The Doubting Thomas

2008-09-15T11:21:00.001-07:00

Italy’s favourite saint faked his stigmata
With malice towards one & all
Historian Sergio Luzzatto’s book, The Other Christ: Padre Pio and 19^th Century Italy reveals Padre Pio, who was made a saint in 2002, had used carbolic acid to get the Christ-like wounds in his hands.
ROME: Padre Pio, Italy’s most loved saint, faked his stigmata by pouring carbolic acid on his hands, according to a new book. The Other Christ: Padre Pio and 19^th Century Italy, by the historian Sergio Luzzatto, draws on a document found in the Vatican’s archive. The document reveals the testimony of a pharmacist who said that the young Padre Pio bought four grams of carbolic acid in 1919.
“I was an admirer of Padre Pio and I met him for the first time on 31 July 1919”, wrote Maria De Vito. She claimed to have spent a month with the priest in the southern town of San Giovanni Rotondo, seeing him often. “Padre Pio called me to him in complete secrecy and telling me not to tell his fellow brothers, he gave me personally an empty bottle, and asked if I would act as a chauffeur to transport it back from Foggia to San Giovanni Rotondo with four grams of pure carbolic acid”. “He explained that the acid was for disinfecting syringes for injections. He also asked for other things, such as Valda pastilles.”
The testimony was originally presented to the Vatican by the Archbishop of Manfredonia, Pasquale Gagliardi, as proof that Padre Pio caused his own stigmata with acid. It was examined by the Holy See during the beatification process of Padre Pio and apparently dismissed.
Padre Pio, whose real name was Francesco Forgione, died in 1968. He was made a saint in 2002. A recent survey in Italy showed that more people prayed to him than to Jesus or the Virgin Mary. He exhibited stigmata throughout his life, starting in 1911.

2008-09-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

Parting of the Red Sea True or False
With malice towards one & all
In the Bible it is written that in order to escape the Pharaoh’s horses & chariots horsemen and troops and with the Red Sea in front of them they had no escape route. Then the Lord said to Moses “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horseman. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh his chariots and his horsemen.”
It further goes on to say that the angel of God withdrew and went behind them. A pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the army’s of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to one side and light to the other side.
Then Moses stretched out his hand and there were two walls of water with dry land in the centre. After they crossed they were followed by Pharaoh’s army and the sea drowned them all, by Moses stretching out his hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back.
The Old Testament is a collection of books rather like a Library. For many years, before writing was widely used stories of the past were handed down by word of mouth. Later many of these stories were written down. Later still they were collected together and the Old Testament were formed. These writings were written in Hebrew. The Old Testament took place about 950 B.C.
The Old Testament has been translated from Hebrew to Greek by Alexander the Great by 72 Jewish scholars in about 250 B.C. During Alexander’s time the language that was predominant was Greek.
(The Exodus took place in the reign of Ramses II (1290 – 1224 B.C.))
The New Testament was originally written in Greek. In about 382 Pope Damasus I translated the Bible to Latin. In about 1382 the English Bible appeared.
We read all this hulla bulla, about the Red Sea. But the actual fact is that the Hebrew term Yam Suph means the “Sea of Reeds” and was incorrectly translated as “Red Sea” by Alexander. No reeds grow by the Red Sea, but further north where today the Suez Canal runs, was a shallow lake with reed beds. It was in this knee deep water that the Israelites were able to cross on foot but the chariots that followed them had their wheels entangled and the entire army of Pharaoh was disarranged.
This means that the hulla bulla story of the Red Sea is a big fash. So many movies have been made of this great event, which did not ever take place.

2008-09-15T11:06:00.001-07:00

Mother Teresa
With malice towards one & all
I have great respect for Mother Teresa, for the outstanding work she has done to help the sick, poor and downtrodden.
A new book Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light has published her letters that reveal that she faced a deep crisis of faith in God, as mentioned in one of her letters written to Rev Michael Van Der Peetin September 1979 that “Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear. The tongue moves (in prayer) but does not speak.”
The book also states that Mother Teresa did not feel God “in her heart or in the Eucharist.” Even though she was perpetually outwardly cheerful, she struggled fiercely with her faith. She compared her problems to hell and admitted that she had begun to doubt the existence of Heaven and God. “The smile’” she wrote, “is a mask or a cloak that covers everything. I spoke as if my very heart was in love with God, a tender personal love. If you were there you would have said, ‘What hypocrisy’.”

Spiritual silence

In an increasingly raucous world it’s interesting to read her views of silence as a great tool for soul search and piece: “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in the noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

2008-09-15T11:03:00.001-07:00

Was Jesus crucified on a cross or hung on a tree?
With malice towards one & all
The church tells us that Jesus was crucified on a cross and died. The Bible is the only source of evidence, but these scriptures are inconclusive about the basic facts in question. The cross is symbolically associated with Jesus Christ, but while the Bible clearly states in places that Jesus was hung on a tree, there is no clear statement that Jesus was crucified on a cross. References the crucifixion tends to allude to these facts rather than simply stating directly that Jesus died by crucifixion on a cross, and statements about the cross and the crucifixion are ambiguous, elusive, mysterious, and possibly allegorical. For example, Peter told the Jewish authorities they had killed Christ "by hanging him on a tree" (Acts 5:30). Peter was denouncing them for wrongly having subjected Jesus to a humiliating death. But, said Peter, God had glorified Jesus by raising him from the dead (verse 31). Peter did not mean to say the Jews had actually carried out a crucifixion. When Pilate suggested that the Jewish religious leaders judge Jesus, they said, "We have no right to execute anyone" (John 18:31).

"And we are witnesses of all things which he [Jesus] did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree" (Acts 10.39.)
"And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulcher." (Acts 13.29.)
"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness" (Peter 2.24.)
If Jesus was hung on a tree, perhaps the cross entered Christian symbolism because it has been an important religious symbol since long before the Christian era and before Jesus was crucified. "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." (Jesus speaking long before he was crucified,
according to Mark 8.34.)
"For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ" (Philippians 3.18.)
And he said to them all, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." (Luke 9.23.)
If Jesus was hung on a tree, what is meant by the following verse?
"...for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Galatians 3:13.)

