Mira Prabhu's Blog, page 55
March 18, 2016
10 Quotes of Woman.
“There is nothing more rare, nor more beautiful, than a woman being unapologetically herself; comfortable in her perfect imperfection. To me, that is the true essence of beauty.” Steve Maraboli
Thanks, Ronovan, for this wonderful post; in a world so prone to misogyny, it is good to know that so many greats admired the essence of a good woman.
“The sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love.” Jean de la Bruyere
“One is not born a woman, but becomes one.” Simone de Beauvoir
“If you cannot inspire a woman with love of you, fill her above the brim with love of herself; all that runs over will be yours.” Charles Caleb Colton
“A woman has to live her life, or live to repent not having lived it.” D.H. Lawrence
“When in a relationship, a real man doesn’t make his woman jealous of others, he makes others jealous of his woman.” Steve Maraboli,
“There is nothing more rare, nor more beautiful, than a woman being unapologetically herself; comfortable in her perfect imperfection. To me, that is the true essence of beauty.” Steve Maraboli
“After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live…
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March 15, 2016
Female faces in Western Art…500 years
500 years of beauty in art, captured in a video accompanied by music – what could be better???? Many thanks to: https://weextraordinarywomen.wordpress.com.
500 years of beauty in art, captured in a video accompanied by music.
WeW
March 12, 2016
Marital Rape and the Sacred Indian Marriage
Marital Rape…read Sanjukta’s intense post on the subject; it concludes: “The regressive social mind-set that used to set widows on fire along with husband’s pyre; the religious beliefs that women must worship their husband Gods without question; social customs that treated widows as inauspicious and shunned them away from celebrations – when did the government become the custodian of these awful regressive sexist values?”
The answer given by Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi in Rajya Sabha yesterday on the question whether government has plans to criminalize marital rape, is a word to word copy of the answer given by Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary in Rajya Sabha in April 2015.
Thus this is the second time the central government has clarified its position on criminalisation of marital rape using the exact same words:
“It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to various factors like level of education/illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament etc.”
Since it is the official position of the government and not a passing remark by a minister or MP it becomes important to understand what is…
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March 11, 2016
SERYNA, Japanese Restaurant
Someone close to me has been suffering greatly; one morning, post-meditation, I thought of her again, and memories of a distant time when I too had been just as sad came back to me in a rush.
At the time, I lived in Manhattan, and was married to a man who was gradually morphing into a materialistic stranger. One evening I walked alone to Central Park to find relief from my constant thoughts of worry and confusion about the future. It was fall and the Park was absolutely wondrous, alive with color and beauty. I walked down a long inner path and began to weep soundlessly because, despite the surrounding beauty, inside I was a mass of feverish suffering.
I looked up at the darkening sky and cried out for help—and oddly enough, the face of a woman I’d recently met at a spiritual meeting flashed across my mind. A gray-haired Jewish woman of Russian ancestry who had grown up in a family of atheists, Miriam had never believed in God. So, when the hard times came, as they come to us all, she had nothing to fall back upon. She began drinking heavily and her life slipped down the tubes. One day her suffering got so intense she tried to kill herself. But her suicide attempt didn’t work, and she kept on living in utter misery—until a friend coaxed her to join Alcoholics Anonymous.
In the rooms, Miriam began to hear people speaking of their Higher Power. But no matter how hard she tried, she still could not believe in God, which to her was a word loaded with negative meaning; but a power higher than herself? Yes, that she could believe in. She mused about what she would call her own personal higher power and came up with the name “Harry”.
Miriam began to talk to her invisible higher power all the time. She told Harry every detail of her seemingly insurmountable problems, of her trials and her tribulations, of her searing loneliness and alienation, and begged him to help her find the peace and clarity she craved. Soon, just the idea that some power was close to her at all times, watching over her with indulgent affection, began to make her feel better. She got herself a good job and began to make new and sober friends who supported her journey back into herself—and she never let go of Harry.
Playing Miriam’s story back in my own head as I continued to walk through Central Park, I realized that I too had lost my connection with God. The old God I had learned about—the old man in the sky who looked down on us miserable creatures and made arbitrary decisions on rewards and punishments et cetera—had never worked for me. So, like Miriam, I too decided to personalize this being. I decided to name her after a quality that would make me happy above all else. Since I had already mingled with rich, famous and beautiful people in the course of my interesting life, and rarely seen them at peace, I decided that if I could have one thing, it would be the gift of serenity. Why? Because when one is serene, nothing else matters. As I headed for home, I decided to christen my personal higher power “Seryna”.
