The earth belongs to no one

"You are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to no one."-Jean Jacques Rousseau

Wikipedia

Sunday, October 29, 2006 Exploring Wikipedia Many visitors come to this site to acquire knowledge, others to share knowledge. In fact, at this very instant, dozens of articles are being improved. You can view the changes at the Recent changes page. New articles are also being recorded. Many different kinds of people help to write Wikipedia articles.Wikipedia also has many ongoing projects. The hope of any contributor is to provide useful and accurate information to others, and the projects help coordinate efforts. Most articles start as stubs, but after many contributions, they can become featured articles.If you can't find what you are looking for, see Where to ask questions for a list of departments where our volunteers answer questions, any question you can possibly imagine.Once you've determined that there is no article on Wikipedia on a topic you are interested in, you may want to request the article be written (or you could even research the issue and write it yourself).You can also view random articles.You might also enjoy reading Wikipedia in other languages. Wikipedia has more than two hundred different languages (see other language versions), including a Simple English version, and related projects include a dictionary, quotations, books, manuals and scientific reference sources, and a news service (see sister projects). All of these are maintained, updated and managed by separate communities, and often include thought-provoking information and articles which can be hard to find through other common sources.Basic navigation in WikipediaWikipedia articles are all linked, or cross-referenced. Wherever you see highlighted text like this, it means there is a link to some relevant article or Wikipedia page with further in-depth information elsewhere if you need it. Holding your mouse over the link will often show you where a link will take you. You are always one click away from more information on any point that has a link attached.There are other links towards the ends of most articles, for other articles of interest, relevant external web sites and pages, reference material, and organized categories of knowledge which you can search and traverse in a loose hierarchy for more information.Some articles may also have links to dictionary definitions, audio-book readings, quotations, or the same article in other languages.You can add further links if a relevant link is missing, and this is one way to contribute.Using Wikipedia as a research toolAs a wiki, articles are never complete. They are continually edited and improved over time, and in general this results in an upward trend of quality, and a growing consensus over a fair and balanced representation of information.Users should be aware that not all articles are of encyclopedic quality from the start. Indeed, many articles commence their lives as partisan, and it is after a long process of discussion, debate and argument, that they gradually take on a consensus form. Others may for a while become caught up in a heavily unbalanced viewpoint which can take some time - months perhaps - to extricate themselves and regain a better balanced consensus.In part, this is because Wikipedia operates an internal resolution process when editors cannot agree on content and approach, and such issues take time to come to the attention of more experienced editors.The ideal Wikipedia article is balanced, neutral and encyclopedic, containing notable verifiable knowledge. An increasing number of articles reach this standard over time, and many already have. However this is a process and can take months or years to be achieved, as each user adds their contribution in turn. Some articles contain statements and claims which have not yet been fully cited. Others will later have entire new sections added. Some information will be considered by later contributors to be insufficiently founded, and may be removed or expounded.While the overall trend is generally upward, it is important to use Wikipedia carefully if it is intended to be used as a research source, since individual articles will, by their nature, vary in standard and maturity. There are guidelines and information pages designed to help users and researchers do this effectively, and an article that summarizes third party studies and assessments of the reliability of Wikipedia.Who writes Wikipedia?Unlike with other encyclopedias, the volunteer authors of Wikipedia articles don't have to be experts or scholars, although some certainly are. They can be anyone, including you! Volunteers do not need any formal training before creating a new article or editing an existing article. Many people have created or edited articles in Wikipedia. They come from countries all around the world, from all ages and backgrounds. Anyone who contributes to this encyclopedia is called a "Wikipedian" or "Wiki." It is Wikipedia policy to add to the encyclopedia only statements that are verifiable, and not to add original research. The Wikipedia style guide encourages editors to cite sources. Sometimes Wikipedians do not follow these policies because they forget or because they are not aware of the policy. Then readers of the article cannot be sure that a statement is verifiable.When a number of people are working to compile information on a given topic, disputes will inevitably arise from time to time. A useful feature of Wikipedia is the ability to tag an article or a section of an article as being the subject of a dispute about a neutral point of view. This feature is especially popular for controversial topics, topics subject to changing current events or other topics where divergent opinions are possible. To resolve the dispute, the interested editors will share their points of view on the article's talk page. They will attempt to reach consensus about how to edit so that both their perspectives are fairly represented. This allows Wikipedia to be a place not only of information but of collaboration.Many users of Wikipedia consult the page history of an article in order to assess the number of people who have contributed to the article. An article can be considered more likely to be accurate when it has been edited by many different people (since most edits are constructive changes rather than destructive ones). You may also consult the talk page of any article to see what other readers and editors have to say about it.One list of articles that has been edited by many people is the list of featured articles. These articles are considered to be of high quality when they are granted featured article status, and if later edits reduce the quality of the page a user can nominate an article for removal from that special status.How Wikipedians improve articlesWhenever a reader finds something in an article that he or she doesn't think should be there, that person can edit the article and help make Wikipedia more accurate and useful. Someone may place a notice at the top of the article indicating that it needs to be cleaned up. It is also possible to create a new article to share information that is not already in Wikipedia.When they first hear about Wikipedia, many people think that articles are created by people adding a few words at a time. Many edits are very minor and just fix spelling, rephrase a sentence or add a fact or two. But some editors who are interested in a particular subject contribute paragraphs or whole articles at a time; these editors might be professors, hobbyists or just someone wanting to fill a hole in the encyclopedia.Assembling text piece by piece doesn't necessarily take into account the bigger picture, so sometimes an editor will reorganize an article or rewrite it, keeping the same facts but making them flow more smoothly. Material also sometimes needs to be moved into other articles for any of these reasons: if it's been put in the wrong place, if one article has become too big and needs to be split up, if two articles on the same subject have accidentally been created or if there are many small articles that need to be combined into one larger one. Profanity is usually removed immediately.Who keeps order?Most Wikipedia editors discuss article content in a friendly way or gingerly improve each other's work. Most mistakes or bad edits are corrected by someone who notices them and changes them back or cleans them up. Publicly available tools like the recent changes page and personal watchlists help editors find bad edits without having to continually check all the pages on the site.Some problems are more serious, including vandalism (blatant stupidity, jokes that aren't funny, placing pornography in articles, deliberate defacement or falsification), disputes which result in edit wars (where editors change an article back and forth and fight instead of being discussed), and disruptive behavior. To deal with these cases, several hundred Wikipedia administrators have the power to protect (lock) articles, and to block individual editors. These administrators are elected by the community to enforce the site's policies and guidelines.The administrator power is granted by a small number of bureaucrats and stewards, who in turn have been granted their power by developers - the volunteers (and two paid employees) who have physical or online access to the servers that power the site. The hardware that runs the site is owned by the Wikimedia Foundation, a charitable organization financed by your donations. The Board of Trustees and the site founder Jimmy Wales oversee all the projects of the foundation, which is not limited to the encyclopedias. They have largely delegated authority for arbitrating day-to-day disputes on the English Wikipedia to our local Arbitration Committee, a collection of appointed and elected volunteers who act like judges in a court. (You might think of the community of administrators as the local volunteer police force - they have special but limited powers, and their actions are subject to review by the court and by each other.)How to edit a page?Editing most Wikipedia pages is not very difficult. Simply click on the "edit this page" tab at the top of a Wikipedia page (or on a section-edit link). This will bring you to a new page with a text box containing the editable text of the original page. If you just want to experiment, please do so in the sandbox; You should write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box. You may use shorthand to describe your changes, as described in the legend, and when you have finished, press the Show preview button to see how your changes will look. You can also see the difference between the page with your edits and the previous version of the page by pressing the "Show changes" button. If you're satisfied with what you see, be bold and press the Save page button. Your changes will immediately be visible to other Wikipedia users.You can also click on the "Discussion" tab to see the corresponding talk page, which contains comments about the page from other Wikipedia users. Click on the "+" tab to add a new section, or edit the page in the same way as an article page.You should remember to sign your messages on talk pages and some special-purpose project pages, but you should not sign edits you make to regular articles. In page histories, the MediaWiki software keeps track of which user makes each change.Minor editsWhen editing an article page on this site, a logged-in user can mark that edit as being "minor". Minor edits generally mean spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearrangement of text. It is possible to "hide" minor edits when viewing the recent changes. Marking a significant change as a minor edit is considered bad behavior, especially when it involves the deletion of some text (not counting errors such as repeated words). If you accidentally mark an edit as minor, you should edit the source once more, mark it major (or, rather, ensure that the check-box for "This is a minor edit" is not checked), and note that your previous edit was major in the new edit summary.Major editsAll editors are encouraged to be bold, but there are several things that a user can do to ensure that major edits are performed smoothly. Before engaging in a major edit, consider discussing proposed changes on the article discussion/talk page. During the edit, if doing so over an extended period of time, the {{inuse}} tag can reduce the likelihood of an edit conflict. Once the edit has been completed, the inclusion of an edit summary will assist in documenting the changes. These steps will all help to ensure that major edits are well received by the Wikipedia community. posted by Information 10:19 AM 0 comments Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based free content encyclopedia project. The name Wikipedia is a blend of the words wiki and encyclopedia. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing most articles to be changed by almost anyone with access to the website.A wiki is a type of website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove and otherwise edit and change some available content, sometimes without the need for registration. An encyclopedia comprehensive reference work containing articles on a wide range of subjects or on numerous aspects of a particular field, usually arranged alphabetically.Wikipedia was launched as an English language project on January 15, 2001 as a complement to the expert-written and now defunct Nupedia, and is now operated by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. It was created by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales; Sanger resigned from both Nupedia and Wikipedia on March 1, 2002. Wales has described Wikipedia as "an effort to create and distribute a multilingual free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language."Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is the founder and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit corporation that operates the Wikipedia project, and several other wiki projects, including Wiktionary and Wikinews. He is also founder of the for-profit company Wikia, Inc.The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is the parent organization of the Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks (including Wikijunior), Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons, Wikispecies, Wikinews, Wikiversity, and Meta-Wiki collaborative projects. It is a not-for-profit corporation based in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida. Its existence was officially announced by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, who was hitherto running Wikipedia within his company Bomis, on June 20, 2003. Its approval by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, by letter in April 2005, as an educational foundation in the category "Adult, Continuing Education" means all contributions to the Wikimedia Foundation are tax deductible for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Currently Wikipedia has more than 5 million articles in many languages, including more than 1.4 million in the English-language version. That number excludes redirects, discussion pages, image description pages, user profile pages, templates, help pages, portals, articles without links to other articles, and pages about Wikipedia. Including these, we have 6,166,784 pages. Users have made 86,876,932 edits, an average of 14.09 per page, since July 2002. There are 250 language editions of Wikipedia, and 17 of them have more than 50,000 articles each.English (1,452,014)German (485,896)French (382,582)Polish (308,402)Japanese (277,257)Dutch (235 513)Italian (208,517)Portuguese (191,033)Swedish (189,542)Spanish (164,118)Russian (110,066) posted by Information 10:14 AM 0 comments