2008-09-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

Evolution or Adam & Eve
With malice towards one & all
BANGALORE: Standing erect, they measure about 4 Ft. They utter primitive cries, grow long nails, sport strong, powerful jaws, can gallop and they can be extremely strong when aggressive.
The triumvirate is from Mylapore, Chennai: Vinayaka Murthy (52), Armugam (48) & Elamalai(36). They are three of the five brothers & sisters born to Shadevan, a dyer, & Kamakshiammal. The other siblings are absolutely normal & bear no resemblance to them. The trio is being taken care of by one of their brothers S. Musugeshan, who says that “the brothers do not sleep like us – at best, they sleep for about 2 hours, the rest of the time they keep playing. They hate to wear clothes & take them off at the slightest pretext. The brothers have no sex drive: they have genitals but show no interest in woman.” The eldest, was born with a tail that was removed through surgery as the doctors feared he might otherwise get aggressive. “The three brothers are now under control, but it was not easy in the beginning.
J. Robert from the Indian Institute of Science says: “The research team in the human cloning experiment should be greatly interested in what they lack genetically. As they physically resemble our hominid ancestors, study should be made on their evolution. Perhaps, they should provide the missing link to some of our theories.”

2008-09-15T10:53:00.000-07:00

Even more startling Judas text emerges
With malice towards one & all
Los Angeles: Recent interest in the newly discovered gnostic writing “Gospel of Judas” is now drawing attention to a much more controversial, 1,900 year old, document that was discovered in Jerusalem in 1963, translated into German by 1970, and first published in Switzerland in 1978 with English versions appearing since 1992.
THE JESUS STORY: Known as the Talmud of Jmmanuel (the “J” symbol is pronounced with the short “I” sound as in Immanuel), the TJ, as it is called, shares one feature with the Gospel of Judas – Judas Iscariot was no betrayer. Instead, he was the trusted writer of the TJ. The TJ is much more comprehensive than the Gospel of Judas, while indicating that the man we know as Jesus was originally named Jmmanuel, that he survived the crucifixion and then traveled through several countries with his mother Mary, his brother Judas-Thomas and Judas Iscariot, that Mary died while on their trek to northern India and was buried in Pakistan, that Jmmanuel married and had numerous descendants and that he died at over 100 years of age and was buried near Srinagar, Kashmir.
SOURCE OF MATHEW’S GOSPEL: With the order of events in Matthew’s account of Jesus’ ministry closely following those in the TJ, and with the TJ’s original Aramaic text having been destroyed in 1973, due to its great heresies for Judeo-Christianity, the TJ was at first dismissed as a literary hoax based upon the Gospel of Mathew. This left only the German translation available for analysis. However, according to Prof. Emeritus James Deardorff, an independent gospel scholar who has researched the TJ extensively, the translation gives its own spiritual message while it resolves over 300 inconsistencies that have long troubled New Testament scholars of Matthew. This occurs often and by unexpected means, without problematic breaks in its text, such as those which plague Matthew. Through redaction criticism Deardorff concludes that the probability of TJ being a hoax is effectively non-existent, and that the TJ is in fact the actual source upon which the Gospel of Matthew (not Mark) was dependent.

2008-09-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

Where was JESUS between the ages 12 to 30 years?
With malice towards one & all
Jesus, Mary, & Joseph traveled from Nazareth to Jerusalem to attend the Passover Festival. Thinking he was with some fellow travelers they returned back home, but since they could not find him, went back to Jerusalem, searched everywhere but could not find him. Three days later, they found him in the Temple courtyard. He was sitting among teachers, listening & asking them questions. Mary asked him, "Son why have you done this to us”? “Your father & I have been worried looking for you”. Jesus answered "How is that you sought me? Knew you not that I have to be about my Father's Business?
This happened at the age of 12. If Jesus could speak in such a commanding tone, how is that he disappears from the limelight for the next 18 years. I personally feel that he might have traveled to India, which was a land of mystics, where people could bury themselves in the ground for months, and even do such feats as walk on water.
Alexander The Great got to India in 327BC & took the sea route back to Alexandria. So clearly, there were contacts between India & Europe then. Even the doubting Thomas traveled to India.
There is also a Hollywood movie in the making named “THE MISSING YEARS OF JESUS CHRIST” which highlights Jesus Christ’s travel and adventures through INDIA.

2008-09-15T10:31:00.001-07:00

Virgin Birth

With malice towards one & all
The Christian idea of a virgin birth is derived from the verse in Isaiah prophecies, 7:14 describing an "alma" as giving birth. The word "alma" has always meant a ‘young girl’, but Christian theologians came centuries later and translated it as "virgin."

2008-09-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

Sex Abuse to Cost Church Rs. 2,670 Crores
With malice towards one & all
In the largest deal of its kind, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles agrees to compensate 500 victims of sex abuse for cases from 1940s.
One cannot imagine how much more all the other states of America have also been paid. Claims have also been made by other countries, which is not worth going into.
My Question is why these priests were not convicted by law, just as you and I would have been. Why has the church bribed its way out of this mess? Do they not stand for the truth & the law of the land?
Where are all our donations going?

2008-09-15T10:19:00.001-07:00

Faith Healing is no Cure: Docs
(Times News Network)
With malice towards one & all
Mumbai: Merlyn D’Souza, a musician, doesn’t count herself among Pastor Benny Hinn’s fans. “I came out of curiosity but I was inspired by what I saw around Me.”, she says. “The music created the right mood. Benny was a great orator & to see faith bringing many people together from all walks of life was extraordinary.”
It is easy to see how this combination of stirring music, commanding rhetoric & a collective ebullience helps energize people, in much the same way as a rock concert galvanizes its audience. But does healing actually happen?
Experts in the field of psychology say there is no proof whatsoever to show that illness can be cured by faith healing. Some say, however, that there is a psychological factor at work in illness, which is played on at such prayer gatherings.
“Call it the placebo effect” says psychiatrist Rajesh Parikh. “Studies have shown that even in the worst of illnesses, when people think they are taking medicines, there is a 40% chance that they will get better. This is why, in the US, all medicines have to show an efficacy percentage much higher than the 40% to be passed by the FDA”
Dr. Parikh cites a mid-‘70s’ U.S. study on faith healing, which shows that a constellation of six factors can have a similar effect. The recipe includes enormous arousal of hope & emotion, the provision of rationales for individual misfortune, examples of successful healing, highly susceptible humans & finally, simple faith. “All doctors know that if patients believe they will get better, they will,” says Dr Parikh.
How does this explain stories of lame people walking at these meetings? In some cases, says doctors, it may be temporary hypnotism. “In the 19^th century there were experiments with hypnosis, in which a patient would be told that he or she will be right, & the symptoms temporarily went away”, says psychoanalyst Shailesh Kapadia, adding however that this only works with psychosomatic illnesses. “As in the cases of what used to be called hysterical blindness.”
A study conducted by Jaslok & Nair hospitals revealed that 40% of patients were depressed or anxious. “In cases with a significant psychological factor, a gush of energy may certainly enable the person to get up & walk a few steps,” says psychiatrist Harish Shetty.
However, he says patients with a genuine physical or neurological problem can never be healed in this way. For this reason a paraplegic like Christopher Reeves is unlikely to be called upon at such meetings, adds another expert.
Both Dr Kapadia & Dr Shetty attribute the recent, disturbing rise in the number of faith-healers, religious TV channels & New Age cures to the general sense of anxiety & insecurity.