Months passed but my misery did not abate and I forgot all about that evening in the Park. One evening I was walking across Manhattan after work; I felt hopeless, unable to see a way out of my misery. It was misty and my eyes blurred with tears. As I turned down an Avenue, I bumped into a sign. I stopped and read it: “Seryna, Japanese Restaurant” it said—and I begin to laugh so hard that folks turned to see this crazy Indian girl going hysterical in the rain.
Seryna hovered around me until I outgrew her. By this time I had begun to delve seriously into eastern philosophy, and my old notions of God began to shift into the gnosis that God is nothing less than existence, consciousness and bliss (sat-chit-ananda). Through my practice of hatha yoga and meditation, by reading a thousand books on wisdom traditions and mulling over and digesting their insights until they became a part of my view, my insides began to transform. I also found a guru who blew my mind with the meticulous way he imparted to me the Mahayana Buddhist teachings, and fell in love with the true meaning of Tantra, which for me meant the transmutation of darkness into light, and not the easy sex and licentiousness that many in both East and West believe it to be.
Today, after going through several major pathways and finding them enriching but not fully satisfactory, I have returned to my old love for Advaita, the simple but profound teaching that we are One. My guru is Ramana Maharshi, who taught in simple ways his Direct Path or Atma-Vichara (Self-Investigation). Who is this Self he speaks of? The Self is the One, God to some, pure consciousness to others. Ramana’s Direct Path appears to be easy on the surface of things, but I have found it to be a subtle and elusive teaching. Only an unwavering commitment to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow can break the puzzle of our suffering and lead us within, to the infinite reservoir of peace and bliss that is our birthright.
Greetings from Arunachala, Shiva in the form of a mountain, who vows to destroy our clinging to that false sense of self that causes all our suffering, so that we can know ourselves to be nothing less than the blazing light of the cosmos.
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March 4, 2016
Investigating Agatha Christie
As a teenager I loved Agatha Christie’s books…today hundreds of great crime fiction writers flood the market, but then, as I recall, perhaps because I had little access to world literature/writing, she was the One. Read Carol Balawyder’s great post about the woman who wrote and wrote and wrote at a time when few women were doing what she did…by following her heart, she fascinated millions of readers all over the world.
About a month ago I went to Investigating Agatha Christie – an exhibition on the life and work of one of the greatest 20th-century novelists. If that was not enough to get me to Old Montreal – a charming area of the city with its European flavour – the fact that it was being held at The Montreal Archaeology and History Museum got my curiosity along with my feet walking the cobble stoned street of the Old Port. Here’s what I discovered:
I. With her husband, Max Mallowan, a prominent archaeologist, Christie spent plenty of time travelling with him and his team actively taking part on excavation sites in Syria, Iran and Egypt. Her day job was to photograph and film the artifacts that were being dug up. In the evenings she wrote and drew on her experiences in the Middle East for novels such as Murder in Mesopotamia and They Came to…
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20 Reasons Why Donald Trump Should Never Be President
Robert (101 Posts) says: “I’ll apologize ahead of time for the political nature of this post. But I had to write it. I’m currently watching the nation I love inch closer and closer to electing a womanizing, unabashed racist, vile excuse for a human being as president. And I’m embarrassed.” Me too, embarrassed I mean, and scared not just for America but for our planet, which is why I, who do not care generally about politics and suchlike, share about the nightmare that hangs over our heads if DT actually wins…read the rest of Robert’s post, please!
One astute blog commenter once said that this blog was “the death of art and meaning.” I kind of took that as a compliment. Do you understand the type of power I have to construct a book blog that can single-handedly destroy art?
That brings me to today’s post. As I write this today, one man is attempting to accomplish a feat that only this blog has been accused of. Yet, this man, if he is elected as president, will literally kill all forms of art and meaning. This man…he’s like a powerful Dyson vacuum that sucks up every morsel of art and every particle of meaning tangled in what was once a beautiful Persian-style rug–mainly, because this man probably hates Persians.