The Romantic Period

In a letter to Byron in 1816, Percy Shelley declared that the French Revolution was "the master theme of the epoch in which we live" — a judgment with which many of Shelley's contemporaries concurred. As one of this period's topics, "The French Revolution: Apocalyptic Expectations," demonstrates, intellectuals of the age were obsessed with the concept of violent and inclusive change in the human condition, and the writings of those we now consider the major Romantic poets cannot be understood, historically, without an awareness of the extent to which their distinctive concepts, plots, forms, and imagery were shaped first by the promise, then by the tragedy, of the great events in neighboring France. And for the young poets in the early years of 1789–93, the enthusiasm for the Revolution had the impetus and high excitement of a religious awakening, because they interpreted the events in France in accordance with the apocalyptic prophecies in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures; that is, they viewed these events as fulfilling the promise, guaranteed by an infallible text, that a short period of retributive and cleansing violence would usher in an age of universal peace and blessedness that would be the equivalent of a restored Paradise. Even after what they considered to be the failure of the revolutionary promise, these poets did not surrender their hope for a radical reformation of humankind and its social and political world; instead, they transferred the basis of that hope from violent political revolution to a quiet but drastic revolution in the moral and imaginative nature of the human race. "The Gothic," another topic for this period, is also a prominent and distinctive element in the writings of the Romantic Age. The mode had originated in novels of the mid-eighteenth century that, in radical opposition to the Enlightenment ideals of order, decorum, and rational control, had opened to literary exploration the realm of nightmarish terror, violence, aberrant psychological states, and sexual rapacity. In the first Gothic novel, Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764), the ominous hero-villain had embodied aspects of Satan, the fallen archangel in Milton's Paradise Lost. This satanic strain was developed by later writers and achieved its apotheosis in the creation of a new and important cultural phenomenon, the compulsive, grandiose, heaven-and-hell-defying Byronic hero. In many of its literary products, the Gothic mode manifested the standard setting and events, creaky contrivances, and genteel aim of provoking no more than a pleasurable shudder — a convention Jane Austen satirized in Northanger Abbey. Literary Gothicism also, however, produced enduring classics that featured such demonic, driven, and imaginatively compelling protagonists as Byron's Manfred (NAEL 8, 2.636–68), Frankenstein's Creature in Mary Shelley's novel, Heathcliff in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, and, in America, Captain Ahab in Melville's Moby-Dick. The topic "Tintern Abbey, Tourism, and Romantic Landscape" represents a very different mode, but one that is equally prominent in the remarkably diverse spectrum of Romantic literature. Tintern Abbey, written in 1798, is Wordsworth's initial attempt, in the short compass of a lyric poem, at a form he later expanded into the epic-length narrative of The Prelude. That is, it is a poem on the growth of the poet's mind, told primarily in terms of an evolving encounter between subject and object, mind and nature, which turns on an anguished spiritual crisis (identified in The Prelude as occasioned by the failure of the French Revolution) and culminates in the achievement of an integral and assured maturity (specified in The Prelude as the recognition by Wordsworth of his vocation as a poet for his crisis-ridden era). In this aspect, Tintern Abbey can be considered the succinct precursor, in English literature, of the genre known by the German term Bildungsgeschichte — the development of an individual from infancy through psychological stresses and breaks to a coherent maturity. This genre came to include such major achievements as Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh in verse (NAEL 8, 2.1092–1106) and James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in prose. However innovative, in historical retrospect, the content and organization of Tintern Abbey may be, a contemporary reader would have approached it as simply one of a great number of descriptive poems that, in the 1790s, undertook to record a tour of picturesque scenes and ruins. There is good evidence, in fact, that, on the walking tour of the Wye valley during which Wordsworth composed Tintern Abbey, the poet and his sister carried with them William Gilpin's best-selling tour guide, Observations on the River Wye . . . Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty. As Gilpin and other travelers point out, the ruined abbey, however picturesque, served as a habitat for beggars and the wretchedly poor; also the Wye, in the tidal portion downstream from the abbey, had noisy and smoky iron-smelting furnaces along its banks, while in some places the water was oozy and discolored. These facts, together with the observation that Wordsworth dated his poem July 13, 1798, one day before the anniversary of the Fall of the Bastille, have generated vigorous controversy about Tintern Abbey. Some critics read it as a great and moving meditation on the human condition and its inescapable experience of aging, loss, and suffering. (Keats read it this way — as a wrestling with "the Burden of the Mystery," an attempt to develop a rationale for the fact that "the World is full of Misery and Heartbreak, Pain, Sickness and oppression"; see NAEL 8, 2.945–47.) Others, however, contend that in the poem, Wordsworth suppresses any reference to his earlier enthusiasm for the French Revolution, and also that — by locating his vantage point in the pristine upper reaches of the Wye and out of sight of the abbey — he avoids acknowledging the spoliation of the environment by industry, and evades a concern with the social realities of unemployment, homelessness, and destitution. "The Satanic and Byronic Hero," another topic for this period, considers a cast of characters whose titanic ambition and outcast state made them important to the Romantic Age's thinking about individualism, revolution, the relationship of the author—the author of genius especially—to society, and the relationship of poetical power to political power. The fallen archangel Satan, as depicted in Milton's Paradise Lost; Napoleon Bonaparte, self-anointed Emperor of the French, Europe's "greatest man" or perhaps, as Coleridge insisted, "the greatest proficient in human destruction that has ever lived"; Lord Byron, or at least Lord Byron in the disguised form in which he presented himself in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Manfred, and his Orientalist romances; these figures were consistently grouped together in the public imagination of the Romantic Age. Prompted by radical changes in their systems of political authority and by their experience of a long, drawn-out war in which many of the victories felt like pyrrhic ones, British people during this period felt compelled to rethink the nature of heroism. One way that they pursued this project was to ponder the powers of fascination exerted by these figures whose self-assertion and love of power could appear both demonic and heroic, and who managed both to incite beholders' hatred and horror and to prompt their intense identifications. In the representations surveyed by this topic the ground is laid, as well, for the satanic strain of nineteenth-century literature and so for some of literary history's most compelling protagonists, from Mary Shelley's creature in Frankenstein to Emily Brontë's Heathcliff, to Herman Melville's Captain Ahab. © 2003 - 2006 W.W. Norton and Company : Site Feedback : Credits : Home : Top of page