2008-09-15T07:39:00.000-07:00

Similarities in Religions
With malice towards one & all
Zoroaster's mother Dogdo too was virgin like Jesus’ mother Mary.
Zoroaster too had 12 disciples (10,000 years before Christ). Given below is the list of 12 disciples of Zoroaster and Jesus, respectively, for your information.

The first 12 Disciples of Zarathushtra

Maidyomaha (first disciple). Frashokar (Frashoshtra). Jamasp (vazir at Gustasp's court). Shah Gustasp (King of Bulkh). Queen Hutoxi. Dastoor Peshotan (the King's son). Zarir (brother of Gustasp). Aspandyar. Frayan (the first Turani). Changraghach (the first Brahmin). Beas (Vyas of Ramayan) of Hindu Desh. Tutiyanush (Titianus) a Greek philosopher.

The 12 Disciples or Apostles of Jesus Christ

Mark 3:16-19 [he appointed the twelve:] Simon, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Barthomomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean, Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

[Judas was later replaced by St. Matthias, by the remaining 11 Apostles]. These 12 were later canonized by the Church and became the first 12 Saints

Correspondences between events in Jesus' and Krishna's life:

Author Kersey Graves (1813-1883), a Quaker from Indiana, compared Yeshua's and Krishna's life. He found what he believed were 346 elements in common within Christiana and Hindu writings. ₁ That appears to be overwhelming evidence that incidents in Jesus' life were copied from Krishna's. However, many of Graves' points of similarity are a real stretch.

He did report some amazing coincidences:

	#6 & 45: Yeshua and Krishna were called both a God and the Son of God.
	7: Both was sent from heaven to earth in the form of a man.
	8 & 46: Both were called Savior, and the second person of the Trinity.
	13, 15, 16 & 23: His adoptive human father was a carpenter.
	18: A spirit or ghost was their actual father.
	21: Krishna and Jesus were of royal descent.
	27 & 28: Both were visited at birth by wise men and shepherds, guided by a star.
	30 to 34: Angels in both cases issued a warning that the local dictator planned to kill the baby and had issued a decree for his assassination. The parents fled. Mary and Joseph stayed in Muturea; Krishna's parents stayed in Mathura.
	41 & 42: Both Yeshua and Krishna withdrew to the wilderness as adults, and fasted.
	56: Both were identified as "the seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head."
	58: Jesus was called "the lion of the tribe of Judah." Krishna was called "the lion of the tribe of Saki."
	60: Both claimed: "I am the Resurrection."
	64: Both referred to themselves having existed before their birth on earth.
	66: Both were "without sin."
	72: Both were god-men: being considered both human and divine.
	76, 77, & 78: They were both considered omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.
	83, 84, & 85: Both performed many miracles, including the healing of disease. One of the first miracles that both performed was to make a leper whole. Each cured "all manner of diseases."
	86 & 87: Both cast out indwelling demons, and raised the dead.
	101: Both selected disciples to spread his teachings.
	109 to 112: Both were meek, and merciful. Both were criticized for associating with sinners.
	115: Both encountered a Gentile woman at a well.
	121 to 127: Both celebrated a last supper. Both forgave his enemies.
	128 to 131: Both descended into Hell, and were resurrected. Many people witnessed their ascensions into heaven. Among the recorded possible similarities between Christianity and Mithraism are the following: Virgin birth Twelve followers Killing and resurrection Miracles Birthdate on December 25 Morality Mankind's savior Known as the Light of the wor The pagan examples throughout human history: Deganawidah: “According to the legend, Dekanahwideh was born among the Huron Indians. His virgin mother had been informed in a dream by a messenger from the Creator that she was to bear a son destined to plant the Tree of Peace at Onondaga.” Dekanahwideh, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Montezuma (the Pueblo god-hero, not the Aztec Emperor): Supposedly conceived from a beautiful virgin when she either ate [1] a pinyon pine nut, or when it fell from a tree and landed on her belly[2], depending on the version. Cúchulainn: according to “The Birth of Cúchulainn” he was born three times: the second and third may have been virgin births (the narrative is unclear). Mithras: The Persian yazata Mithra is often cited as a virgin birth, but this is unclear. By the 3rd Century BC, Mithra’s myth had become attached to that of Anahita. The Seleucid temple at Kangavar in western Iran (c. 200 BC) is dedicated to “Anahita, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of the Lord Mithras.” But it should be noted that Anāhitā was considered eternally immaculate, no matter how many sexual encounters she might have. (Author’s note: We’ll approach this “eternally immaculate” concept in depth later on in the study). Romulus: Mythical founder of Rome, his father was Mars, his mother was a vestal virgin. Hailed as a “god, son of god” he was also prayed to for grace (Livy, History 1:3-4). Perseus: Mother was Danae (a human virgin) and Zeus. Horus: An Egyptian deity born to Isis, an “eternal virgin” on 25 December. Also possibly born in a cave or manger. Tammuz: Born to the virgin, Mylitta (a.k.a. Isthtar) on 25 December in a cave or manger. Dionysius: Greek deity born to the virgin, Semele and Zeus in a manger and then raised in a cave. Krishna: Devaki, the radiant Virgin of Hindu mythology, bore Krishna to the god Vishnu (second god of the Trimurthi [also called the Hindu Trinity]). Zarathustra (Zoroaster): Born to a 15-year old virgin. Minverva: Although a “daughter of Jupiter” was apparently conceived without intercourse with the god.

