Life and Spirituality

Through much study and experience, I discovered two of the simplest ways to relieve stress, fear, anxiety, pain and a variety of other things that trouble humans are Mindful breathing Mantra Jap Not only do either of these ancient and time tested methods relieve problems mentioned they can also be used for emotional and spiritual development when practiced in peaceful moments. Mindful breathing is a type of mindfulness when a person focuses on one’s breathing silently. The interested reader can find an excellent note on it by the author at, https://ashokbabaji.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-breath-of-life.html Mantra Jaap (or Jap)is repetition of holy word or name of the Lord. One may use any word that one can repeat comfortably, musically or even in a monotonous manner. While mindful breathing can be practiced if one believes in God or not, Mantra Jap is for those who believe in God. Personally I feel that it is not possible to attain peace without b

A photo of grass in the author's garden W hen modern humans read or hear about sayings and descriptions of mystics through the ages, many consider it as nonsense of an imagination gone wild. While some of it might be so, there is also much that is based on intuitive knowledge of the universe we live in. It was expressed in the metaphors of the time. The fault lies with us in not being able to interpret it properly. If a modern human with scientific knowledge is able to read through metaphors of mystics, he may attain profound wisdom. Just as an example, when someone reads in a scripture that in the beginning darkness was separated from light, many just laugh at that as wild sayings of a mystic gone poetic. However, within that is a deep scientific truth. A scientific model of creation describes that the first step to creation is the separation of nothingness into an equivalent amount of photons and anti photons – a separation of darkness from light. Many other mystic

D uring my walk to a nearby diary today, I found a poor old poor man sitting by the roadside. He requested me for a small carton of milk. I did that and a large roll of fruit bread besides. He must not have been a beggar because beggars ask for money but others facing hard times may ask for a little food instead. I usually shoo away beggars who might be the kind that can find work but that is not possible for the disabled and the very old. It seems like a good idea to extend a helping hand to fellow humans whenever one can. In the present day world, there are conservatives in western governments who have read books of Ayn Rand and say it is not a good idea to help other humans in need. Just in case they already are getting some help, that should be taken away. Recently it seems the Tory government of UK cut the grants for disabled British implying that those who need a new wheel chair or walking stick should crawl instead to uphold the glory of the once great British Empire.

P arts of the planet we all share are amazingly beautiful. Mother earth has filled it with beautiful mountains, forests, fields of numerous grasses that soothe the soul and feed the stomach, wild flowers, springs, streams, lakes and rivers of clear water, trees with beautiful foliage that bring forth fruits of diverse sweet flavors and flowers through the seasons. The air mother earth provided for all her children to breathe is pure and father universe sends forth warm rays of sunshine most days when he is not busy watering the fields and forests. On this lovely beautiful planet of ours grow lovely flowers that delight the heart and assorted foods that are extremely delicious and nourishing. Yet despite all this, there is only a small fraction of humans on the planet that enjoy bounties of nature in peace and happiness to the sweet song of birds that sing for them all through their lives. Many in fact are busy creating misery for each others, many driven out of their homes

Monkeys , 1889, Gabriel von Max O ne may find in this world most beautiful and good looking persons yet find hidden within the depths of their being an evil and cruel soul. On the other hand, one may also find some fierce looking and ugly humans yet discover that they harbor a kindly and gentle soul within. External looks of a human are largely a matter of genetics that is inherited at birth. Eastern mystics believe that a soul acquires a body at birth that is in keeping with its character. Compassionate beings inherit a beautiful body while cruel souls inherit beastly ones. What we acquire at birth is a direct consequence of our past in other lives in our near endless journey through the universe. As a human, one acquires considerable ability and choice to mould character and determine one’s destiny. It is entirely within human capability to change from a kind compassionate being to a foul and cruel one within the course of a life time or vice versa. This explains how

Inspired by thoughts of God and the state of the world W ith the failure of communism, the world was left with an economic system that runs on profit, something called capitalism. However, while killing incentives for humans to strive produces bad results as in communism, the consequences of an unregulated race for profits can be worse and produces huge suffering in the world. While this has led to rising economic inequality in the largest economy of the world USA and despite its riches, hunger amongst some of its children and homelessness for some on its streets, it has also directly or indirectly led to huge suffering in other parts of the world such as the one being witnessed in Gaza, Syria, Iraq and Yemen; aside from periodic financial crisis in the largest economy of the world that reverberate around the world forcing more families into poverty and more children into hunger. The solution for mankind lies not in killing free enterprise but in killing greed whenever

