A beautiful woman is one who values herself physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Beauty is the total impact of all these aspects. Mind and body are inter-related; the state of one reflects on the other.

Yet another dimension is the soul, the inner beauty. It is more a part of us than mere body and mind; it is indestructible. Beauty includes inner beauty. To be a complete person, you have to work on not only your external beauty; you have to develop your inner beauty also.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Enter The Temple Of Inner Beauty  

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

We are all subject to conflict and pain because people believe in different things - what is real for some is unreal for others. Naturally, conflict cannot be avoided. People might be able to avoid conflict for some time, but some day they will fight. When each believes that only his way is right, people are bound to fight.

Though all religions started as an instrument to find the inward path, over time, they have undergone many changes and become different sets of beliefs. Though all religions speak of the value of human life, for the sake of the same religions, today people are willing to take each other'slives.

This is because people believe in something which is not yet a reality for them.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Attain Peace and Joy

Our actions are based on the seeking of results. We are engaged in a process of causation, trying to produce one thing through another. Such action is, in a sense, dishonest. We are doing one thing only to arrive at something else. The result is more important than our regard for what we are actually doing.

We seldom do anything for its own sake. Our action is not direct and present. It follows an ulterior motivation and a looking to the future. Our action works through time, which is the past and the future, and the denial of the present that is awareness.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Action and the Process Of Transformation

In a conversation with his consort Parvati, Shiva is believed to have said that through self-knowledge, one can attain salvation. People are born as human beings due to their past good samskaras, but to attain liberation they will have to attain self-knowledge.

In ancient times, Parvati symbolised the spirit of enquiry. She would pose questions to Shiva, and Shiva's answers provided deep insight into the nature of spirituality. Parvati's questions are collectively known as the Nigama shastra. Shiva's answers are philosophical; they are also of great practical value.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Spiritual Evolution Is The Key To Salvation

He was a small, thin boy with a mole on his face. But what he told our seventh standard class many years ago still bothers me. The moral science teacher had given us homework. We had been asked to pen an essay on ‘happiness'. We all thought it was easy. But when we started writing it, we realised our limitations.

Some of us wrote about the happy moments surrounding birthdays; some spoke of the emotional highs on getting a first in class; others remembered kites and whoops of joy. But the small, thin boy saw nothing in the events that excited us. Nothing at all. He was uninterested.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: The Small Boy And the Leaf

Followers of Advaita philosophy say that the soul and the Divine are one. But, when a soul takes birth encased in a physical body, its new physical identity after birth and the process of socialisation overtake and even obliterate the memory of its connection with the Divine.

As the external identity strengthens with a first name, family name, religion, caste, and the "mine and thine" tendency, the ego strengthens and the world and everything in it begin to appear real.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Don't Rock Your Boat On the Sea of Life

Prayer is common to all religions. Love for God is universal, the mode or method of prayer could be different since everyone is free to pray to the divine power in their own way. Prayer should be acceptable to all, simple and easy to adopt in daily life. Generally, people follow the path of prayer practised in the family. The Gayatri Mantra and any other prayer should be recited with sincerity and for the love of God. Only then its true benefit can be derived.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Gayatri Mantra: Gayatri - Mother Of All Mantras

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

It is a paradox that Gujarat, the state which gave India her greatest son, Mahatma Gandhi, should defile his memory and what he stood for with a terrible violence fuelled by communal frenzy, resulting in large scale death and destruction.

Those who react in anger to the recent violent incidents in Godhra, other parts of Gujarat and neighbouring states need to consider Gandhis "talisman". Will anger and revenge help erase the distress? Anger is a negative emotion; it can neither bring peace nor put an end to the cycle of violence.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Mahatma's Talisman Can Exorcise Anger

A young boy went to a guru and asked him how he could find God. The guru realised that the boy had spiritual leanings but was far too young to be educated in the abstract knowledge of the Vedas and the Upanishads . He asked the boy who he loved the most. The boy replied: "My calf. I play with him all the time. He is my companion". The guru asked the boy to meditate on the calf.

After a few months when the guru went to meet the young disciple, he found him crying. "I am losing my mind", he said. "The calf has become so small that it sits on my palm". The guru advised the disciple to continue meditating on the calf.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Thinking It Through, You Can Be Happy

Generally, quietude, calmness, peace, silence and stillness are taken to be identical states of mind. But in reality, this is not so. All these are states of a deepening order of consciousness, silence being the deepest. In a state of deep silence, there are no thoughts, feelings or mental movements that can disturb or alter the peace of the inner-being.