2008-09-15T07:27:00.001-07:00

Atrocity of the Church
With malice towards one & all
It was during the early 15^th century that Martin Luther was an active priest in the Roman Catholic Church, but looking at the greed & atrocity of the church, he felt an inner feeling of hatred & finally left the church & formed his own Protestant diocese. He was the one who translated the Bible into German language, & all this was done in hiding, because the Pope had given orders that he should be killed. One of the atrocities was the Church’s greed for money to build Churches, Basilicas, etc.
Churches were sent maps of Heaven, for parishioners to book their seats in advance. For the front row seats, exorbitant amounts of money were asked for, & if you could not afford that, you were given a back row seat.

2008-09-15T07:22:00.000-07:00

If the story of Christ is true, how do you explain that all of the basic components of the story already existed in many pagan religions long before the birth of Christ even the cross?
With malice towards one & all
Most people realize and agree that the dates of holidays like Xmas and Easter were based on previous pagan holidays, and that some symbolism like Xmas Trees and Easter Eggs also have pagan origins. But almost all of the basic tenets of Christianity also existed in pagan religions, like the virgin birth, god becoming man, baptism, communion, the resurrection. Even many miracles depicted in the New Testament were present in pagan traditions. Like the water to wine, the fishes and loaves, walking on water, healing the sick and giving sight to the blind, raising the dead.
So, is it just coincidence that all of this well known pagan dogma actually then came true with the birth of Christ? If not, how do you explain it?

2008-09-14T08:13:00.001-07:00

The Dynamics of Fear
(Extracts form OSHO)
With malice towards one & all
The Creation of Guilt

You have to look into your frightened heart. Why are you so much afraid? Who has done this poisoning to you? The schools, priests, church, and the politicians have frightened you. They live on your fear. They have exploited you because they have been able to frighten you.
The first basic thing to make a man afraid is to tell him what is wrong and never to do wrong; and make what is wrong something which is so natural that he will be tempted to do it. Now he is caught. Tell him that some natural thing, is a sin, and if he commits it he will be thrown in hell. Out of the fear of hell, he will start denying something natural in himself. In that very denial, hell is created: he becomes frightened. He is afraid of himself, he cannot trust himself. He knows that if he simply relaxes even for one day, he is going to commit the same thing that he has been told not to do.
If he does it he feels guilty; again he is in a trap. If he does not do it he feels miserable, because he is denying something natural which was a need for his well-being. Religious dogmas handed down to us by our parents, priests’ nuns’ gurus and politicians, who have been dominating humanity, have been in a deep conspiracy: make man afraid. Tell him that something in his nature is wrong, evil. Once you divide a person you can rule him. Divide and rule: that has been the secret up to now. Man is divided: man is split.

The Strategy of Reward and Punishment

You have been told that so many things are wrong in you that you feel condemned, and still those things cannot be dropped, just by thinking that they are wrong. At the most you can repress them – but in repressing them you become more and more guilty. You come to a state of self – condemnation; you start thinking that you are the worst sinner in the world. You have been told so many times that you will suffer in hell, and this thought has been impregnated, in your very roots from childhood. On the other hand, you have been told, that you will be rewarded in heaven, if you follow the dogmas, which are more than 2000 years old, by the church, priests, and to a certain extent the politicians.
This is the basic way animals are trained, if you want somebody’s behavior to be modified or changed, whatsoever you want him to do, reward him; and whenever he does not do it, punish him. That’s how dogs, elephants and other animals are trained in the circus – and that’s what they have been doing with man. They have made a mockery of humanity, and still we go on tolerating them. This has been the practice for thousands of years, before the psychologist appeared on the scene. Man’s psychology, has always been dominated by a kind of strategy, do this and you will go to heaven, and if you don’t, you will go to hell. These thought have been embedded into our subconscious mind at a very young age, by parents, priests, nuns, school, etc. and if necessary, by the use of physical punishment. You have been brought up in such a stupid way, called religious education that you will always live in an inner conflict. This inner conflict creates fear and greed in you, and then your fear and greed has to find some outlet. If you stop one outlet it will come from another outlet. Rather than stopping outlets, please understand the root cause of it.
Some religions say drinking alcohol is a sin, but in paradise or heaven rivers of alcohol will flow. Here, to look or be attracted to a beautiful woman is a sin, but instead heaven will provide you woman far more beautiful, with golden bodies, that do not perspire and eternally young and the absence of old woman. Your heaven and hells are just the imagination of repressed people.

No More Divisions

If you remain divided in yourself, if you remain split, if you can’t accept yourself as you are, if you remain dominated by others, you will remain afraid, and trembling. They want you to remain in trembling, because only a person who is in deep trembling can be dominated, can be possessed, and can be reduced to a thing, to a commodity.
The person who is in fear is ready to become a slave to anybody. The moment you drop all your fear and they can be dropped, because they have been artificially created. Fear is always there behind the corner: but when we turn to face it, it is only a shadow. It is non – substantial, and has been only imposed upon you; and is not part of your nature, and can be easily shaken off. The moment you shake off all your fears, for the first time you will start existing as a single unit and an individual without any fear, and in tune with totality.
Fear is just a shadow. Shadow of what? The personality, the mask that we wear all the time. Fear is definitely useful as a natural instinct to defend yourself against any physical attack. But this instinct is exploited by religion and society to dominate the multitude. As a result, fear grows out of proportion and overpowers you like a monster. The best medicine for fear is: encounter it. Look it in the eye and you will find that it was only a fog. It dissolves as consciousness dawns on the horizon. The rule of the game is: Do the things you fear.

Therapist say that the Three most common Fears are:
1) Going Crazy 2) Sexual Desires 3) The Fear of Dying

1) Going Crazy: The fear of going crazy is in everyone, for the simple reason: because their intelligence has not been allowed to develop. Intelligence is dangerous to the vested interest. So for thousands of years they have been cutting the very roots of intelligence. Man lives almost uprooted. He has to be made uprooted so that he can become dependant on society, religion, country, parents, on everybody. He himself has no roots. The moment he feels that he has no roots, he feels that he is going crazy, and insane. His whole personality is borrowed from some outer source – the university, the church, the state. He himself has nothing of his own.
Parents say if you do not follow us, if you disobey, you will be condemned. The Jewish god says in the Talmud, “I am a very jealous god, a very angry god. Remember that I am not nice, I am not your uncle.” And all religions have been doing it.
If you go off the way, which is followed by the mob, they will declare you crazy and some might even say that you are possessed by the devil. Everybody goes on clinging to the crowd, remaining part of a religion, a church, a party, a nation, a race. Man is afraid to be alone, and if he goes astray, all his friends, and those closely connected to him disappear. He’s is left alone and there is no body else on whom he can depend on. Unless he starts growing his own intelligence, training, and disciplining himself of being alone, and in tune with the universe, by meditation and self-realization, by realizing his own nature and living in peace within himself, can give him back his lost roots, his strength of being an individual. Every child is born fearless. He can play with dogs with no fear. He has no idea of fear or death or anything. Only meditation and self-realization, brings the person back to his childhood. He is reborn.