Herbert W. Armstrong

Background Herbert Armstrong was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on July 31, 1892, into a Quaker family. He regularly attended the services and the Sunday school of First Friends Church in Des Moines. He attended North High School, but never graduated. At age 18, on the advice of an uncle, he decided to take a job in the want-ad department of a Des Moines newspaper, the Daily Capital. His eventual career in the print advertising industry had a strong impact on his future ministry and would shape his communication style. He later met Loma Dillon, a schoolteacher and distant cousin from nearby Motor, Iowa. They were married on his 25th birthday, July 31, 1917 and they lived in Chicago, Illinois. In May 9, 1918, their first child, Beverly Lucile Armstrong, was born. Due to the flu epidemic, they moved back to Des Moines. Their second child, Dorothy Jane Armstrong, was born on July 7, 1920. By this time Armstrong’s parents had moved to Oregon. In 1924, after a few business setbacks, Armstrong and family moved to join his parents. He reengaged in his passion for the advertising business, although he continued to suffer setbacks. At some point in his life, Herbert Armstrong started to use the middle initial W., even though he had no middle name. [1] [edit] Beginnings of Armstrong's ministry His wife, Loma, became influenced by Ora Runcorn, a member of the Church of God (Seventh Day). This small Sabbatarian church was an offshoot of the larger Seventh-day Adventist Church of William Miller and Ellen G. White. Loma challenged Armstrong that the day of the celebration of the Sabbath on Sunday was not supported by the Bible. As Armstrong’s business was again at a point of failure, he had the time to take up the challenge and began a long study of the Bible to prove his wife wrong. His studies convinced him that his wife was right. This was the starting point where as he regularly studied the Bible, he felt God was opening his mind to “truths” that historical Christian churches had not found or accepted. In 1927 he was baptized by a Baptist minister and he described the event in his autobiography as a conversion experience. He joined the Church of God (Seventh Day) and he became convinced that this church was the one true church. In the meantime, his two sons, Richard David and Garner Ted, were born in 1928 and 1929 respectively. Garner Ted Armstrong would become a major character in Armstrong’s ministry. The Oregon Conference of the Church of God (Seventh Day) ordained him in the spring of 1931. In 1933 the Church of God (Seventh Day) split into two factions with one branch moving its headquarters to Salem, West Virginia. Armstrong followed this branch and requested his ministerial credentials from them. He continued to lead his local church and his biblical studies continued to reveal to him special unknown doctrines. Eventually in August 1937, the Church of God (Seventh Day) revoked his credentials due to Armstrong’s doctrinal differences. These differences were what made Armstrong unique and gave rise to the accusation that his movement was a “cult” by those outside his church while to his followers, Armstrong was an “Apostle” . For more information on these doctrines, please see the article on Armstrongism. Following this, Armstrong never accepted the Church of God (Seventh Day) again. To the end, he labelled the church as being "dead" identifying it as the church of Sardis mentioned in the third chapter of the Revelation. [edit] Radio ministry In October 1933, a radio station, KORE, in Eugene, Oregon, offered free time to Mr. Armstrong for a morning devotional, a 15-minute time slot shared by other local ministers. After positive responses from listeners, the station owner let Armstrong start a new program and on the first Sunday in 1934, the Radio Church of God was born. These broadcasts eventually became the well-known, The World Tomorrow, of the future Worldwide Church of God. Radio stations in other cities (Portland, Salem, Seattle in 1940, Los Angeles in 1942) were recruited to broadcast the program. In February 1934, The Plain Truth magazine began publication. With these two media vehicles, Armstrong began to expand his ministry throughout the West Coast. From his new contacts in Los Angeles, Armstrong began to realize the potential for the expansion of his media empire. He searched for a suitable location and chose Pasadena, California, as being ideal as it was a conservative residential community. During this time, Armstrong also reflected on starting a college to train people in his growing church. Hence, in 1946 Armstrong moved his headquarters from Eugene to Pasadena and on March 3, 1946, the Radio Church of God was officially incorporated within the state of California. On October 8, 1947, his new college, Ambassador College opened its doors with four students. [edit] Reaching out to the world During the 1950s and 1960s, the church continued to expand and the radio program was broadcast in England, Australia, the Philippines, Latin America, and Africa. In 1952, The World Tomorrow began to air on Radio Luxembourg, making it possible to hear the program throughout much of Europe. The beginning of the European broadcast provides the context of a booklet published in 1956 called 1975 in Prophecy!. In this booklet, Armstrong tied the evolution of his ministry with a prophetic vision of the end of the world and the return of Christ’s rule on earth. Armstrong described his ministry broken into two periods of nineteen years each. The first period covered the time from the start of his Oregon radio ministry to the first broadcast over Radio Luxembourg. The second cycle would end around the beginning of February 1972. After this date, Herbert W. Armstrong believed end-time prophecies could begin to unfold [1]. When end-time prophecies began to be fulfilled, his church were to have fled to a place of safety, usually identified as Petra in Jordan. World War III was predicted to be triggered by a “United States of Europe” led by Germany which would destroy both the United States of America and the United Kingdom. This booklet gives a typical example of Armstrong’s style of writing that he had learnt during his advertising business days with his liberal use of upper case characters and exclamation points. It is also an example of his strong interest in prophecy and in the use of numerology as a tool for prophetic predictions. [edit] Becoming the Worldwide Church of God Main article: Worldwide Church of God In April 1967, Armstrong's wife, Loma, died. On January 5, 1968, Armstrong’s church was renamed the Worldwide Church of God. As the fateful year of 1972 approached and as it appeared that Armstrong’s prophecy would not be fulfilled, scandals rocked the church involving two persons who were considered as potential successors to Armstrong in the leadership of the church. In the