with a side dish of any one of cold Russian salad, Cole Slaw, steamed vegetables or even a tossed green salad. If you serve the dinner on plates you may wish to decorate it with some of iceberg lettuce leaves, sliced cucumbers, tomato slices or celery leaves etc. and a bit of tomato ketchup or mustard sauce on the side. For those who are watching their weight, toast instead of frying the bread then butter the insides lightly. The sandwich can be grilled too in a sandwich griller...

  My god-grandson, age one and a quarter and godson on a walk on a  Himalayan road T here are over three hundred posts in this blog, many explaining how to make one’s life better but while they touch and elaborate on specific points, life is simple if one wishes it to be. There are just three simple things one can do daily, using just three simple tools, besides trusting, loving and thanking God, who gave us this life every moment of our lives. We need not do more. Leave the rest to our Father Universe and Mother Earth while thanking them for whatever they have done for us so far and continue to do with every breath. Three things to do daily: To improve our selves by removing what we perceive as leading to pain and adding what appears to lead to long term joy. Just do a bit at a time so it is easy. The world ‘long term’ is most essential because a quick shot of joy can be found in a glass of whiskey but not term long term good. To do ...

  T here is an older article in this blog on the Neem tree and its medicinal benefits but it does not mention its effects on sleep. For years now what was happening to my sleep is that after sleeping well for a few hours, sometime in the middle of the night I used to get up and feel completely awake. If   I stayed awake after that, I would feel tired the next day. Therefore I would just take a cup of tea, sit out in the patio for about half an hour, or work on a computer when after an hour or so a second round of deep sleep came. However, this also delayed the morning hour to get up. Four days ago, due to some unrelated reasons, I took a bunch of Neem leaves from a tree nearby and chewed them in the evening at around 5 pm. That night, I woke up again in the middle of the night for a visit to toilet and from old habit decided to check emails for an hour or so. But the moment I turned on the computer, I was sleepy again and began to doze off on the keyboard so I s...

Oil on Canvas by Pieter Bruegel Free Kitchens W hile the majority of humans on Earth have to struggle for necessities of life a few are well off and do not have to. The planet also has many billionaires and multi millionaires. Some of them have come into their wealth because of their good karma and good fortune (not hard work because that never produced any great wealth for ants or humans, that is just a lie to fool people, those who work the hardest in our world such as laboring persons are also some of the poorest) but many have ended up with such a huge wealth because of exploitative economic systems, unethical or illegal means. Therefore the society at large does not view them kindly. Some of them indulge in philanthropic activities to give back something to society but this activity may not always be fruitful. For example it may be a donation to an NGO that spends most of the money on administrative expenses or it may be to a cause that is not directly visible to most o...

An exploding star I nvisible to our eyes, there is a sea of bacteria all around us. Some of it is inside of us, some helping us digest food. Some believe that bacteria are fundamental units out of which all life, plants and animals in all its diversity are created or in a sense the seeds of life. Different kinds of bacteria contain different bits of genes, the building blocks that may be assembled in different ways like Lego blocks to create in small incremental steps different forms of life. Those who do not believe in an intelligent creator think that this may happen automatically on its own through natural chance and evolution, whereas those who do believe in God think that aside from these building blocks a guiding hand is required to assemble life intelligently. More is required, such as love, all kinds of love, from the romantic that participates in sexual reproduction necessary to maintain genetic integrity of life forms to motherly love required to nurture advanced...

The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes b y Lambert Lombard W hile the main thrust of mysticism is about human goodness, compassion and divinity that sees the same consciousness run through all life, from times immemorial, prophecies, miracles or magical things have been associated with mystics and impressed ordinary humans. Some miracles have an explanation in science. For example it is easy to make wine from water with help of dehydrated alcohol now available and to communicate with distant humans that most everyone does now with mobile phones. There are other miracles that have something to do with exceptional abilities that are a part of all life and awaken in the mystic through their spiritual practice or yoga. Some of these not within the reach of most humans in the normal course, can be experienced by just about anyone through some brief practices of yoga as this author touched upon in an earlier post as also some that awaken on their own under rare condition...

  The Meeting between Leo the Great (painted as a portrait of Leo X ) and Attila b y Raffael “Wars for a righteous cause result in peace but wars over self interest result in destruction during and after” ashok m. A n earlier post in this blog described healthy wines called Las wines of gods much healthier than any of the wines currently available in world markets. The present post is about another mildly alcoholic drink that is also a health drink. It is not a wine because it is not made from fruit juices but rather from milk. The drink described here is adapted from the ancient drink of Kumis. It’s the beverage of the horsemen of the Central Asian steppes, warriors like Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan. They were avid consumers of it. It appears to be still popular in countries like Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan or Kazakhstan. It created strong warriors, t he ones who caused the great migrations out of Central Asia between 400 and 800 AD. The Mon...

  Image source: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/30000/nahled/myra.jpg J ust as mammals have evolved into intelligent human species, amongst insects, the bees and ants have evolved enough to create societies and co-operative living. Who knows that in another billion years some may get evolved enough to create books and more, or if some insects elsewhere in the universe may already have done so. My spiritual practice has involved communing with all life that includes plants and animals and at least the most evolved of insects - ants and bees that live around the garden of my home. Although others may not believe this, it is my belief that one can communicate with other life forms at the level of consciousness when not through speech. All consciousness throughout the universe is connected. My earliest experiences in such a communication with birds are described in a much older post . A brief mention was made there of communication with ants without elabo...

P ost Traumatic Stress Disorder known as PTSD is a condition found in humans around the world who have suffered a severe traumatic experience. As a group, it is most common in victims of war and veterans who might have participated in one. While there are modern medicines available to give a little temporary relief, over the long term, these are likely to cause other more serious complications and problems than good. There is a tragic story of a young beautiful girl in this blog who lost several years of her life because of resorting to such medicines after a brief traumatic episode and it is only with the Grace of the Lord and returning to natural methods she has been able to escape it now. The following five simple steps that depend on nature and cost nothing more than routine food items are likely to help anyone greatly with PTSD, perhaps even getting rid of it in five weeks. Nature Walk :   A half hour walk in green natural surroundings daily is the fi...