• Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home! - Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836.
  
  
• Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time. - Laura Ingalls Wilder
  
  
• For the spirit of Christmas fulfils the greatest hunger of mankind. - Loring A. Schuler

In the Chinese language the word for ‘busy' is composed of two characters – ‘heart' and ‘killer'. Only one hundred years ago the breakdown of the strongest pump in the world, the human heart, was still regarded as a medical curiosity. Fast forward to the 21 st Century where ‘busy' is the byword for modern living, and it is no surprise that hundreds of thousands of hearts now fail every year. Yet the true heart of each one of us is not within our body, but within our consciousness. For the spiritually minded it is the soul, because soul is what we are.

"Knowing the self and knowing God brings light into the darkness,and brings love back into our lives whereby we can reach out to others.The world will change when we are able to share this Godly light and this endless love. When I know myself I can really meet others. My vision will not be disturbed by our differences but I will recognise the same essence in others."

There are many reasons why people oppose each other; misunderstanding, resistance to change, competitiveness. If someone decides to hold on to their negativity, no amount of analyzing or reasoning can ease the situation. At such times, only patience and more patience will help a closed mind gently unfurl itself.

The power of Truth is such that you need never be concerned about proving it for this only reveals your own stubbornness. Just be concerned with being it, and living it. Truth reveals itself at the right moment and right place.

The immense power of humility is useful in your protection as well as protection of others. It allows you to learn from and see the benefit in everything, even in the insults of others. You don’t feel the need to get upset. Your self-respect works to keep you steady. Even if the problem is theirs, not yours and there is nothing to change in yourself, humility removes the need for you to say so.

If a problem arises with someone and the problem is not yours, humility removes the need for you to comment.

Happy Deepavali to All of You...!

Deepavali is an Indian Festival...Also known as "Festival of Lights".

Read More About Our Great "Deepavali Festival"

Let us be "Light"

Celebration of Perfection....

No other festival unites Indians around the world, as does Deepavali. A single diya holds infinite beauty and hope. While we celebrate these auspicious days with the same grandeur seen in the past, the pure beliefs held by our ancestors were more enlightening. Deepavali or Diwali is a celebration of victory over evil and the coming of a New Year. But if we probe further, what is this darkness we want to remove? In reality, evil or darkness does not have an astitva or identity of their own - they exist due to a lack of goodness or light. Knowledge, power and all that is pure, are very real characteristics since they are part of us, perhaps dormant yet existing. The Festival of Lights, incidentally seen in every culture, is the fight against evil forces and creation of peace and happiness. Diwali conjures up a number of things in the mind's eye - sweets, new clothes, account books, Goddess Lakshmi, fireworks etc. and in Maharashtra (A state of India), a special 5-day ceremony ensures a perfect celebration. While the physical rituals are necessary, a deeper understanding of the spiritual meaning guarantees that we continue to respect and 'live' our eternal teachings.

We begin with Dhanamyodashi, where families worship Dhanvantari, a special ayurvedic herb said to cure a person of all illnesses. As science too proves, about 98% of all diseases are psychosomatic, meaning the problem lies in the mind. With time and circumstances, human beings have lost a great degree of their inner power, thus making them vulnerable to attacks from the vices (lust, anger, greed, attachment, ego). The weak mind has affected the body too and when we take the medicine of spiritual knowledge, prescribed by the Ultimate Doctor God, we can cure both mind and body.

Our second day is celebrated as Narkchaturdashi. Spiritual Knowledge about Self-realisation, God-realisation etc. can only be taught by the Supreme. Diwali, the tradition of lighting diyas, actually describes how the Supreme Light comes to re-ignite our awareness of being points of energy or souls. This knowledge is used to overcome the foreign elements of vices. In memorial of these efforts, we have the story of Narkasur or destroying of evil.

The third day is spent in invoking Goddess Lakshmi. Today, we have unfortunately lowered the status of Lakshmi Devi to that of a banker. In reality, her name stems from the word, 'Laksh' meaning ' the goal', implying that she stands for the ultimate goal of perfection that human beings can reach. The 'wealth' that she has to offer is of knowledge and virtues; a divine character alone can attain prosperity (material and otherwise) and peace. Homes are cleaned thoroughly in her honour, but we forget that a clean mind and intellect are the easiest ways to attract her.

Moving to the fourth day of Balipratipada, we see success at every step or padh / kadam when we maintain connection with the Supreme Soul. In spirituality, this is symbolic for yoga or union. When I visualise myself to be a point of light, and then direct my intellect and thoughts to the Supreme Parent, I experience God's Shakti and love. This power helps me fight weaknesses and inculcate virtues.

The beautiful process of gaining knowledge, overcoming vices, cleaning the intellect and remembering the Supreme, leads us to appreciate the fifth day, Bhaiyadooj or Bhaibeej. The knowledge of the 'soul' frees us from stereotypes and prejudices based on religion, caste, colour, gender and age. We then see every individual as being a child of God and so part of my spiritual family - the ultimate truth.

