Life and Spirituality

Eugene Delacroix , Horse Frightened by Lightning R ecent decades have seen an unprecedented progress and proliferation of technology and democracy on the planet. While this has provided much progress to humans, one of the most essential things required by humans – peace and happiness may not have increased at all. Rather we are seeing a huge rise of wars and refugees on the one hand   and a rise of economic inequality, stress, homelessness and child poverty even in the most developed parts of the world. The most developed country in the world, the US has the highest rate of citizens in prison than mankind has ever seen since the dawn of civilization. The question to ask is why is this happening despite democracy and technology? While people offer different reasons, most are superficial ones. The real answer is quite simple; evil can make use of these things just as effectively as forces for good. In the most recent election covered widely in the media, a Party P...

S ome of us may have suffered some grave injustice through the course of our lives or would have heard of some taking place elsewhere through the media. When that happens many of us tend to think that there is no justice in the world or even that there is no God or intelligent control in the universe to oversee it all. However, dear friends, that is not a helpful attitude. First of all it can prevent us from seeing any wrong that we may have done in the past that may have brought on these troubles and we may continue to do them again unless we change. Secondly, most important of all, we tend to view life over the short term when it is in fact an eternity that goes on through many lives in many places and many new physical bodies and over the long term the Lord surely ensures justice.  We shall suffer our course of hardships, an education for our souls, as also enjoy the result of our good deeds when that happens. Leave the wicked alone for the universe to deal with. ...

Mystic and the Blossoms, http://www.amazon.com/Mystic-Blossoms-Ashok-Malhotra/dp/1411648579 W hile there are many beautiful gardens created by humans, none can match beauty of nature and some of the gardens that mother earth has planted on the planet but if there is one that fits best the title of God’s own garden, it is the valley of flowers and surrounding hills in the Himalayas. I visited this in early eighties and was immensely inspired by it. On my return from the trek, I passed through hugely dirty and poor villages and wondered if there was a message in this valley that could help these villages improve. The thoughts that emerged were put down in a brief novella called the Mystic and the Blossoms. I do believe the novella has a message of love and beauty for every village especially if it is situated in the poorer and developing parts of our world. The novella is available both  in print and electronic versions that can be downloaded in minutes, for example he...

W hen a couple is young or aged with children grown up and gone, then a small compact home or cottage is far more convenient than a large home. This blog has several designs for small compact cottages, here is one more. The same design can be adapted for a family home too by constructing a couple of rooms on the first floor. Then one may lock away the upper floor for occasional use only or give on rent when children grow up and go on to set up their own homes. Note: design is suitable for row houses or cottages too because of no side windows Top most image from http://www.wallpapersxl.com/wallpaper/2560x1440/austrian-village-heiligenblut-austria-kingdom-758242.html

  A facet of the universe, just one facet of God Nature too is a facet of God M any persons in the modern world do not believe in God because they say physical scientific evidence has not been found that can prove His existence. But the evidence is all around you. Some evidence lies within each one of us. We know that we can feel love or hatred, joy or sorrow etc. Nothing that scientists and engineers have constructed so far possesses any such feelings. Moreover, we all believe that we possess free will i.e. the ability to make choices every moment of our lives (albeit within constraints). Machines cannot possess such freedom of choice. All actions of machines are based on their design, programming and inputs. Machines do not even possess a consciousness. They neither exhibit fear nor make any attempt to protect themselves if you destroy them T hus, life possesses something that goes beyond anything that has been found in purely material and physical constructi...

The Feast of Achelous by Peter Paul Rubens A ll life has been created from the same pool of genes, different life forms having different sets with many common ones across different life forms that inhabit our planet. Humans share some genes with sheep and numerous other animals. It is not surprising therefore that they tend to exhibit some of the same behavior. Thus when someone started to drink the tea that most humans do, most others followed ditto. It is an excellent brew but that does not mean that there are not other leaves, flowers, fruits, barks and roots that cannot make an excellent cup when dried and used similarly. This blog has described several other leaves and flowers that can lead to an excellent cup. Presently a Five Element Tea is described here that includes equal amounts by volume of dried   root, bark, flower, leaf and fruit of different plants, all known for their health giving properties for most and such a tea consisting of these five co...

P arts of the planet we all share are amazingly beautiful. Mother earth has filled it with beautiful mountains, forests, fields of numerous grasses that soothe the soul and feed the stomach, wild flowers, springs, streams, lakes and rivers of clear water, trees with beautiful foliage that bring forth fruits of diverse sweet flavors and flowers through the seasons. The air mother earth provided for all her children to breathe is pure and father universe sends forth warm rays of sunshine most days when he is not busy watering the fields and forests. On this lovely beautiful planet of ours grow lovely flowers that delight the heart and assorted foods that are extremely delicious and nourishing. Yet despite all this, there is only a small fraction of humans on the planet that enjoy bounties of nature in peace and happiness to the sweet song of birds that sing for them all through their lives. Many in fact are busy creating misery for each others, many driven out of their homes ...