Life and Spirituality

S ome modern philosophers have argued that sexual pleasures, beyond those necessary for procreation, of the appropriate kind are a useful part of the human experience and therefore worth pursuing. What exactly is considered appropriate varies with thinkers but in no case does it involve compulsion, inducement or force by one human on another. Sexual indulgence, if any, must only be between adults and from mutual interest and agreement. However, spiritual literature and saints across diverse traditions of the planet have advised humans to overcome urges of lust and described that along with two other emotions - greed and anger – it is a cause of driving humans to hell. The Bhagvat Gita, a revered scripture of the Hindus, describes these as the three gates to hell. It only lauds limited sexual desire i.e. that associated with procreation as divine. The new testament of the Christians warns not just against lustful activity but even lustful thoughts. However sexual desire w...

Happy New Year 2017 M ost humans aspire for a long life and wish the same for loved ones. Yet many mystics and spiritual persons have come to the realization that life is in fact immortal. The soul survives death and it is only the body that is discarded as a soul moves on to acquire yet newer bodies, just as a man discards worn out clothes and acquires a new dress. The source of our likes and dislikes, inner habits, emotions, joys and sorrows i.e. the essence of our personality is our soul and it survives death. The mind and body are only temporary acquisitions. The soul uses the mind to store and process information in some ways similar to the manner in which a person uses a computer. While computers may work with a windows or android operating system, the mind works on a God designed operating system. Yet not all are mystics or spiritual persons. Many are not convinced of the immortality of the soul. It is these latter who fear death and aspire for a long life. ...

Saint Paul in Athens by Raphael D emocracy is a form of government in which people through a vote choose representatives to govern them for defined periods, except in a few African and other states where a glue  appears to stick democratically elected leaders to their seats of power forever, metaphorically speaking. The precise form of democracy varies from country to country. Most have a written constitution that describes principles through which a state is governed. In many cases, though not all, democracies have produced greater welfare of people than other forms of government such as dictatorships, or monarchies. However, democracies as exists in most countries today are not free of defects, some serious. This brief note cannot go into various advantages and defects of democratic forms of government but it may be mentioned that the biggest short comings of democracies arise from the role of money in elections and later in law making so that people often end up ...

A Picture from the garden of author's home W hen we were young Life was fun Worries were for Mama Life was to play and run Early morning we went to school Later we were off to work Mama said don’t be late Come evening, you must relax at home Mama and Papa to heaven have gone So we went to another home The home of love where lives the Lord Our Eternal Mother and Father So as not to be insecure and alone It was evening then, relax He said Come night, when you have had your rest We shall have a new dress for you For you to begin a game In a new life, new day, all over again Note: The different stages of a life may be compared to different parts of a day; read about that here: http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2011/01/five-stages-of-human-life.html And through it all only a few lucky ones hear the seven truths, for it is not ears one needs to hear these truths, it is not eyes one needs to see these truths, yet there are s...

" A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space . He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.”   Albert Einstein M y professional career was that of an engineer, scientist and academic but nowadays I sometimes describe myself a mystic when talking on spiritual matters. Some have inquired what that means and if it same as a religious person. No, a mystic is just as different from a religious person as a religious priest is different from a business man, although some of the much evolved ones have been recognized as saints by different religions. A mystic may have originally belonged to a religion and would therefore be called for exampl...

Castles in the sand T here was beautiful seaside sand around Johnny’s home and Johnny loved to get to it and build beautiful castles. Often times his mother would have to come out and say, “Johnny your castles are very nice, but please don’t not spend so much time on them, your papa says, spend some time in studying your school books too, that is what will last in the long run, these are castles in the sand, they will be swept away with the first tide.” Johnny would often respond, “ I don’t believe a word of what papa says,” continuing with play until it became too dark to continue. Humans too spend a lot of time building homes, family, career, skills, wealth etc. and if someone with a spiritual bent of mind comes along and says, “Dear friend, your works are very nice, but please don’t spend so much time on them, The saints and prophets say, spend some time with God and  your soul, that is what will last in the long run, these are castles in the sand, t...

