Spiritual Pathways

  Roses are symbolic of love, different colors for different kinds of love. Of all the different colors if one had to be chosen as the symbol of love for the divine, it would perhaps be the light blue colored rose. Theologians of the world may quarrel But mystics of the world speak the same language For God the Lord is one It is only ignorance about Him that is diverse and many

https://twitter.com/PardueSuzanne/status/839705079900962816 My mind can go in a thousand directions, But on this beautiful path, I walk in peace... - Thich Nhat Hanh Delightful are the forests where worldlings find no pleasure, there the passionless will rejoice for they seek no sensual pleasures Dhammapada ( Buddhist Scripture) Ch 7 vs 99 As worldly desires of one on spiritual paths reduce and things like ego, lust  greed, diminish then love of Mother Earth and Father Universe surfaces. This is similar to our remembering love of our earthly mother and father when we free ourselves from worldly concerns. Such a soul then craves for beautiful parts of Mother Earth such as forests, mountains, lakes and grasslands filled with wild flowers. Some then abandon worldly pursuits and head for forests and other places created by nature, not humans. The results of worldly pursuits are mixed - joy and sorrow; the results of spiritual pursuits are bliss in huge...

T he image on top of this page is one of Nainital town in the Himalayas. My childhood home in Nainital was just around the center of this image, a little to the right, now behind the clouds on the hill.  This was an area where most army families like ours stayed because it was close to the Military Cantonment. As a child of four or five, I loved to climb up to window height and look at colorful sail boats in the lake at the bottom of the hill.. On rainy days there were no boats but it was nice to look at  patterns rain water made on window panes. The same hill is shown in clouds in a Picture snapped a few years ago from the opposite hillside. I spent a lot of time in the spacious kitchen of our home, especially at times when mother was away to meet her friend by the name of Tunnu next door. My elder brother Deepak and sister Kiran were often off to play or school which they went to daily on horseback, fighting daily as to who shall sit in front on the saddle....

16 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 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 if you destroy them. There is something far more glorious and supreme about you that is beyond the reach of any human creation. Life possesses something that goes beyond anything that has been found in purely material and physical c...

15 1 Just as a robber moves about in the guise of a gentleman, so does evil move about in a spiritual guise. Do beware friend for he is extremely vile 2 Even as the Prophet among the Semites, the Messiah said, “Beware of false teachers, they are wolves in sheep’s clothing and extremely dangerous.” But others have come since who use his name as their cover for evil who would like to hide this warning from you. 3 Know them from their fruits and deeds for they are not difficult to discover once you set about to do it 4 Those who advocate violence and hate are not for God, for He stands for love and peace 5 Those who attempt to impose their beliefs are not for God Who gave freedom to all life to choose and believe as they like. 6 Those who attempt to hold on to followers, making it difficult for them to leave, should they so choose, are not for God for He is all for freedom for life. 7 Those who cater to the rich and powerful in the main are not for God, f...

14  https://twitter.com/tina_baines/status/857768497971171328 A contented heart is a calm sea in the midst of  storms ...  Tina The sun is barely up. We have one here who is ready to begin a new day. Just now though, there is a little time to sit down over a cup of coffee, to worry about so many things humans have to worry about every day of their lives, to deal with their fears and to make plans to escape them, plans against numerous problems that arise in a life. Soon he must dress up and rush for work. The work shall be weary, that daily grind, but it will serve to distract from worries, fears and insecurities for a while. But today he is greeted by Babaji, “Son you are worrying about so many things! Are you forgetting the most important one? Soon these weary days shall come to an end, suddenly, unexpectedly; while your flesh and bones returns to the earth from whence it arose, your soul shall escape. It shall look down at your body an...

13 Once there was a farmer who had two good looking sons. The farmer and his wife worked hard for several years and saved enough to send their sons to a good school, on top of the mountain, behind the village. It was an expensive residential school but very well known for its excellent training and education. Students from far off lands came to study there. When the two boys were nine and ten year old, the farmer and his wife admitted them to the school with the help of the Principal by the name of Lew who had become an acquaintance. Lew used to come down the mountain for walks on holidays, to visit the farms and for a picnic in the nearby Forest. The older boy did not like the hard discipline of school at all. He found study hours hard and physical training classes tiresome and complained about it endlessly. It was so much nicer with the freedom to play and do as one liked at home. The younger boy was however, grateful to his parents for having worked hard to mak...

12 1. If you see that someone else has something nice and good that you do not have, Remember, That everything nice and good of this world comes with some problems attached. Feel blessed that Nature has chosen to shield you from such problems. 2. If you see the life of another is rising with success whereas your own is going no where, Remember, That every sunrise is followed by sunset, the dark night and that Nature has chosen to spare you the pain of the night that shall follow. 3. If you see that another has great riches that you do not have, Just look a bit wider, And you shall see many that have even less and feel blessed and grateful. 4 If your life is filled with pain, sorrow and darkness, Remember, That wisdom comes from sorrow and there is no gain bigger than that and look forward to the bright day that follows every dark night. 5 If you fear for the future, Laugh, That the future to follow shall be yours when you shal...

11 1. When a soul leaves a physical body after death and enters in to a new physical body then this is said to be reincarnation of the soul. 2 Without reincarnation, another life in hell or heaven that some mystics talk of would be impossible  3 There is something deeper to the self than a body. It is the soul. It is from here consciousness and feelings such as fear and love arise.   Neither a computer nor a robot feels any of these things. You cannot scare a computer or robot with fear of death or make it pine for love. 4. The soul survives death because death is the end of the physical body as a functioning machine, not of the soul.  5. Know that a soul is imperishable and escape fear of death and along with that a host of other fears, since no other fear can be greater than death for the body.  6 As long as fear remains, true joy or freedom is difficult to attain. 7 The soul does not get annihilated after death. It was around even ...