Life and Spirituality

H ibiscus is a flowering plant of the mallow family that has a number of varieties and grows in many colors with the red hibiscus being the hardiest and most common. The genus includes from small shrubs to small trees. The flower is the national flower of South Korea and Haiti. The tea made of hibiscus flowers is known by many names in many countries around the world and is served both hot and cold. The beverage is well known for its color, tanginess and flavor. Dried hibiscus is edible, and it is often a delicacy in Mexico. It can also be candied and used as a garnish for desserts. The tea is a tonic and it seems lowers blood pressure. Hibiscus tea also contains bioflavonoids, which are believed to help prevent an increase in LDL cholesterol, which can increase the buildup of plaque in the arteries. However it seems the flower can have adverse effect in attempts at conception, pregnancy and also at the breast feeding stage. Thus it seems for women this flower may be best ...

I n politics we have what is known as the right and the left, the conservatives and the liberals. Although they oppose each other much, the truth is that there are good and bad humans on both sides. And there are evil ones on both sides too, the evil ones on the left are those who fool the people to gather their support and then after grabbing all the wealth and power establish themselves in comfort while denying the people even basic freedoms of speech and movement as happened in many communist countries in the past. The evil amongst the right wing are those that live in comfort in mansions while denying even food and shelter to fellow humans that are homeless, even children, and those who profit from death. Many humans would find this hard to believe but it is a fact that in some cities in the US giving food to a homeless person starving from hunger has been made illegal. In countries where they have found the middle road such as those in Austria, Sweden and Denmark we find the ha...

  Billi and Tilli the kittens, May the Lord keep them from harm A brown cat from the neighborhood used to come in and ask for a little food from me at times. Two months ago she gave birth to two kittens in the backyard. She protected them fiercely in the first month and then one day she just disappeared never to return.Perhaps she shall come back one day and be happy to find her kittens in good shape, or perhaps her soul watches from heaven, may it rest in peace. The kittens howled for a day and then I started feeding them a little milk and a slice of bread, twice a day. they quite seem to love the bread but also catch other creatures of the garden now. Today morning I got up late and they had caught a bird for breakfast. The other birds in the garden were howling and I felt sad but guess these are the ways of the animal kingdom, and how can we blame cats for feasting on birds when even many humans who could manage otherwise also do. I do not know much about cats so I...

Castles in the sand T here was beautiful seaside sand around Johnny’s home and Johnny loved to get to it and build beautiful castles. Often times his mother would have to come out and say, “Johnny your castles are very nice, but please don’t not spend so much time on them, your papa says, spend some time in studying your school books too, that is what will last in the long run, these are castles in the sand, they will be swept away with the first tide.” Johnny would often respond, “ I don’t believe a word of what papa says,” continuing with play until it became too dark to continue. Humans too spend a lot of time building homes, family, career, skills, wealth etc. and if someone with a spiritual bent of mind comes along and says, “Dear friend, your works are very nice, but please don’t spend so much time on them, The saints and prophets say, spend some time with God and  your soul, that is what will last in the long run, these are castles in the sand, t...

View from the window where this poem was composed This Story of a human life In brief Father Universe Mother Earth Sent forth to dwell In this world For a while With a designated Quality of life Two boxes of biscuits One filled with joy Another with sorrow One sweet Another salty In the years Up to twenty One lives The quality of life That was chosen From twenty to sixty A human may strive To create for a while What pleases him or her From sixty to eighty They return to that Which was chosen and defined From the start Albeit tempered By what they had sought In the years that intervened A human stays Beyond eighty In this life If they have been slow to exhaust’ What had been packed for them In the box of joy In the box of sorrow When it comes time To bid goodbye When one prepares The grade card The Universe shall review For your boxes to renew When a human departs Was there s...

  A still from the author's garden A mongst one of the reasons for atheists to be atheists is that God cannot be seen. However, that is not a good enough reason to be an atheist. There are better ones. There are a lot of things that cannot be seen such as radio waves, gravity, love, hate free will etc. Atheists do not deny these other things. Other atheists try to deny God based on reasoning and logic and that too is a poor basis because for every piece of logic they offer there is a counter one. Some others deny God because of fear, frustration, anger, hurt etc. all negative emotions and this only strengthens the belief of theists. The only sound basis for denying God and being an atheist to my mind is faith. There can be nothing more secure than that. On the other hand there can be nothing more secure than accepting God because of faith and that is what my previous post was about. AfterNote: A lively discussion follows from person engaged in the spiritual arena fo...

  Sant Dashrath of Gehlaur (Dashrath Manjhi, 1934 - 2007) W hile India is famous for ancient esoteric yoga knowledge and leading mystic lights of humanity such as Buddha and Gandhi, the situation and state of the general population in modern times is far from the lives of saints that inhabited the land. While India boasted in the past of leading international universities like Nalanda that were the light of the   ancient world even as Harvard and Princeton are today, the less said of its modern universities the better. And on the street chaos rules. From remnants of ancient education people still keep their bodies and homes clean, but they pick the garbage and many throw it on the street outside. When they visit a market or office, instead of parking their vehicles in an orderly fashion, they leave it anywhere in a random manner so that disorder is the order of the day. If there is a hole in the road, few will venture out to fill it or remove some obstructio...