The gory massacre at Godhra and the subsequent retaliatory slaughter throughout Gujarat underlines how easily communal passions can be aroused among otherwise normal people.

A major cause for such behaviour is a mindset, found both among Muslims and Hindus, that believes that tolerance is a sign of weakness. Convinced about the infallibility of their own faith, they are totally intolerant to the views of others. Bolstered by the exhortations of their religious and political leaders, they feel no compunctions in smashing all that stands in their way including the laws of the land.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Tolerance the Key To Lasting Peace

The art of wise living involves four steps: Plan purposefully, prepare prayerfully, proceed positively and pursue persistently.

The joy of wise living involves the art of joyous looking. There are two types of looking. You can look at the world with thoughts; you can also look at the world without thoughts, from a pure Being.

When you look at the world with thoughts, then you should be aware of the subtle pollution that exists. Thoughts come from memory, memory is the representation of an experience of the past, and so from the past you see the present. Hence, pollution happens.

(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Art of Wise Living Brings Great Joy

Our lives are a series of experiences. Although these experiences appear to be linear, actually, they are not so. We discover this when we pause to carefully reflect on them. Life is a form of language with its own punctuation marks, much like the written language, where each punctuation mark has an unspoken meaning.

I experienced the visible language of life recently when I was down with a viral fever with a severe chest congestion. I was completely dependent upon others to even get up on my feet. Without the care and support of my family, I would have had to be hospitalised. Because of the intensive care I received at home, I bounced back to good health within a reasonable period of time.

(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Your Good Health Can Spread Cheer

On this day in 1893, Swami Vivekananda addressed the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago. At the opening address, Charles Bonney, the Chicago lawyer who organised the congress, said: "The very basis of our convocation is the idea that the representatives of each religion sincerely believe it is the truest and best of all." In this context, Vivekananda 's "talisman of tolerance" was a vibrant civilisational message to the world from the soul of India.

Vivekananda's words gave the World Parliament a defining focus. He began by saying he was "proud to belong to a religion which had taught the world tolerance and universal acceptance". He explained that "we believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true". He said he was proud that his nation had always sheltered the persecuted - like it had, for instance, fleeing Israelites and Zoroastrians.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Universal Acceptance For Lasting Peace

The danger of getting drawn into competition is that one will stoop low somewhere along the line to get the better of a rival, be it in business or when seeking a promotion.

When pitted against petty people , you begin to think that you have to act at their level. You eventually adopt the world's ways and get cast in its mould. Your determination to live up to your principles does not ensure that you will do so. People take to shortcuts believing that the path of goodness is strewn with pitfalls.

(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Time To Rebuild Trust And Faith

To forgive is not to forget. Forgetting is not hard. All you need is a bad memory or to treat the incident as insignificant.

But to forgive is to make a new beginning, to start all over again with the person who caused you pain. It does not take away the hurt nor does it erase the past injury. It merely ceases to obstruct the path of a new beginning. To forgive you don't have to aggravate the guilt and squeeze the soul of the person. By forgiving you can walk together into the future.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Forgive And Inhale the Fragrance of Flowers

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)

Read more here: » Life and Death: When It's Time, Let Go

Love is the essence of religion too, for it is religion (not organised religion) that teaches ethics and compassion.

The story goes that once the Devil and his close friend went for a walk. The devil picked up something from the ground and put it in his pocket. When he was asked by his friend what he had picked up, he said: "I have picked up the Truth".

The friend said: "If you picked up the Truth, then your time is up because Truth is the opposite of what you symbolise". The devil smiled and said, "Don't worry my friend, I will organise it".

You know what I mean?

(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Love is the Essence of Evolution

What is the purpose of life? What do we want? Some say the purpose of life is to ensure that one doesn't come back to this planet - because it is bereft of love. When love is there, it is painful.

By taking a multilateral view of life, one can begin to see the purpose of life from all angles. Then we come to realise that we want a love that doesn't die out, a love that doesn't cause pain, a love that grows and stands forever.

(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Immortal Love is Within Reach

Read more here: » Letting Go: The Journey for your Life - Letting Go

Once there lived a strong, young elephant named Meruprabh. One day a part of a huge forest caught fire and the fire spread rapidly, fanned by strong winds. The animals were scared.

When would the fire stop? Meruprabh along with 700 other elephants cleared one part of the forest of vegetation to prevent the fire from spreading. This clearing became a haven for animals seeking shelter from the fire and they huddled there till the fire went out. Animals who normally hunted each other now sat or stood close in amity. Fear was palpable.