The human mind gets absorbed in the core of silence where it touches the original source of energy, love, purity and bliss of The Being, and discovers the soul. The mind is transmuted into the Mind of Light. This transmutation is the bridge that leads us to our true Self within. There, God becomes a living presence, and silence a conversation of the soul with God, wordless and wonderful.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: The Wonderful Depths of Silence

We always look for the healing touch after someone has hurt, humiliated or insulted us. Samuel Johnson in " The Rambler " writes that a wise man will make haste to forgive because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

On the other hand, anger is a short-lived madness; when a man grows angry, his reason rides out. Fury and anger carry the mind away.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Forgiveness Helps Contain Anger

Sukha or happiness means different things to different people. This is especially so in the context of varying lifestyles prevalent today and the issues that a lot of us are living with and identifying ourselves with.

Sukha in Indian philosophical systems is a heavily loaded term. To understand the quality of true sukha or happiness also means that we need to define dukha or suffering.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Sukha And Dukha - Rise Above Them

Consciousness is beauty and Creation is an expression of consciousness. Beauty is present in all creation. Eastern philosophy believes beauty is the nature of things, while western thought sees it as perception. Perhaps beauty is both subjective and objective.

The East emphasises subjectivity; it sees beauty as the nature of existence - as Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram, an objective phenomenon.

In the West, where objectivity is emphasised, beauty is seen as a subjective phenomenon. But as the old proverb goes, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Beauty bridges the subject-object divide.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Soundarya Lahiri: Soundarya Lahiri And Inner Beauty

Suryayog is a dynamic spiritual yoga which brings us in tune with nature and the inner self. We are drawn towards eternal light, from saguna swaroop to nirguna swaroop - from the human to the Supreme.

Suryayog is a meaningful way of life taught by Himalayan Masters and practised by yogis who survive without food and sustenance for days. They draw power from Surya or the Sun, whose vibrant energy transforms and changes the bio-electric powers in all beings, fusing body, prana, mind and soul into a divine experience of cosmic consciousness.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Suryayog: Surya, The Healer And Energiser

Since the time when man experienced the first flicker of self-awakening, his attention has remained focused on problems of worldly existence. No sooner is one problem solved, a new one springs up, thereby creating stress and tension in the mind.

In the last few years, people have turned to meditation as a way to overcome emotional and mental strain. Meditation helps us withdraw our attention from the outer world and focus it at a point between and behind our eyebrows, thereby stimulating what is called the 'third eye'. By focusing our attention on it, we can reach higher levels of consciousness.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Ways To Overcome Stress - Meditation

It is now fashionable to ask: Why do we say "falling" in love and not "rising" in love? We "fall" in love because to love implies total surrender. Unless we surrender our ego to the object of our love, we cannot realise the power and expanse of love.

There are two basic emotions which drive this world: love and hate. All relationships are affected in some way or other by these, and so they can either help sustain or destroy the universe in which we interact with one another and the environment.

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

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: True Love Uplifts The Human Spirit

Death perhaps is the only certainty in this world. Yet, the fear of death stalks most people. Literature - western and Indian - regards the fear of death as an intriguing and ubiquitous part of human life. We know we are mortals, yet we are afraid of the inevitable. We know we will die one day; yet we continue to behave as though we believe we are going to live forever.

In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Caesar is surprised to find that people are frightened of death, which is after all an end that comes when it will. A similar spirit pervades the renowned dialogue between the Yaksha and Yudhishthira in the Mahabharata.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Moksha - Break Free from Fear of Death

From the Torah down to every other holy book, a way of life has been prescribed - not just a way of life, but the way of life, for, ultimately, there is only one way. But not everyone prays every day. I would really like to know, how many adults even thank the elements - Earth, Water, Air, Fire - or the Provider?

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Life Is Too Precious To Be Squandered

Vipassana is a self-observation technique taught by Gautama the Buddha. "Its origins were already lost in timeless antiquity", he had said. He rediscovered it in his prolonged search for a fundamental antidote to human misery.

The Sakya crown prince who had already mastered every prevalent teaching in India of those times, realised that nothing, including systems of the famous Alara and Ramputta, touched deep-rooted impurities entrenched in his mind.

Observing bodily sensations, he realised, led to hidden depths of the mind where our habit patterns are formed and multiplied.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Spiritual Technique For Mind Repair - Vipassana