Spiritual Pathways

Children do not need much money to be happy. They need loving care, freedom from hunger and fear to be happy. With the grace of the Lord who took me across the length and breadth of the Earth for visits and work as a scientist and a professor in some of the finest universities of our world, and to remote locations in the Himalayas as a mystic wanderer at times, it was a pleasure to meet many people of all kinds. Some were rich and powerful, most were ordinary persons with little wealth but they had a comfortable bed, home and adequate food to pass their days among us earthlings, and, some destitute homeless persons too, who struggled for their daily bread or a bed that was warm enough for the night. It was from among ordinary persons with little wealth that there were most with simplicity, little stress and much laughter and when the end of some of them came it was quick with little opportunity for pain or suffering. They passed away swiftly to other peaceful realms. Of...

While modern science has made much progress in understanding workings of different organs and cells of a human body there is much more to a human and indeed any life form that is barely understood. How our thoughts, desires and emotions arise is not fully understood and we carry within us a huge storehouse of past impressions. Around us stretching endlessly is a Universe that has countless worlds and life forms, each with his or her own impressions and experiences. To fully understand workings of this marvelous and mysterious universe is beyond the capacity of any science or human. We have to accept much based on faith and the conviction in our hearts in order to secure our place in the Universe. Some believe that there is no supreme intelligence that can control the Universe whereas many believe that a Supreme Intelligence called God controls everything, creates all and gives limited freedom to life to journey through His marvelous creation. Some imagine God in hu...

Picture of a window from the author's home Dear friends, you would have noted that each human has his or her own unique journey through life. Some face great difficulties in this journey whereas others have a lovely and comfortable time. There are even some that have a combination of huge good fortunes and terrible misfortunes through life.   All of this is the unfolding of our own unique karma designed by the Universe for education of our souls. The soul does not perish when life perishes. Our good deeds through life bring good times whereas bad times are a result of our misdeeds or evil. Those who face mixtures of great good fortune and huge misfortunes through life do so because they have a past full of great worthy deeds as well as some terrible ones. At the end of the day, whatever we lose or accumulate in life that has to be left behind is of little relevance compared to what the soul shall carry forth when this life comes to an end. Whatever we do or acq...

While much has been described and written about spiritual and mystic knowledge, its essence is brief and simple. As known to the author, it is described in these four brief passages,  1 It is held that life consists of a physical body and a soul within. While the physical body can be destroyed and has a limited life, the soul cannot be destroyed. It is eternal and any one life is just one of its many lives. A soul can pass through many different existences, human life being just one. Because the soul is a permanent asset its state is a far more important thing than the state of the physical body it may occupy for a limited time. While for most humans the physical body is an important asset, for the mystic that is like giving more importance to clothing than the body that wears it and therefore not wise. The source of the individual soul is the Infinite Soul known by many names including God. Thus belief in the Infinite Soul and one’s own individual soul is an essen...

These three things are much loved by the Universe, The Universe loves non-violence. If it was not so, many an asteroid and comets would crash into the Earth regularly, causing much destruction and the billions of bacteria that surround us all would infect us into pain and a quick exit. The Universe loves truth, never deviating once from its stated laws that hold the planets and galaxies together and brighten them with light of the stars The Universe loves contentment for content it is to let the planets and the stars exist in their existing path and motion, not altering it from time to time. If it were not so, there would be much instability, even destruction in the infinite worlds that stretch across space. Dear reader, were you to strive for non-violence, truth and contentment in your life, in your thoughts, deeds and desires, then it should please the Universe much, for you would then be a child of His, worthy in His eyes, worthy of the joy and bliss that ...

At any given time on our planet, some people are living in peace and comfort whereas there are some others who are undergoing deep suffering because of any one of numerous causes of suffering.   If one is in comfort, one may feel sorry for those suffering or ignore them and get on with one’s life. After all, no one person can help all the suffering people of the world. No one person can help all the suffering of the world but everyone can help some of them. The wise do that not just from compassion that follows the wise like a shadow but also from wisdom that unless they do that, they too shall become deserving of similar suffering some time in future.   The Universe makes a note of all deeds big or small.   Happiness comes to us easily when we add happiness in lives of others. Those who help others when they can, receive similar help when their time of help comes for life is ever changing. Those in comfort now may be in difficulty at another time and vic...