(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: The Elephant And The Monk - A Story of Compassion

More than 50 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi offered a startling truth: "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." To a country bogged down in the morass of war, this could be a beacon of hope.

Gandhi went further to show that the way of peace ends suffering and oppression, not by warring against an enemy but by bearing witness to wrongs and allowing sympathy and common humanity to do their patient work. Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa lived different aspects of peace, which was proven to be a viable way to achieve great things.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Way of Peace: Love As Antidote to War

Buddhism advocates tolerance - to accept that there are differences in human experiences; that diversity is part of life, whether in experiences, cultural backgrounds or religions/faiths. Buddhism is the religion of compassion, mercy and forgiveness for all life forms.

It does not preach the superiority of its belief systems over those of other religions, nor does it believe in any sort of hierarchical ordering of faith systems; it does not discriminate against anyone, least of all on account of faith or belief. The recognition and embracement of diversity and pluralism and the resulting absence of any coercive or violent means for proselytising is the very essence of the humanism of Buddhism.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Compassion and Peace Go Hand in Hand

Detachment is a great wealth. Devotion is the real asset in life. Why does man not work for such a wealth? This is due to the fact that the mind has not been purified. Impure mind craves impure things.

Mantras help us to purify the mind and uplift the quality of life. Mantra yoga is all about working on purifying the mind. The object of yoga is to lift a person off the psychological mess he rests upon.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Mantra Yoga - A Tool For Great Inner Order

reedom is tough shit. That's the central message of the Matrix movies. The inhabitants of the computer-simulated world of the Matrix live in comfortable, salubrious surroundings and appear secure and content with their lives.

The rebels who inhabit the real world live in Zion, an underground citadel that looks like Dante's Inferno. They undergo physical and mental pain and are always prey to fears and doubts. Despite this, they feel immeasurably better off than those in the Matrix. Because Zion is freedom, and the Matrix is enslavement. And if the price of freedom is anguish, too bad. For everyone who's free knows that freedom is tough. Too tough for most, according to Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor.

(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: The Matrix Myth and the Price of Freedom

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)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Life's a Bubble, It Could Burst  

Vision is the ability to see beyond the present; to be able to chart a map of the future. Is such a vision possible for a universal religion? When all technologies and knowledge in the world are converging, why should humanity have different religions?

One basic question has haunted us for long: Are the many religions of the world opposed to each other? If their common goal is universal welfare, why do we need so many religions? All religions echo the need for righteous conduct, truth and non-violence. But they differ in their rituals, which are unfortunately being projected today as their core. Dress, mode of worship and language of rituals have come to symbolise purity of faith.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Universal Faith for World Harmony

In today's fast-changing world, materialism and stress have become part of our everyday lives. We are constantly looking for answers: How to live a successful and happy life?

One way of finding out answers to this question could be to explore the Spiritual Quotient (SQ), relating to our ability to understand and comprehend the spiritual aspects of life, which, contrary to popular belief, are not necessarily connected to religion.

(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Surrender the Ego, Attain Happiness

When you live in this world, there are various types of complex interactions happening. As your field of play increases, the complexity of interaction also goes on increasing.

If you're just sitting in a cubicle, working on your computer with only one other person, you need only a little understanding; but if you're managing a thousand people, you need a vast understanding of everybody.

(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: How to Manage Your Relationships

Gujarat is the land of Krishna and his clansmen, the Vrishnis . Krishna'skingdom was Dwaraka. The recent events in Gujarat echo the story of the end of Dwaraka and the Vrishni clan.

They were not destroyed by any invader; they killed one another in a fratricidal strife. According to the Bhagavatha Purana they were intoxicated by a drink called Maireyaka .

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Self-destruction of Vrishnis - A Replay?

In the 60s, a communal riot shook a certain town. I was surprised, for it was a new settlement grown around a huge industry. The population was largely labourers and officials from all over India. There was no tradition of animosity between communities; they were united by a common existential necessity.

One winter evening, on a visit to the town, I asked my friends, "Where did so many violent people come from, all of a sudden?"

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Individual Will No Match for Mad Mobs

Kabir highlighted the importance of santosh or contentment in our lives. Indian culture teaches us to be content in all situations. But today, we are not happy with the grades our child gets, our pay packet, our spouse, or our ageing parents. Much of the stress in our lives is the result of our inability to be content with what we have.

(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Contentment is the Kernel of Happiness