2) Sexual desires: All religions exist because they have turned man against his own energies. Sex is man’s whole energy, his life energy, but all religious teachings make man an enemy of himself.

The basic strategy is – because sex is the most powerful energy in you – sex should be condemned, guilt should be created, and this constant guilt, makes him insane, because his nature is sensuous, sexual, and his mind is full of garbage against it. He is helpless and split, because dropping fear means dropping the society, the religion, the profits, Jesus Christ and gods. The only way to get out of this rut is to become an individual – able to be alone without any fear and be able to decide what is right and wrong, and not let your conscience play havoc on your mind.
Man’s biology and mind, function in two separate ways; his biology will draw him towards sex and his mind will be standing there continuously condemning him. So he makes love, but in a hurry and never bothers about the woman’s feelings. His love is always entangled with fear and guilt and his love ends with frustration, anger, because he is not able to use his energy freely, in a totally relaxed way and become one with existence. Sex is a god given gift, for man and woman to relax every fiber of his mind, heart and body. It is also said that people who have a fulfilling sex life, live longer than others.
Woman are also the greatest losers, her body reacts to sex in a different way, she needs time to warm up, to give her the throbbing joy of a fulfilled sex experience. That’s why they have become so bitchy, continuously nagging and always ready to fight. There is no possibility of having a conversation with a woman. You are living with a woman for years, but there is not one single conversation, that you can recall when you both were sitting together talking about the great things of life. No. All that you will remember will be fighting, throwing things, being nasty, but the woman is not responsible for it. She’s being deprived of her whole possibility of blissfulness. Then she becomes negative.
This has given the priests their chance. All the churches and temples are filled up with woman, because they are the losers, more than man. In life there is no hope, because they are suffering, they want some consolation; they want some hope at least after death. The old priests are disappearing, losing their grip over people, and now the new generation of priests study psychology in their theological colleges. What has psychoanalyses got to do with Jesus Christ?

3) The Fear of Dying It looks like the biggest fear of man. It is not true. You don’t know death; how can you be afraid of it? If you do not live life totally, without fear, and a sensuous sex life, you are bound to have a miserable death, because of an unlived life. But for those who have lived a joyous and fulfilled life, the moment of death is of tremendous joy, which radiating from every pore of his being, makes death more glorious than even life has been. Do not be afraid of death otherwise it will haunt you every day of your life. Treat it as a reality which has to happen some day. If you have lived your life, death becomes the peak of it all. Death is the climax of life, the pinnacle, the crescendo. You have to live that too in its totality, and then one is ready to die. That very readiness is the death of death itself. Fear can only exist with something which is known. Who knows? – Death may be better than life, with new opportunities and new mysteries. Much of the fear of death can be destroyed, by the experience of being alone and having no fear.

Fear & Disease
How is it that, this fictitious phenomenon of fear appears in the body and the mind and influences them to the extent of creating a real disease? According to medical professionals, fear is accompanied by a series of physiological changes produced by the autonomic nervous system and adrenal glands, including increased heart rate, rapid breathing, tenseness or trembling of muscles, increased sweating, and dryness of the mouth.
The long term effects of fear are much worse than the original emotional experience. It can give birth to panic, anxiety, neurosis, phobia, obsession, traumas and a number of other psychological disorders. With good intentions, psychologists try to treat the symptoms with pills, drugs, injections, therapies which are all damaging to the patient. Actually they are treating something that does not exist. They only are nourishing the sickness. This is not the way to eradicate the deep rooted fear in man. What they are doing is pruning the leaves and watering the roots.

2008-09-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

Magic or Miracle?
With malice towards one & all
P.C. Sorcar Jr leaves you stunned - cycling on deep water. The feat has already been enacted for a private TV channel on a small scale, on a pond at his Baruipur studio, by the magician and his daughter Maneka. He would prefer walking on water, but has refrained from doing so because it will hurt the religious sentiments of his western audience.
Sorcar said that any type of bi-cycle would do for the trick and on any type of water body - be it lake, river or even sea, & is presently planning to perform this feat on the Red Sea.
He does more shows abroad than in India. He has been to Japan 21 times, to London 19 times and to USA 17 times. He has performed shows in Holland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Iraq, Egypt, Africa, Hong Kong, South Korea and Australia. The only countries he has not yet been to are China and Pakistan.
He says he followed and studied street magicians, snake charmers, great yogis and mahantas to understand the mechanics of the world unknown to him. He learnt the art of walking on fire, being buried alive and walking on water, from great yogis of India. In also involves understanding, what is human nature and then going beyond that. At the request of scientists, he demonstrated those miracles before them.

2008-09-14T08:02:00.000-07:00

Christianity is a religion of forcible conversion or face death.
With malice towards one & all
The practice of genocidal evangelism was widespread throughout Europe and it is no exaggeration to say that without this initial spurt of violence and savagery - which was justified by quoting selected Old Testament scripts which in turn quoted the Biblical God exhorting the Hebrews to kill his enemies - it is unlikely that Christianity would ever have displaced the original White Indo-European religions.
Certainly none of these original White religions ever contemplated converting non- believers upon pain of death, and were culturally and physically unprepared for the fanaticism engendered by a Middle Eastern religion such as Christianity. It is always worth bearing in mind that none of the original White religions - be they Odinism, or any of the Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek or Roman Gods - ever had a war fought in their names, or ever tried to convert adherents upon threat of death.

