Life and Spirituality

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

T he unfortunate suicide and demise of Robin Williams has renewed a debate on depression in the social media. In an earlier post in this blog – The Joy of a rustic life –  it was described how the poor seem to be far happier than the rich. Yes there are times of devastation when the poor have no support or buffer, such as a poor farmer in debt and drought who is driven to suicide but in the main I have found this conclusion to hold most times. This phenomenon appears to apply not just to the rich and poor but also between rich and poor countries. Levels of stress and depression are much higher in the richer countries of the world than the poor who seem to laugh much more after saying Manyahna with a banana for lunch. I have experienced this at close quarters after having lived in both types of countries for several years. When a poor country or even a rich one is mentioned here, the reference is to those that are not disturbed by an internal or external war, even an internal

A Glass of Milk for the Sweet Child While I made some critical remarks about some religious organizations in the previous post, it must also be reported that some of these organizations do a lot of good work too. BBC news showed what an excellent job of running free kitchens the Catholic Church in France is doing besides the church has also done a great job of providing excellent education through the schools it runs and I myself have studied in one for a few years as a child. On the other hands there are also sordid scandals that plague some religious organizations. As a comment to my previous post, Vincent a friend and fellow blogger pointed out that it is not always easy for people to walk out of a religion they may have been born too as it from a business organization that provides some service. Therefore a need exists for reform. Perhaps the scandals in some of these churches would reduce if priests were allowed to marry. It is fine to say that for attaining a high or