"Tell me mighty river! Are you changing or are you constant?" asked the butterfly. The river chortled as it sped along, over rocky pebbles and around mossy little hills. "Why, can't you see?" it replied. "Do I look still to you?"

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: The River, a Cow and a Butterfly

A punishment that destroys the condemned, degrades the executioner, arouses public manifestations of sadism and excites a hideous vainglory in certain criminals, while forestalling nothing, is in truth only a form of revenge: A punishment that penalises without forestalling is indeed called revenge. It is a quasi-arithmetical reply made by society to whoever breaks its primordial law.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Capital Punishment Kills Compassion

WHAT IS A DEPARTING VISION (OFTEN CALLED A DEATHBED VISION)?

Most Hospice workers are very familiar with departing or deathbed visions, but sometimes these experiences are difficult to put into words. A deathbed vision or Death Bed Vision is a powerful, comforting experience the dying and their family members often encounter just before death occurs. The dying will report visions of angels, deceased loved ones or religious figures moments, hours, days or even weeks before actual death takes place. These visions typically lessen the fear of dying and make passing an easier transition for all concerned.

Read more here: » Death Bed Visions: Departing Or Death Bed Visions FAQ

Who can measure the infinity of time? The flow of time is permanent; so it would flow on even if all the clocks in the world stopped ticking.

Night and day, months and years roll on, but to the individual, the period of time between his birth and death assumes prime importance. From this measure of time emerges the ethical value of that time.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: From the Finite to the Infinite

The reason why people are keeping themselves so busy, so entangled with life is not because they have fallen in love with life. It is just to avoid the inner struggle. Many of them, if they don't get married and produce children, if they don't start businesses and don't get into all the mess that they are getting into on a day-to-day basis, they would be simply lost within themselves.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: The Whys and Hows Of Life on Earth

Many people study religious scriptures profusely - which is a good thing. But they feel that the 'scriptural word' is enough. That is a mistake. A scripture is like a map. And a map is not the territory.

What may appear as a beautiful mountainous range on paper could well turn out to be a treacherous obstacle in real life. Similarly, a river painted in brilliant hues of blue on a map, might be infested with snakes and crocodiles in reality.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: How to Identify a Modern Saint

There are some conversations that have a way of popping back to haunt you time and again. The one that I had with my older daughter when she was barely five, falls in this category.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: An Unimpressive Report Card

Karma is the accumulated impression of past activity, either of thought, emotion or physical action. The quality of the karma that you gather is not necessarily in terms of action alone; it is also in terms of the volition with which action is performed.

This moment, the very way you think, feel, understand and act, is a deep conditioning of past activity. That's karma.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Ways to Overcome Bondage of Karma

It is believed that the entire creation was manifested with the sound of Om, the Nada Brahman. Om is a combination of So and Ham. This sound vibrates every moment of our life till there is life in our body, till life continues to flow through the Kundalini.

When the sound travels through the various bodies it gets refined and the vibration ultimately merges in Om. It is constantly chanted within us and is thus called the highest mantra, the Mantra Maheshwara. Ham beejam, says the Guru Gita, which means the sound of Ham is the seed of the entire consciousness which pervades us.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Science of Life - Soham or Hamsa

Every one of us is pre-programmed, in accordance with the culture, family, society or religion we are born into and grow up with. Most of us are indifferent to the fact that we operate with little awareness. So we end up living in a self-made prison.

We have to learn the art of inner separation and not allow inner thoughts and attitudes of negativity to eat into our lives. Negative, ignorant, addictive, narrow, foolish 'I's eat our life forces just as rats eat crops. Some 'I's in us are our friends and some, our enemies. To recognise and de-identify ourselves with the negative 'I's is 'inner separation'.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: A Prison of Our Own Making

Bhakti is not kamayamana or desire-driven; it is nirodh , a check on desire. When attained, bhakti makes a person into siddha , perfect and trupta , satisfied. Such a person thereafter has neither desire nor worry, hate, pleasure or excitement. Does it imply dullness? No, it implies fulfilment born of antar-aarama or inner harmony, which could so suffuse the mind as to make the bhakta look inebriated or matta . Does attaining such a state imply stagnation?

