Contemplations and Ruminations

December 17th 2020 Here’s the article I wrote for the December issue of the Lourdes Shrine magazine… It’s December and though we are in the midst of a pandemic, one can’t help but feel the excitement in the air. As we set up the nativity crib and string lights around the Christmas tree, we know for certain that things are going to get better. That’s why Christmas is celebrated year after year, in the hope that Christ Consciousness will awaken in us. Jesus Christ was already born ages ago. He has already manifested in human form long ago, and that’s when time split into A.D. (Anno Domini which is Latin for ‘in the year of the Lord’ and refers specifically to the birth of the Jesus Christ) and B.C. (Before Christ). As we gear up to celebrate another Christmas, let us not merely glorify the outward appearances and symbols of Christmas, instead let us look inwards and discover that Christ came to reveal the greatest secret that stays locked within our being. We are not unworthy or lowly...

(November 5th 2020) Here’s an article I wrote for the October issue of my church magazine… The month of October is a time to reflect on what Mary and consequently the term ‘Woman’ mean to us. Mary is many things, Mother, Protector, Guiding star, Helper of anyone who calls upon her, and a wonderful Friend and Confidante. And all this rests mainly on her nature as a divine person, it has nothing to do with virginity or the lack of it. She gave birth to Jesus, what if she hadn’t… would she still be holy? Yes, she would, just as you and I are holy, because we all are made in the image and likeness of God and God cannot create something that is substandard. Being the Mother of Jesus, elevated her womanhood and made her one of our most trusted sources of refuge and strength. As I sit here writing this, I am struck by how deep our discord is between the concept of Woman and the way she is perceived in society. The front page of The Hindu newspaper, dated 1st October 2020, depicted two glar...

         The dawn of another year and there's so much happening in the world, what with the bush fires in Australia, the CAA/NRC protests in India, the Trump and Iran situation; it is good that we stay updated and take an interest in world affairs, that's probably all we can do. We cannot influence such events that take place on a global scale, but we sure can work on the smaller issues that relate directly to us. The other day, I was taking a walk in my locality during the first week of January and I came across a rather sorry sight. My locality is usually clean and people do not throw rubbish everywhere, so I was taken back when I saw a pile of discarded sticks and wild grass (used to construct a Christmas crib) along with a few plastic Christmas stars lying on the road. What a harsh sight it was, a reminder that Christmas was over, and thus all the things that made it a beautiful season have to be dumped right on the road.      How can w...

There’s a beautiful song called Christmas in Heaven , where Scotty McCreery, the singer, wonders how a loved one who has passed away is celebrating Christmas. Scotty sings: Are you kneeling with shepherds before Him now?  Can you reach out and touch His face? Are you part of that glorious Holy Night? I wonder what Christmas in Heaven is like. We’ve all lost loved ones, and the memories will always remain, but how are we going to remember the ones who died (and those who remain traumatised) due to the deep malaise that infects society. Rape is the sort of horror that cannot be put into words because words do not exist to describe what Aruna Shanbaug, Jyoti Singh, Asifa, Priyanka Reddy, the Unnao case survivor and countless others went through. As we prepare to welcome the new born Christ into our homes, let us first examine our hearts and find out where the sickness lies. We live in a society, and the family is the basic building block of any society. The first seven y...

An article I wrote for the church magazine... In Genesis, when God created everything from nothingness, s/he knew it was all good, “God saw all s/he had made, and indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). Everything that existed from the beginning of creation was perfect like the Creator. That’s how wo/man was formed too, in the image and likeness of God, in all perfection and goodness. This is the state of grace or the Garden of Eden, where humankind lived in harmony with creation. Since humans have a dual nature, that of being one with the creator yet at the same time being temporal in flesh and blood, this equation of grace was bound to change, when the temporal takes precedence over the eternal nature of being (our spiritual nature). That’s when evil/bad was conceived in the image and likeness of wo/man. That’s where humankind stands now, at a crossroad, forever wavering between the spiritual and the temporal, not realising that our true nature is spiritual and that existence...

