Life and Spirituality

T ime and Space are fundamental to creation. The created universe exists because of it. Of this time is even more fundamental than space because it existed even before space was created at the beginning of creation. In this glorious creation exist both animate and inanimate matter. Both are affected by time. The timing of movements of the stars and planets is determined by universal laws, such as the law of gravity that creates and holds the universe together. These laws prescribe timing of movements of planets and they also determine when stars and planets deviate significantly from orderly movements, a time when they are destroyed. Animate matter or life is distinguished from inanimate matter in the universe by the fact that it has the capacity to perceive and feel and a degree of freedom of choice that it may exercise for its activities in time and space. The kind of choices humans make decides the quality of their experience in the universe and their progress as a...

https://twitter.com/PardueSuzanne/status/745088325560729600 A Happy International Yoga day to all this June 21 st , 2016 About Entropy yoga, the simplest to begin with http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2014/07/a-yoga-for-everyone-entropy-yoga.html Follow with Sun Inspired Yoga http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2014/12/five-steps-to-sun-inspired-yoga-improve.html Or Jump directly to love with Kriya Yoga http://nainitalgoddess.blogspot.in/2010/09/kriya-yoga-as-taught-by-baba-haidakhan.html Nainital Plains photographed by author on way to Haidakhan Ashram

The sacred Nanda Devi and Sunanda Devi peaks in Himalayas. In the modern era, the peak Sunanda Devi earlier termed Nanda Devi east by British explorers was identified by the author of this note. Jai Ma Nanda, Jai Ma Sunanda Y oga is a means of evolution for the soul that dwells within each living body. A soul acquires a body at birth in keeping with its state of evolution at birth. As a human, it is possible for a soul to consciously make an effort to evolve and although one is stuck with one’s body for life, the soul within is free to evolve. There are many symptoms of an evolved soul with the most obvious one being its reaction to light. Since the Universal consciousness is a creator of light, souls closer to it emit and reflect more light from their faces and bodies than less evolved human souls who absorb light instead. During living, the state of a being changes from time to time and they are described as glowing when in evolved states. They may even remove ...

  Image source: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/30000/nahled/myra.jpg J ust as mammals have evolved into intelligent human species, amongst insects, the bees and ants have evolved enough to create societies and co-operative living. Who knows that in another billion years some may get evolved enough to create books and more, or if some insects elsewhere in the universe may already have done so. My spiritual practice has involved communing with all life that includes plants and animals and at least the most evolved of insects - ants and bees that live around the garden of my home. Although others may not believe this, it is my belief that one can communicate with other life forms at the level of consciousness when not through speech. All consciousness throughout the universe is connected. My earliest experiences in such a communication with birds are described in a much older post . A brief mention was made there of communication with ants without elabo...

A Galaxy, one of many in the Universe. The Universe is the father of all life, Earth is the mother I n a previous post it was mentioned that the basic purpose of life appears to be to evolve. In ancient times when civilization began, humans applied their mind to this notion. They came up with a large number of practices designed to improve body, mind and soul of humans. Many such practices were described by a common name Yoga. There are very many different types of yoga such as hatha yoga, kriya yoga, karma yoga and so on for the ways to improve body, mind and soul are countless. This author has had deep interests in both physical sciences as well as spiritual sciences. As a result of this combination, the author had described a form of yoga that emerged from an intersection of both these sciences and gave it the name Entropy Yoga. It has been followed and taught by some in different parts of the world since it was introduced. An interested reader can find it in ...

A Window near the South East corner of the author's home   I n one of the earlier posts it was mentioned that the life of ancient Himalayan sages living in lush green surroundings was so disciplined and regulated and they were so aware of their own bodies that they could discern the effect of any new food or herb on their bodies readily. From this was born the ancient Ayurveda science of Herbal medicines. My own life though far removed from that of ancient sages has been fairly well disciplined over the last several years and I too can sense the effect of new foods or changes on my body. Therefore when I noticed that I am sleeping right through the night rather than waking up in the middle of it once every night recently, I wondered what new food or change had taken place in my routine, thoughts or environment. There was nothing new in food etc. but one change had taken place. My home is around a quarter century old. It was self designed and self built on a plot...

Classical Landscape by John Wootton A line in the morning newspaper (in the editorial section, Times of India) today caught my attention - Hemmingway said the world breaks everyone but afterward some are strong at the broken pieces. It is true that the world has both joys and sorrows but as to how much it breaks anyone varies from individual to individual. The nature of life is such that one begins with struggling through education and then spends the largest part of life at earning a livelihood. There are struggles in raising a family and when one becomes too old to work and the family has grown and departed, one struggles to maintain oneself in the interim before the final sleep. Through it all are also periods of peace and moments of joy, pleasure and merrymaking not just when time and opportunity permits but also when the mind can be freed from its numerous concerns. Such concerns often increase as one's riches increase. The rich and the ambitious try for success i...

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...

Starving from famine   And on the suffering of the sweetest, most innocent, most vulnerable of humans - Children, often caused by other humans W hile there is peace and happiness for some in the world some of the time, there is also deep suffering for others elsewhere from time to time. Most everyone encounters pain and suffering some time or the other in life, one also suffers when a loved one is in distress and when one becomes sensitive one is also touched by the suffering of others in far away places. There are humans suffering because of wars, homelessness, hunger, over eating and obesity, disease, corrupt or brutal governments and much else at this very moment and some are little children less than the age of five, an age of innocence, an age when a child deserves to experience only love and joy of play, in no way responsible for the suffering that has been thrust upon them by the world they happen to be born in. Not picked up to hug and kiss but just a...

International Yoga day At the behest of the inspiring new Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi ji, June Twenty first has been declared as the International day of Yoga by the United Nations. Having initiated the idea, it is perhaps incumbent on India to contribute ideas as to how this day may be celebrated. Today morning an email arrived in my inbox from a government agency that maintains contact with citizens at large to contribute ideas for the day that would be communicated to the PM. I enthusiastically responded sending three ideas. The first was a bit of art work carrying the caption – Vasudev Kutambakam – a phrase coined by ancient yogis who declared that all life is one family, indeed as modern genetic science has verified; humans, animals, plants and bacteria are born of a common gene pool and share many genes. The ultimate goal of yoga to move out of our limited personal desires and unite with those of All.   The art work was developed using the base ...

Sun Inspired Yoga S un inspired yoga is to wake up to the song of birds, to greet and thank the early morning sun that sustains all life. It is to help protect all life, all green things and everything that walks on legs, even those without legs. It is to oppose those who tend to damage life and perpetuate violence for the sake of their greed or madness but not with hatred, rather with love and understanding, because hatred can never be conquered with hatred, it may however be banished with love, yet it is to shun those who tend to fill life with negativities and contentions. I t is to commune with and meditate in the sunshine, green forests and flower filled valleys, beside lakes and rivers of pure blue waters and snow capped peaks. It is to fill one's life with love, laughter and a song even as the Almighty fills one’s heart with joy and steps breaking out in a dance. But that is a bit too general and somewhat poetic you might say, dear reader, and ask, what are...