Worry causes fear, anxiety, tension and stress. These emotions deplete energy and weaken the immune system. Worriers become sick and this is manifested in poor health, because of all the problems that are eating into their vitals.

And worry is certainly not the same as constructive thinking; if it were, we would have found solutions to most of our problems.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Don't Be a Worrier; Savour Your Life

Who doesn't want to be happy? We all desire happiness. We pursue pleasures systematically through life - it comes as naturally to us as the sunflower turns to the sun. But, pleasure once obtained does not last; so once again, the search begins. Moreover, pleasure is ephemeral; it eludes the seeker at the final moment. One may work very hard and get all that the world considers necessary for a happy life, yet none of these things can make us really happy.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Why Small Things Can Shatter Happiness

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

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

Recently, this sentence stopped me short: "Before we can live in peace, we have to be able to imagine, to image peace." On similar lines, sculptor and activist Dana Toomey writes of how once, reading the newspaper, she counted 50 different kinds of war around the globe.

Why is it when most of us want peace, war is so prevalent, she wondered. Trying to envision a new culture without war, she asked herself - since humanity has never experienced life without violence, what would peace be like? How would we get the things we want? Who would be our heroes? Is anyone or anything pointing the way?

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Waging Peace Through Constructive Images

Kabir, the inspired poet weaver of northern India, declared that there was neither Hindu nor Muslim, but only man as the embodiment of the Divine.

Sufi texts record that after Saint Kabir died, his followers and fans, both Hindus and Muslims, fought for the right to either cremate or bury his remains. As the quarrel started fanning communal passions, an elder requested members of both communities to cover the saint'sbody and to wait till the next morning. Morning dawned and when the sheet was taken off, the warring communities found that in place of the body, two heaps of flowers were kept. The Hindus cremated the Tulsi flowers while the Muslims buried the Jasmine heap and the problem was over.

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Bound by a Common And Rich Heritage

Today patriotism is a much-debated value, the protagonists and antagonists resorting to their own narrow interpretations. Rabindra Nath Tagore had a more enlightened view of nationalism. His treatise on nationalism is being studied in British universities. Generally, nationalism is inextricably linked with patriotism.

''Nationalism is a great menace. It is the particular thing which for years has been at the bottom of India's troubles'', wrote Tagore, much before the country won independence; much before it witnessed partition and the ensuing bloodbath or the genesis of the Kashmir issue. Where the spirit of nationalism prevails the people are being taught from childhood to hate the 'enemy'."

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Take a Fresh Look At Patriotism

For Gandhi, non-violence meant an overflowing love for all humanity, a way of life that emanated from the very marrow of his being. But for many of his followers, non-violence was simply a political strategy, a tactic for winning India's independence from Britain. The more earnestly Gandhi pursued his religious beliefs, the deeper his love for humanity grew.

This love made it all the more impossible for him to ignore the political realities that shaped people's lives. At the same time, contact with these political realities strengthened his conviction that nothing is more essential than the love for humanity that religious faith can inspire. He walked the middle way.

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Explode Spiritual Bomb of Compassion

Can someone actually change his or her nature? Suppressing one'sindividuality is not change. Without an awareness and understanding of the needs of body, mind and soul, the concept of change is no more than a hallucination.

Every individual is like a deep, fathomless ocean with priceless treasures hidden within. These treasures may be likened to basic human qualities which everyone possesses. But, bad experiences, unhealthy habits, negative thought processes, diverse conditioning, neglect and misconceptions born of misinformation are like perilous sea weeds that tend to stifle and choke emotional areas, jeopardising the possibility of manifesting these basic qualities in a wholesome and fulfilling manner.

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

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Spit-and-Polish Your Way to Health

Tai Chi Chuan is one way of working towards harmonising our energies both internally and externally so that we live in tune with nature. Because the movements of Tai Chi Chuan are slow and meditative, they put us indirect contact with nature.

Tai Chi Chuan not only provides a foundation for self-defence, but also teaches principles of harmonious action. Being in harmony requires flexibility in thought and the ability to release an idea free from the ego.

Tai Chi Chuan emphasises becoming aware of the inter-relationship of all the parts of one'sbody - both with one another and with the environment and moving these parts harmoniously under the direction of the mind. To be able to do this, special training is required.

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

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Bring Harmony in to Your Life - Tai Chi Chuan

You deal with people and situations effectively only when you are happy. Otherwise, in your unhappiness, it won't matter what good intentions you have, you will only spread misery in the world. Being happy or unhappy is actually your choice.