end, neither of the two succeeded him. The first scandal involved his second son, Garner Ted Armstrong. By this time, Garner Ted was the voice and face of the new television version of the World Tomorrow. It was speculated that with his charisma and personality, he was the logical successor to Armstrong. However, in 1972, Time magazine reported that Armstrong had said, without further elaboration, that his son was "in the bonds of Satan" and had been removed from church roles. Speculation was rife that Garner Ted had been committing adultery and gambling. He was reinstated soon after, but his fall from his father’s grace gradually escalated and would lead to him to being excommunicated by his father in 1978. In response Garner Ted started a new church, the Church of God International in Tyler, Texas. Armstrong basically disowned his son and his name was removed from most church publications including Armstrong’s own autobiography where only his birth is mentioned. The second scandal involved Stanley Rader. Armstrong first met him in 1956 and he was employed as the church accountant. He eventually became a special legal and financial advisor. Through his influence, Armstrong began to reduce his emphasis on prophecy, especially after the non-fulfilment of his 1972 prophecy. Rader helped him to change his image from a church leader to a self-styled “Ambassador for World Peace without portfolio”. Rader guided Armstrong to become more humanitarian, visiting persons around the world to promote peace and love. It was partly the result of Rader's influence that the profile of Ambassador College and its auditorium was raised through the famous Ambassador concert series, which brought top classical and jazz artists to Pasadena. However, the business links and the increased expenditures from Armstrong’s travels abroad brought about a financial scandal in which the state of California put the church under receivership while its accounts were examined. Although the litigation was eventually dropped, the events led to the departure of Rader from the church. [edit] Remarriage, divorce, and scandals On April 15, 1977, to the shock of many church members, Armstrong married a woman nearly 50 years his junior, Ramona Martin. She lived in Tucson, Arizona. This shock was not only occasioned by the difference in age, Martin was a divorcee and Armstrong had in the past prohibited church members from marrying divorced people. During the California receivership scandal Armstrong ran the church from Tucson, Arizona. The Worldwide Church of God received special legal dispensation from any outside judicial scrutiny or further civil investigation from the Office of the California Attorney General during this scandal. In 1980, a former church minister, David Robinson, published allegations that Armstrong had committed incest with his daughter, Dorothy, in the 1930s.[2] The incest had allegedly started when she was thirteen. The church lawyers attempted to halt the publication and distribution of this book. Neither the church nor Armstrong himself denied the allegations.[2] It was also reported in the Ambassador's Report that he took his daughter out dancing on Friday night, a time (the Sabbath) considered to be holy by church goers. When his daughter asked him if he was worried that he would be seen by the church members, Armstrong reportedly laughed it off and said that the church people were dumb sheep who would listen to anything he said (and hence would not be outside on the Sabbath). During the 1997 court trial between the Worldwide Church of God and the Philadelphia Church of God these allegations were brought up. The Worldwide Church of God dismissed them as false allegations spread by a bitter dissident. In April 1982, Armstrong had his final major scandal when he divorced his second wife, Ramona, in a lengthy, drawn-out legal battle totalling more than 3,000 pages of testimony and documents disputing various aspects of the matter.[3] Upon divorce, Armstrong moved back to Pasadena. [edit] Final years Despite the scandals, the church continued to grow, although at its zenith membership peaked at only about 100,000 worldwide. Armstrong continued to travel around the world, even meeting Deng Xiaoping, the leader of China, in 1984. In August 1985, Armstrong’s final work, Mystery of the Ages, was published. He called it a “synopsis of the Bible in the most plain and understandable language”. It was more-or-less a compendium of Armstrong’s theology. However, this work is treasured by his followers and the publishing copyright would become the source of lawsuits between the Worldwide Church of God and one of its splinter groups. In September 1985, with his failing health widely known, Armstrong disappeared from public view. Normally he would have appeared at that year’s Feast of Tabernacles, a regularly held church festival. It was the first festival he was unable to attend since the church’s founding. According to The Worldwide News, Armstrong told his advisory council of his decision to appoint Joseph W. Tkach on January 7, 1986. Only nine days after naming his successor, Armstrong died on January 16, 1986, at the age of 93. [edit] Notes or footnotes ^ http://www.cogwriter.com/hwaacc.htm ^ John Trechak, Ambassador Report no. 14, see also David Robinson, Herbert Armstrong's tangled web: An insider's view of the Worldwide Church of God, J. Hadden Publishers, 1980 [edit] References Herbert W. Armstrong, Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Vol. 1 Herbert W. Armstrong, Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Vol. 2 John Trechak, Ambassador Report, June 1976 to April 1999. Worldwide Church of God, "About Our Founder" [edit] External links Herbert W. Armstrong was ahead of his time! Aaron Dean Remembers Herbert W. Armstrong An anti-HWA web site. www.holdfast2allthings.org True Remnant holding fast to HWA teachings, with resources and articles. Worldwide Church of God official website Find-A-Grave www.coghomeschool.org A very detailed archive of his writings. The Painful Truth website, critical of Herbert W. Armstrong both as a person and the affects of his church on its members. Living Church of God One of the churches which continue to spread his teachings. Pabco's Homepage An archive of HWA writings. Ambassador Report archive, a publication critical of Herbert Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God. Armstrong Compendium Archive of much of HWA's writings and information concerning the aftermath of his death on the WWCG organization. Church of God- PKG Offshoot organization dedicated to preaching HWA's views on prophecy. Pastored by Ronald Weinland. Preceded by:— Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God1946–1986 Succeeded by:Joseph W. Tkach Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_W._Armstrong" Categories: 1892 births 1986 deaths Church of God (Armstrong) People from Des Moines, Iowa

