"The park bench was deserted

as I sat down to read,

Beneath the long, straggly branches

of an old willow tree."

"Disillusioned by life with good reason to frown,

For the world was intent

on dragging me down."

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: This Was The Most Beautiful Flower

Worry causes fear, anxiety, tension and stress. These emotions deplete energy and weaken the immune system. Worriers become sick and this is manifested in poor health, because of all the problems that are eating into their vitals.

And worry is certainly not the same as constructive thinking; if it were, we would have found solutions to most of our problems.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Don't Be a Worrier; Savour Your Life

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

Why do sad people attract sad incidences in life? Why do happy people attract happy situations in life?

Depending on what state of being we are, we attract situations. We have to focus on heightening our state of being rather than changing situations in life. If our state of being is low, then the external situation, even though sacred, will be pulled down to our level of being. For example, a poor man in a palace will make the palace into a gutter.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: The Ultimate Joy Is Inner Growth

Why are friends so special? Byron, while dedicating the fourth canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage to his friend, John Hobhouse, wrote: "To one whom I have known long, and accompanied far, whom I have found wakeful over my sickness and kind in my sorrow, glad in my prosperity and firm in my adversity, true in counsel and trusted in peril - to a friend often tried and never found wanting."

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: True In Counsel, Trusted In Peril

The danger of getting drawn into competition is that one will stoop low somewhere along the line to get the better of a rival, be it in business or when seeking a promotion.

When pitted against petty people , you begin to think that you have to act at their level. You eventually adopt the world's ways and get cast in its mould. Your determination to live up to your principles does not ensure that you will do so. People take to shortcuts believing that the path of goodness is strewn with pitfalls.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Time To Rebuild Trust And Faith

Dear Children,

I like being with children and talking to them and, even more, playing with them. For the moment I forget that I am terribly old and it is very long ago since I was a child.

But when I sit down to write, I cannot forget my age and the distance that separates you from me. Old people have a habit of delivering sermons and good advice to the young.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Nehru's Letter To Children

Once a messenger walking past a tree heard a voice say: "Will you accept seven jars full of gold?" The messenger looked around, but could see no one. The offer was too good to refuse, so he cried aloud: "Yes, I shall accept the seven jars." At once the voice replied: "Go home, I have carried the jars to your house."

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Insatiable Appetite For The Seventh Jar

There are some people who do little, but make others do a lot. Brahman, the pure Consciousness, too, is actionless - but in Its presence, everything else works.

Observe an infant. It does little other than kick about, cry and laugh but it spurs everybody into willing action. The mere presence of an infant brings joy. What makes a baby so lovable, a source of joy for all?

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Desire Management For a Full Life

Bhakti is founded in a spirit of universal fellowship and poetry is one more expression of this same fellowship. The verses of Mirabai, Tulsidas, Kabir, Ravidas and Tukaram are quoted frequently by people from all strata of life. Their poetry expresses concern about life: its difficulties, the loneliness, hypocrisy and pain. The bhakti poets seek God's help to sustain them on this difficult journey. So even today, through their poetry, the bhakti saints continue to influence our daily lives.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Universal Fellowship Through Bhakti Marga

A flower, a thing of beauty, brings joy - but not forever. Soon, it withers and dies. Its transience helps us to understand the value we attach to flowers. Their ephemeral qualities, their fragility and vulnerability, make flowers precious. Flowers are transient like life itself.

In all creation, change is eternal. This and their sensory qualities, particularly colour and scent, have made flowers popular as a universally loved symbol of greeting and felicitation. Whether traditionally worn in the hair of women, in the cap of a Himachali farmer or in the buttonhole of a gentleman's tuxedo, flowers are the ultimate in personal adornment, their freshness, unsullied purity and natural perfection enhance the celebratory spirit of the wearer.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: A Bouquet of Thoughts for Weekend Cheer

After having won the Mahabharata war, King Yuddhishthira, the eldest of the Pandavas, performed the Ashvamedha Yagna in which he gave away his riches to the deserving.

Just then a half-golden mongoose sneaked in and began rolling all over the ground. It then looked at its fur and seemed disappointed. The mongoose said sadly, "Ah! This is no sacrifice."

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Selfless Service And Sacrifice

We have our ups and downs, successes and failures, elations and disappointments. Nothing is certain but change. Winners turn losers and vice versa, for that is the law of nature. Impermanence is a permanent feature of life. The best way to deal with the transiency is to learn to maximise our spiritual quotient.

