Source: http://www.terra.cl/zonamujer/index.cfm?id_cat=2474&id_reg=1077383&pagina=1

SANTIAGO, CHILE, November 28, 2008: The year was 1976. A Hindu woman called Shantala caressed and massaged her newborn while the French doctor Frederick Leboyer and recorded a video. She performed a technique which has been passed from generation to generation in India, but to the doctor, it was entirely new.

Such was his amazement that he wrote a book on the subject and spread the technique he named "Shantala massage" in honor of that mother. Today, more than 30 years after their "discovery," these techniques are being used daily here in Chile, specifically in the kindergartens in the region of Valparaiso

Let the fire of my body propel and warm me
and let each darkness reveal its plenitude.
Let the hills flatten under my wheels
and let the eloquent curves yield up their good surprise.

Let my heart be obstinate when I need to climb
and let my lowliest gears restrain my spinning down.
Let there be flatland, too,
and into that glittering place let me stretch with the heart of a lover,
at full speed, blind and intent.

~ Barbara Hendryson ~

London Spirituality Network

Brahman is the Self hidden in everyone. He is only obvious to those who, minds focused one-pointedly on the Lord of Love, nurture intuitive knowledge. Meditation leads them deeper into consciousness, passing from the world to thoughts, and beyond thoughts to the wisdom of the Self.

-Katha Upanishad

Palm Tree Plantations Not Environmentally Friendly
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7758542.stm

LONDON, ENGLAND, December 2, 2008: A major international study says palm oil plantations reduce plant and animal diversity, and do little to reduce carbon emissions. Researchers say tropical forests are increasingly cleared to make way for palm oil crops, leading to a reduction in habitats for many rare species. The problem is most acute in Malaysia and Indonesia which produce around 85% of the world's palm oil. The report is published in the journal Conservation Biology.

Palm oil is a common vegetable oil, and is now regarded as a major source of biodiesel, however the researchers question whether it really offers environmental benefits over conventional fossil fuels. Clearing land to start plantations involves burning huge tracts of forest, a process which produces large amounts of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide. The researchers estimate at least 75 years of biofuel production is needed from the plantations, to save on emissions anything like the amount of carbon dioxide produced by this burning. The lead author of the study is Finn Danielsen of Denmark's Nordic Agency for Development and Ecology. "Our analysis found that it would take 75 to 93 years to see any benefits to the climate from biofuel plantations on converted tropical forestlands," he said
(HPI)

Nonviolence is all the offerings. Renunciation is the priestly honorarium. The final purification is death. Thus all the Divinities are established in this body.

Krishna Yajur Veda, Pranagnihotra Upanishad 46-8. ve, 413-14

On December 5, 2008 the Solidarity for the Future conference takes place in Gdansk, Poland. In attendance will be several Nobel Peace Prize Laureates including Lech Walesa, His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Willem de Klerk

http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2008/11/lech_walesa.html?cm_mmc=Acceleration-_-Email-_-1108_06_NLNOV_en_ROW_en_NL_Z_M-_-nobelLaureates

After great pain, a formal feeling comes--
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs--
The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,
And Yesterday, or Centuries before?

The Feet, mechanical, go round--
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought--
A Wooden way
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone--

This is the Hour of Lead--
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow--
First--Chill--then Stupor--then the letting go--

~Emily Dickinson~

London Spirituality Network

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2008/11/happiness-is-ju.html

WASHINGTON, USA, November 28, 2008: A secret to happiness may be in expressive writing; specifically, writing letters to people showing gratitude. Steven Toepfer, an assistant professor of family and consumer studies at Kent State University, conducted a study to determine what would make people feel happier, especially in a consumer-oriented culture in which things are supposed to bring us joy.

He had students write one letter every two weeks for a six-week period to people who had had a positive influence on their lives. The letters had to be positive, include some insight and reflection, didn't venture into trivial waters, and expressed great appreciation. After each letter was written, the students took a survey that gauged their mood, their satisfaction with life, and their feelings of gratitude and happiness.

According to Toepfer, the students' levels of happiness increased after each letter, and 75% of them said they wanted to keep writing the letters, even when the study was finished.

He added, "We are all walking around with an amazing resource: gratitude. It helps us express and enjoy, appreciate, be thankful and satisfied with a little effort. We all have it, and we need to use it to improve our quality of life."
(HPI)

The Lord of Love holds in his hand the world,
Composed of the changing and the changeless,
The manifest and the unmanifest.
The separate self, not yet aware of the Lord,
Goes after pleasure, only to become
Bound more and more. When it sees the Lord,
There comes an end to its bondage.

-Shvetashvatara Upanishad

Breach of promise is no less an act of insolvency than a refusal to pay one's debt.