Isis Unveiled - first 2 pages

Isis Unveiled by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1 Theosophical University Press Online Edition [[Vol. 1, Page 1]] THE VEIL OF ISIS. --------------------- PART ONE. -- SCIENCE. --------------------- CHAPTER I. "Ego sum qui sum." -- An axiom of Hermetic Philosophy. "We commenced research where modern conjecture closes its faithless wings. And with us, those were the common elements of science which the sages of to-day disdain as wild chimeras, or despair of as unfathomable mysteries." -- BULWER'S "ZANONI." THERE exists somewhere in this wide world an old Book -- so very old that our modern antiquarians might ponder over its pages an indefinite time, and still not quite agree as to the nature of the fabric upon which it is written. It is the only original copy now in existence. The most ancient Hebrew document on occult learning -- the Siphra Dzeniouta -- was compiled from it, and that at a time when the former was already considered in the light of a literary relic. One of its illustrations represents the Divine Essence emanating from ADAM* like a luminous arc proceeding to form a circle; and then, having attained the highest point of its circumference, the ineffable Glory bends back again, and returns to earth, bringing a higher type of humanity in its vortex. As it approaches nearer and nearer to our planet, the Emanation becomes more and more shadowy, until upon touching the ground it is as black as night. A conviction, founded upon seventy thousand years of experience,** as they allege, has been entertained by hermetic philosophers of all periods that matter has in time become, through sin, more gross and dense than it was at man's first formation; that, at the beginning, the [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The name is used in the sense of the Greek word [[anthropos]]. ** The traditions of the Oriental Kabalists claim their science to be older than that. Modern scientists may doubt and reject the assertion. They cannot prove it false. [[Vol. 1, Page]] 2 THE VEIL OF ISIS. human body was of a half-ethereal nature; and that, before the fall, mankind communed freely with the now unseen universes. But since that time matter has become the formidable barrier between us and the world of spirits. The oldest esoteric traditions also teach that, before the mystic Adam, many races of human beings lived and died out, each giving place in its turn to another. Were these precedent types more perfect? Did any of them belong to the winged race of men mentioned by Plato in Phaedrus? It is the special province of science to solve the problem. The caves of France and the relics of the stone age afford a point at which to begin. As the cycle proceeded, man's eyes were more and more opened, until he came to know "good and evil" as well as the Elohim themselves. Having reached its summit, the cycle began to go downward. When the arc attained a certain point which brought it parallel with the fixed line of our terrestrial plane, the man was furnished by nature with "coats of skin," and the Lord God "clothed them." This same belief in the pre-existence of a far more spiritual race than the one to which we now belong can be traced back to the earliest traditions of nearly every people. In the ancient Quiche manuscript, published by Brasseur de Bourbourg -- the Popol Vuh -- the first men are mentioned as a race that could reason and speak, whose sight was unlimited, and who knew all things at once. According to Philo Judaeus, the air is filled with an invisible host of spirits, some of whom are free from evil and immortal, and others are pernicious and mortal. "From the sons of EL we are descended, and sons of EL must we become again." And the unequivocal statement of the anonymous Gnostic who wrote The Gospel according to John, that "as many as received Him," i.e., who followed practically the esoteric doctrine of Jesus, would "become the sons of God," points to the same belief. (i., 12.) "Know ye not, ye are gods?" exclaimed the Master. Plato describes admirably in Phaedrus the state in which man once was, and what he will become again: before, and after the "loss of his wings"; when "he lived among the gods, a god himself in the airy world." From the remotest periods religious philosophies taught that the whole universe was filled with divine and spiritual beings of divers races. From one of these evolved, in the course of time, ADAM, the primitive man.

Why the Guru is necessary

WHY THE GURU IS NECESSARY (SRI SWAMI ATMASWARUPANANDA) Perhaps the most important relationship in the spiritual life, especially in the Vedic tradition, is the relationship with the Guru. Most devotees do recognise the need of a Guru, although some question it. They say, “Can I not learn from the scriptures, from books, lectures, tapes, videos, discussions? Do I really need a Guru?” In a sense, no one can say that anything is absolutely necessary, but even at a physical level we need teachers. Does a person really learn how to cook without seeing someone else prepare food? A cookbook may be a great help, but there is no substitute for actually watching someone else. And so it is in the spiritual life, which is the subtlest of the subtle and the most difficult attainment of all. We need someone to explain the inner meaning of the spiritual life, because ultimately it is something that goes beyond words. It is about something that no one can describe; they can actually only point towards it or demonstrate it. Even Gurudev, who wrote so many books, would finally point towards himself if a certain type of question was asked. Thus, our relationship to the Guru is meant to go beyond hearing, watching, worship and even emulation. The reason is that even emulation may not change us too much fundamentally. Why? Because the essence of the human being is wanting to keep control of his or her own life. The essence of ego or separation is: I will serve, I will give, I will bow down, I will emulate, but I will keep control of my own life. Therefore, Gurudev constantly warned: “Obedience is better than reverence.” We have to understand the difference between being a devotee and being a disciple. A devotee can give everything, but a disciple gives him or herself. A disciple means someone who is under discipline. It means that we give up that which is most central to us, which is our will. Our will becomes only to do the Guru’s will, which eventually is meant to lead us to a “Not my will, but Thy will” relationship to the Divine. Pujya Swami Chidanandaji has taught us much about the Guru-disciple relationship. One morning he said, “The only purpose of the Guru is to get rid of the ego of the disciple.” Ego in this sense meaning not only our negative qualities, but specifically our self-will. He continued, “If the disciple understands this—and longs for it—then the relationship clicks. Otherwise, it does not.” In other words, we may feel we have a relationship to the Guru, but from the Guru’s point of view, for that relationship to click the disciple has to understand that it is based upon getting rid of his ego—and the disciple must long for it. The question then arises, what if a living Guru is not available? Pujya Swamiji has often said that Gurudev’s Universal Prayer, Twenty Important Spiritual Instructions and Sadhana Tattva are Gurudev to him. He has also said, “Obey the teachings.” If we study Gurudev’s Twenty Important Spiritual Instructions, and endeavour to obey them, we will find many things that our egos do not want to do. Obeying the instructions becomes a way of wearing away our ego. Another way is to offer our obedience to the Guru’s successor, even though he or she may be junior to us. These are all methods of getting rid of our separate will—and training us to do God’s will—which from one point of view is what the spiritual life is finally all about.

