Life and Spirituality

Jungle Geranium A friend of mine from Engineering School days, Ramakrishnan Ramanathan,  recently put up a photo of a flower that I instantly recognized as one that has been growing in my garden for years on a flowering bush. It is not very common in our area and no one knows the name here, however, the plant is native to South India and it seems popular in Florida too, so I asked him the name. He gave a complicated botanical name, Ixora something as well as the common one Jungle Geranium. The next step was to look up on the net if the plant has any medicinal use. I am a fan of herbal medicine and like to know the uses of plants growing at home. As a matter of fact, the plant has several uses, one being to treat loose stomachs. Next time I know where to head for after a visit to the very spicy snack shop nearby that invariably gives me a runny tummy. Apparently the plant used properly also prolongs age. The interested reader may read more about it at http://www.medicalhealt...

In some parts of the world, particularly the less developed and tribal parts, there is a belief that harm can come to one from the evil eye. Such a belief still exists in parts of Africa, India and Arab countries, especially rural areas, particularly amongst the superstitious and less educated. To ward of such evils many antidotes are prescribed such as throwing salt and red pepper over and around the heads of the affected, putting black dots on bodies, an assortment of amulets, hanging of lemons and chilies on a thread outside homes etc. all depending on local customs. In primitive cultures, including Europe some centuries ago, they even used to burn witches and women suspected of an evil eye. They still do in some parts. From a modern educated, even post modern point of view, a human needs to answer two questions in this regard, 1. Is there any such thing as an evil eye at all? Is it at all possible? 2. If it is possible, what is the best way to ward it off...

My new book ' The Babaji Affair' is full of stories of Himalayan Hermit Mystics, based on my experience with them over the last thirty years or so. These are real sincere mystics not those pretending to be one as a business venture. The cover ( front, spine and back is shown here from the designing stage) It is shown on the global best seller list at the rather long link below it: The Babaji Affair by Dr. Ashok Malhotra http://www.amazon.de/philosophy-eastern-Fremdsprachige-B%C3%BCcher-AmazonGlobal-bestellbar/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=Philosophy%20%2F%20Eastern&page=1&rh=n%3A52044011%2Ck%3APhilosophy%20%2F%20Eastern%2Cp_n_publication_date%3A183072031%2Cp_n_shipping_option-bin%3A2019341031 Hope you read the book. It is available only in the paperback format and that perhaps is the only reasonable way to read a book of this size and type of content. The book contains stories composed by the author and real life experiences of the author with one of the most well ...

A s the monsoon has receded a white rose bush has suddenly come to bloom at home. My experience with plants and bushes are that they are sensitive beings and choose the time and place to thrive and bloom. Some are more sensitive than others and the rose is one such. To me all roses are symbolic of love, different colors for different kinds of love. Thus whereas the deep red rose signifies romantic love the white one is for spiritual love, the yellow for friendship and the pure pink for grace and regards. Thus if one were to gift a bunch of roses to a friend, the yellow roses would be most appropriate, whereas if one were to gift a bunch to the queen the pink would be the best. There is a peach pink too, pink with a tint of yellow and this is best for the king or your boss on his birthday. Definitely avoid gifting him a red lest he misunderstand :)  There are also other colors signifying different less common types of love. Thus there is a deep violet, blackish rose and t...

Green Coconut Ever since humans began to cultivate land for food-grains such as wheat and rice their gaze has been towards the land for most food needs. In doing so, another source of food - trees- have not been fully utilized by mankind yet. As deforestation accelerates on the planet and a need is being felt to plant more trees to stabilize  climate e .g. this post   it is worth considering trees as a food source too in order to take pressure off agricultural land. Indeed food from trees can have a magical effect in treating diseases that have become chronic in the modern age, some for which no modern treatment is available yet, such as Alzheimer’s disease or others such as undesirable cholesterol accumulation that are treated at the cost of severe side effects by medicines such as statins. Modern vegetables grown on land are not as healthy anymore as in the distant past because repeated farming has drained the land of essential nutrients. Trees on the other hand ...

E lsewhere in this blog we have mentioned that chanting of a mantra or divine words is an excellent way to achieve meditative states and commune with the Universal Consciousness. Mantras can consist of a single word or many. However, rather than words it is best to describe a Mantra in syllables. personally I find that a very short mantra may lead to an easy distraction of mind and very long ones though helping one to keep one's focus initially also lead to distraction after some time. Chanting a mantra musically helps to keep the mind in focus. An excellent ancient mantra that is neither too long nor too short is  Om Mani Padme Hum Listen to a Beautiful Musical rendition of this mantra from the depths of the Himalayas. You are sure to be enchanted, at http://www.diydharma.org/om-mani-padme-hum-tibetan-incantations   It is essential that during recitation of mantra (jap) the breathing remain calm and regular  and not irregular. A mantra that interfer...

A human being may survive for many days without food but he cannot survive for long without water. Good clean drinking water that is neither too hard nor too soft is the best health drink. Yet water is often combined with ingredients of food and with health supplements in a manner so as to produce a drink for enhanced health, beauty and joy. The fact that drinks are an ideal delivery system is apparent from the fact that even Nature thinks so. The first food chosen for a new born by Nature is a drink – mother’s milk. As one ages one may add a number of other drinks to one’s daily routine in order to optimize one’s health and well being. Here is a collection of some of the best ones from around the world as discovered by this author in his travels, study and reflection.   Following is a description of drinks for different times of day some or all of which could become a person's lifestyle if not already so. The really special and unique drinks, the best on the plan...