Life and Spirituality

As a senior citizen and retired person, I have the leisure to look back at life and wonder how the world changed over the last half-century or so. Perhaps the greatest change has been in communication technologies. As a child we had holders with nibs or pens to write. One dipped the nib in an inkpot and then wrote on paper with the wet nib. There were different colored inks, blue, royal blue, green, red and once in a rare while a brown one too. I loved trying out the different colors. At times one smudged the paper with a blob of ink and there were blotting papers to soak it up. After one wrote a letter, one made a trip to the post office to get the envelope weighed, get stamps and then post the letter. It took a few weeks to reach distant lands. The reply came back after several weeks. One could make a phone call too if the recipient had a phone but one booked the call through an operator and then waited a while before she called back if the call was through to a differen

Beasts of the forest Lowly creatures that crawl Just to survive Violence is their creed Poor souls they know not That is why they steal Stepping in as a human Mind begins to think Lips begin to move Out pour lies Or lovely truths A soul evolves Giving up on violence No longer a need Lies and stealing Not necessary to feed Free of Jealousy That burns one as fire While flowers must bloom Clean and contented With delight and humor Avoiding the call Of three lovely maidens Those stand at the gate Of a bottomless fall Lust, greed and anger The journey proceeds As humans evolve Pride threatens It precedes a fall Tying to a bosom Humor and humility Love truth and simplicity A soul may reach Company of the gods Light surrounds A god like soul Joy and beauty Lie in its fold

View from the window where this poem was composed This Story of a human life In brief Father Universe Mother Earth Sent forth to dwell In this world For a while With a designated Quality of life Two boxes of biscuits One filled with joy Another with sorrow One sweet Another salty In the years Up to twenty One lives The quality of life That was chosen From twenty to sixty A human may strive To create for a while What pleases him or her From sixty to eighty They return to that Which was chosen and defined From the start Albeit tempered By what they had sought In the years that intervened A human stays Beyond eighty In this life If they have been slow to exhaust’ What had been packed for them In the box of joy In the box of sorrow When it comes time To bid goodbye When one prepares The grade card The Universe shall review For your boxes to renew When a human departs Was there s

http://www.artrenewal.org/artwork/154/3154/32410/apocalypse-large.jpg I n many ways, the last thirty years  have been some of the most unusual ones in human history. Three major changes have taken place in this period, one positive and two negative. On the positive side, human civilization has seen an unprecedented rise of communications from mobile devices to the internet. Neither good nor evil can be hidden any longer as it could be in the past and communication between humans and most countries now proceeds at the rate of thought. This does not mean that evil is being eradicated yet.   It is merely being exposed. Rather it seems, evil is also making use of these tools while it becomes more and more shameless. The other two changes in human civilization are on the negative side. The first of these is an unprecedented rise in human populations to what some fear is fast heading towards unsustainable levels. The other is  rise of greed and practices emerging from it

A View of Main Building, IIT Delhi I t has been mentioned in ancient literature that a man or woman is fortunate if he or she can spend their last days in their country of birth. In fact the source ( I forget which now) listed dying in a foreign land as one of the great misfortunes of life that can fall upon a person. I have tried to relate this piece of ancient wisdom with my own experience of life as described next, even as I am reminded of the Prophet of Khalil Gibran and his tearful departure to the land of birth in his last days. India is a country of vast diversity. Even hundred years ago, India had the most modern of cities and towns such as Lahore, Bombay, Simla and Nainital that competed in their quality and modernity with most modern cities and towns of our world of those times. On the other hand, there were until recent times, areas inhabited with fully nude tribes such as the Angami Nagas, Andaman tribes and a whole lot other half naked or topless tribes. These

I n some eastern spiritual texts it is mentioned that life is inherently full of sorrow. To support this contention the texts mention that sickness, death and old age are integral parts of human life. As an escape from this sorrow, texts suggest that humans should learn to banish their thoughts and desires through advanced yogic techniques. Eventually when all thoughts are stilled, all desires banished and consequences of all previous actions i.e. karma exhausted, it is said that the individual soul gets freed from this cycle of births and deaths. It then merges with the infinite consciousness from which it originally arose. In the absence of this liberation or nirvana the soul is subjected to repetitive births and deaths. Although an ardent student of spiritual philosophies, my own view differs somewhat from this philosophy. I believe it can even be misleading. The same spiritual texts clearly state that this liberation is achieved only by rare human souls, possi

M ay the life of this sweet baby in the photo be blessed by the Almighty Lord. The beginning of human life is indeed inspiring and full of Joy. With some gentle care and a little foresight the joy may last a lifetime.In order to analyze human life one may use  the analogy of a lifetime with an average working day for convenience. A human life may be divided into five twenty year periods each and compared to the five periods of a working day – morning pre-work hours, morning working hours, afternoon working hours, evening and night. Each period of life involves fun and work. Presently this post is restricted to the work aspect. An important aspect of this work in each stage involves preparation for the following stage of life. Thus the morning preceding a normal workday consists of getting ready for work. The first approximately twenty years of life similarly involve getting ready for a working life. It is a time to develop disciplined, productive habits as well as a