Swami Vivekananda's addresses at the Parliament of Religions

ADDRESSES AT THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS RESPONSE TO WELCOME Chicago, September 11, 1893 Sisters and Brothers of America, It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects. My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee." The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: "Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal. ADDRESS AT THE FINAL SESSIONChicago, September 27, 1893 The World's Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished fact, and the merciful Father has helped those who laboured to bring it into existence, and crowned with success their most unselfish labour. My thanks to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth first dreamed this wonderful dream and then realized it. My thanks to the shower of liberal sentiments that has overflowed this platform. My thanks to this enlightened audience for their uniform kindness to me and for their appreciation of every thought that tends to smooth the friction of religions. A few jarring notes were heard from time to time in this harmony. My special thanks to them, for they have, by their striking contrast, made general harmony the sweeter. Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, "Brother, yours is an impossible hope." Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid. The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant. It develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant. Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth. If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written in spite of resistance: "Help and not fight," "Assimilation and not Destruction," "Harmony and Peace and not Dissension."

Forget the others, realize your self.

FORGET THE OTHERS, REALIZE YOUR SELF Neigbhorhood Flash 20th-26th August 2006 We often think that people are self-centered but to me it does not sound correct. My observation is that we are more other-centered than self-centered. We spend more energy and waste our time about what others are doing or have done than spending our time in creativity of our own It is only because we are jealous people. Why? Osho explains this: Jealousy means ego, jealousy means unconsciousness,. Jealousy means that you have not know even a moment of joy and bliss; you are living in misery. Jealousy is a by-product of miser, ego, and unconsciousness. And not only about jealousy, remember about all problems – greed… Somebody comes to me and says, “I am very greedy about money. How can I get rid of this greed for money?” it is not a question of money. Greed is greed. If you get rid of money you will become greedy for God; greed will still be there. The night Jesus was saying goodbye to his disciple, one of the disciples asked him, “Lord, you are leaving us. There is one question, and it is on the minds of all your disciples. In the kingdom of God you will be sitting at the right side of God himself – obviously, you will be his right hand. And who will be sitting next to you? Amongst us twelve, who will be the second to you? That is the most important thing in our heads. Please say something about it; otherwise, once you are gone it will be impossible for us to decide and we will be quarreling and fighting over it.” Now, this is jealousy. Now, what kind of disciples has Jesus? As far as my observation goes, Jesus was not very fortunate about his disciples. Buddha was far more fortunate. Never in the whole life of Buddha has a disciple asked such a stupid question. Remember, if greed is dropped about money, immediately it will take another object, it will become focused on something else. Take responsibility, and then things start changing. If you take the responsibility, if you think, “I am responsible, nobody else,” you will not be angry with the wife. You will not be fighting and nagging, you will not be nasty with her. You will start looking deeper and deeper. And in that very search you will become aware. That’s what awareness is, that’s how one become aware. And when you are fully aware of your jealousy you will be surprised, you are in for a surprise: when you are fully aware of it, it disappears. It simply disappears, not leaving even a trace behind it. Bring a little light inside. Meditate a little bit. Sit silently, doing nothing, looking inwards. In that stillness you will become aware of yourself and of the whole that surrounds you. That state is samadhi, and to know it is to know all, to be it is to be all.

Ramana Maharshi on Sri Aurobindo

Ramana Maharshi on Sri Aurobindo The Power of the Presence PART ONE In this excerpt from David Godman's new book, Swami Madhavatirtha recalls a conversation in which Ramana Maharshi explained the differences between his teachings and Sri Aurobindo's. By DAVID GODMAN One day, during the second week of my stay, I was standing near the northern gate that leads to the hill path. With me was a devotee who had returned the previous day from Sri Aurobindo's ashram. It was evening and Sri Maharshi came by that way after his usual evening stroll. I wanted to ask him about his views on the theory of creation and the presence of the devotee who had returned from Sri Aurobindo's ashram prompted me to refer to Sri Aurobindo's views on the subject. I may say here that I am well acquainted with Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, for during my earlier visits to him some twenty-five years ago I used to discuss with him freely about these spiritual subjects. By way of an introduction, I asked the Maharshi whether he upheld the vedantic views on creation that were promulgated by Adi-Sankaracharya. After that we moved on to a discussion about Sri Aurobindo's world view. Q: In the Vedanta of Sri Sankaracharya, the principle of the creation of the world has been accepted for the sake of beginners, but for the advanced, the principle of non-creation is put forward. What is your view in this matter? M: Na nirodha na chotpattirNabaddho na cha sadhakaha Na mumukshur na vai mukta Ityesha paramarthata This sloka appears in the second chapter [v. 32, vaithathya prakarana] of Gaudapada's Karika [a commentary on the Mandukyopanishad]. It means really that there is no creation and no dissolution. There is no bondage, no one doing spiritual practices, no one seeking spiritual liberation, and no one who is liberated. One who is established in the Self sees this by his knowledge of reality. Q: Sri Aurobindo believes that the human body is not the last on this earth. Establishment in the Self, according to him, is not perfectly attained in a human body, for Self-knowledge does not operate there in its natural way. Therefore the vijnanamaya sarira [the body made of pure knowledge]1 in which Self-knowledge can work naturally must be brought down on this earth. M: Self-knowledge can shine very well in the human body, so there is no need of any other body. Q: Sri Aurobindo believes that the vijnanamaya sarira will not be attacked by disease, will not grow old, and will not die without one's desire. M: The body itself is a disease. To wish for a long stay of that disease is not the aim of the jnani. Anyhow, one has to give up identification with the body. Just as the I-am-the-body consciousness prevents one from attaining Self-knowledge, in the same way, one who has got the conviction that he is not the body will become liberated even if he doesn't desire it. Q: Sri Aurobindo wants to bring the power of God into the human body. M: If, after surrendering, one still has this desire, then surrender has not been successful. If one has the attitude, 'If the higher power is to come down, it must come into my body', this will only increase identification with the body. Truly speaking, there is no need of any such descent. After the destruction of the I-am-the-body idea, the individual becomes the form of the absolute. In that state, there is no above or below, front or back. Q: If the individual becomes the form of the absolute, then who will enjoy the bliss of the absolute? To enjoy the bliss of the absolute, we must be slightly separate from it, like the fly that tastes sugar from a little distance. M: The bliss of the absolute is the bliss of one's own nature. It is not born, nor has it been created. Pleasure that is created is sure to be destroyed. Sugar, being insentient, cannot give its own taste. The fly has to keep a little distance to taste it. But the absolute is awareness and consciousness. It can give its own bliss, but its nature cannot be understood without attaining that state. Q: Sri Aurobindo wants to bring down on the earth a new divine race. M: Whatever is to be attained in the future is to be understood as impermanent. Learn to understand properly what you have now so that there will be no need of thinking about the future. Q: Sri Aurobindo says that God has created various kinds of worlds and is still going to create a new world. M: Our present world itself is not real. Each one sees a different imaginary world according to his imagination, so where is the guarantee that the new world will be real? The jiva [the individual person], the world and God, all of these are relative ideas. So long as there is the individual sense of 'I', these three are also there. From this individual sense of 'I', from the mind, these three have arisen. If you stop the mind, the three will not remain, but Brahman alone will remain, as it remains and abides even now. We see things because of an error. This misperception will be rectified by enquiring into the real nature of this jiva. Even if the jiva enters Supermind, it will remain in mind, but after surrendering the mind, there will be nothing left but Brahman. Whether this world is real or unreal, consciousness or inert, a place of happiness or a place of misery, all these states arise in the state of ignorance. They are not useful after realisation. The state of Atmanishta [being fixed in the Self], devoid of the individual feeling of 'I', is the supreme state. In this state there is no room for thinking of objects, nor for this feeling of individual being. There is no doubt of any kind in this natural state of being-consciousness-bliss. So long as there is the perception of name and form in oneself, God will appear with form, but when the vision of the formless reality is achieved there will be no modifications of seer, seeing and seen. That vision is the nature of consciousness itself, non-dual and undivided. It is limitless, infinite and perfect. When the individual sense of 'I' arises in the body, the world is seen. If this sense is absent, who then will see the world? Note 1. This is probably Swami Madhavatirtha's Sanskrit rendering of Supermind, a key term of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy. Sri Aurobindo taught that one could evolve physically as well as spiritually. As the subsequent dialogue reveals, Sri Aurobindo maintained that when one evolved into this state, physical immortality was attained. (Go back to text.) Copyright 2000 David Godman. Reprinted by permission. David Godman is the author of several books about Sri Ramana Maharshi and his disciples. He was the librarian at Sri Ramanasramam for eight years. For more information, see our reference page about him.

