The editor of ‘Consecration', a journal from Thrissur, is publishing an editorial in the next issue about the spiritual values of India. Quoting several sources and several authors he pleads for the corporate sector to turn to our ancient values of the Spirit as explained in our scriptures. His ideal is laudable, great, and what Indian needs just now. It is one thing to possess great values; it is another thing to enjoy their benefits. There was a time when RBI harassed small men for a paltry $12 as foreign exchange was scarce.

When you meet people of good will, there is a pleasing sensation in the nerves. Leaving them behind, you go to some work. The work turns out to be smoother than you expected. One of the reasons for that outcome is the good will of the person you met with on the way. Sometimes we hear, "Each time I meet your brother, I see luck around the corner. What is it with him?"  Surely people who carry good will help you accomplish the work on hand.

We enjoy receiving attention wherever it comes from. Plants and animals too equally enjoy attention. Inanimate matter smilingly responds to attention, defying the rules of material functioning.  The more superior the attention, the richer is the response. When great prosperity comes one's way and one is not used to it, he is unable to receive it properly. He is overwhelmed. As a consequence, there is enormous waste of everything. It is inevitable, though not pardonable. Still, the wasted material does not severely punish those who waste.

There was a Muslim Chief of Justice in Pondicherry in the sixties who used to ask everyone whom he considered wise, "What shall I do to control anger?" He was genuine in his quest. No one had given him the answer he looked for. Nor was he in a mood to listen. He asked the question, as it was uppermost in his mind. Nowadays, even doctors recommend yoga, meaning meditation, as part of their prescription. Meditation of any description is relaxing. Relaxation relieves stress and indirectly helps cure diseases.

Till the war, most of us lived as joint families. Who will take care of the aged was no question. It was a matter of affectionate privilege to tend the aged that were sick. Not to do so was a sacrilege. The times are changing. Life is demanding. One is not able to take care of one's child, as both parents are employed. Even when the children are somewhat grown up, every morning for all members to go out to office and school is a battlefield. It is a war of nerves. Too few are trying to accomplish too much. The result is, through violent tension, the personality develops.

An engineering graduate applied to a high school in the London slums for a teaching post, as none was available in his own field. He was given the job. Along with the job he got a sumptuous invisible warning that he was in for an adventure. He was a determined man, undeterred by adversities. He was a Black teacher in a white school. The pupils were not mischievous. They were venomous. They let loose hell in the classroom. His name was Thackeray, but they called him ‘Fackeray'.

Aruna Raghavan has a long experience in teaching. All her teaching methods are her own. In her experience, there is no dull child. We have simply not yet found the right method for each child. Swami Vivekananda's goal in spirituality was each man should discover his own religion, which means each man is unique. Working at that level, everyone can produce results that are the very best. When John Milton said, ‘They also serve who stand and watch,' he meant that spiritually everyone's contribution is equal to the sum of life.

Man functions by his behaviour. Behavioural Science has come to stay as a standard method of discovering MAN.  Behaviour tends to be fixed; in some people it is fixed rigidly. It is said that revolutions break out when the rigid behaviour of the minority becomes a stable obstacle. Nature resorts to war when nations will not change for the better on their own. That is why after each war, a great flood of progress rolls out.  Heraclitus, the Greek scholar recognised this.

It was late seventies. An elderly lady was admitted to a hospital for treatment of diabetes. Contrary to the expectation of the doctors, she survived, in spite of the fatal turn the disease took. Her son was a small sale industrialist who was close to all of us in the Society. Our American friends spoke to him about some medicinal compounds known as haemoglobin capsules which could revive his mother much faster. They were not on the market for anyone to buy. There were procedures.

During the decade in which Subramania Bharathi, our national poet, lived in exile in Pondicherry, there was a swami here who was short. He was known as kullachami, short swami. He would always run on the road. To him, Ramana Maharshi and Sri Aurobindo were great souls. The tradition says that going to a place where a great soul lives is punya, a spiritual virtue. So, kullachami used to walk from Pondicherry to Tiruvannamalai where Maharshi was. From there, he would walk back to the door of Sri Aurobindo's house.