Sweets (maintaining loving relationships), new clothes (discarding everything old), new account books (settling karmic accounts), fireworks (burning evil off) and other, interesting rituals prepare us spiritually for the New Year or Age. The darkness of ignorance cannot remain; our deep desire to create a world of happiness will become a reality. The key lies in lighting a single 'diya' - my own spiritual awareness - and then.... "JYOT SE JYOT LAGAATE CHALO..."

People spend a lot of time and energy developing their bodies and making it attractive to other people, but is there ever a thought of developing the soul and making it attractive to God. The body is a physical matter, which will change, age and die. If you have a beautiful body today there is no guarantee that it will remain as such in the future. The soul is an eternal, immortal point of spiritual light. Within the soul there are impressions that form my personality. If I take steps to develop and feed it with spiritual knowledge, my character, my personality will become rich and beautiful. Developing the soul allows us to have full control of the power of thought. The quality of our thoughts determine our own personal degree of happiness.

I should feel love when people don’t love me because love heals and brings happiness. When I feel love towards others, there is benefit all around. To be loving is a natural way to live. If I make effort to become more loving, my own happiness increases immediately and soon the attitudes of others will soften. Many people are burdened with negativity as a result of a shortage of love. It shows up in cycles of critical thoughts and negative feelings, sometimes directed against the self, and sometimes blaming others. Such thoughts and feelings run down energy and deplete everybody’s well being. If I recognize this and become more determined to stay positive, I can end the negative cycles and reveal the power of love in action.

It is true that there is much suffering in the world. But do we need to worry about it? If we focus on the negative, that drains us of the strength to help. Goodness and truth are also at work in our world, as well as darker forces. When I switch on my awareness of positive qualities common to humanity, it is like bringing light into the darkness. The past stops haunting me and I stop worrying about the future. I see more clearly what I need to do now, for lasting happiness and health.

In the normal course of the day, do we know where are thoughts are going? Do we have the strength to focus and direct them where we want them to go? We are normally unaware of the amount of energy that is contained in each and every thought. If we were aware we would pay attention to conserve and utilize it in a beneficial manner. At a time when the world's resources is the lowest we are throwing away enormous quantities of thought by having negative and waste thoughts. Just like the body gets tired when we use up the physical energy, the mind gets fatigued giving rise to frustration, boredom and tension. We need to examine the self and see how our energy is getting lost.

To be honest means to be true. It also means being faithful andtrustworthy. The more you experience this quality, the more your senseof its value will increase.

It is true that there is much suffering in the world. But do we need to worry about it? If we focus on the negative, that drains us of the strength to help. Goodness and truth are also at work in our world, as well as darker forces. When I switch on my awareness of positive qualities common to humanity, it is like bringing light into the darkness. The past stops haunting me and I stop worrying about the future. I see more clearly what I need to do now, for lasting happiness and health.

Often, we get into a 'tit for tat' situation in which I feel bad about someone else, so they have ill-feeling towards me, which confirms my opinion about them, and so on. Everyone loses out. I need to see very clearly the damage this is doing. Illness often comes when I feel ill-treated or deceived. With strength of mind, I can recover my peace and have positive feelings even towards those who don't feel good about me.

When I awaken to the power of the mind I can begin to step back from whatever illness is happening in the body. The more I become the observer, watching what is happening instead of being caught up in it, the more free the mind can become. Even when my body is ill, I can create thoughts and feelings of happiness and peace. These positive feelings then help the body, so that I have the strength to face the illness and quite often pain and sickness decrease or may even goaway.

Love is intrinsic to human nature. But when we lose sight of the fact that we are love, inside, we chase after it outside of ourselves instead. When we let go of selfish desires, we become free of worry and ill-feeling and our lives become loving through and through. This is very healing.

When I observe the inner world of my thoughts and feelings, I can develop new ways of responding to situations and events which help me to keep a positive frame of mind. For example, I may constantly become fearful and upset about ill-health which only makes it worse, but a period of illness could offer me a space to get off life's roller coaster for a while, to rest and look at how I have been living. I may see ways of improving my attitudes and actions. That realization itself brings fresh hope and happiness. As long as I keep looking inside I do have a choice. Why choose worry, which will harm me, when I can opt for positive approach which will uplift me.

I can retain my positivity by working to remove worry and sorrow from my heart and mind. It helps to recognize that negative feelings are triggered by dependency on one or another physical aspect of existence; the body, relationships, wealth, or circumstances in the world around me. If any one of these is in a state of upheaval, I am liable to become troubled. But it is my dependency on these things, not the upheaval in itself, which causes deep distress. If I become free inside, worry and sorrow will finish.

Positivity is a subtle, spiritual attribute or energy, natural to all of us, that can accumulate in the mind just as electrical energy accumulates in a battery. A positive frame of mind promotes healing in oneself, and this energy naturally flows out to others.