2008-09-14T07:57:00.000-07:00

A MATTER OF FAITH
(By Khushwant Sing)
With malice towards one and all
It depends on what you mean by religion. If it is prayers, most of which you do not understand but recite by rote, going to places of worship to be in the company of like- minded people, undertaking pilgrimages to places you regard holy, fasting on certain days, abstinence from sex, & abstinence from consuming some kind of food or drink, my answer would be an emphatic ‘no’ because these practices are of no consequence: Conforming to them does not make you a better human being. On the contrary, they prevent you from thinking for yourself.
Sigmund Freud, the famous psychologist, was right in holding, "When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal & wholesome life".
Galileo, the celebrated astronomer, said the same thing many centuries earlier. "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason & intellect has intended us to forget their use".
Abraham Lincoln put it succinctly: "When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my Religion." How true! If you have to justify your words or actions, be sure your feeling good is flawed.
In the final analysis, everyone should make up his or her own religion and not questionably conform to the one he or she was born into. Since we do not know where we came from, belief in god as our creator is optional. But there is no justification for calling Him just or merciful, because there is little evidence of justice or mercy in our world. In earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, he takes the lives of the good & the evil, believers & nonbelievers, old & young indiscriminately. All of which we describe as acts of God.
Why we are here is also an open question because we are not sure of the answer All we can do is to teach ourselves how to live in peace with ourselves and get the best out of the faculties endowed to us, without harming people among whom we live. This is not asking for too much and many people manage to live such lives.
What happens to us after we die should not be of much concern to us. There is no evidence whatsoever of believing in heaven, hell or re-incarnation. They are man-made fantasies to beguile ourselves.

2008-09-14T07:54:00.001-07:00

A God Beyond Words by Larissa Kaye Batten
With malice towards one and all
And on the eighth day, man created God. Who else but man would donate only a mere three letters of the alphabet to the power behind the universe?
For those who believe that God in fact is the be all-end all of life on earth, how many have stopped to wonder who invented God? More importantly, how is the human being, limited by the scope and language of his own tongue, so sure he gave God the right name?
Many would profess to say that God in fact is not the name they would use at all to depict their own conception of a higher being. Nature, the Great Spirit, Allah, Buddha, Goddess, Jesus Christ, no Christ, the earth, so many names has the human being given to his understanding of a higher power. Is it possible that the human being has attempted to give God a name to make God more understandable, reachable, merciful, and perhaps even human?
The amount of war, terror, crime, and destruction that has resulted from man's obsession with naming God is uncanny. How many have died at the hands of their own tongues?
Were man to have no language, and God to have no name, would swords and pistols fall to the ground? One might wonder if man has come to worship a word when once he sought to worship a higher power.
Three letters do not bear much weight in light of a God who is attributed with creating a world, saving its people, and providing a life everlasting. Three measly letters are even less than the number of letters given to a curse word. And yet man will swear by the letters, live by these letters, kill by these letters, and die at their side.
If man were to awake one day to find an absence of tongue, if man were to lose all methods of communication to his fellows, what then would he say to qualify his God? It is conceivable that all the different words man has developed to describe his understanding of a higher being are simply alternate ways of naming the same higher being, or at the very least a similar one.
If God truly is all that he is cracked up to be, why would man believe he has the power to put him into words? And if God gave man the power to name him, is it really possible he wanted no more than three letters to glorify his name?
Maybe it is time to find a God beyond words. Maybe it is time to admit that man is incapable of naming God, and that he is merely restricting his own concept of a higher power by trying to do so.
For all those who find it necessary to give God a three-letter name, why not think of God as a nickname. Perhaps it is time to let God take care of his own name. If he truly is all powerful, let "God" stick to what he does best. And when man desires to strike another man dead in the name of God, may he remember a God beyond words.
A power is a power is a power. May each man have the right to come to his own understanding of a higher power. May every man come to see how similar his conception really is to the next man's. And no matter what, may the world begin to see a God beyond words.

2008-09-14T07:52:00.001-07:00

Bible Keeps on Changing
With malice towards one & all
It is hard to understand that till today new versions of the Bible are being printed, with changes here and there for e.g. in the “New International Version” printed in 1983 it is mentioned, “So on the seventh day he rested from all his work”. In another version called the “Good News Bible” it is mentioned, “By the seventh day God finished what he had been doing and stopped working”. They have conveniently got rid of the doubtful word rested. God is supernatural and rest is out of question.
If you read Acts 10:34a, Peter gives testimony of Jesus “I now realize ------- then they put him to death by hanging him on a tree”. In the “Good News Bible” this has been altered to read “by nailing him on the cross”.
I have questioned many priests and they say that a tree stands for the cross. If that’s the case what about Judas, he also hung himself on a tree.
Why do they not change the “Red Sea” to the “Sea of Reeds”? This they cannot do because the fabricated story of the parting of the Red Sea is something they just cannot change.

2008-09-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

God created the world in 6 days, the 7 day he rested.

With malice towards one & all

God out of all beings requires rest, is he not a supernatural being. This only goes to show that the Bible has been written by some layman, and not a prophet, who has been inspired by God.

2008-09-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

Inconsistencies in the Bible with regards to the Resurrection
With malice towards one & all
Read each of the four Gospels' accounts of Jesus resurrection. Start with Mark, then read Luke and Matthew, then finally read John's version (this is the order that most historians agree the Gospels were written chronologically). Also, read Paul's account of Jesus resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, most likely written at the same time or even before the Gospel of Mark. What you'll see is that the story of Jesus resurrection changes each time, and gets more embellished each time as well. This is, to me, one of the most important inconsistencies in the entire Bible. An analysis of the language of the Gospels reveals that each story builds on the one before it, and yet embellishes it to reflect the changes in Christian doctrine during its first century of development. Each author of the Gospels (we don't know who they were, but none would have been eyewitnesses to Jesus based on the dates) had a particular agenda when writing their version, and many scholars who have studied the original Greek texts have proven this.

Extract from a Newspaper article written by VIR SANGHVI
Is Jesus Christ a God, a Legend or a Myth?
At most Indian airports, you'll find copies of Holger Jensen's book on Jesus's Kashmir years on sale. Jensen picks on the persistent Kashmir legend that a tomb of a holy man who is buried in the valley is actually the tomb of Jesus Christ.
According to this legend, Jesus did not die on the cross. He fainted and was taken away by his disciples. A couple of days later when he was better, they moved him to a safe location (this explains the missing body and the Resurrection) and then, he went off to Kashmir where he lived and preached for many years.
NOTE:-An Arab crucified in Damascus in 1247 took two days to die.

2008-09-14T05:42:00.001-07:00

Miracles of the BIBLE
(With malice towards one & all)
Throughout the Bible it is by Miracles that God makes himself known to his chosen people. Why then does the Bible not use the word Miracle, in describing these spectacular events? Are the miracles of the Bible merely stories or did they actually occur?
Why is Moses, perhaps the greatest worker of Miracles, punished by God for miraculously drawing water from a rock?