So, hey! Did you know Donald Trump is running for president of the United States?
Did you know Donald Trump has written a book?
Did you know, in fact, that Donald…
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March 3, 2016
IT’S SAVING THE AMERICAN DREAM, STUPID!
I don’t generally choose to share on politics, but I feel that given that we are embodied beings subject to all sorts of external influences, it is important to apply a little focus at least to what is happening around the world and that which will inevitably impact us. So here is Robert Sheppard’s brilliant post on the hidden motivator of all that is happening today on the American political front. : The Urgent Threat of the Death of the American Dream Through the Collapse of the American Middle Class…read on!
Robert Sheppard Literary Blog & World Literature Forum
The Death of the American Dream?
From the American Scene Series—A Continuing Commentary on American Life & Culture
Robert Sheppard, Editor-in-Chief, World Literature Forum
By Robert Sheppard
Editor-in-Chief, World Literature Forum
Author, Spiritus Mundi, Novel
http://www.amazon.com/Spiritus-Mundi-Book-The-Novel-ebook/dp/B00CIGJFGO
A Dream On Fire
Today, the wake of “SuperTuesday” reminds us again in these United States that we are in the midst of an undeniably unique and extraordinary election year. On both the Republican and Democratic side the “Establishment” politicians seem to be facing a Tsunami tidal wave uprising variously characterized as “outsiders,” “Tea-Party Insurgents,” “Progressives” or “Populists” as represented by the likes of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz on the Republican right wing and Bernie Sanders, a self-described “democratic socialist” on the Democratic left-wing. At the same time, whatever the underlying “movement” propelling each of the candidates, much of their message and embodied energy seems lost and obfuscated most recently in scandal, new…
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February 29, 2016
Warrior Women of Ireland
“Irish mythology is riddled with powerful women, yet they are quite an enigma. On the one hand, we have feisty Queens like Medb, fearsome Goddesses like the Morrigan, gifted healers like Airmid, female smiths like Brigid, respected Druidesses like Bodhmall, and knowledgeable lawgivers like Brigid Brethach. On the other, we have the helpless heroines such as Etain, Deirdre, and Grainne, who seemingly did little but lure men with their beauty into tragedy and catastrophe.” Ali Isaac post fascinates me because I love warrior women (and, come to think of it, men! And children too!) Read on for more intriguing information…thank you Ali Isaac, and Chris Graham, for sharing!
Warrior Women of Ireland
http://www.aliisaacstoryteller.com
Irish mythology is riddled with powerful women, yet they are quite an enigma. On the one hand, we have feisty Queens like Medb, fearsome Goddesses like the Morrigan, gifted healers like Airmid, female smiths like Brigid, respected Druidesses like Bodhmall, and knowledgeable lawgivers like Brigid Brethach. On the other, we have the helpless heroines such as Etain, Deirdre, and Grainne, who seemingly did little but lure men with their beauty into tragedy and catastrophe.
We already know from the Brehon Laws that in ancient Ireland, women enjoyed far greater freedoms than those elsewhere. A woman could enjoy equal status with her husband in marriage; she had the right to divorce him if he did not fulfil his marital obligations, and if so, she was entitled to take with her all her own possessions and half of their joint property, plus a portion for damages. Women were also…
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February 28, 2016
Monday Funnies…
Some Aunty Acid madness to spark up your Monday…love her chutzpah!!! Thank you Chris Graham!
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog
February 24, 2016
The One Harper Lee Quote I’ll Never Forget
“To Kill A Mockingbird”…I read it ages ago, but can still recall how powerfully the story impacted me. Such vividly drawn characters! As Robert says here: “Atticus Finch hated guns and had never been to any wars. But, most importantly, he stayed true to his beliefs, even under intense opposition from a band of racist townfolk and tyrants. In the literary world, the man is legend.
Be brave like Atticus.” Yes, be brave!!! Now read on…
As I’m sure you all know by now, Harper Lee passed away on February 19. She was 89.
I’ve always been a huge Harper Lee fan, and To Kill A Mockingbird still stands as my second favorite book to this point on the Time list. The book is genius.
After finding out about her death, I was reading through some quotes from the novel. It’s incredible how many memorable lines fill the pages of TKAM. So, so many great quotes.
But one, more than any other, stood out to me. It’s this:
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