Life and Spirituality

Me on a boat in Nainital O ne useful thing about blogging has been the archives of old posts, one does not have to repeat oneself endlessly on a topic but rather just refer someone to a link if the matter comes up again later. The present post is just about me rather than the wide world. However, it too will serve the purpose of describing my self to anyone in future, if required. I shall just give them this link. When one has expressed one’s views on something,  some readers wish to know more about the author before deciding if to take him seriously or not. Social media sites carry an about me section but that rarely tells much. Someone might just list, love Salmon, for example. The idea for this post sprang up from a train of thought from the last post about President Obama and food. My profession has been that of an engineering academic although I am now retired from most of it. While most Professors at universities confine themselves to their subject at han...

Photo from author's backyard with text imposed W hile there is much information in print and electronic media about foods, drinks and supplements that are good for human health, relatively speaking, there is lesser information on what is bad. This article is more about the latter than the former. The attention of this author was drawn to the topic on reading in today’s newspaper that President Obama was suffering from acid reflux problems leading to some complications in the throat as well. At the outset, it may be mentioned that this article is not by a nutritionist, biologist or medical practitioner but simply by a highly educated person who has been very aware of his own body as well as others and learned from experience and study. Some of this common knowledge is shared here for others. The author firmly believes it contains useful knowledge that will help any human, not just President Obama to improve his or her food and drinks and therefore lead a better life. Th...

The Babaji Affair by Ashok A fter receiving a doctoral degree in engineering from the University of British Columbia in Canada, that has been ranked in the top fifty universities of the world for many decades, I took up an academic career that involved teaching, research and administration of education successively in three of the finest universities in three different parts of the world, all made possible by the grace of the Almighty. While towards the latter part of my professional career the administrative role increased, in the earliest part teaching was a major component. I taught the subjects in which I had majored in graduate school, stuff called heat transfer, thermodynamics, fluid turbulence etc.   A significant realization at the time was that most of my learning took place when I began to teach. Truly a teacher learns most when he teaches because at this time he is compelled to contemplate on his subject matter more deeply and repetitively as well as d...

Dr. Ashok Malhotra at Raj Bhavan, Nainital A s a result of scientific understanding, some humans have come to believe that life began on the planet by a chance combination of elements, at first as the simplest of life forms that later evolved over millions of years into complex organic machines with humans being a prime example. Some scientists who hold this type of view also conclude through only a little further reasoning that humans cannot have any free will, just as robotic machines cannot; that all their actions and choices are based on their pre-programming and inputs this machine receives. A little more reasoning also reveals that such machines cannot have feelings such as love, hate, fear etc. since a robot cannot possibly possess such things. On the other hand there are also scientists (such as me) that believe in God and also believe that our scientific understanding is not yet complete. They accept that their feelings of love and hate are real and not just chem...

White Roses in the Author's Garden A human being uses many of the planets resources just to live. Humans in prehistoric times began clearing forests for agriculture and then cleared some more to cook that food. Modern humans may not depend on wood fire but make use of many other chemicals substances that harm the planet. The conclusion is that just through the process of living we tend to damage the planet as well as all life that lives on it. An ecologically sensitive human can minimize this damage but not eliminate it. Aside from the damage to the world at large, humans also end up causing harm to other humans, even near and dear ones, at times intentionally and at other times inadvertently. Small perfectly reasonable actions of ours, at times produce harm, sometimes grave ones to someone we love dearly and any human may realize this through introspection. What is the consequence of all this? A person who believes that his or her intelligence is about the highest o...

Yoga B ased on my interest in both science and spirituality, several years ago, I had coined the term  entropy yoga in this blog to interpret some principles of yoga from the point of view of classical thermodynamics. Some articles were also posted on ezinearticles.com. At that time it was not expected that the term will become popular with some yoga enthusiasts and some yoga schools but it has and as with most everything it has undergone varying interpretations by those who transmitted it. Someone has even produced entropy yoga mats but not having seen one at close hand, this author is not aware of their specifications.  The original ancient specifications of yoga mats do need modifications because of availability of modern materials. Ancient materials were things like grass and animal skins that are not necessary anymore. If there is a manufacturer out there who would like to produce entropy yoga mats, please do get in touch and I shall gladly share my idea of...

T he devil of this note is not that guy with horns but mere symbolism for all those things in the universe that keeps our souls, our inner selves, from growing but rather pulls it down into miserable and less evolved states. God on the other hand is also not a guy with a spotless and shining white robe (or cute pretty colors) surrounded by angels singing - holy, holy, holy,  but as in the rest of this blog is recognized as the Almighty universal consciousness and power of infinite extent of which everything in the universe is a part (including the less evolved parts). However, for convenience if one wished to give a picture to these things, one may do so. Developed from image at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VonSatanicBloodAngel.jpg Whereas it seems that the Almighty wishes all beings to evolve and become just as evolved as the most evolved part of the universe, the job of the devil is to do precisely the reverse. The lure the devil uses is sex, money, power,...