Many of us know of Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People where he elaborates on habits we need to acquire in order to be effective. Twenty virtues have been elaborated by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Make The Most Of Your Life

To think wisely, the mind needs to undergo a purification process. Mantras help us to purify the mind and make full use of the intellect.

Once, an oyster tried to distract a pearl diver. With great effort, it placed a loose pearl on a leaf on the ocean bed. The pearl diver, however, did not see the pearl - he caught the oyster. We don't know where to look and we become a victim of our limited knowledge.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Dance of Intellect: Mantra Yoga

When you live in this world, there are various types of complex interactions happening. As your field of play increases, the complexity of interaction also goes on increasing.

If you're just sitting in a cubicle, working on your computer with only one other person, you need only a little understanding; but if you're managing a thousand people, you need a vast understanding of everybody.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: How to Manage Your Relationships

A friend told me about a temple she visited in Avudiyar in Tamil Nadu. Here, you will not find statues of any deity - only a daily offering of freshly cooked rice. The local people worship the steam that rises to the sky.

As she spoke, my mind flew back to my childhood, and to the cavernous kitchen, that pulsated with an energy that radiated through the house.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Retracing The Contours Of A Lost World

It was a beautiful night. Poets lay awake, drawing inspiration from the star-spangled sky. Lovers drew closer, gazing at the moon. The elderly came out to feel the cool breeze. Children were playing in the moonlight.

One man watched all this with increasing despair. He was a thief. If nobody slept, how was he to do what he wanted to do? The entire community was awake. He waited endlessly. Somehow the people of this town were just not sleepy that night.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Tolerance And Tranquility Go Together

A man who wished to be initiated into meditation went to a great sage and asked to be accepted as his disciple. The sage made him close his eyes gently and told him that the first step of meditation was to practise compassion. "Amity, compassion, amity, compassion" - the sage kept repeating.

The man, however, was not concentrating. Finally he opened his eyes and begged to be allowed to say something. "I can wish everybody well but my neighbour. I have a lawsuit against him. Can I leave him out?"

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Forgive and Forget To Create Amity

reedom is tough shit. That's the central message of the Matrix movies. The inhabitants of the computer-simulated world of the Matrix live in comfortable, salubrious surroundings and appear secure and content with their lives.

The rebels who inhabit the real world live in Zion, an underground citadel that looks like Dante's Inferno. They undergo physical and mental pain and are always prey to fears and doubts. Despite this, they feel immeasurably better off than those in the Matrix. Because Zion is freedom, and the Matrix is enslavement. And if the price of freedom is anguish, too bad. For everyone who's free knows that freedom is tough. Too tough for most, according to Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: The Matrix Myth and the Price of Freedom

I believe in kindness. Well, you may retort, who doesn't? But I believe in it rather as religious people believe in God. I think it is the answer to almost all our problems: from the miseries of divorce to nuclear proliferation. If humanity learnt to gauge its every action by the simple criterion of kindness - always to ask if it is, on balance, the kindest thing to do? - the world would be much happier... kindness offers us an uncomplicated morality, liberated from every species of mumbo- jumbo, the spells of witch doctors or the theology of professors.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: The Kindly Stranger To Your Rescue

I love the saying: "Today is the first day of the rest of your life". The past isn't important, for, from today onward, we can change. My guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, often said, "Forget the past". The thought of past mistakes pulls us down. People also live too much in their victories. In self-pride they say, "Oh, I did this and I did that", but that's history.

The Bhagavad Gita tells us to give the results of our actions to God. I was surprised to hear Yogananda say, "God is pleased when you give him your mistakes". If you dwell on the thought, "I made a mistake", you close the door to self-improvement.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Practising The Presence of God

The Upanishads are records of the thoughts and teachings of ancient Indian sages who lived in forest hermitages. They are among the oldest religious scriptures in the world. All of them are preoccupied with the quest for knowledge of the Self.

Isa Upanishad is a compact and highly poetic scripture. It contains all the quintessential teachings of all the Upanishads. When asked to condense his life's message in three words, Gandhiji said: "Renounce and enjoy". This is the dictum in the very first stanza of Isa Upanishad: "All this - whatever moves on earth - should be enveloped by the Lord. Fortify yourself through this renunciation. Do not covet anybody's wealth; to whom does wealth belong?

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Message of Control, Charity and Compassion