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

The ras leela - the frenzied and uninhibited dance of the gopi s with Krishna - never becomes an orgy. Why? The obvious answer would be that Krishna is divinity; he is immaculate. But the reasons are more philosophical than theological.

The dance symbolises the soul's unceasing struggle to break clear of the constraints of the body, to make contact with the supra-reality it sees out there. This intensely private struggle is an abstraction, but so compulsively felt by the soul straining within the body as to become an obsession. The indulgence of any obsession is a behind-the-scene, secret activity, for it has undertones of guilt.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Krishna's Ras Leela is Not an Orgy

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

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

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

Once there lived a strong, young elephant named Meruprabh. One day a part of a huge forest caught fire and the fire spread rapidly, fanned by strong winds. The animals were scared.

When would the fire stop? Meruprabh along with 700 other elephants cleared one part of the forest of vegetation to prevent the fire from spreading. This clearing became a haven for animals seeking shelter from the fire and they huddled there till the fire went out. Animals who normally hunted each other now sat or stood close in amity. Fear was palpable.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: The Elephant And The Monk - A Story of Compassion

In the alienated and fragmented world we live in today, the human heart cries out for friendship or affirmation from others. That is because we are meant to see in the human faces we encounter, the face of God.

Tell someone that I am here, is the cry of the human heart. Fernando Silva, who runs a children's hospital in Managua, reports the incident of a lonely child in the hospital in search of a human hand to grasp. One Christmas eve, when he stayed in working late into the night amidst revelry, he heard footfalls behind him. On turning, he recognised the sick child who had no one in the world. Fernando drew close to the child and touched him lightly with his hand. The child whispered: "Please tell someone that I am here".

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: True Friends are God's Angels

The fourteenth century Native American Iroquois Constitution opens with a prayer of gratitude. It offers thanks "to the earth where men dwell; to streams of water, springs and lakes; to the maize and fruits and medicinal herbs; to the sun and moon, wind and thunder... and to the great creator, the source of life".

Gratitude is one of the first principles of spiritual well-being. Blessings abound in the life of each of us, and a keener appreciation of the same unlocks the secrets of the universe. In opening our hearts wide to render thanks we automatically create the space in our consciousness for greater grace to flow in. A thankful heart is an open heart and is thus, open to receiving. Meister Eckhart, the German mystic observed, "If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice."

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Gratitude - A Simple Yet Powerful Tool

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

There is something each one of us owes to everyone, whether we know them or not. Realise this will significantly bring down tension levels - both in this world and in the world within.

That something is ‘Anger Control'. Today, people are going berserk with anger. Even children are falling victim to this emotion. People say: "I don't know but my brain just seemed to explode".

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Manage Your Anger, Change Your Life

Our lives are a series of experiences. Although these experiences appear to be linear, actually, they are not so. We discover this when we pause to carefully reflect on them. Life is a form of language with its own punctuation marks, much like the written language, where each punctuation mark has an unspoken meaning.

I experienced the visible language of life recently when I was down with a viral fever with a severe chest congestion. I was completely dependent upon others to even get up on my feet. Without the care and support of my family, I would have had to be hospitalised. Because of the intensive care I received at home, I bounced back to good health within a reasonable period of time.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Your Good Health Can Spread Cheer

Once while visiting an old age home, a resident asked me to join her for an evening cup of tea. While making tea, she looked at me closely and asked: "Aren't you Tina Munim?" When I nodded my head in the affirmative, her face lit up. The joy and elation I saw in her eyes moved me and changed my perception of the elderly.

Now, I regularly visit homes for the aged; those are my special moments. My elderly friends tell me stories, and I tell them mine, and we share tales of life's little joys and sorrows. To them, I am not Tina Munim or Tina Ambani. I am just another human being who wants to be a part of their life..

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: How We Learn An Age-Old Lesson

The art of wise living involves four steps: Plan purposefully, prepare prayerfully, proceed positively and pursue persistently.

The joy of wise living involves the art of joyous looking. There are two types of looking. You can look at the world with thoughts; you can also look at the world without thoughts, from a pure Being.

When you look at the world with thoughts, then you should be aware of the subtle pollution that exists. Thoughts come from memory, memory is the representation of an experience of the past, and so from the past you see the present. Hence, pollution happens.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Art of Wise Living Brings Great Joy

Lovely

• Dreaming of lovely things, brings favor to all persons connected with you.
• For a lover to dream that his sweetheart is lovely of person and character, foretells for him a speedy and favorable marriage.
• If through the vista of dreams you see your own fair loveliness, fate bids you, with a gleaming light, awake to happiness.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Lovely, Meaning of Dreams about Lovely, Dream Interpretation Lovely)