2008-09-14T05:39:00.001-07:00

Adam and Eve (Creation)
(With malice towards one & all)
I was just reading the first few pages, and was bewildered to read that Adam lived for 930 years and Eve 670 years. In India, in this present modern age, 60% of the people do not know their date of birth. Former Chief minister of Bihar, for 14 yrs. Mr. Laloo Prasad does not know his date of birth. Tell me honestly if you did not have a calendar would you know your birth date and age?
Did Adam invent the calendar, being the first man how did he know how many days makes a year?
If according to the records we can follow in the Bible, Creation took place some 6000 years ago. Then who created the Dinosaurs, who lived on our planet between 65 & 230 million years back?

2008-09-14T05:36:00.001-07:00

Why does the Roman Catholic Church flourishes today?
(With malice towards one & all)
The reason is that Christianity is based on brainwashing- or what they themselves would call faith. The brainwashing is particularly successful in mentally imprisoning the followers, because they are led to believe that questioning their religion means being damned to hell. Modern religions would never get away with such brainwashing.
It is also based on giving money: Money buys salvation. Money buys prayers. Money buys spiritual future for loved ones. People give the church billions of dollars, beyond the ten percent they earn.

2008-09-14T05:33:00.001-07:00

What is Inner Freedom?
(With malice towards one & all)
Man has no inner freedom, he is bound by this inner self, which has been forced down to him the day he is born - religion, dogmas, rituals, confession, mortal sin, heaven, hell, Sunday mass, etc. It's only when he is able to break away from all these shackles, that only put fear in his life, he can enter a new world, where he can think for himself, what is right & wrong, & not follow some historical past of 2000 yrs. I request you to be open minded take the good of every thing - Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, J. Krishnamurthy etc. and live your own life. This is my inner freedom.

2008-09-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

Suppression of Scientific Thoughts
(With malice towards one & all)
At the center of the Dark Ages stood the Christian Bible. All scientific thought which contradicted the Bible was suppressed. The Christian Bible states very clearly that the sun revolves around the earth. The result was that for centuries the important astronomical discovery that the sun was the center of the universe was deliberately suppressed by the church, with proponents of the non-Christian theory being persecuted for their endeavors.
Another famous suppression was with regards to the earth being round. The Bible talks very clearly of the four corners of the earth, therefore, the church argued, it must be square. This dogmatic belief was quietly dropped only when the voyages of discovery finally proved beyond doubt that the earth was round: despite this fact having been known by the non-Christian Classical Greeks since the time of Alexander.
Galileo who lived in the 16^th century was an Italian scientist & astronomer, proclaimed that the earth was round, and the earth orbits around the sun. He also said that there were millions of stars, because there was also a number given to the amount of stars in the heavens.
As soon as the Pope came to know about this, Galileo was summoned by the Pope for his blasphemous statements and was imprisoned, and was warned that if he did not withdraw his statement he would be executed. Galileo was a wise man, he told the jury that I am unable to prove the first two facts, but with regards to the third you can send your representatives to my house and they can observe through my telescope the number of stars in the night sky. The representatives were sent to his house but were too scared to look into the telescope, because to report the truth might also mean their own persecution.
By withdrawing his first two statements Galileo knew that the truth cannot be hidden, sooner or later the facts will be in the open for every body to see.

2008-09-14T05:22:00.000-07:00

Spartacus
(With malice towards one & all)

In the movie “Spartacus” we see that slaves under his leadership had revolted against the Roman Empire in 72 B.C. He along with 6,600 followers were captured and crucified along the Appian Way from Capua to Rome--the distance being 132 Roman miles (of 5,000 Roman feet) - every 100 Roman feet apart. Crassus never gave orders for the bodies to be taken down, so that they could be eaten alive by vultures. Travelers were forced to see the bodies for years, perhaps decades, after the final battle.

My Comments: This was the value of life during the time of Jesus. Crucifixion was an everyday affair. Why don’t we consider those poor slaves as God’s, they have also done a great deed, by fighting & dying for their freedom, something you & I would not have enjoyed if it hadn’t been for them. For all you know slavery would have still existed all over the world.

2008-09-14T05:17:00.001-07:00

Soloman (With malice towards one & all)

There is a full chapter dedicated to Solomon in the Bible. It is also mentioned that Solomon received from God the special gift of wisdom. We are also told that he loved luxury, and used to gather such exotica as gold, ivory, apes, peacocks, and silver. He also showed similar extravagance in his love life, by marring the daughter of the Egyptian pharaoh, later the princesses of Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and other nations. He had 700 wives in all, and 300 concubines. He even to please his wives he built alters to all there idol Gods.

My Observations: It is hard to imagine a man of God, who was special in the eyes of God, who was in constant touch with him, allow him to do all this. Why do the priest and nuns not follow his example, and marry, and why we lay men are not allowed to marry more than one wife.

2008-09-14T05:13:00.000-07:00

Roman Catholics are afraid of Death

With malice towards one & all

I have lived more than 50 years of my life as a Roman Catholic. I have found that all these years I have lived in fear, doubt, afraid of death, one trying to compete with the other to attend more masses, novenas, holy shrines, etc. It has become a rat race, never knowing when it will end.

There was a census done recently with regards to masturbation, 98% admitted to the same, and it concludes by saying that the balance 2% are telling lies. In the Roman Catholic Church it is considered a Mortal sin, but still a full chapter is written to honor King Solomon who had 700 wives. Just see the double standards.

I once asked a young Jesuit priest, let us say a marriage takes place and they plan their priorities, that they have to first save money to buy a house, and probably after 4 years they would consider having a child. What should they do, abstain from sex, or take some preventative measures. The priest tells me that the time I was training to become a priest I asked the same question to my superiors, and they even couldn’t give me a satisfactory answer. Moreover going to confession and confessing the same sins over and over again is also considered a sacrilege. I cannot understand how the church still insists on maintaining the same tradition that was prevailing 2000 years ago. The Roman Catholic Church is in a real mess, and we are being dragged into it.

I believe in living life a day at a time, forget repenting for all the sins of the past, or worry about the future, Heaven, Hell, etc. Live life in a way that you welcome death, and not fear it and make sure you die, with a smile on your face. If you have lived life to the full, when death comes you will have no regrets. Most Christians have the thought of death constantly haunting them. For me this is one of the worst stress religion offers. Forget, whatever has to happen will happen.

