The Soul Yearns

Psalms 139: 23-24 Look deep into my heart, God,  and find out everything  I am thinking.  Don't let me follow evil ways,  but lead me in the way  that time has proven true. Is it ever possible for a man to know himself fully?  I doubt it. We all think we know ourselves the best. But do we really? Many a time when I introspect I am often surprised at my own actions and reactions. Personally, I don't even know how I would react in a particular situation. Yes, I might think that if I am in such and such a situation this is what I would do. But depending on the extremity of the situation I might find myself reacting or behaving in an entirely different manner.  Recently, someone told me, there are four "yous". The first "you" is the you that you know about yourself and others know as well. Then there is the hidden "you" that you know but others don't. Similarly, there is the "you" that others know about you but you yours...

I just read somewhere that as per scientific estimation, there are over a 100 billion galaxies with billions of stars and planets in each. Till date, we have not discovered life on any of these planets. Either our technology hasn't evolved to a stage where we can see other life forms or there aren't any. Now this reminded me of the verse in Genesis 1 where even Earth was in a similar state. Other than that one couple and some animals, this beautiful planet didn't have any beings that the creator could commune with. He asks Adam and Eve to breed and populate the earth. And since then we have been doing that. Now is it possible that he probably wants his creation to populate the other planets as well? As humans, we are already doing our best to understand the environment and topography of other planets. Maybe some day we will advance enough to conquer and tame these planets. Another possibility is that once we die and leave this earthly body behind we are, accordin...

Continuing on the thought expressed in my previous blog, the ability to give or create life and everything else makes God supreme when compared to the Devil who doesn’t have this specific gift. So God created man and everything else. More importantly, God created man in his own image and he planned to have regular fellowship with him. This basically meant that man had almost all the powers including the ability to think and create that God had. Of course, he was not as powerful as God. No way. The rebellion of the angels, who were much more powerful than mankind, had probably served as a lesson for God that his own creation can rebel against him, and so he better ensure they are not powerful enough to cause serious damage. Devil, unfortunately for him, can't give life and so he can't create anything. But he also needs people on his side if he wants to ensure that the power gap between him and God doesn’t increase so much that he is no longer in the reckoning itself....

Many of us may have struggled with this question. Why doesn’t God just finish off the Devil once and for all and be done with it? Wouldn’t that end all of God’s as well as our problems once and for all? However, even after the ultimate defeat at Armageddon, the devil is just bound in chains and finally pushed into the bottomless pit. Doesn’t that raise the possibility of him coming back to haunt us, and God, again? One possibility is that both God and the Devil are two powerful, immortal energies with different, diametrically opposite powers. God has the power to give or create life but cannot take life. The Devil, on the other hand, cannot create life but has the power to give death. Naturally, we call the former a positive power and the latter a negative or evil power. This could also be the reason why it’s said that it’s impossible for God to do anything evil. Now both God and the Devil are in an eternal struggle for supremacy. Since God has the power to create life, h...

Many a times, we become the cause of someone's hurt without even realizing it. The reason is probably simple. We are too wrapped up in our own individual worlds. We tend to look at a situation only from our perspective. We don't pause to consider the other person's situation. We don't take into account the key reason why the other person might be behaving in a certain manner. For all you know, the current reaction you are witnessing is probably a reaction against one of your earlier actions or even the lack of it.  You need not necessarily blame yourself for this. It's human to react quickly to a situation. But if you want to resolve the issue, if you want to make sure the other person also get his/her due, if you want to make sure that your current reaction doesn't lead to permanent damage from which both of you can't extricate yourself, a future that both of you will regret, then you need to learn to pause. You need to learn how to put your own selfish ...

Throughout my life, time and time again, I have developed casual friendship or acquaintanceship  with people at my workplace and even with friends of close friends. I might have even hung around with them on a regular basis. But the moment this 'hanging out together' stops they become a distant memory or not even in that in most cases. Chances are that I am unlikely to even think about them and in most cases, I'm likely to even forget their names. But when it comes to people I considered close, even if I haven't met them in years they will continue to come into my thoughts time and again. In both cases, it is a result of the quality of the relationship I enjoyed with those people. As far as the former category is concerned, the relationship was very superficial. It was for the sake of momentary pleasures. In the case of the latter, it was less about the sensory pleasures and more about the intellectual and emotional connect. The same is the case with our relationsh...

When you think of the relationship of the earth and sun, it gives you a glimpse of the relationship between man and God. The sun is a ball of gas, God is a spirit. But Earth is a solid object and so is Man who is made of the same earth.  The Sun continues to remain at the center of our solar system. Similarly, God continues to be an immutable eternal force at the center of all creation. Now earth revolves around the Sun and remains within reach of its gravitational pull. Similarly, it is up to man to accept God as the center of his life, and stay connected within the gravitational pull of God.  The difference lies in the fact that we have a choice whereas the Earth doesn't. While choice is great, it's this same choice that also becomes dangerous.  Imagine, what could happen if the earth had the choice of telling the Sun you are too hot and so I can't be associated with you! All of life on earth depends on this eternal association. The source of all f...