During the pre-Independence days there were princely states. They were ruled by Indian kings. A British Resident held the effective power. The Raja was a figurehead. Many of those kings were noble men circumscribed by circumstances. Some were snobbish, had no self-respect. The Maharaja of Travancore was pious and humble. He would be punctual in his visits to the temple. The temple had strict rules. At 8 am the door would be closed. The Maharaja submitted humbly to that discipline. The Mysore Maharaja, at the time of Independence, was troubled in mind.

The judiciary - the court - is a great institution whatever it is today. In a seminar where speakers were urging the abolition of capital punishment, a High Court Judge said for an earring worth Rs. 4/- a man wrings a child's neck knowing he would hang for it. This is the human attitude to crime when capital punishment is there. Imagine the situation if it were abolished.  Most of the murder cases end in acquittal for want of an eyewitness. It is true the thief will not let anyone see him stealing. Still, the court cannot give a judgement without evidence.

Devotion to God is called Bhakti in Sanskrit and most Indian languages. It is so powerful that it can overcome poison. Devotion is the loyalty of the heart. Given to the Spirit, it releases the Psychic Being, the evolving soul in us. Devotion to duty is dedication of the body. The nature of Mind is to be partial. Simultaneously, it can seek two opposites. We call it wavering. The nature of the heart is it can give itself wholly to one thing - a person.

Everyone knows the significance of Money. The spiritual significance of money is not so well known. At least in our country, spirituality is the antithesis of money. Generally no spirituality is associated with money. But only rich ashrams, Muths, etc. are popular. They are popular because of their wealth, not in spite of it. Initially, the ways of earning money and a spiritual inner disposition were completely at variance. One sees the mind that seeks money cannot also seek the Spirit. Soon he ratifies the popular sentiment that Mammon is not to be worshipped.

Ordinarily, it never strikes us to take another man's point of view. Having listened to a long discourse on the spiritual magnificence of taking another man's point of view, one man exclaimed, "I wish everyone I have to deal with takes my point of view." Even within the family, it is not so easy. Man's ego is so pronounced that even with a child, he sometimes wishes to assert that he is superior. Most people are unconscious of it and act on normal biological impulses. An elderly devotee took upon himself to relieve his young acquaintance of a knotty problem.

Srinivasa Ramanujam, the mathematical Genius, was ill with tuberculosis in England. On his return, he was met by his family at Bombay. The first question he asked was, "Where is she?" He was looking for his wife. She was not there. His mother and father were there. His mother was Komalam, known as Komalatammal. She was a powerful woman, a dominant personality. She was so dominant that at Ramanujam's wedding, his father was missing. It was all the mother. While he was in England, he wrote so many letters to his wife. He never got a reply. He was wondering.

Frustration increases with increasing urbanisation and modernisation. Frustration is the direct result when the work does not yield results. A further frustration arises when our success is not appreciated by our friends and particularly by our family members. If loneliness is physical, frustration is psychological. Is there a cure for loneliness or frustration? To know that, we must know more about them. Stephen Hawking is a world famous physicist. People talk of him as if he is the future Einstein.

Small is Beautiful was a book on economics with a subtitle, ‘Economics as if People Mattered', by a British economist Schumacher. In the 70s the book made many people sit up and think. The Nobel Prize was instituted in 1901 for Peace, Literature, Physics, Chemistry and Medicine. In 1968 sponsored by Swiss Bank, an economic prize was added. For over thirty years, the Prize was awarded to monetary economists, not to welfare economists. A.K. Sen, the Indian recipient recently was the first to receive it for welfare economics.

We have two categories in life, the possible and the impossible. The one we try our luck on and the other we simply disregard. All great events in the lives of great men as well as small men have happened because they attempted the impossible. Even in the impossible, there are grades, the final being inconceivable by one's wildest dream. One such event was reported during World War II in Nazi Germany. The daring of the men was perhaps the subtle prelude to the victory of the Allies.

When the Pandavas were sent to the forest for 12 years and one more year of incognito added, the Mahabharata tells us through Krishna and Bhishma an eternal truth. That truth is Man is greater than Time. Krishna on the 13th day in the forest suggested to Yudhisthira that they return and claim the kingdom, as according to another calendar, one day is equal to one year. At the palace Bhishma voiced the same idea. They had the knowledge that one day and one year are equal. Nothing came out of it.