Spiritual Meditations
No matter how rebellious a man may be, no matter how much he may deny
God, in times of extreme difficulty, and he cries out to God in complete
helplessness. This is evidence that God is the voice of human nature....
Finally, because of population growth, the effect of climate change on
agriculture and the end of the fossil fuel era, there is a danger that by the
middle of the present century a very large-scale famine could take the lives of
as many as a billion people...
In our long history we see Mahatma Buddha, a secular philosopher and
thinker, deified and made stuff of incomprehensible metaphysical mumbo jumbo.
Reason or rationality challenges the smugness of the given and thus making it a
part of one’s intellectual repertoire is not easy....
“I am convinced that my release was the fruit of the prayers of millions
worldwide, more especially, the prayers and sacrifices of my countrymen.
Heartfelt thanks to each and every one. May God Bless you abundantly and
recompense you as He knows best.”...
Death, of course, knows no age barrier and can arrive at any moment. But
as our bodies grow older and we begin to realise that we aren’t going to be in
this world forever and that sooner or later we will have to leave this realm;
we need to consciously prepare ourselves for this momentous event in our life’s
journey....
An effort is being made here in the hope of drawing attention to what is
secular in the highly fulfilling life of Guru Nanak that transcends religious
boundaries and can serve as a uniting link between people of diverse faiths and
different persuasions...
Throughout humankind’s history, messengers have been sent to their
specific communities to warn people and guide them to the right path, whenever
they strayed towards evil acts and persisted with the latter....
And what, exactly, did God (by whatever name: Allah,
Krishna, Yahweh…) or the Gods say? We might ask. Well even those who profess
little more than scant knowledge of religious texts that purport to represent
the word of God might suggest that s/he simply breathed a (silent) sigh of
relief that the insanity of mass warfare had ended...
But at around the same time as ‘zero-defect management’ in human affairs
proved to be a failure, scientific research was proving that the system of nature
that operates throughout the universe is based precisely on the principle of
‘zero-defect management’....
Like any other human
value, tolerance needs to be nurtured, supported and instilled in society as a
common culture. The assumption that the value system governing any society or
nation is fixed or unchanging is incorrect; it goes against God’s natural order
in the universe, which is governed by changing circumstances....
In the democratic camp, reasoning and intellect have declined. There is
still plenty of cultural and artistic output but the intellectual challenge of
ideas is on the decline....
A great scholar, well-versed in mathematics and urban design, who ruled
his kingdom and did well; and that like the British king Arthur, he passed from
history to legend, from legend to myth, and ended up being unfairly cast as the
villain in a domestic squabble....
Our Vanishing World: Insects
Robert J. Burrowes, New Age Islam
However, since the industrial revolution commencing in about 1750, just
270 years ago, humans have been destroying Earth’s biosphere with such
tremendous ferocity that the Earth we inherited at the beginning of the Holocene
Epoch is vanishing before our eyes. And life is vanishing with it….
Instead the Ramayana is full of moral dilemmas and exploration of human
bonds. Ram’s tribulations in his closest relationships are one of the reasons the
Ramayana speaks so powerfully down the generations, and why it is so uniquely
modern. Should the richly philosophical Ram be used to assert angry politicised
Hindutva on the street?...
The rest you know, Rama. From a mere prince you became Shri Rama, and
you went on to fulfil your task — decimate Ravana. In all honesty, Ravana has
my sympathy. The gods were jealous of who Ravana was. It was a conspiracy and,
like all conspiracies, effected in the name of the greater good....
In past, our renowned writers sold religious belief and earned fame
& money as well but this fame is worthless which is acquired after
exploiting religious approach or act....
Gandhi was uncompromisingly opposed to all forms of violence in the
movement for independence. Whether this was strategic or born out of his
ethical convictions may well be debated but the net result was that it brought
about an emotional gulf between him and the Bengali, Hindu-educated classes....
Later that year, when my schoolteacher asked me what my aim in life was,
I told her that I wanted to buy a motorcycle for my mom. She smiled. And my
classmates laughed. I quietly stood there, amidst the peals of laughter,
thinking that if a motorcycle could solve my mother’s problem, I’ll surely buy
one for her when I got older...
In August 1942, when the Congress voted overwhelmingly (in Mumbai) in
favour of his “Quit India” call, Gandhi praised the dissenters: “I congratulate
the thirteen friends who voted against the resolution.” ...
What is common between Dominique Pire, a Belgian priest, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, a teacher in Argentina, Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela? The immediate answer would be that all four were recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Also common to all four is the fact that they were all followers of Gandhism, the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi....
We do not need him because he has given us enough to help deal with new ideas or systems to understand and assimilate them in our thought and action. Coherent, all-inclusive, ever-evolving knowledge for our day-to-day life-long needs: He has given us a way to achieve just prosperity as a nation....
But he was above all an accomplished strategist who throughout his life worked to develop theories and practices that would advance the rights of marginalised groups and oppressed communities around the world....
For Gandhi, this religio-philosophical plurality is the inevitable and healthy destiny of humankind. “There is endless variety in all religions” and “interminable religious differences,” he said. “Some go on a pilgrimage and bathe in the sacred river, others go to Mecca; some worship him in temples, others in mosques, some just bow their heads in reverence; some read the Vedas, others the Quran… some call themselves Hindus, others Muslims…”....
It has been more than seven decades since he left us, but Bapu has
become a tradition which is reaffirmed and rejuvenated after every conflict or
controversy....
“The Lord on each new day invites us to be present to his gaze, which
brings light into our lives. We then move out to our work being consciously
aware that he is gazing at us and when evening falls we bring all that the day
unfolded back into God’s gaze”...