Years ago when I first saw Hrishikesh Mukherjee's timeless classic Anand, I was deeply affected by this line spoken by the protagonist: “ Babumoshai, zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahin !”.

The words have lived with me ever since. They echo Oscar Wilde's words: “It doesn't matter how long, but how you live!”

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

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)

In literature, art and cinema, death has been almost always depicted as a terrible thing, the final end, although in reality it is merely a release from the burden of the physical body.

Every religious tradition recognises that to reach the final truth, one must pass through death. This is the meaning behind Aanea's descent to the underworld in Virgil, of Dante's descent into hell in the Divine Comedy and the Christian baptism: “You were baptised into the death of Christ”.

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

There's this story of a young boy whose dialogue with death is as fascinating as it is exploratory, coursing down the six chapters of the Katha Upanishad.

Sage Vajasravasa, to get divine recognition, performed a sacrificial rite which required him to give up all his possessions and pleasures. But he gifted away only those cows which were diseased, old and lame, keeping the good ones for himself.

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

The elephant captured in Chhattisgarh was a victim, not just of an over-eager, insensitive agency that was ironically set up for the specific purpose of protecting endangered pachyderms. The poor animal was first forced to leave the forests of neighbouring states frightened by miners and rendered homeless by human-induced forest degradation. And then, when it tried to survive, looking for food, it was chased, caught, and made to die a slow death. Whatever happened to our tradition of respecting all life forms?

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

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances...” wrote William Shakespeare, one of the greatest dramatists of all time. Shakespeare saw the world as a large theatre. If all the world is indeed a stage, and life is a play, and all of us are mere actors, then this view leads to some interesting corollaries.

Who is the author and the director of this play?

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

In Kant and the Platypus , Umberto Eco squares his shoulders and takes on the problem of pure being. For pure being is not just a problem, it is the problem in philosophy in that it underlies everything, including problems, philosophers and platypuses. Or should it be platypi? Even the question mark to a dubious lingual entity which does not really 'exist' has to have being, even if it is in the form of a being which we call 'non-existence'.

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

From the Torah down to every other holy book, a way of life has been prescribed - not just a way of life, but the way of life, for, ultimately, there is only one way. But not everyone prays every day. I would really like to know, how many adults even thank the elements - Earth, Water, Air, Fire - or the Provider?

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

The stoic philosopher Seneca wrote a short manifesto in AD 49 against dawdlers, procrastinators and other 'time-killers' that seems as fresh and relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago.

He began with what in those days was a common complaint: That we are cursed with too short a life span, which often seemed to end just when we were getting ready for it.

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

Death is an enigma. It is impossible to define life without death. Up to its very last link, life is a bio-chemical chain reaction. Once life is launched, like a bullet it must reach its final destination, which is death.

Death is less frightening, however, when we concede that life attains maximum fullness only when it is guided by an ideal, by something for which we are willing to die if necessary. Whatever incites us to die also incites us to live with greater intensity.

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

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)

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)

Death perhaps is the only certainty in this world. Yet, the fear of death stalks most people. Literature - western and Indian - regards the fear of death as an intriguing and ubiquitous part of human life. We know we are mortals, yet we are afraid of the inevitable. We know we will die one day; yet we continue to behave as though we believe we are going to live forever.

In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Caesar is surprised to find that people are frightened of death, which is after all an end that comes when it will. A similar spirit pervades the renowned dialogue between the Yaksha and Yudhishthira in the Mahabharata.

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

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)

If you look up in the sky during the day, you see the Sun. That becomes the most dominant in your experience. In the night, if you look up, the stars become very dominant in your experience, but both the Sun and the stars - in fact, the Sun happens to be a star, too - look like puny little things when compared to the immense vastness of the sky. Generally, though, the sky is never in your conscious perception.

So, true existence can be likened to the vastness of the sky. The Sun, the stars, you and me, are all just small happenings, very brief happenings, really

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

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)

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)

Whatever we are today is the direct consequence of choices we made and decisions we took. Our karma cannot be shared. It is non-transferable. Leadership, and indeed life itself, is primarily about making decisions.

Events such as the recent Indo-Pak goodwill cricket series bring into focus the indivisibility of leadership decisions and its consequences thereof.

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

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)

Art is a great healer. By supplanting apprehension with inspiration and trading stress for relaxation, it tempers human physiology and attitude.

Scientifically speaking, it improvises human brainwave pattern, autonomic nervous system, hormonal balance, brain neurotransmitters, immune system, and blood flow to various organs. Through self-expression, it rejuvenates the creator with an enlightened perception of within and without.

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