Tributes to Ramana Maharshi

Tributes to Ramana Maharshi Bhagavan was a very beautiful person; he shone with a visible light of aura. He had the most delicate hands I have ever seen with which alone he could express himself, one might almost say talk. His features were regular and the wonder of his eyes was famous. His forehead was high and the dome of his head the highest I have ever seen. Bhagavan always radiated tremendous peace, but on those occasions when crowds were attracted to the Ashram such as Jayanthi, Mahapooja, Deepam and such functions, this increased to an extraordinary degree. The numbers seemed to call up some reserve of hidden force, and it was a great experience to sit with him at such times. His eyes took on a far-away look and he sat absolutely still as if unconscious of his surroundings, except for an occasional smile of recognition as some old devotee prostrated. - A. W. Chadwick, A Sadhu's Reminiscences of Ramana Maharshi. The third of February 1936, early morning, saw my horse-cart rolling on the uneven two-and-a-half-mile road from Tiruvannamalai railway station to Ramanashram. I was led to a small dining room, at the door of which I was asked to remove my shoes. As I was trying to unlace them, my eyes fell on a pleasant looking middle-aged man inside the room, wearing nothing but a kaupin, with eyes as cool as moonbeams, sitting on the floor before a leaf-plate nearly emptied, and beckoning me with the gentlest of nods and the sweetest smile imaginable. I was alone in the Hall with him. Joy and peace suffused my being - such a delightful feeling of purity and well-being at the mere proximity of a man, I never had before. My mind was already in deep contemplation of him - him not as flesh, although that was exquisitely formed and featured, but as an unsubstantial principle which could make itself so profoundly felt despite the handicap of a heavy material vehicle. - S.S. Cohen, Memoirs and Notes I looked around. Squatting on the floor or sitting in the Buddha posture or lying prostrate face down, a number of Indians prayed-some of them reciting their mantras out loud. Several small monkeys came into the hall and approached Bhagavan. They climbed onto his couch and broke the stillness with their gay chatter. He loved animals and any kind was respected and welcomed by him in the ashram. They were treated as equals of humans and always addressed by their names. Sick animals were brought to Bhagavan and kept by him on his couch or on the floor beside him until they were well. Many animals had died in his arms. When I was there he had a much-loved cow that wandered in and out of the hall, and often lay down beside him and licked his hand. He loved to tell stories about the goodness of animals. It was remarkable that none of the animals ever fought or attacked each other. - Mercedes de Acosta, Here lies the Heart Once an Ashram deer was attacked by some animal and the wounds turned from bad to worse. Sri Bhagavan sat near the deer and held its face in his hands, looking at its tearful eyes. Sri Bhagavan sat like that for a couple of hours. Chinnaswami (Ramana Maharshi's younger brother) asked my uncle who was standing close to look after the deer and relieve Sri Bhagavan. Sri Bhagavan heard this but did not make any response. Sri Bhagavan sat there till the deer breathed its last. That was the compassion that Sri Bhagavan had for that deer. Soon after, Sri Bhagavan went to the hall. There is a Samadhi for the deer in the Ashram. - From: Dr. D. K. Subrahmanian, A Tribute A Jnani has No Separate Will of His Own In the evening Sri Bhagavan recalled a marvelous occurrence. He said, "Some time ago, a paralytic was brought in a conveyance and brought into the Hall in the arms of some persons and placed before me. I was looking at him as usual. After about half an hour, the man with some effort got up by himself, prostrated, and rising came forward and handed to me a notebook. I found it to be his horoscope wherein it was stated that he would have darshan of a Mahatma by whose Grace he would be cured miraculously. The man after expressing his fervent gratitude walked by himself to his conveyance outside the Hall. All people present were struck with wonder which I also shared because I had not consciously done anything for him." Now Sri Bhagavan again repeated that a Jnani could not have any sankalpa (will) of his own. - Subbaramayya, My Reminiscences of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi My first darshan of Bhagavan Sri Ramana was in January, 1921 at Skandashrama, which is on the eastern slope of Arunachala and looks like the very heart of the majestic hill. It is a beautiful quiet spot with a few coconuts and other trees and a perennial crystal-clear spring. Bhagavan was there as the very core of such natural beauty. I saw in him something quite arresting which clearly distinguished him from all others I had seen. He seemed to live apart from the physical frame, quite detached from it. His look and smile had remarkable spiritual charm. When he spoke, the words seemed to come out of an abyss. One could see immaculate purity and non-attachment in him and his movements. I sensed something very refined, lofty and sacred about him. In his vicinity the mind's distractions were overpowered by an austere and potent calmness and the unique bliss of peace was directly experienced. This I would call Ramana lahari, 'the blissful atmosphere of Ramana.' In this ecstasy of grace one loses one's sense of separate individuality and there remains something grand and all-pervading, all-devouring. This indeed is the spirit of Arunachala, which swallows up the whole universe by its gracious effulgence.- Swami Viswanatha From: Aspiring India Links