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Bhakti as a Way of Daily Life

We live in a world of opposites where gain and loss, good and bad, pleasure and pain, life and death are as inevitable as the two sides of a coin. Yet, there is an underlying unity between the two contrasts.

One of the principal polarities in life is the one between the male and female side of human nature. The sublime union between these two aspects is symbolised by Lord Siva's depiction as a dynamic unification of the two, as the half-male, half-female Ardhanareeshwar.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Pairs of Opposites and The Golden Mean

Scriptures by themselves cannot make a person enlightened. They give knowledge, not wisdom. But the Ashtavakra Gita is different. This scripture negates every facet of life, except supreme consciousness.

Sage Ashtavakra says to Janaka: "My son, you recite or listen to countless scriptures, but you will not be established within until you can forget everything"(16.1). He stresses the import of knowing one's own self. A person may quote extensively from the Bhagavad Gita or the Upanishads. But only through self-knowledge can he even begin to discover the stainless truth.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: All that Exists is Total Awareness

The one principle that should be at the core of any religious belief is ahimsa or non-violence - not to hurt any life, human or otherwise.

Killing is not right. Killing animals to eat them is not a civilised thing to do, but carnivores exist in nature and in many places, humans have to subsist on non-vegetarian food for reasons beyond their control. But wherever possible, vegetarianism must be practised.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: An Agnostic's View Of Life and Death

Non-dualism is the highest Vedantic truth. Only Brahman exists. The pluralistic world as we experience it is merely a figment of the imagination. An illusion.

At the highest level Vedanta does not encourage any discussion on the nature of the world and its cause. That would merely be emphasising the reality of something which does not exist. It focuses on the direct experience of Reality.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Illusion And Reality

"Hey, I'm in Nirvana!" We talk like this when we feel good. But what is it like to actually attain nirvana, otherwise known as moksha or self-realisation?

Self-realisation is the goal of life. Vedic rishis found that everything in the world that blooms is also subject to ultimate decay. Are we here just to live a brief life and then pass away? They reasoned that life cannot be devoid of some higher purpose.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: In Search of the Real 'Me'

If you really want the best deal in life, stop making deals. Yet, your very demeanour should be such that your client is simply bowled over. This is not a trick.

The deal will happen if it's necessary; it won't happen if it's not. It is for the well-being of both parties, so it must be needed by both of you. Once we're in this world, there are transactions, personal or otherwise.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: There's More to Life Than Striking Deals

Krishna asserts that action cannot be avoided, and should be performed without consideration of the "fruit of action". Progression on the ladder of karma was associated with good action: one who did good things in life moved up the ladder.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Discover The Truth, Set Yourself Free

Vedanta literally means culmination of knowledge. Veda means knowledge, anta means end. You are aware of the body, mind and intellect, but not your real Self. Vedanta helps you discover the true nature of your inherent Being.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Liberating Role of Vedantic Thought

Destiny and the dynamics of living often remove us from the place we belong to, from what we refer to as our hometown. Living away, we tend to get "hometown-sick".

We split ourselves, and suffer a 'body here, mind there' syndrome. Interestingly, this can happen not just to an individual or a family, but even collectively to a whole people.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Freedom From Exile  

There are two key Indian myths: Moksha and Maya. Within these two spheres the whole invisible world of gods, heroes, quests, and powers are contained.

Moksha speaks to the primacy of consciousness as the stuff from which all reality is created. Maya is the distraction that keeps us constantly in search of truth. Paleo-linguists tell us that the word 'maya' is not correctly understood as "illusion" but as "measurement", and from this we get the terms matter, meter, mother, mata, matrix, matrika, music and myth itself.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Great Indian Myths: Moksha and Maya