My understanding is that just like the clouds are formed by absorbing water from the lakes and sea, they then move towards land and the water condenses to form rain. This water flows through streams and rivers back to the sea and the same cycle repeats itself over and over again. That’s what life is, you die and you are reborn. It’s a natural cycle of events.

2008-09-14T05:08:00.000-07:00

Lazarus (With malice towards one & all)
Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, were friends of Jesus, and when Lazarus died after four days, Jesus "raised him up from his from the Dead".
If this is a true event, I am sure his sisters and friends must have asked him about his experience, during the four days he was dead. How is that the Bible makes no mention about it. Was he able to get a glimpse of Heaven or Hell?

2008-09-14T04:50:00.000-07:00

Faith Medicine Weston(Wisdon), March 28, 2008
(With malice towards one & all)

Diabetic girl, 11 years old, dies in US as parents pray instead of calling for medical aid.

2008-09-14T04:46:00.000-07:00

Conversion
(With malice towards one & all)
Throughout the ages people have been converted by the sword, by wars, authority, etc.
In India we have the Missionaries, who use foreign money to convert the poor & illiterate, by promising them food & other benefits, in the poorest of poor tribal areas & villages of India.
This has caused a lot of enmity and violence all over India, because Hindus are being converted to Christians.
If you want to help the poor, do social work, but not with the idea of converting.
Recently there were riots in Orissa State, where Christians were burnt alive, churches were burnt, and property destroyed.
If you want to convert, convert the educated, by visiting collages, give lectures, and prove to them that Christianity is the only true religion.

2008-09-14T04:37:00.001-07:00

Are Muslims true Christians
(With malice towards one & all)
It is the Muslims who practice Christianity in the way God originally wanted us to do. For a favor to be granted to Abraham he was told to sacrifice a goat and a ram.
God told Abraham that every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.
Till today Muslims undergo circumcision, sacrifice goats - rams, so are they the true Christians. Even Jesus was circumcised.

2008-09-14T04:20:00.000-07:00

Christians should follow the example of Abraham
(With malice towards one & all)
Sarah, Abraham’s wife could not conceive a child, so she says to Abraham: “The Lord has kept me from having a child. Go; sleep with my maid servant perhaps I can build a family through her”.
Abraham agrees and takes the Egyptian maid servant Hagar sleeps with her and she conceives.

2008-09-14T04:04:00.001-07:00

Hundreds throng church to see 'miracle' picture
(With malice towards one & all)
Serpentine queues were seen outside St Michael’s church, Mumbai, where blood has been seen on a portrait of Jesus Christ, after the last service in the Church on Friday night, 28 June 2008. The dark red patch around the heart on a painting of Jesus Christ has grown since it was discovered. People queued for up to six hours to spend just two seconds in front of the painting.
News of the ‘miracle’ spread fast and believers from Goa, Karnataka and Gujarat have made the pilgrimage to see the 3 by 4 foot painting. Several local schools gave children the day off to visit the church.
My Comments: Any person with a little common sense would understand that the heavy rains, have dampened the walls & moisture in the air, must have entered the frame, since the painting, was done by a local artist & had just been purchased. The church has also admitted the same.
Miracles can never take place in our present modern world of science. Perhaps if this event had to take place a few hundred years earlier, it would have definitely been proclaimed a miracle & millions of people would have converted to Christianity.

2008-09-14T03:47:00.000-07:00

Pak Canadian Dad Kills Daughter for not Wearing Hijab
(With malice towards one & all)

Toronto: A Pakistani Canadian has been formally charged with killing his 16- years old teenage daughter Aqsa Parvez, for not wearing the hijab. He reportedly strangled the girl in their home in Mississauga city. The victim’s classmate had said that Aqsa had problems with her family because she didn’t want to wear the hijab. On her father’s insistence, she would wear the hijab while leaving for school, only to replace it with trendy clothes at school. They recalled how she would at times run to the washroom to change into modern dress.

2008-09-14T03:39:00.000-07:00

200 Lashes for Gang Raped Victim
(With malice towards one & all)
A 19 years old girl was sitting with a friend who was not her relative, was raped 14 times by a gang of seven.
A judge in Saudi Arabia has ordered the victim of gang rape to receive 200 lashes. He also jailed her for six months.

2008-09-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Blind Faith?
Sai Baba opens one-eye? (With malice towards one & all)
Jul 18, 2008. Bangalore: It was blind belief, but people came with their eyes wide open, all for a glimpse of the one-eyed Sai Baba. A one-foot high idol of Sai Baba attracted a huge crowd as well as huge donations all through Friday, when word spread fast that Sai Baba had come to bless one and all by opening one eye on Guru Purnima, his birthday. The crowd thronged the house of A Babu, a trader who had bought the idol some seven months ago. "When we bought the idol, both eyes were closed. However, on Thursday, one eye opened. I thought at first that it was just dirt, but Baba has opened his eye to bless us," says he. Word of mouth was enough to draw the young and the old, the devout and the believers. Police had to be called in to control the huge rush. But miracle or not, the devotees ensured that they paid Baba back in currency for his blessings. People even took photos of the idol for keepsake and the sale of Sai Baba idols also shot up tremendously.
So the question is: Can you have life in a stone figure? Well, it is a thin line between faith and reality which got blurred enough to get the crowds to the home of A Babu, and as always blind faith is proving to be quite profitable to the owner of the Sai Baba idol.

2008-09-11T09:57:00.001-07:00

Reiki (With malice towards one & all)
Just place your hand on the person to be healed, with a strong intent for healing to occur. The energy from your hands flows & the patient experiences deep relaxation. The therapist may experience heat emanating from his palms during the treatment.
Renowned practitioners of Reiki include BUDDHA & JESUS.
Reiki does not seek to replace medicine; it merely helps the body to react quicker against a particular sickness & respond to any treatment. Most of us say ‘Get well soon’, ‘All the best’, ‘Happy Birthday’. These energies are feeble, but when combined with Reiki has a greater concentration & force.

2008-09-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

How commercialized can religion be
Ganesh idol in Mumbai insured for Rs. 26.5 million ($600,000). (With malice towards one & all)
The festival, marking the birth of elephant-headed Hindu God Ganesh, started Wednesday, 3/9/08.
Ganesh idols are worshipped for 10 days and on the 11th, the statues are taken through the streets in processions accompanied with dancing, singing and fanfare to be immersed in sea, symbolizing a ritual see-off of the God.