W ith help of modern electronic media, we may if we wish, receive news from different parts and times of the world. We shall find in different places and times examples of extreme love and compassion, of extreme greed and cruelty, joy and misery, extreme energy and extreme lethargy, progressive places and backward places etc. Individual lives as well as those of entire communities; even nations have displayed these contrasts from the beginning of time. When intellectuals, experts and thinkers seek to analyze behavior of an individual or a nation, they arrive at reasons or causes for that behavior. However, a deeper analysis indicates that the cause traced is merely a symptom of a deeper cause. For example if we conclude that a human is lethargic because his health is not good we can analyze further to find out why that health is not good and so on. As analysis progresses, every cause traced becomes a symptom of a yet deeper cause so that at the root of it all we arrive a

I n some traditional Asian cities, monkey families move in and live in abandoned buildings. When they are hungry they grab some food from your hand or from someone’s kitchen if a window is left open, or that lovely fruit tree just when the fruit was ever so luscious. The Discovery channel has done an interesting series on these monkeys called the monkey thieves, for that is what these monkeys are, thieves. However, you cannot really present the poor lot to a judge for these folks did not go to school or church. No one taught them a lesson in morality and ethics. They were simply satisfying their basic need or self interest – hunger. Humans have evolved out of creatures similar to monkeys and although humans consider themselves as way superior, in truth they are not really much removed from monkeys and Chimpanzees. The full story of human evolution is in a companion blog at http://alienaccount.blogspot.com . We have descended from chimp like creatures and on a pla

Photo of the Himalayan foothills near Haidakhan and superimposed text by author T his note should have been entitled women and mystics but you know how the human mind is, it would have jumped to sexual connotations and that is not what this note is about although it does have a bit of that too. It goes without saying that it is nice sexual experiences very many humans look for soon as they have had nice food and when they are done with all that, they go about the world looking for fame, wealth, important positions in society and so on. It is pursuits such as these that drives much in the world. When these interests are in control, society runs reasonably well; when any such drive becomes excessive and when it involves ethical violations, for example when a few usurp most of the wealth of the world while others starve or worse, suffer homelessness, then we have an upheaval and people may rise to chop the head off a queen as they did in France or to have a communist revo

The Saraswati River begins in the Himalayas ( This portion known as Baspa)   I t seems that the human species appeared on the planet a couple of hundred thousand years ago but they did not behave in a manner that was very different from other animals species up until the last glacial period , popularly known as the Ice Age some 12000 years ago. Perhaps evolution to the modern human as we know now was not yet complete and a few more genes needed to be inserted to make humans substantially distinct from other animals. A few genes are all that is required to change a species. There is hardly any uniqueness to the human genes. They are akin to 99 percent of the chimpanzees, and 70 percent of rats  :) . ( A blogger friend Vincent will vehemently oppose this - we are not from rats! ) I have an entire blog on how these changes take place here that an interested reader may look up. Evolution is an ongoing process and mankind does not know where evolution will take it next

T here are many articles in this blog about life and how to improve mind, body and soul so as to become a better human. Since the collection is rather large a reader may wish for a small list that can be read quickly and followed easily. Just five earlier articles are selected here that can set any person on a quick path of evolution while increasing happiness substantially. To begin with you may wish to read what the purpose of life is in this post: http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2011/04/purpose-of-life.html Now if this article convinces you that it is the purpose of every life to evolve into greatness let us get started. A good place to start is a simple practice called entropy yoga. You probably already know of it and follow most of it anyway. It is described here: http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2014/07/a-yoga-for-everyone-entropy-yoga.html The next step is a practice called mindful breathing that may now be added to your routine and you shall be on yo

The Turquoise lake of Nainital in Central Himalayas, childhood hometown of author T he Himalayan mountain ranges are full of snow capped peaks, majestic panoramas, lush green forests, lichen covered pine trees, lakes, rivers, springs, wild strawberry patches, wild roses and scented wild flower valleys. These have been a favorite haunt of spiritual mystics since ancient times. Among their many spiritual discoveries is one that although humans die after a certain number of years, in reality they never die because they possess an eternal soul. It is merely the physical body that dies. When a soul discards a body after death, it finds another to continue its endless journey through the universe. The new bodies need not be human. It could be that of an animal, a demon or a god born on Earth or elsewhere in the universe where such life forms exist. What is the purpose of it all? It was concluded in an earlier post that the purpose of life and soul within is to evolv