Para vidya alone can show us the path to eternal bliss. Mundane knowledge, which produces 'intellectualism"cannot confer wisdom on us. Even the most amazing of scientific and technological advances have failed to bring lasting happiness in our lives. The exponential increase in knowledge has,surprisingly, led to more conflicts and destruction.

Para vidya is transcendental knowledge, which leads to wisdom.

Apara vidya or secular knowledge merely enhances our vision of the outer world. Wisdom is perennial while knowledge is mainly informative and therefore transient. The former is stable, the latter, subject to change.

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

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Para Vidya, Path To Eternal Bliss

There are four T's that need periodic revival. They are: Truth, Tradition, Trade and Technology. Time has a seeming effect on truth. Though truth is beyond time, it gets covered by maya or illusion. This is called avarana. Down the ages different schools of thought have tried to uncover the truth. Though the goal is common to all, the journey itself has to be undertaken individually. If you do not re-examine what you have learnt and believe to be the truth, you become fanatical and your intellectual growth stagnates.

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Revival and Revolution Ucover the Truth

"Why are we here?" asked a boy of his mother. "Why, to help others, of course," she replied. "And what are the others here for?" asked the boy. The mother had no answer.

The others, especially the needy, are there so that we can extend to them a helping hand. One day, as William Gladstone was preparing a speech he was to deliver in parliament, he was called to visit a dying boy. When he returned to the writing of his speech, he said: "That speech may fail or not; but in helping that boy I have tasted exquisite joy."

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

Read more here: » Life and Death: Activate the Cycle Of Good 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

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

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

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)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Finality of Death Is a Myth

The computer era has popularised the term "solution". All metros now display advertisements and posters that offer a variety of solutions.

The names are equally enterprising: "Ideal Solutions", "Smart Solutions", "Party Solutions", "Curtain Solutions", "Critical Solutions"... the list is long. When the question is of one's well being, a superficial solution will not work.

Non-apprehension of Reality is the cause for all misapprehensions. A deluded mind creates misunderstandings. One who broods over the past mars the present which is what shapes 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: The Solution For Eternal Peace

A person who lives in his home with his family, going about his daily business with loving detachment is in the world and yet out of it.

Like the boat whose place is in the water and which, floating, does not allow water to enter it, the realised samsari lives in this world not allowing worldly things to enter his mind.

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

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Writing Notes From 'I' To 'Me'

"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'

In the perspective of Baha'u'llah's teachings, the greatest danger of both the moral crisis and the inequities associated with globalisation is an entrenched philosophical attitude that seeks to justify its failures.

Philosophically and politically, the concept of western civilisation presents itself as a kind of liberal relativism, economically and socially, as capitalism - two value systems that have now so adjusted to each other and become so mutually reinforcing as to constitute virtually a single, comprehensive worldview.

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Let Us All Unite For World Peace

In the name of God we ask you, the blood-thirsty actors in the tragedy of India, to have done with it. You have had your day. And have played your hellish part to perfection.

The land is littered with too many corpses already. Columns of smoke from fires of hate choke the air. The sun hides its face from this shame. Stars have fled from our sky.

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Let's Build A Temple To Tolerance

The most well-known mystery in Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It is said that three men died on crosses in occupied Palestine sometime during the fourth decade of the Christian era. The carrying out of a death sentence in this manner was a relatively routine matter. In this case, all three were convicted as disturbers of the Roman peace.

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

Read more here: » Life and Death: Central Mystery of Christian Faith

The funny thing about life is that there usually isn't much to laugh about!

"I'm not very happy most of the time," quipped Woody Allen. "The rest of the time I'm not happy at all."

On television, the joke is on someone else, so we laugh. Someone else's slip-up, struggles, loss of face, sleepless nights. In real life, however, the joke is usually on us. Maybe comedies bring us relief from our own frustrations and failures by drawing our attention to the fictional disasters of others. Or is it that we get to view a reflection of ourselves in those characters on the screen and so present a disguised opportunity to see the humorous angle of what happens to all of us; a form of catharsis; a chance to unwind and ease the tension of our troubled minds?

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Listen to the Cosmic Laughter

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)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Kaliyug Death of A Vishnu-bhakt

The preamble to the United Nations Charter sums up the existential dilemma of today:

"Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that defences of peace must be constructed".

 In a land where history had sought to be sketched in an arc from Gautama to Gandhi, it is appropriate reflect on such defences and revive them today when war and terrorism have cast their shadow on the world.

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: War and Peace

In the language of yoga, the purpose or the effect of continuous nada sadhana on the human mind is ananda - extreme bliss.

Nada, or sound, is divided into two parts - aahada and anhada, heard and unheard. Heard means that which is possible for you to hear 'through the physical ears', and unheard means 'felt', which is the condition of nada before it is musically shaped and regularised. Then come the shrutis, then swaras, notes, which from time to time have been explained by the masters.

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

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Shunya to Nada Yoga - Journey of Peace

"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)

Read more here: » Life and Death: The World Is A Stage

Mahavira, a great prophet and teacher, systematised the Jain doctrines and embodied them in a comprehensive constitution of the faith. He built the edifice of Jainism by renovation, modification and extension. Most of all, he infused new life and vitality into Arhata tradition.

In his own time, he was referred to in Buddhist literature as "Niggantha Naatputte "and his teachings were described as "Nirgrantha Dharma ", a way of life that found its truth in the universe and not in a single scripture.

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

Read more here: » Mahavira: Non-Violent Search For Supreme Truth

The most important need of humanity today is to be made aware that its past has betrayed it. There is no point in continuing with the past, for doing so will be suicidal. The new humanity will not be a society in the old sense, where individuals are only parts of it. It will be a meeting of individuals, where individuals are the masters and society is to serve them. It will have many different aspects to it. It will not have so many religions, it will have only a religious consciousness.

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: It's Time to Herald A New Humanity

Can science and meditation, each dealing with different phenomena, have common ground? Physics deals with the external world of matter, space and time, from the giant galaxies in outer space down to the infinitesimally small particles which make up the atom.

Meditation looks inward; its domain is that which is not physical. When we close our eyes in meditation, we are cutting off the senses which connect us with the physical world. What we perceive at this time cannot be seen, heard, tasted, touched or smelled. We are investigating the nature of the inner consciousness which makes us alive, alert and aware of the world around us.

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

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Physics Shows The Way To Consciousness - Meditation and Science

To be born a human being with the unique faculties of discrimination and choice is both a great blessing and a terrible curse. This is because exercising one's choice often creates conflicts.

One can neither live with conflict nor solve conflict through suppression or desensitising the mind temporarily - the conflicts simply resurface. So it seems that there is no permanent solution to conflict, and hence in this matter we are left with no choice. But should we give up so easily? Don't we deserve to be free from conflict?

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Krishna's Advice for Resolving Conflict