-Mahatma Gandhi, 1930

But there is no end to my divine attributes, Arjuna; these I have mentioned are only a few. Wherever you find strength, or beauty, or spiritual power, you may be sure that these have sprung from a spark of my essence.

-Bhagavad Gita 10:40-41

Source: http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Temple%20festival%20concludes&artid=oLsoN6Ikc28=&SectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&SectionName=EH8HilNJ2uYAot5nzqumeA==&SEO=Panchami%20Theertham;%20devotees;%20Thiruchanoor;%20Kartik

TIRUPATI, ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA, December 3, 2008: Thousands of devotees took part in Panchami Theertham at Thiruchanoor Tuesday to mark the end of the nine-day Kartika Brahmotsavams of Padmavati temple.

As part of the three-hour colourful ritual, priests performed Thirumanjanam (celestial bath) to the idols of Goddess Padmavati and Chakrathalwar, which were brought from the temple and placed in a decorated mantapam on the banks of the temple tank. After the ritual, the priests dipped the idol of Chakrathalwar in the temple tank marking the conclusion of the annual temple fete.

A large number of devotees took a holy dip in the tank at the same time. Earlier, in accordance with the age old tradition, the priests brought new silk clothes, turmeric and vermilion powder from Tirumala temple and presented them to the Goddess as a gift from Lord Venkateswara.
(HPI)

American Hindu Fined For Kolam on His Driveway
Source: http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Royal-visit-Hindu-temple-called/article-517077-detail/article.html

LOUDOUN, VA, USA, December 7, 2008: Ram Balasubramanian had painted a kolam, an auspicious Hindu religious symbol, on his driveway for a family event. The six-foot design of swirling red and white paint was pretty enough, but his homeowners association was not impressed. They sent a stern certified letter ordering him to remove it and "return the asphalt to a black state."

Balasubramanian can't bear the idea of blacking out the kolam, he says, because it is a religious expression welcoming Sri Lakshmi, Goddess of prosperity into the home. For every day that he refused to remove it, the association charged Balasubramanian $10, which has now accrued to the maximum $900 fine. "If I have to remove it, it's going to be with a lot of pain," said Balasubramanian, 47.

After an exchange of e-mails with the association, Balasubramanian organized an energetic appeal, polling 20 of his immediate neighbors to see whether they objected to the kolam. Nobody did, but the board was not moved
(HPI)

According to me, the influence of Sanskrit literature on our time will not be lesser than what was, in the 16th century, Greece's influence on Renaissance. One day, India's wisdom will flow again on Europe and will totally transform our knowledge and thought.
Arthur Schopenhauer The World as a Will and Representation (1788-1860).

Source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/tacoma/24hour/religion/story/535329.html

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, November 16, 2008: A new survey in the United States finds that 55 percent of young people ages 12 to 25 say they are more spiritual now than two years ago. But nearly one-third of them said they don't trust organized religion.

The survey, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, was conducted by the Minneapolis-based Search Institute. The first question was, "What does it mean to be spiritual?" There were nine choices, running from "believing in God" to "being true to one's inner self."

The good news for faith communities is that 93 percent of the young people surveyed believe there is a spiritual aspect to life. But the disconnect between spirituality and religion was clear. If the youth don't feel spiritual in church, where do they? "Spending time in nature" topped the list of responses. "Listening to or playing music" was No. 2, and "helping other people or the community" was third. On the rise in the youth's list are yoga and meditation, say the researchers. "Attending religious services" was ninth
(HPI)

For have you not heard?
You are pure awareness,
And your beauty is infinite!
So why let lust mislead you?

-Ashtavakra Gita 3:4

The impressions of past action, stored deep in the mind, are the seeds of desire.

They ripen into action in seen and unseen ways, if not in this life, then in a future one.

-The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, 2:12

Another Night in the Ruins

How many nights must it take one such as me
to learn that we aren't, after all,
Made from that bird that flies out of its ashes,
that for us
as we go up in flames,
our one work is to open ourselves,
to be the flames?

~ Galway Kinnell ~

London spirituality network

Malaysian tour

We had been to Malaysia on the 1st of September and returned back on 1st of October this year. During that time we visited several tourist spots and enjoyed the trip. Whatever we saw their were captured in photos and presented in the photo galleries of Gaia as separate albums. We hope that you too may enjoy these scenes. When there were lot of photos and difficult to upload they were made into a movie and presented separately. Genting and Putra Jaya were made so and uploaded at You Tube and presented here please.

Some realize the Self within them through the practice of meditation, some by the path of wisdom, and others by selfless service.

Others may not know these paths; but hearing and following the instructions of an illumined teacher, they too go beyond death.

-Bhagavad Gita 13:24-25

That which moves about in joy in the dreaming state is the Self, fearless and deathless. That is Brahman, the supreme."

-Chandogya Upanishad