Life and Spirituality

I was deeply touched today morning when a surprise certificate of appreciation arrived in my Twitter feed from Mahindra Rise at https://twitter.com/MahindraRise/status/1110046810121404416 I am deeply honored and perhaps there could be no better way for it than through a tree. Readers of this blog would know about my love for trees and my many posts on it, some of it shown on following search list, https://someitemshave.blogspot.com/search?q=tree Mahindra  and  Mahindra  Ltd is a mulit billion-dollar global enterprise headquartered in India with operations spanning over 21 industries in more than 100 countries. Mahindra Rise is their call to action to help improve planet and life of all that dwell upon it. For more information see https://www.mahindra.com/

http://publicdomainarchive.com/category/landscapes/ M other Earth has a varied topography across the globe from fertile plains, arid lands, deserts, hills and mountains. Some parts are covered with snow while others are grasslands and forests. On this dwells a huge variety of life ranging from tiny bacteria to humans with Mother Earth providing food and sustenance for all. A huge role is played by forests in keeping the planet healthy. While forests provide food and shelter for many wild animals and birds, they are also a source of energy and building materials for humans. Over the last century and a half, as human population has grown exponentially, humans have caused huge damage to forests. Some have been cleared for agriculture and others to utilize wood for construction and industrial activity without replacing with new trees. While both fossil fuel emissions and deforestation contributes to climate change, it is the belief of this author, as explained in sev...

A photo of grass in the author's garden W hen modern humans read or hear about sayings and descriptions of mystics through the ages, many consider it as nonsense of an imagination gone wild. While some of it might be so, there is also much that is based on intuitive knowledge of the universe we live in. It was expressed in the metaphors of the time. The fault lies with us in not being able to interpret it properly. If a modern human with scientific knowledge is able to read through metaphors of mystics, he may attain profound wisdom. Just as an example, when someone reads in a scripture that in the beginning darkness was separated from light, many just laugh at that as wild sayings of a mystic gone poetic. However, within that is a deep scientific truth. A scientific model of creation describes that the first step to creation is the separation of nothingness into an equivalent amount of photons and anti photons – a separation of darkness from light. Many other mystic...

P arts of the planet we all share are amazingly beautiful. Mother earth has filled it with beautiful mountains, forests, fields of numerous grasses that soothe the soul and feed the stomach, wild flowers, springs, streams, lakes and rivers of clear water, trees with beautiful foliage that bring forth fruits of diverse sweet flavors and flowers through the seasons. The air mother earth provided for all her children to breathe is pure and father universe sends forth warm rays of sunshine most days when he is not busy watering the fields and forests. On this lovely beautiful planet of ours grow lovely flowers that delight the heart and assorted foods that are extremely delicious and nourishing. Yet despite all this, there is only a small fraction of humans on the planet that enjoy bounties of nature in peace and happiness to the sweet song of birds that sing for them all through their lives. Many in fact are busy creating misery for each others, many driven out of their homes ...

Photo snapped from road to Hairdakhan in Nainital District of Himalayas I f you reflect carefully you would realize that in the ultimate analysis the Universe is the father of all life and Earth the mother. While mother feeds us, father works at a distance to bring in the means to get the food. The Sun a visible part of the universe provides the means for earth to produce that food, oxygen and water and everything else besides. Father built the home; the universe built our planet, the stars and the moon. Mother decorated it. The Earth did with pretty trees, rivers, mountains and flowers; and what wonderful delicacies she prepares in her kitchen for humans and animals, on plants and trees, with such a wide variety to choose from. When we were young we messed up the home and mother fixed it. We played and never bothered much about mother and father. Have we grown up yet? If we have, it is time to bring them some gifts and help in cleaning up the home. Have you planted a f...

Stevia the natural sweetener O ur planet produces such an immense variety of foods that humans still do not even know about them all even in this modern age of rapid information exchange and the internet. Often what is consumed as a great food in one part of the world is discarded in another because people have no knowledge of it. An example is mustard (a close cousin of rapeseed). It is grown widely in many countries for its oil. Persons in the northern provinces of India also consume the young leaves of this plant in the same way as spinach. Many of these persons are some of the healthiest persons in the world (from the provinces of Haryana and Punjab). It has a different taste from spinach and to prepare delicious food out of it, one has to know the recipes. However, just to the south, in the Province of Rajasthan, where too this plant is grown widely, poor villagers who cannot afford even spinach regularly do not know that this leaf is an excellent replacement available ...

Kingdom of Piland I t has been mentioned in various places in this blog that mankind needs to do more to protect our environment and forests. While different parts of the world have been under the jurisdiction of different countries of the world and the responsibility falls upon them, surprisingly there were still a couple of areas that were Terra Nullius, at least until a few weeks ago. Aside from protecting the environment,  it would also be good if different countries use the area under their control to help at least some others such as refugees fleeing their countries under severe distress or violence and much has been written about that in recent posts. The two new countries have now been declared as two new Kingdoms, the Kingdom of North Sudan and the Kingdom of Piland. The first is a very tiny desert area and the second an icy sector of the Antarctica. It is not known if these claims would stand the test of time since they are very new. However, either they ...