One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich is the true story of a devout Russian soldier wrongly accused of treason and sentenced to ten years in a Siberian labor camp –the gulag –where there is no escape but death out in the cold, dark and bare tundras. Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) wrote this book after his eight-year imprisonment in the gulag during the reign of Stalin. The very existence of the gulag system was enough to keep…
Here is a story from Mathnawi, a monumental epic written by timeless Rumi (1207-1273). One day, Moses heard a shepherd on the road praying, God, where are you ? I want to help you tie your shoes and comb your hair. I want to wash your clothes and clean the lice off. I want to bring you milk , kiss your hands and feet when you go to bed. I want to sweep you room and keep it neat. Dear God, my sheep and goats…
One night a fool of God wept bitterly And said: “The world, as far as I can see, Is like a box, and we are locked inside, Lost in the darkness of our sin and pride; When death removes the lid we fly away– If we have feathers –to eternal day, But those who have no feathers must stay here, Tormented in this box by pain and fear.” Give wings to aspiration; love the mind; And if at death you’d leave this box behind,…
The most acclaimed drawing of the cosmos and how the discovery of the magical Higgs particle – also called the God particle transformed the physicists’ view of the beginning of the universe Musician Pablo Carlos Budassi has decided to make a simple drawing of the cosmos for his son’s birthday. In doing so, he used the logarithmic maps of the physicists, the photographs taken by Nasa and his photoshop application. The contemporary physicists, having acclaimed this picture, marked it as the simplest up-to-date illustration…
The days of absence and the bitter nights Of separation, all are at an end! Where is the influence of the star that blights My hope? The omen answers: At an end! Autumn’s abundance, creeping Autumn’s mirth, Are ended and forgot when o’er the earth The wind of Spring with soft warm feet doth wend The Day of Hope, hid beneath Sorrow’s veil, Has shown its face –ah, cry that all may hear: Come forth! The powers of night no more prevail! Praise be to…
A wonderful story told by Rumi on the art of pure reflection and mystical beauty in the sufi way of being. The Prophet said, “There are some who see me by the same light in which I’m seeing them. Our natures are one. Without reference to any strands of lineage, without reference to text or traditions, we drink the life-water together.” Here’s a story about the hidden mystery : The Chinese and the Greeks were arguing as to who were the better artists. The king…
People like to wonder, and this is the kernel of science. – Ralph Waldo Emerson The story of two comrades who went to war and the near death experience of one of them During the Second World War, the Austrian poet and writer Karl Skala (1924–2006), went to Russia with his troops. He and his comrade, Hannes, caught under artillery fire, took refuge in a fox inn. Hannes got hit and died there. Skala recounts that heavily wounded as he was, he experienced that they…
Late one moonless night The Sîmorgh first appeared She let a feather float down through the air, And rumours of its fame spread everywhere. The Canticle of the Birds written by the mystical poet Farîd-ud-Dîn ‘Attâr (1146-1221) tells the story of the birds, who one day gather together to discuss who their Sovereign King is and where she dwells. All kinds of birds had a common yearning to meet their Sovereign. Among them, the little bird Hoopoe, chosen and sanctified by King Solomon, knew that…
Karen Armstrong’s reward winning TED Talk on golden rule of becoming compassionate and its intrinsic rewards, you can watch here : You can read more on compassion here: Seeking Small Acts of Goodwill
Marcelo Gleiser, the award-winning professor of physics, explores the moving cosmos in his book The Dancing Universe : From Creation Myths to the Big Bang : Physics is a game played with nature. He proclaims that science and spirituality are tightly knit. Here is what they have in common : The laws of causality govern both. In each domain, everything happens with a cause. We must use reason to understand both. Observation and experience are necessary to understand a happening. They aim to integrate…
