Life and Spirituality

T ime and Space are fundamental to creation. The created universe exists because of it. Of this time is even more fundamental than space because it existed even before space was created at the beginning of creation. In this glorious creation exist both animate and inanimate matter. Both are affected by time. The timing of movements of the stars and planets is determined by universal laws, such as the law of gravity that creates and holds the universe together. These laws prescribe timing of movements of planets and they also determine when stars and planets deviate significantly from orderly movements, a time when they are destroyed. Animate matter or life is distinguished from inanimate matter in the universe by the fact that it has the capacity to perceive and feel and a degree of freedom of choice that it may exercise for its activities in time and space. The kind of choices humans make decides the quality of their experience in the universe and their progress as a...

   A worldly wise uncle of mine had advised that soon after one begins work, one must start planning for a home that would be suitable for one’s retirement. The sooner one builds it the better. Just as is the case with most humans, my working life was spent in thickly populated urban areas spread across three countries including in Delhi, India, the country of my birth. However, it must be kept in mind that, “While one may be compelled to spend one’s working life in a crowded city, it is not at all necessary to do so when one retires. It is wiser to look for a home in quieter less crowded town and cities for retirement.” I am thankful that I did not choose Delhi to acquire a home because the pollution there now is such that many an aged person is  either running away from it or landing up in hospitals unless they drop dead first. From a practical point of view it is wiser because property and land is much cheaper in the countryside than in large...

H aving been a professor and scientist for much of my life, I have collected a huge amount of documents, files and books. Added to that are some files dating back to childhood. Needless to say this mass of paper would be quite useless unless well organized. It is an exercise that has to be repeated every few years as new files are added, some become redundant enough to discard and some get disorganized with use. The exercise stretches over days. My most recent shot at it was last month. While the task of this sorting is on, I remove batches from shelves and look through them in different locations of the home ranging from different tables and desks as also the bed. A double bed is a comfortable place for such an exercise because one can lay out the files on one of the beds while sitting against the headboard of the bed on the other against a fluffy pillow with a coffee or tea mug on the side table. It is a habit I developed in college residence when one had only one sma...