Across the street from the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, India lies one of Gujarat’s largest slums. Most who hear of it expect to find despair, hardship and disease lurking in every corner. While it’s difficult to deny those facts, we came across American-born Ankur Shah, a Stanford graduate, who saw a rare form of beauty [...]
Archive for the ‘Spirituality’ Category
A Slum Community Kitchen
Posted in Manav Sadhna, Spirituality, tagged Ahmedabad, Ankur Shah, Asha Patel, Current TV, Gandhi Ashram, India, Manav Sadhna, Slums, Stanford on June 2, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Meditation Saves Lives
Posted in Inspiration, Spirituality, tagged Meditation on May 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Read the text in the bottom right corner.
If only the thousands trapped during the recent Chinese earthquake knew how to meditate.
Read the full story via the Times Online.
Meditation In Prisons
Posted in Inspiration, Spirituality, tagged Film, Meditation, Prisons, Reform, Spirituality on May 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Imagine hardened criminals breaking down in remorse for their crimes, and hugging the guards that they hated just a week earlier. That kind of transformation began when mediation was introduced into India’s most notorious prison near New Delhi, India.
Today most of our prisons are just “prisoner schools” where convicts get together and learn how [...]
The Five Bucks Club – Trust-based Micro-philanthropy
Posted in Inspiration, Spirituality, tagged Ahmedabad, Jayeshbhai Patel, Manav Sadhna, Philanthropy, Service on June 16, 2006 | Leave a Comment »
There’s an fun little experiment that I’ve been lucky enough to help out with. Its called the Five Bucks Club, wherein a group of friends pool $5/ea to be used in India by Jayeshbhai Patel in micro-philanthropy. Check out the premise and the online diary to read some touching stories that are part [...]
Compassion’s Side-Effects?
Posted in Inspiration, Spirituality, tagged Ahmedabad, Jayeshbhai Patel, Service on June 2, 2006 | Leave a Comment »
While feeding the dogs that live on the stairs of my building some milk biscuits, I suddenly notice how healthy and energetic the littlest dog seemed to appear. Two weeks ago, most of his body was covered in mange and to call him sickly would be an understatement. I almost suspected that one day I [...]
Cleansing the Streets as a Ragpicker
Posted in Insight, Inspiration, Manav Sadhna, Spirituality, tagged Ahmedabad, Anarben Patel, Anjali Desai, Bollywood, India, Larry Brilliant, Ragpicking, Ramapir-no-tekro, Seva Cafe on March 3, 2006 | 1 Comment »
Anjali and I decided on an early arrival in the tekra to spend the morning with twelve-year-old Jayshree and her ten-year-old sister Bharti. I walk from a dirt road to tar road, to catch a rickshaw to the ashram where Anarben drives us to the edge of the slum.
I N N [...]
Twenty Four Hours with Manav Sadhna
Posted in Inspiration, Manav Sadhna, Spirituality, tagged Ahmedabad, Anarben Patel, Gaurav Parnami, GIS, India, Indicorps, Kiefer Sutherland, Nipun Mehta, Rish Sanghvi, Viren Joshi on February 19, 2006 | Leave a Comment »
There was a hit series a while ago called ‘24’ which captured 24 hours in the riveting life of some secret agent played by Kiefer Sutherland. Now in India for just over 24 hours, I feel like the last 24 hours in my life have been like watching something like a ‘service 24’ worthy of [...]
Christian Yoga
Posted in Spirituality, tagged Meditation, Bikram Choudhury, yoga, Christian yoga, Rabi Maharaj, Patricia Walden, Paramahansa Yogananda, Shirley MacLaine, Darth Sidious, Bishnu Ghosh, Pope Ratzinger on September 1, 2005 | 1 Comment »
Time magazine publshed an article on Christian yoga, the latest yoga trend that tries to pull Hindu elements out of the ancient practice to make God-fearing Protestants and Catholics feel better about doing it. Instead of saying ‘Om’, one might say ‘Amen’ and instead of surya namaskar or ‘Sun Salutation’, you do a ‘warm-up flow’ [...]
