Why is there so much envy in India? According to Gurcharan Das, the well known author, the cause of envy in India is socialism. According to him in his book, The Difficulty of Being Good, If greed is the sin of capitalism then envy is the vice of socialism. When I was young Indira Gandhi […]
Category Archives: Spirituality
On Self Mortification
A close acquaintance of mine responded to my earlier post (https://insightsandexperiences.com/do-good-to-those-who/). Here is her reply. Acquaintance: The first premises here is “forgive those that trespass against you.” It’s there in the Lord’s Prayer and has been a great source of strength and inner peace for me. True it isn’t easy. But once you start consciously […]
The Best Maker of Men I Know
Thomas Carlyle is not one of my favourite authors. He is not somebody I read over and over repeatedly but he has exercised a dominant and beneficial influence over my life. I remember when I was I my mid-twenties I was searching for a direction in my life. Or rather I was searching for strength […]
When you are seeking Vengeance …
I’ll start with two quotations from the Bible: But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; “Vengeance is mine” saith the Lord. I have been used despitefully and I can tell you […]
My Online Diary
This is not an article like the others on this blog. Firstly this is mainly about my spiritual journey and my other experiences. My other articles are mostly based on concepts derived from my reading of books. Secondly this article will never be completed. It will remain a work in progress. I will be updating […]
More on the Bhagavad Gita
I had some difficulties accepting the advice of the Bhagavad Gita but perhaps they were just misunderstandings. The misunderstandings were as under: The misunderstanding was that I thought that the Gita was asking me to not have any desires when I did any act. I should be completely desireless and egoless in all my actions […]
Justification for the Bhagavad Gita
I would like to start by telling you a story. I was feeling a bit depressed with life yesterday afternoon. My life was a mess, my mind a shambles and my spiritual practice was going nowhere. Familiar territory. You probably have felt the same way about yourself at times. I was particularly depressed about my […]
On Fear
All fear is derived from the fear of death. In connection with this the French philosopher Montaigne said “The thing I most fear is fear. . . Those who have been well drubbed in some battle, and who are still wounded and bloody, you can perfectly well bring them back to the charge the next […]
Sadhguru on Happiness
I have had some responses to my last article about being happy. A cousin of mine is a follower of Jaggi Vasudeva (aka Sadhguru) and she messaged me as under. (The link to the article in question is here – https://insightsandexperiences.com/what-to-do-when-you-are-not-happy/ ) Here are my cousin’s messages Cousin: Liked how you summarized so much philosophy/spirituality […]
What to do when you are not Happy
I have read a number of books on spirituality including Osho, Aldous Huxley and books published by the Ramakrishna Math. Here are some of the common teachings. All is a manifestation of the Divine. Two noteworthy Buddhist teachings are This very body the Buddha and This very mind the Buddha. These are either Mahayana or […]