An article I wrote for my church magazine... Heaven is not faraway Growing up we get the impression that heaven is a place, somewhere up there in the skies. That’s how catechism makes God sound like a huge bearded man just wafting through the skies, watching us all from heaven. But oce you grow up and start reading and thinking about the bearded guy in the sky, you tend to realise that God is a presence that permeates all of creation. God is One Consciousness, pure creative energy pulsing with love. We are all individual manifestations of this divine energy, so whether we are aware of it or not, we are all holy. We are living temples of the Divine Creative Energy that permeates everything in existence. Once we realise this simple truth that we are all children of God, and thereby we too have the same divine energy and power, then heaven becomes a reality right where we are. We tend to create heaven when life is lived with good intent and purpose, with the implicit belief...

The Perpetual Search for Meaning Death is inevitable, but it is not necessarily the end of existence. Our time here on earth is just a temporary phase, a sort of learning period to get to where we are going. The old adage ‘you never stop learning until you die’ rings resoundingly true. Life in all its unpredictability is a great teacher; we falter and stagger, sometimes more often than we want to. We question our faith from time to time, and ponder over the purpose of existence and that’s only natural. We are subconsciously seeking Him, the one who makes us whole and that’s why nothing on earth is ever going to satisfy us completely. All the questioning and ponderings are a way of growing closer to the divine. He did say ‘Seek and ye shall find’ and that’s probably why life feels like a perpetual search for meaning; it actually is a perpetual journey to find Him, to know Him, to grow closer to Him. For ages, people have been trying to find the divine without realising that H...

What can I say about a man who brought new meaning to life, Life isn’t about just existing, he would often say But Being Alive to the wonders of everyday moments. This is what stands out most in his sermons: The eagerness and joy in living a simple life made extraordinary  By the power of love emanating from the Saviour within us . And the Saviour’s Presence runs deep in this man, So deep, that whenever he is near I am filled with peace. It’s unexplainable, this effect he tends to have He makes us aware of the same Divine Presence within us. I acutely realize how fortunate I am to know him and call him a friend. He has revolutionized our church, turned it into a second home  Where friends and family converge often to make it what it is today; A place buzzing with activity, goodwill and positive vibes. Truth be said it is his energy and zeal buzzing in all of us  Making us come alive to the magic of being. Part of this magic of existence is change, e...

Since the beginning of time battles have been waged and lives have been lost in the pursuit of fame, glory and power. And this hasn’t really changed much, the current crisis in the war-ravaged zones of Syria, Iraq and the like have all begun because of vested interests by the super powers in these oil rich lands. So while it may seem that these super powers are intent on destroying the radical groups which they inadvertently created by their (hardly justified) invasion, at the same time these terrorists are being funded behind the scenes by the same superpowers. It’s all a really complex and ugly reality that will continue to go on cause let’s face it, the world economy is ruled by a few corporate superpowers. They pull strings and run this big giant show on planet earth and we are just pawn pieces on their black and white chess board. We can either be depressed and lose hope in everything, or we can learn to live in the moment, in the now. Cause that is the only way to live life i...

Love seems to have taken new connotations in our State with reports of spurned men hacking and killing the people they claim to be ‘in love’ with. Makes one wonder what brand of love they believe in, probably the glorified insecure patriarchal version of self-love. What else would make a man kill a woman he claims to love… the fact is, he never really did love her, he loved the concept of her, the idea of someone like her belonging to him, to make him feel good about his insecure self. The idea of love has become so warped in our society, because of the way we think. When educational institutions have ridiculous rules that prohibit girls and boys from speaking to each other, then sickness like this is bound to rise. It’s basic science, opposites attract and trying to nullify this effect by erecting barriers and preventing the sexes from getting to know each other and familiarise as friends is wrong on so many levels. It’s incredibly ironic that educational institutes don’t seem to rea...

