Spiritual Pathways

A couple of hundred yards away from my home is a near vacant property lot. The owner is a lady who has another lot on which she has built her home nearby. She is a trained beautician and has set up a small beauty parlor in a corner of the plot. In another corner are two small rooms that she has given for free to a laboring man and his family. In return for the room, they keep an eye on the property and do some cleaning. However, most of the lot is just barren leveled mud. The lady understandably does not wish to develop a garden in it because maintaining it would become an additional chore. Perhaps she does not want to grow large trees in it either because those would become a problem if a large building was ever to be constructed on the plot as is likely someday in future. She does not permit the laborer to grow vegetables in the vacant lot because then it would cause a rise in the water bill that is substantial in urban areas. Therefore the plot is more or less a vacant...

Clothes of a poor man are tattered He has a hard time procuring food His abode is broken Roof leaks when it rains Miserable indeed is the poor man Man strives To eat To clothe To have a secure shelter With a window for the breeze Greed increases He strives for more If he fails his soul sinks Miserable indeed is the failed man Some succeed Wealth increases Abode becomes a mansion Closets are lined with clothes Concerns increase Freedoms reduce Mouths increase He is insecure Miserable indeed is the rich man Few strive to do the right thing Accepting with gratitude What the Lord gives Few choose Paths of love and truth That lead to God Few escape The cycle of suffering.

Hellenistic marble sculpture; Metropolitan Museum, New York The Bhagvat Gita is an ancient revered scripture of Asia containing much spiritual knowledge. Let us begin with one of its verses about a yogi, “He who is able to stand here on earth, before casting off this body, the urges of lust and anger, he is a yogi – a harmonized soul, a happy human.” Chapter V, Verse 23, Bhagvat Gita Along with other desires that plague humans, lust remains a prominent one. It is said that some of this weakness remains even with the gods. Nevertheless, it is something the yogi constantly works to overcome. When one has overcome lust, nudity or sight of organs of procreations, that excite most humans, cease to excite the yogi any more than other body parts that the Lord gave humans. It is for this reason that sects of yogis in ancient times often shed all their clothes and walked about dressed in nothing more than the sky. Many still do. Ancients Greeks were similarly spiritually e...

https://nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/1677933/ Once upon a time the king announced in one of the towns of his kingdom that a calamity would fall upon the town that very night and that all must escape in a hurry to other parts of the kingdom. All were requested to escape with no more luggage than they could carry on their person and run to the airport where planes were ready to take them away to safer parts. They would be provided all they need to live in new areas of the kingdom. Johnny had a pretty but modest house in town and there was nothing of great value in his home, therefore he was not sorry to leave it all behind and rush to the airport. He looked forward to the magic of a new beginning in a new town. Warren his neighbor was very rich and owned an expensive mansion that had fittings of gold and expensive art works on walls, precious Persian carpets on floors and everything else that a rich man can afford. He was in tears and heart broken that he could not ...

  Approximately 2500 years ago, major advances in human civilization took place in Europe around Athens and in Sub-Himalayan regions. It was a time of huge spiritual advance for mankind. At around this time Sage Patanjali described existing practices of spiritual development in his text – About Yoga – or about spiritual paths to reaching the highest state of evolution possible for humans. Patanjali said yoga may be considered as consisting of eight parts, starting from basic necessities of civilized behavior in the first part and then gradually moving on to higher aspects of evolution. The first part of yoga called yam involves basic moral and ethical behavior i.e. non-violence, non-stealing, truth, shunning greed and animal lust. The second part termed niyam begins with cleanliness and goes on to disciplined behavior and work (tap), contentment, introspection and belief in the supreme intelligence that governs the universe. The third part of yoga is to do with phy...

It is a poor idea to think of past or future in mornings or afternoons, rather it is best to focus on the day at hand and make the most of it. The morning or day hours of a holiday may be used to make plans for future, at times, and that should be enough as regards the future is concerned. There is no need to think of it daily. Tomorrow will take care of itself when it comes. The time to think of the day gone by as also the past if one wishes to is evenings. Our past has many important lessons for us and the learning from our experiences is enhanced when we reflect on them. Today morning a friend on twitter had posted a tweet – In the end we only regret the chances we did not take – I reminded her that had she taken those chances there might have been a pit at the end of it and she must thank the Lord for having saved her from it. One must never regret the missing of any perceived chance because one never knows how it would have turned out in its long term implications....