Life and Spirituality

I n a companion blog, I described the story of a friend from college – Alok Sagar – who after a great education, a doctorate in Engineering from Rice University in USA and a faculty job suddenly dropped it all, to take to the forests as a hermit and began service to forest Tribals, wild life and forests of Central India. He is now known as Maharishi Alok a title of great respect for the spiritual and the educated. In the comments to that post a family friend expressed disappointment and said the family had tried to convince him not to take that road. Good men and women of the world strive to succeed in their worldly careers and serve their families through that success while reserving a portion of their time, effort and money to serve the world, others in need, quietly, anonymously whenever possible for a deed of compassion does not emerge from a desire for worldly rewards. However, the saintly serve the world instead. Buddha and Jesus abandoned their families (although a...

W hile different hermits in the Himalayas follow different dietary patterns and restrictions, this is a description of a common one that consists of five types of food. These are Wheat : Usually as flat unleavened bread made on an open wood fire but at times also as cracked wheat boiled with milk added to it. A few also use semolina cooked as a sweet mashed preparation. Mystic hermits live a life in harmony with nature and would not cut a tree for their wood needs. Much dead wood may be found on the forest floor along with twigs and dry leaf useful to get the fire going. If necessary some branches might be taken from a tree. However, hermits often tend to young tree saplings that come up on their own in the forest clearing weeds from around them to improve their chances of survival or by shifting them to safer locations. The flat round pieces of bread cooked on wood fire called roti are delicious when eaten hot, straight off the hot plate, and with some clarified butter spread...