Reading The Hindu has become a spiritual process these days, there’s just a sinking feeling of nothingness when you come across news about atrocities inflicted on little children. How do you reconcile to live with what you’ve just read and imagined? Recently an 8-year-old boy was sexually assaulted, had his throat slit and head smashed with a boulder. Girls as young as 3 years old and sometimes even babies are sexually abused and molested. Similar stories keep surfacing and the evil perpetrators don’t seem to fear anything, in fact gruesome child rapes seem to be on the rise and it is mind-numbingly baffling. How can one torture and traumatise a child in an unnatural and inhuman way, how depraved does one have to be to force his perverted carnal desires on a little child’s body. Aren’t they the littlest of lambs, the smallest in His fold… tiny playful little lambs. Who snatched them away, where was the Shepherd? How does one go about life, knowing such things are not a rare occurrenc...

‘What you seek is seeking you’, this quote by the Persian poet Rumi is amazingly true, provided that which is being sought is in tune with our highest calling. Our highest yearning is to be one with the divine, to know that His spirit resides in us and in essence we are all spiritual beings with a purpose. This life is not meant to be dull, there is power immanent in all of us. Power from the Father who did not create us to be ordinary people leading mundane lives. He created us to love without measure and without boundaries, that’s when we encounter Him. That’s when we also realise divine love will seek us and find us if we truly desire it. A love like that just exists, it cannot be explained, it changes our lives by changing our rigid perspectives. We begin to see that everything we’ve gone through has been for this purpose, to experience the wonders His love can bring about. There’s no going back to the old confused selves;  when we feel His love working in us, we ...

The Colour of Paradise or Rang-e  Khodā (which literally means ‘The Colour of God’) is  an Iranian movie set in a beautiful little mountain village near Tehran. The film is visually appealing, in fact the landscapes and its accompanying sounds form an important character. They help to establish the world of the blind protagonist, a tender hearted young boy named Mohammed who is a student in a special school in Tehran. The school is quite amazing in the way they train and care for the visually impaired children. Mohammed’s father, a widower, doesn’t seem extremely fond of his blind son whom he considers a burden. When the school closes for summer vacation, he reluctantly takes the boy back to the strikingly beautiful village where Mohammed’s doting grandmother and sisters reside. The outpouring of love that Mohammed experiences from his grandmother and sisters is poignantly portrayed. So much love and warmth abounds in these frames, it’s almost like the beauty of nature ...

What with flights crashing and disappearing, the Germanwings flight that crashed into the mountains because of one man's mental sickness is quite difficult to fathom...  The transcript of the final moments of the ill-fated Germanwings flight that crashed into the French Alps on March 24th, 2015, gives the chilling account of what occurred in the plane as it went down. 10 am The airplane takes off. 10:30  The captain has gone to the bathroom and the co-pilot Lubitz locks the armoured door with the “Lock” button:  it is no longer possible to open the door from the outside. 10:33 The plane drops 3000 feet per minute. Air traffic controllers detect this and try to contact the plane several times but Lubitz does not respond. The captain’s voice can be heard as he tries to open the door: “It’s me!” The captain grabs an oxygen tank or fire extinguisher in order to break down the door. No response from Lubitz.  The captain yells: “For the love of God, open this ...

Well, today marks one year since more than 200 girls in Nigeria were kidnapped in 2014 and so far, they haven't been rescued. I have thought about these girls quite often over the past year, wondering about their plight. I hoped that they would be rescued soon, the girls must have felt the same... that people would come for them. It's been a year now and I wonder what they are thinking...  How will it end?  This is something I jotted down after reading headline after headline of all the horrors perpetuated in the name of religion. I sometimes think this world is way too crazy to make any sense of it. When people take their religious beliefs too seriously, the very purpose of religion gets defeated. Isn't religion supposed to enlighten us and set us free, why do people then make the fatal mistake of letting it enslave them and turn them into raving fanatics? Religion is supposed to propagate hope, peace, forgiveness, brotherhood, love and joy. Any religion that d...