January 1998

Quotes & Quips

"Ignorance is a powerful magician in the human mind. It makes invisible that which is most visible--God."

Sage, mystic and philosopher Swami Omkarananda Saraswati, a direct disciple of the late Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh

Not yet settled in a permanent home, the soul takes temporary shelter in a body. Tirukural, Verse 340

The answers are already within each of us. Good luck matching them with the corresponding questions. Swami Beyondananda

They had no idea who I was other than some weird blond person. We just began to communicate and laugh. Despite the poverty, they're very happy people. I found myself laughing all through India. American actress and staunch Indophile Goldie Hawn on her first trip to India. She daily worships Lord Ganesha.

Yikes! 18-year-old Jyothi Palani upon hearing this complex quote from S. Radhakrishnan: "Any event has an endless past and an endless future, it is never-ending and nowhere-ending. This tantalizing endlessness which marks it as unreal invites the soul to press on to the absolute."

Some pundits in India are like dogs sitting in the grass. They do not eat grass themselves, but won't let hungry cows eat it either. Russian Swami Sadashivacharya complaining about those who don't adhere to the spiritual knowledge they have learned, but still refuse to allow those who are not of their stratum to partake of it.

The only thing I will eat with eyes is a potato. Chelsea Clinton, daughter of the US President, upon entering Stanford University. She recently became a vegetarian.

King Akbar asked Birbal, his Hindu minister, where he gained his vast wisdom. Birbal instantly replied, "From the fools. I observed the actions which rendered one a fool and gave them up. So I got wiser and wiser. There is no dearth of fools and mad men in this world to be my teachers."

Many people in the West are not aware how Hinduism has gradually slipped right into our own culture through the New Age. From a Christian guidebook on how to 'pray for Hindus.'

What do you call a sadhu who can't sew? A "mend-he-cant"

DID YOU KNOW?
Heat Generator
According to a new york Times report, scientists recently discovered that the sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) is a heat-producing plant with the remarkable ability to hold its temperature between 85-96 degrees Fahrenheit. Forty lotus flowers generate as much heat as a 40-watt bulb, while 70 can produce as much heat as a person at rest. Scientists are still baffled as to how the lotus manages this.