Paul Brunton on Ramana Maharshi

Paul Brunton on Ramana Maharhsi I study him intently and gradually come to see in him the child of a remote Past, when the discovery of spiritual truth was reckoned no less value than is the discovery of a gold-mine to-day. It dawns upon me with increasing force that in this quiet and obscure corner of South India, I have been led to one of the last of India’s spiritual supermen. The serene figure of this living sage brings the legendary figures of his country’s ancient Rishees nearer to me. One senses that the most wonderful part of this man is withheld. His deepest soul, which one instinctively recognizes as being loaded with rich wisdom, eludes one. At time he still remains curiously aloof, and, at other times the kindly benediction of his interior grace binds me to him with hoops of steel. I learn to submit to the enigma of his personality, and to accept him as I find him. And I like him greatly because he is so simple and modest, when an atmosphere of authentic greatness lies so palpably around him; because he makes no claims to occult powers and hierophantic knowledge to impress the mystery-loving countrymen; and because he is so totally without any traces of pretension that he strongly resists every effort to canonize him during his lifetime. It seems to me that the presence of men like the Maharishee ensures the continuity down history of a divine message from regions not easily accessible to us all. It seems to me, further, that one must accept the fact that such a sage comes to reveal something to us, not to argue anything with us. by: Paul Brunton From: Search in Secret India - Ramana Maharshi

There is nothing new to get

There Is Nothing new To Get There is nothing new to get. You have on the other hand, to get rid of your ignorance, which makes you think you are other than Bliss. For whom is this ignorance? It is to the ego. Trace the source of the ego. Then the ego is lost and Bliss remains over. It is eternal You are That, here and now... This is the master key for solving all doubts.The doubts arise in the mind. The mind is born of the ego. The ego rises from the Self. Search the source of the ego and the Self is revealed. That alone remains. The universe is only expanded Self. It is not different from the Self... - Ramana Maharshi

Vajyapee's address to the nation

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's address to the nation on Jan 1st, 2002 Excerpt "My dear fellow countrymen, joyous new year greetings to all of you. [….] Nations achieve greatness when their people learn to dream lofty dreams and to strive hard - and make sacrifices, when necessary - to realise those dreams, without getting disheartened by the difficulties along the way and without ever letting their faith in their nation's destiny falter. I am reminded here of the inspiring vision of Maharshi Aurobindo, which he set out in his historic radio broadcast for August 15, 1947: "I have always held and said that India was arising, not to serve her own material interests only, to achieve expansion, greatness, power, and prosperity - though these too she must not neglect, - and certainly not like others to acquire domination of other peoples, but to live also for god and the world as a helper and leader of the whole human race." This, I believe, is the quintessence of India's work, now and in the future. Different leaders of modern India have presented the same vision in different words. "

Ramesh Balsekar on Maharaj.

Ramesh Balsekar on Maharaj The core of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's teaching is the knowledge of one's own identity. This knowledge is indeed the pivotal point around which moves everything. It is the crucial truth. And the apperception of this truth arisesonly from intense personal experience, not from a study of religious texts, which according to Maharaj, are nothing but 'hearsay.' Taking his stand on the bedrock of incontrovertible facts and totally discarding all assumptions and speculations, he often address a new visitor in the following words: "You are sitting there, I am sitting here, and there is the world outside -- and, for the moment, we may assume that there must be a creator, let us say God. These three/four items are facts or experience, not 'hearsay.' Let us confine our conversation to these items only." This basis automatically excludes along with the 'hearsay' the traditional texts too, and therefore there is always an exhilarating sense of freshness and freedom to Maharaj's talks. His words need no support from someone else's words or experiences which, after all, is all that the traditional texts can mean. This approach completely disarms those 'educated' people who come to impress the other visitors with their learning, and at the same time hope to get a certificate from Maharaj about their own highly evolved state. At the same time it greatly encourages the genuine seeker who would prefer to start from scratch. ...Maharaj tells the visitors that it is only about this consciousness or I-am-ness that he always talks. "Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj" By Ramesh Balsekar Acorn Press, 1982

Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj Questioner: My own feeling is that my spiritual development is not in my hands. Making one's own plans and carrying them out leads nowhere. I just run in circles round myself. When God considers the fruit to be ripe, He will pluck it and eat it. Whichever fruit seems green to Him will remain on the world's tree for another day. Maharaj: You think God knows you? Even the world He does not know. Q: Yours is a different God. Mine is different. Mine is merciful. Hesuffers along with us. M: You pray to save one, while thousands die. And if all stop dying, there will be no space on earth. Q: I am not afraid of death. My concern is with sorrow and suffering. My God is a simple God and rather helpless. He has no power to compel us to be wise. He can only stand and wait. M: If you and your God are both helpless, does it not imply that the world is accidental? And if it is, the only thing you can do is to go beyond it. Questioner: Without God's power nothing can be done. Even you would not be sitting here and talking to us without Him. Maharaj: All is His doing, no doubt. What is it to me, since I want nothing? What can God give me, or take away from me?What is mine is mine and was mine even when God was not. Of course, it is avery tiny little thing, a speck the sense 'I am',the fact of being. This is my own place, nobody gave it to me. The earth is mine: what grows on it is God's. Q: Did God take the earth on rent from you? M: God is my devotee and did all this for me. Q: Is there no God apart from you? M: How can there be? 'I am' is the root, God is the tree. Whom am I to worship, and what for? Q: Are you the devotee or the object of devotion? M: Am neither, I am devotion itself. Q: There is not enough devotion in the world. M: You are always after the improvement of the world. Do you really believe that the world is waiting for you to be saved? Q: I just do not know how much I can do for the world. All I can do, is to try. Is there anything else you would like me to do? M: Without you is there a world? You know all about the world, but about yourself you know nothing. You yourself are the tools of your work, you have no other tools. Why don't you take care of the tools before you think of the work? Q: I can wait, while the world cannot. M: By not enquiring you keep the world waiting. Q: Waiting for what? M: For somebody who can save it. Q: God runs the world, God will save it. M: That's what you say! Did God come and tell you that the world is His creation and concern and not yours? Q: Why should it be my sole concern? M: Consider. The world in which you live, who else knows about it? Q: You know. Everybody knows. M: Did anybody come from outside of your world to tell you? Myself and everybody else appear and disappear in your world. We are all at your mercy. Q: It cannot be so bad! I exist in your world as you exist in mine. M: You have no evidence of my world. You are completely wrapped up in the world of your own making. Q: I see. Completely, but hopelessly? M: Within the prison of your world appears a man who tells you that the world of painful contradictions, which you have created, is neither continuous nor permanent and is based on a misapprehension. He pleads with you to get out of it, by the same way by which you got into it. You got into it by forgetting what you are and you will get out of it by knowing yourself as you are. Q: In what way does it affect the world? M: When you are free of the world, you can do something about it. As long as you are a prisoner of it, you are helpless to change it. On the contrary, whatever you do will aggravate the situation. Q: Righteousness will set me free. M: Righteousness will undoubtedly make you and your world a comfortable, even happy place. But what is the use? There is no reality in it. It cannot last. Q: God will help. M: To help you God must know your existence. But you and your world are dream states. In dream you may suffer agonies. None knows them, and none can help you. Q: So all my questions, my search and study are of no use? M: These are but the stirrings of a man who is tired of sleeping. They are not the causes of awakening, but it's early signs. But, you must not ask idle questions, to which you already know the answers.