Archives November 2012

My uncle Manoharlal lives in small farm, ten miles from the town in which I stay. He plants vegetables and flowers for the market. In addition he has a small fish pond in which he rears many types of fishes. With his wife, three young children and a couple of workers, uncle manages his farm reasonably well. They have an old jeep for transporting their products to market and for sending the children to school. Every holiday, I go and stay with my uncle. He always makes sure that I visit him regularly. Maybe I am his favourite nephew as he is my favourite uncle. Once I am in his farm, I really enjoy myself. Uncle teaches me and shows me all sorts of things. He taught me how to fix fishing line and how to land a fish. I learned to identify bird calls, animal grunts and read signs more...

Most of the history that we learn in school tells us about wars. We are taught how such-and-such person or persons struggled for power at a particular time in history. We also learn that civilizations rose and fell, that empires were built, and they collapsed and that virtually nothing is left of them at the present time except ruins and scattered remains. History clearly tells us that it is foolish to wage wars, Alexander the Great and Hitler were among the greatest warmongers the world has ever known. They set out to conquer every country that they could lay their hands on. They succeeded to a certain extent, but what was the unavoidable outcome of their mad ambitions? They were mortal. They had to die and with their death their dreams and ambitions perished too. Greece is no longer the all-powerful nation it once was. The greed and madness of more...

The part played by money in our everyday life is very important indeed. We need money to buy food and to pay our bills. In this modern world, most of the things that we want. material or otherwise, can be obtained in exchange for money. Without money, one's life can become a misery. It is thus not surprising to find that many people place money making as their top priority in life. This attitude is fine as long as they remember that there are other facets of life in which money is not required. Quite often money cannot buy these things at all. Take for example, one's health: money can buy the best medical care available, but if free basic attention has not been paid to one's health which is allowed to deteriorate, there will come a time when no money in the world can return one to good health. more...

When I was in Class XII, we had a temporary science teacher. His name was Mr. Ramesh. He taught us for a couple of months before he obtained a place in the University to pursue higher studies. We found out that he was leaving us just one day before the day he was supposed to leave. He did not tell us. Another teacher did. As we liked Mr. Ramesh very much. we got together and planned a farewell party for him. The girls agreed to make some titbits and the boys agreed to prepare the drinks. It was to be a small party as we did not had enough time to plan a bigger one. The next day, we sat through two study periods in the morning before Mr. Ramesh entered the class for our science lesson. We had our food and drinks discreetly covered at one corner of the more...

Neither from nor towards: at a still point There the dance is But neither arrest nor movement T.S. Eliot (Four Quartets) The poetic insight of Eliot had a glimpse of the transcendental dimension of the ever-transforming universe at a still point, which in essence is akin to the experience of peace in meditation as well. Neither from nor towards but at a still point the mind enters into a state of serene silence by deep power of harmony through a cosmic awareness of the unified field, and elevates itself to a serene and sublime super- consciousness in which the 'heavy and weary weight of all this unintelligible world is lightened' (William Wordsworth). A spontaneous gliding into that state of being by deliberate suspension of animation is meditation—the seventh step in the eight-fold limbs of yoga as per sayings of the great exponent, Maharshi Patanjali. The Vedanta observed that the whole more...

We all dream. In fact, we all enjoy dreaming, whether it be day-dreaming or dreaming at night- But the pleasures of building castles in the air are untold and Infinite. Many a times a few people sit and casually discuss about the current political and socio-economic situation and give their own solutions about the problems facing the country. I often wonder what kind of a country do we dream of all of us being inhabitants or citizens of our country naturally dream of what kind of a country we desire. We even dream of building the kind of country we want India is a large country with an amazing wealth of diversity. With the onset of the new millennium, historians, sociologists and other experts predict that only three Asian countries seem to be the ones who can or have the potential of taking Asia to great heights i.e., India, China more...

I dislike getting up early in the morning to go to school. It is not that I dislike school. I dislike having to drag myself out of bed when it is still dark outside and when my eyes refuse to open, especially after having only a few hours sleep because of watching television tilt late the previous night. If only school would start a bit late, then everything will be fine. Then I would not have to get up so early, I would not have to wait for my turn to use the bathroom and best of all, I would not have to Jerk myself up from my warm comfortable bed.  However, the moment I hit the crisp morning air on my way to school, my whole outlook changes. Ah, the cool air is invigorating. Life is wonderful. School is wonderful with all my friends and surroundings.   It is always more...

Unity in diversity has become a catch phrase for civilized people who celebrate differences and want to end civil disruption, communal violence, religious conflicts and international tensions. The principle of unity in diversity has its origins in the concept of inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference. Although the Vedas enjoin; everything is non- different from the God who is the Supreme Soul, this creates logical enigmas. For instance, if everything is one, why do not I eat my kith and kin? Further, how can Brahman be complete since it also presupposes negation of everything material? The idea of simultaneous oneness and difference may pose problems for rationalists, but it is easily resolved when one accepts an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent god. In other words, essential truth contain paradoxes, and we cannot know everything by reason and deduction. For instance, our body functions as a holistic unit, but we constantly make distinctions more...

A community ought to have spirituality as its 1 innermost soul. Many a times one is left guessing as to why religions cause fights? As we all know that religion can never cause any fight because it is intended to purify our consciousness. Religion means sacrifice and control and is a way of life. Quarrels, on the other hand, are the result of expensive indulgence in material benefits and polluting consciousness. In fact, fights start because of communalism, and sadly we blame them on religion. The community which does not teach its followers to adopt spirituality and practise self-awareness can never help them to be successful in life. The escalation of unethical values today is due to a disintegrated personality, which in turn is an outcome of communalism. Communities, these days, blindly pursue rituals. Unfortunately, communities merely stress on the performance of rituals while ethical and human value are totally more...

Perpetual flow of people from villages to cities creates many socio-economic problems. The density of population of cities rises and civic amenities fall short of needs. Law and order situation deteriorates. Prices of essential commodities rise. Housing situation become acute and rents soar. New entrants start living on pavements and thatched huts. That way slum come up, at times, adjacent to or right in the middle of posh colonies. Migrations of the poor to cities create slums. Cultivable land in villages is limited. And it is not enough to support the landless labourers in the village. Instead of starving in villages, they along with their women folk move on to cities in search of employment. While men work as unskilled works, their women get work in households. Work found, they build jhuggies that later become a cluster of huts. Landless labourers are also attracted to cities as these have many more...