All of us would have noted that our life changes over weeks, months and years so that things now are quite different from how they were before. Different experiences of life provide us different types of learning and we tend to learn most in times we characterize as bad. However, every period of life has something good to appreciate and something bad to feel sorry about. Even in the worst of times in our lives, there is something good that is happening. We must appreciate and be grateful for that good while being patient with the bad to pass. It surely will and all shall be well. If we organize our life in a disciplined manner rather than an ad-hoc and random sort of life some lead, work towards improving our life as well as of those we encounter in our journey through life, then any present difficulties shall pass away sooner rather than later and times ahead shall be brighter. If we harm anyone in our journey through life, even plants, animals and the ...

Although we take much pride in our physical bodies, it is a fragile thing. A small injury, even an attack by a tiny virus can cause huge damage to it or even bring its life to an end. However, while this body is fragile within it dwells a durable soul. It does not die when this body dies. Weapons cannot cut it, fire cannot burn it. When this physical body is destroyed or worn out with age, it goes on to acquire a new body, just as it had acquired the present one. A soul changes bodies just as bodies change clothes. The soul is our essential self from which our feelings, desires and aversions emerge. Our conscious mind may not remember past lives but the soul does. Impressions of our past lives are imprinted upon it. Attached to the soul is consciousness, which is in fact a part of the infinite consciousness that pervades the universe. However, focused on the activities of the mind and inputs of the senses of the body to which it is attached, the individual consciousness ...

Many persons will tell you that it is good to have dreams in life and to pursue them. However, there is an age to dream and an age not to. When one is still an infant or just a child, it is not a time to dream but to enjoy each day as it unfolds in watchful care of parents and elders. Similarly when one is past fifty, human physical energies begin to reduce rapidly and with that dreams must come to an end. Old age is time to reflect on one’s past, resolve any emotional conflicts and traumas of life, guide and help younger persons with one’s experience, meditate so as to come close to God or universal consciousness, aside from looking after one’s immediate needs. One may at the most do a little part time work besides to keep busy and earn a little extra income if one needs to. One may still be as young as a child at heart but physical abilities reduce rapidly as one ages. Any dreams at this stage must be for the Lord to give a life lovelier than the present one. This woul...

S omewhere deep within the vast ocean there is a fertile island with all manner of lovely green trees, climbing plants and wild flowers. If within it dwell all manners of insects and creatures that walk upon the land with chimpanzees being the most evolved of the lot, then no doubt, with whatever thinking chimpanzees are capable of, they think, there is no life beyond what swims in the endless ocean and on their island and that they are the most evolved of creatures in the universe. Beyond the island of the chimpanzees, lie vast continents where dwells life that is more evolved - humans. Like the chimpanzees, they too think, the only life that dwells in the universe is the one that dwells in their world and that they are the most evolved of creatures in this vast infinite universe. Planet of humans is far smaller than a speck of dust, relatively speaking, in the vast infinite universe where dwell all manner of life forms, some less evolved than humans, others far more ...

N ot even the godly are perfect. It is too much to expect a human to be so. All of us have different strengths and weaknesses of different kinds, to different degrees that cause us to do good or bad things in our journey through life and lifetimes. Our good deeds bring us good result - peace and joy while bad ones bring sorrow and misery for all things have consequences. A lie can please one for moments but sustainable peace is found only in truth and how can there be happiness without peace? Human love can cause us brief suffering at times yet hate produces much misery when it returns for whatever we put into the world and universe around us comes back to us, good or bad, in due course, when it is time for harvest, the fruit or the thorns. When blinded by pride, desire or ignorance we do poor things that produce bad results later, they make our journey through life difficult. Yet when we place our love and trust in God, the journey through life becomes easier than...

http://www.clipartpanda.com/clipart_images/clip-art-cartoon-of-old-man-23106528 If one considered human life divided in five stages of twenty years each, the first stage of life ends at twenty with the last and fifth beginning from eighty.  While each human is unique with different life paths, roughly the first stage of life, the most joyous one for many involves childhood when the human body grows rapidly from an infant into full adult. This stage involves education and training to prepare one for a career that sustains one through life. A careful balance and discipline guided by parents between learning and play helps a child make most of this phase of life. The second phase of life from twenty to forty is the time humans begin their career as well as raise a family and that must remain the prime focus and duty for most humans at this stage. It is a busy stage of life but one also has a lot of energy in this period. As in the first stage, each stage of l...

