The hill-stream gurgled along impatiently. The old Kondh tribal sat by the stream, both feet dipped into its cold waters. The blue smoke from the homemade pipe he was smoking merged with the blue haze slowly descending from the Niyamgiri hill. Soon he was playing a wistful tune on a slender flute. The music drew me to him and we started talking.

He told me how he lost his wife a year ago. "The tiger dragged her away while she was in the forest. I was so unhappy I wanted to die and leave Dharani Ma (Earth Mother). Then deep inside I knew I can't, unless forced, leave this enchanting world even for a day.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: A Kondh's Love for Life and Dharani

Emotions are given to us for our benefit. In fact, everything in this world is for our benefit. It is the use or misuse of worldly objects that brings about positive or negative results.

Emotions like fear and anxiety are meant to help us. We must fear certain things - like the misuse of weapons, and adharma or wrong action. Without fear we could act irresponsibly and end up hurting ourselves. This is the positive aspect of fear. But when fear becomes excessive or prolonged, or when we fear the wrong things, it can be harmful.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: You Can Refuse To Be Miserable

Most people see money as the starting point of exchange, a means to acquiring goods and services. To be able to access more and more of goods and services, we strive to acquire more and more money, working extra hours.

What we often tend to forget is that money comes at a real price. Money is not the first point of exchange in this world: it is an intermediate point. You earn money for a good life, and, ironically, even as you are struggling to earn money, you are exchanging your good life for it.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Make Time For Higher Pursuits

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

An article published talked about how 10 per cent of your life is made up of what happens to you, whereas 90 per cent is decided by how you react. So most of the situations we find ourselves in are possibly self-created; maybe only 10 per cent are nature-generated. A self-audit can help us find out how much this applies to us.

I often think about the importance of self-audit - especially when I see the way a majority of youngsters today are faced with increasing pressures from family, peer groups and the outside world. Many find it difficult to handle all this with an even mind. The manner in which the youth is expending itself and the direction it is headed toward is somewhat alarming.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Come Alive! Try Zero Tolerance

You deal with people and situations effectively only when you are happy. Otherwise, in your unhappiness, it won't matter what good intentions you have, you will only spread misery in the world. Being happy or unhappy is actually your choice.

People have chosen to be unhappy because they think that by being unhappy they will get something. Once you are unhappy, whatever you get, what does it matter? If you are happy, if you don't get anything, what does it matter? This is not a philosophy; this is your true nature.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Spread Happiness To Connect Effectively

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

Let's talk about pleasure and pain. Pleasure first, because it makes you feel good. But life's pleasures seem so fleeting and evanescent, like glistening dewdrops that evaporate with the first hint of the warm rays of the sun.

A pleasant state of being , we instinctively feel, is intrinsically unstable. Pleasure vanishes like a transient bubble, while pain endures. What is pleasant is short-lived because the human mind quickly gets used to it, and subconsciously craves to heighten and intensify that feeling of pleasure, as it lingers in the memory and haunts the mind.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Fleeting Pleasure, Enduring Pain

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

Where does the average seeker find stability in spiritual growth? Is there a 'how to' manual of integration into daily life? Many a spiritual seeker is becoming aware that he is more than his physical body.

There is a deep craving to understand what is their calling. The revival of ancient wisdom is growing and that growth is having an effect on the way we perceive spirituality.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Love Unconditionally For We are Family

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

Gautama Buddha made a profound statement: "Be a light unto yourself". To this, Osho adds another: "Be a joke unto yourself". Osho would say: "I have to tell jokes because you are all religious people, you tend to be serious. I have to tickle you sometimes so that you forget your religiousness, your philosophies, theories, systems, and you fall down to earth".

Osho has seen that in spontaneous laughter the noise of the mind stops for a few precious moments, allowing us to experience mindlessness or meditation, however fleetingly.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Unburden Yourself With Laughter

I would like to give you a message from Tawang. Now, Tawang is a virtual Shangri-La tucked away at an altitude of 3,000 metres in a misty corner of Arunachal Pradesh.

The people there seem truly happy and tranquil, living under the kindly umbrella of one of the world's oldest Buddhist monasteries. During a visit, I asked the chief monk at the monastery about the secret of Tawang's tranquillity that seemed to go beyond mere goodness. "You're the President of India. You know everything," he replied, ducking the question. When I persisted, he called out to all the 300 monks to come and sit around the imposing statue of the Buddha with us and delivered the following sermon: "If you look at 3,000 years of Indian history you'll find that this civilisation has always stood for peace. It worked for peace; it prayed for peace and it will live for peace. But these days, peace does seem to be in short supply.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Value System for the Enlightened Citizen

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

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

Our God-given abilities are a treasure that is meant for ourselves as well as for the entire world. This wealth should never be misused and made into a burden for us and for others.

The greatest tragedy in life is not death; it is to let our great potential, talents, and capabilities go underutilised. When we use the wealth obtained from nature, it diminishes; but when we use the wealth of our inner gifts, it increases.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Pathways to Peace And Happiness

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

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

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

No religion in this world preaches violence; yet down the ages horrible killings have taken place in the name of religion. Why? There is no simple answer to this question. Perception definitely has a role in this.

The fault somehow always seems to lie with the other religion. Could it be that we perceive other ideologies with bias or ignorance? Perhaps this explanation would have made sense in the dark ages when distance made communication very difficult. Today, it's different - there is free flow of information. There is a great deal of intermingling and intercourse between individuals and communities across the world. Outwardly there appears to be no reason for any acrimony to exist on the basis of one's faith, yet not only does irascibility exist, it is getting to be more pronounced.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: To Love, Get Down To The Basics

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

Contentment is within reach for a person who is compassionate and loving. The greedy, however, remain unsatisfied as they are constantly looking for bigger and better ways to fulfil their desires. At which point will they be satisfied - when they get a bigger house, a better car, higher designation?

To overcome this vicious circle, we need to replace lower thoughts with noble ones. A greedy person pays no attention to the quality of his words and deeds. Always fixing his gaze on the future, trying to figure out how to do this or that, he will spend his whole life planning, calculating, and dreaming. Unable to be in the present and enjoy what is right in front of him, he cannot relish even his food, because while he is eating lunch he is planning his supper.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: A Fervent Plea for Compassion and Love