Life and Spirituality

A s a step towards peace and happiness, humans seek many different things. Some of these are - wealth, health, fame, beauty, ability, worldly education, education of life etc. A few achieve excellence in one or more areas. For the moment, let us confine our attention to two prominent acquisitions - wealth and wisdom. There are examples in human history when a few individuals attained excellence in both. Two famous examples of this are - King Solomon the Wise and King Rama of Asian prehistory. However both were godly personalities. More often, among humans we find persons have attained either great wealth or much wisdom but not both. Examples of wealthy persons in modern times are the billionaires of the world. Examples of excellence in wisdom are a series of saints and hermits through human history. These latter have shown the way to other humans when they were in distress. While wealthy persons have fine jewels, clothes from leading designers, fine mansions with expen...

  Image Source; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallstatt#/media/File:Hallstatt_300.jpg T he Billionaire upon making his first billion Threw a party for friends at his mansion A mansion he purchased for ten million The band was good and the host handsome But in his heart joy was missing So he dragged an old wise friend To a quiet shaded corner In the garden beside the pond I have six mansions, two private planes A luxury liner with hostesses ever so blonde Ever ready to give a massage With breasts so large He made a gesture with his hands to show Yet in my heart there is much pain A drink makes it better for a while But the morning after is ever so vile Has all this been in vain? Said the friend, in mystic Himalayas Live sages holding the keys to ooh la las He must visit the location Whenever it is time for a Vacation To the Himalayas by plane, by train Followed by a drive up a narrow lane a day worth of walk ...

Oil on Canvas by Pieter Bruegel Free Kitchens W hile the majority of humans on Earth have to struggle for necessities of life a few are well off and do not have to. The planet also has many billionaires and multi millionaires. Some of them have come into their wealth because of their good karma and good fortune (not hard work because that never produced any great wealth for ants or humans, that is just a lie to fool people, those who work the hardest in our world such as laboring persons are also some of the poorest) but many have ended up with such a huge wealth because of exploitative economic systems, unethical or illegal means. Therefore the society at large does not view them kindly. Some of them indulge in philanthropic activities to give back something to society but this activity may not always be fruitful. For example it may be a donation to an NGO that spends most of the money on administrative expenses or it may be to a cause that is not directly visible to most o...