People have chosen to be unhappy because they think that by being unhappy they will get something. Once you are unhappy, whatever you get, what does it matter? If you are happy, if you don't get anything, what does it matter? This is not a philosophy; this is your true nature.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Spread Happiness To Connect Effectively

The recent killings in the land of the Mahatma, the apostle of peace and non- violence, raises a very serious question. Is human consciousness being governed by the tenets of a few religious texts or is it capable of transcending all barriers for the sake of universal brotherhood?

Christians have killed Jews. Jews and Muslims are fighting all the time. Hindus have a long history of wars going back to the time of the Mahabharata. Despite the advancement of science, people continue to fight on national, religious or racial criteria.

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Channel Destructive

A man who wished to be initiated into meditation went to a great sage and asked to be accepted as his disciple. The sage made him close his eyes gently and told him that the first step of meditation was to practise compassion. "Amity, compassion, amity, compassion" - the sage kept repeating.

The man, however, was not concentrating. Finally he opened his eyes and begged to be allowed to say something. "I can wish everybody well but my neighbour. I have a lawsuit against him. Can I leave him out?"

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Forgive and Forget To Create Amity

I love the saying: "Today is the first day of the rest of your life". The past isn't important, for, from today onward, we can change. My guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, often said, "Forget the past". The thought of past mistakes pulls us down. People also live too much in their victories. In self-pride they say, "Oh, I did this and I did that", but that's history.

The Bhagavad Gita tells us to give the results of our actions to God. I was surprised to hear Yogananda say, "God is pleased when you give him your mistakes". If you dwell on the thought, "I made a mistake", you close the door to self-improvement.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Practising The Presence of God

Most world leaders, international organisations and so-called peace summits tend to define peace in the shadow of war, as 'a situation where there is no war"between nations.

By doing so they are actually taking a negative view. By viewing the positive element in contrast to the negative, we will end up underrating the former'spotential. By defining light as the 'absence of darkness"or, life as the 'absence of death", we assign greater importance to the powers of darkness and death, or in the case of peace, to war, rather than peace.

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Peace Is More Than No War

It was said of Prophet Mohammed that God wanted him to be an example of how to live peacefully among others like a simple man, to nurture a family, to work for a living and to accept equally the joys and sorrows of life.

But there are some who, while professing loyalty to Islam, are actually doing more harm than good. For instance, Osama bin Laden's brand of "Islamic jehad" is utterly un-Islamic and goes against all tenets of Islam. In Islam, taking an innocent life is equated to killing the whole of humanity.

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Peace Is Life, War Is Death

After having won the Mahabharata war, King Yuddhishthira, the eldest of the Pandavas, performed the Ashvamedha Yagna in which he gave away his riches to the deserving.

Just then a half-golden mongoose sneaked in and began rolling all over the ground. It then looked at its fur and seemed disappointed. The mongoose said sadly, "Ah! This is no sacrifice."

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Selfless Service And Sacrifice

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 world over, women continue to suffer community-sponsored injustice, whether they live in a secular or non-secular country. We can know how progressive a community is, by the way it treats its women.

Shocked at the condition of Indian women, Swami Vivekananda said that there was no reason to view women as being inferior to men or as obstacles to salvation - contrary to popular misconception, there is no scriptural sanction for oppressing women.

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Shanti Alone Can Help Save Shakti

Poet Terhune recollects how when he was a child, his mother, returning after an hour from a neighbour's, asked him, "When I left you were playing on the floor and a sugar candy was there on the table. Now you are there, but not the candy." "I ate at it up, Mother," replied the child.

"But you already had your share and I had forbidden you to touch what was left" demanded the mother.

"You had, Mother, but believe me, I wept while I was eating it," said the boy.

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

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: The Silent Soul Bides its Time

The spiritual approach to peace-making is radically different from the worldly approach, said Jesus Christ. In the worldly approach, both peace and war are driven by vested interests - so the one is indistinguishable from the other. Wars, St Augustine warns us in The City of God, are waged mostly in the name of peace.

The road to peace is truly simple: Make peace politically profitable and war-mongering politically costly. There should be a constructive collaboration between democracy and spirituality.

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Orient Your Life Towards Peace

A personal reflektion on God By Gul Panag. ”I am not ritualistic at all, but I do believe in the existence of a superpower. My Sikh parents have given me a liberal upbringing as far as religion is concerned. They've never imposed any religious ideas upon me.”

Read more here: » Spiritual Inspiration: God and I by Gul Panag