Life and Spirituality

I n the modern world, while many do not believe in any Supreme Intelligence, power or God in the universe there are also others that do. If we confine our attention to the educated what is their stand? Consider the educated of the modern world in two groups. First are the well educated, those who have university degrees like a bachelors or masters and also some who do not have a degree but have an equivalent amount of education through self study or other informal channels. Then there is the second group of highly educated. These are the academics, scientists and people with doctoral degrees from reputed universities of our world. If a survey was carried out amongst these two groups to ascertain how many believe in a Supreme intelligence behind the universe, there would be surprising difference. Many more from the second group, a much higher percentage in fact believe in a Supreme Intelligence and Consciousness as compared to the former well educated group. The reason ...

The golden mean, the middle road A yellow Mandevilla creeper on the front boundary of the author's home So said the prophet, In all things dear one The middle road is by far the safest When your heart is heavy with sorrow A little of a good wine shall banish it Too much of it on the other hand May destroy instead from words of King Solomon  and also personal experience this a friend coveys A little of good food And you shall appreciate it Too much of it Will lead to sickness and pain A bit of exercise, will help the muscle tone Too much of it, and one might break a bone A little fame and name Shall honor you Too much of it And you shall lose your freedom To live freely, even to breathe In mother earth's joyous kingdom Too little of money And you shall be deprived of what you need Varying from situation to situation Just deprived or utter destitution Too much of money It shall be a burden and a frown ...

The Fairy Tale Art of Carl Larsson D id you hear that Jolly old grandma was developing bags under her eyes and she worried and made a fuss that her bags were getting larger and it would be her end. At the same time cancers were developing on her left, right and center and expanding slowly but surely, yet grandma worried no end about the bags under her eyes and had little attention left for the cancers, that one day would engulf her and put an end to her worries in the not too distant future. Is our lovely dear old earth, or the humans that walk upon it, behaving like that grandma? It is making a huge hue and cry about carbon emissions that not all agree are a serious problem, some even mentioning that it is good for plants and the planet as a whole and that stronger greenhouse gases such as water vapor are a necessity for the planet and have been around for as long as life has in proportions that are hugely larger so that perhaps not even the feedback loops of NASA can de...

W hile some of the leading prophets that walked the earth predicted that a day shall come soon when the world comes to an end, when wickedness shall be on the rise and the wicked shall be vanquished while removing the good to safe havens. Nevertheless, the world continues to throb with life. This does not mean that the prophets were wrong. Time scales can vary and what is soon for a prophet tuned into timeless Universal Consciousness may be quite different for you and me. In an earlier post in this blog, this blogger had remarked that the way population is increasing on the planet, it might become unsustainable by 2030 or perhaps 2050 and that might be the time that the Lord decides to step in to fix matters. This time would also coincide, as per the prophets, when much goodness shall disappear from the face of the earth; when selfishness, meanness, wickedness etc. shall rise. Is that happening in our world? On the whole now are humans becoming kinder and nicer folk instead...

W hile breathing is an automatic function of life, its conscious management has been used often from the simplest of emotional management techniques such as – ‘hold your breath’, ‘take a deep breath’ to advanced practices for yoga and the Buddhist techniques of mindful breathing. The revered Himalayan sage, Patanjali was an ancient sage who lived around 400 BC in Northern India. He is regarded as the father of Yoga. His treatise on yoga is the original and foremost text on the subject and he too has talked on the subject. Patanjali has summarized yoga in extremely brief phrases called sutras. Their elaboration is left for later commentaries. As regards his work on Yoga, Patanjali has kept it free of any reference to religion, ritual, tradition etc. perhaps so that all may benefit from it. However he includes devotion to God as an essential element. While defining God he has not used existing nomenclature but defined Him in general terms as the supreme consciousness of ...

From a Spice shop in Goa, India A variety of spices and herbs are used by humans to make an otherwise plain meal delightful. The use of right spice makes for a gourmet’s delight. Of all the regions of the world, South Asian cuisine makes most use of spices. There are several reasons for this, foremost being that climatic zones of South Asia are most suitable for growth of a variety of spices. This region has had a long civilization history stretching back more than five thousand years, much of it prosperous although recent centuries have seen much poverty too. With Buddha, some two and half thousand years ago, came the concept of vegetarianism and with that also arose the necessity of making many, otherwise bland, vegetarian dishes delicious with use of spices. Moreover, most of the spices used have health benefits too. Perhaps that is the reason the Lord gave them such a nice taste. Europeans came to India in search of spices and Columbus discovered America because his shi...

Figure1: Design for a yoga and meditation retreat A few like minded friends have been pondering over developing an International Yoga and Meditation retreat in the countryside of the Himalayan foothills where the air and water is pure and a view of surrounding forests and hills inspiring. We are all retired persons and do not know if the concept would materialize. Nevertheless, I am sharing the essence of the concept in this blog so that others elsewhere may make use of the idea if interested. The idea is to provide a place in Sylvan surroundings, to group tours from different countries where they can spend three weeks, learning yoga and meditation from a competent teacher (who too would be invited for the purpose) one hour a day, on week days while joining a tour of nearby Himalayan destinations in weekends, or just relaxing at the retreat. The Facilities: The proposed retreat is planned on a five acre country lot that would be developed as a bio-diverse orc...