May God Bless Baby:  https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=17320&picture=portrait-of-a-baby-boy If a dress develops a tear, it may be possible to repair it sometimes or discard it all together if the damage is too big to fix. In any case it shall get worn out with use and have to be replaced eventually. Our physical bodies too are like clothing. They are clothing for our souls. Because an infinitely more intelligent maker has designed this dress, it has some inbuilt self-repair mechanisms. However, it too gets worn out with age. In a matter of some days or decades, its maker shall change it just as He has been done for all other souls that were ever born. The soul within does not die. It acquires a new body so that we are born again and again and again, except the few who return to the infinite source from which our soul and all others souls emerged to begin with. In this journey of lifetimes happening to all of us, over and over again, we a...

T he universe is full of souls, rising souls and falling souls Rising souls, ever rising to greater levels of free dom, freedom to choose, freedom to create and  the freedom to  be, even as the Father of all souls created th is universe mere ly by will. Falling souls, falling to ever l ower levels of freedom, not just humans even animals and   insects some that must now depend upon the wind to reach their food, nay even lower , like the rocks on the hill that have no freedom to choose or will at all. Rising souls not just among angels, kings and leaders but also among animals and insects too that crawl upon the Earth . Falling souls not just among angels, kings and leaders but also among insects that crawl upon the Earth . Am I  falling soul or a rising soul you ask,  how am I to know? It is easy to pick which is which dear friend. Falling souls are the liars among you and rising souls are those that strive to abide in truth. For ...

P ersons with even a basic knowledge of the spiritual side of life realize that it is our thoughts that create our world including the places we live in. Human condition is diverse, varying from the most beautiful to the most miserable, indicating the diverse personalities and thoughts, choices and actions of humans. However, there are at least some good humans, if not the majority with beautiful souls that find that they are presently trapped in miserable or harsh surroundings and vice versa. This anomaly arises from the past of soul. Our present moments are made up by our past thoughts and actions. The past cannot be changed but the future is in our hands. It stands to reason that every wise human must do things to improve it if it can be done with reasonable and pleasant effort. It is a defeatist attitude to think that such a thing need not be done in old age. The human body has a limited life but the soul does not. It will go on to acquire other new bodies in new lives ...

The billionaire who learned the art of acquiring wealth is indeed smart. Far smarter are saints and mystics who learned the art of acquiring wisdom and bliss. The acquitions of the billionaire are snatched away after a few years by death but the mystics take theirs with them. Their treasures are stored in a place where dust, rust and death does not destroy.

We look at a lovely rose and say, look how beautiful it is. At other times we look at other parts of the world, individually focusing our attention on that part. All these parts of the universe,  some lovely, others ugly  are part of just one single entity, the created universe, as is our physical body, every part in it changing with time, some rapidly, others slowly. There is something beyond the created Universe; it is the consciousness of the Universe.  As parts of it look at created parts of itself, some of those parts develop attachment or aversion to those parts and seem to develop their own individual identity in this vast infinite ocean of consciousness. Developing a desire to make changes in the observed part, shorn of their infinite power that can make changes by mere will, these parts acquire a physical body. From this is born life, an individual soul, and an aperture through which a part of the universe looks at its other parts. But, alas! The ...

Earlier posts have mentioned the importance of jaap or repetitive recitation of a mantra based on holy words. The longest of mantras in Asia are the Chalisas, the Hanuman Chalisa being the most famous one, the briefest are a single word one of them being the divine name Ram. By itself or combined with other select words it creates a powerful mantra. During my travel to the interiors of Nainital  Himalayan distinct in summer of 2007 I picked up a particular melodious way to recite this mantra. It was around this time that strangers I encountered in my travels began to address me as Babaji or baoji, some wanting to accompany me and it was a frequent struggle of mine to dissauade them. I have recorded that jaap  now and it is available for any interested person online as in this youtube video. My personal experience with it is that reciting it thus with a quiet mind and sincere heart, its effects are magical. For me they drove away persons with evil intentions...