Life and Spirituality

Golu (Naynesh) Age 7 in the Garden, may God bless him R ecently I read a profound tweet which said a life is successful if it puts more into the world than it takes out of it. While one finds humans of all kinds, it is among trees and plant life even grasses that one finds lives that give much more than they take from the world. No wonder, they live in peace and happiness from all accounts that a mystic can sense since such things are beyond measurement by science. This happiness is shared with other life forms when they enter green surroundings. One of the greatest pleasures available to humans in life is spending time with the green side of life. For those of us who live mostly in urban areas, some of this love can be experienced even in a small garden, flower pots and visits to the countryside.A human being can return much to earth and become carbon neutral as well if he or she plants trees as often as they can in their adult years at home, office and countryside. Wh

A Photo snapped this morning in the garden J ust as our bodies are made up of bits of matter from the Universe or in particular from bits of Mother Earth, Our consciousness too is made up of a bit of the infinite consciousness of the Universe. Mystics believe that we are not so special that it is just we humans that have a body, consciousness and intelligence but the Universe as a whole has an one too, an infinite one, ours just being a very tiny part of it. The consciousness of Mother Earth, a part of Universal consciousness, is known as Gaia Consciousness because the Greeks personified her as the Goddess Gaia whereas in other parts of the world others personified her in numerous other diverse forms. All recognized her as a Mother for Earth is the mother of all life that dwells upon it. She prepares food for all her children and also the air they breathe every moment of their lives with the help of Sunshine and other things Father Universe brings from afar. Mother

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

Photo from Nainital with inspiring text A few days ago when I received news that another college mate of mine ( a year junior to me) Avinash Chander had risen to the highest position in a most prestigious government organization of India ( the Defence Research and Development Organization), my mind went back to the professional career of some of my friends as well as mine. From amongst my friends those who joined an organization, national or international, corporate or governmental it was those who had stuck to a single organization who rose eventually to either very senior positions in these organizations or to their very top becoming famous not just in the countries they worked in but also around the world. We were all graduates of one of the prestigious schools of India, the IIT at Delhi.   I too have headed some organizations towards the end of my professional career but these are not very large ones. The main reason is that I have not stuck to any one organization, pr

  I have had the good fortune to live and work in different parts of the world. Everywhere, it was my cardinal principle to enjoy local culture including local foods and drinks rather than stick to the habits from back home. I was introduced to good wine as a doctoral student in Canada during the department Christmas party at UBC and still enjoy it on occasions. If you are a wine lover too then you may enjoy some simple facts about wine and wine making that have been gathered through my travels and experiments that most books don’t tell. First of all as regards alcohol uphold the principle enshrined by King Solomon the wise some thousands of years ago as recorded in the Old Testament of the holy Bible “Give wine to a person heavy of heart but give strong drink to a person who wishes to destroy himself” There is really much wisdom in this statement that personally experienced. Many persons consume an alcoholic drink once in a while. At times that drink happens to be a