Space and Time are aspects of the Almighty T he great thing about twitter is that if you are following some of the leading news and media, one gets to hear any important news or trends before it comes on TV and other places in print or online. From time to time, some news comes that this blog had already mentioned in advance in this blog, much in advance and at such times it is pointed out by me as a reply in twitter while quoting the link. The reason for that is that there is an intimate connection between spirituality and prophecy and this blog has much spiritual content and therefore a little prophecy too enters form time to time. It is because of this connection that that some leading ancient have been called prophets. For example yesterday, a tweet mentioned that Australia is likely to be most affected by climate changes. That was something stated four years ago in this blog in Feb 2011 in a post on saline conditions. Some days earlier Oxfam had reported that about on...

The Babaji Affair by Ashok A fter receiving a doctoral degree in engineering from the University of British Columbia in Canada, that has been ranked in the top fifty universities of the world for many decades, I took up an academic career that involved teaching, research and administration of education successively in three of the finest universities in three different parts of the world, all made possible by the grace of the Almighty. While towards the latter part of my professional career the administrative role increased, in the earliest part teaching was a major component. I taught the subjects in which I had majored in graduate school, stuff called heat transfer, thermodynamics, fluid turbulence etc.   A significant realization at the time was that most of my learning took place when I began to teach. Truly a teacher learns most when he teaches because at this time he is compelled to contemplate on his subject matter more deeply and repetitively as well as d...

Over the past couple of centuries or so there has been much poverty in large parts of India. There has been some poverty reduction recently but it still continues in the rural hinterland. One effect of poverty is near or total illiteracy, another is poor nutrition. The Lord has been kind in seeding our planet with much grass and this is the direct or indirect source of food for many animals and humans that live on the planet. Sugar, Wheat, Rice, Corn etc. all come from grass. Because of its abundance wheat is also one of the cheapest sources of food. Therefore the diet of poor rural persons around my area primarily consists of unleavened bread. When such persons come into the city they make good money nowadays, but human habits persist and they tend to continue with the same sort of diet they ate in their villages. This is where I have to intervene and explain to such persons  the importance of proper nutrition along with some nutrition facts. If one were to try and t...

A Photo from the Backyard of the author's home. A horror of modern life is the time, pollution, risks, expense, fatigue and stress caused by commuting to work everyday. This is a major factor leading to a reduced quality of life for very many humans in the modern world. In a much older satirical article in this blog - seven steps to unhappiness - this was mentioned as one of the seven contributing causes of unhappiness amongst modern humans. A day has twenty four hours. On the average if we take away eight hours for work and eight hours for sleeping one is left with eight hours for other things. Of this half or four hours on the average may go for essential work such as  meals, shopping, cleaning, bathing etc necessary to maintain life. Just four hours of free time is left. Imagine if two hours of this is lost in commuting, an hour each way, fifty percent of time in a day is lost that could have been spent on making life happier and better. Not just this, more time is ...

Dancing in the Breeze, Oil on Canvas With so much to talk about and share form the world around us, it is kind of stupid to talk about oneself. But then some have wondered about my diverse interests that range from esoteric spiritualism to potty jokes, a strange mix indeed for many but it is not at at all strange because where God is Love, Truth and Simplicity he is also humor. Nevertheless, to talk much of oneself is to be egocentric, however because this post includes personal case studies of the more useful topic – Natural versus Allopathic Medicine – it has some justification and it would also address the curiosity of some readers as to the strange combination of spirituality and potty jokes; with science thrown in for good measure. I try to keep science and technology out of my blogs not specifically devoted to science and technology for a wider readership but because that is my profession it tends to creep in too, every once in a while. Another post in this blog ...

Albert Einstein   " A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.”   Albert Einstein I t is so much nicer to talk of beautiful things that exist on our lovely planet that it is really a pity that I had to write this post that touches on something that to me is evil. Nevertheless I have written it because if an evil is ignored it is difficult to eradicate it. The evil I am referring to is about the denial of freedom of belief and imposition of beliefs on people and that is something even the followers of the greatest of religions on earth have not been free of though they have done so mu...