Believe It Or Not - THE TRUTH WILL PREVAIL

Ever since I was at a concious age I have believed in the paranomal and the supernatural. Today though I am 24, there are times when I still get scared to be alone in my room at night. During my early childhood years uptil I was in my 10th grade I was even sacred to go to the washroom alone. I made my mother stand out and till the time I was in she had to keep speaking with me. In this post I will be talking about the reality behind Life after Death, Near Death Experiences (NDE), Out of Body Experiences (OBE) and even Pre-birth experiences. This however, is my personal opinion and by no means an imposition on anyone reading this article.

Paranormal Phenomena- What Lies Beyond

A Glimpse of the Afterlife

The notion that there is a life after this one on Earth is a widely held belief that predates recorded history. While cultures like that of the ancient Egyptians believed existence continued in "the Land of the Dead," the more modern Christian beliefs offer an afterlife in Heaven as a reward or in Hell as a punishment. Even more recent ideas suggest that life might continue in another dimension or plane of existence - perhaps even on another planet. Whatever the ideas, it's clear that humans want to believe - perhaps even need to believe in life after death.There is no definitive proof, of course, that a life after death exists.

But there are some rather compelling anecdotes that suggest there might be remarkable cases of claimed reincarnation or past-life recall, for instance. There are also countless cases in which the recently deceased have appeared briefly to family members and friends to tell them that they are well and happy in another world.Perhaps the most intriguing "evidence" is the stories related by people who have gone through the "near-death experience." It's estimated that 9 to 18 percent of people who are near death have a near-death experience. Although mainstream science suggests that these experiences are nothing more than the result of certain brain activity under extreme stress or hallucinations brought on by drugs or medication, perhaps these accounts shouldn't be so readily dismissed. If they are real, after all, they hold the only clues we have as to what life in the hereafter might be like.

A few cases of near-death experience (NDE), here is a glimpse of life after death: The Tunnel and the Light

[A Near Death Experience in 1964 - Anonymous] - "In front of me I saw a small light in the vast distance. The light started to get larger. It became more brilliant and it stopped in front of me. I felt an intense love, which came from the Light. I know without a doubt that this beautiful intense loving Light was God. The Light started to communicate with me; but the communication was telepathic, it was not verbal. The Light asked me if I wanted to come with it. At this point I completely understood the nature of the question and the consequences of my answer. If I choose to continue with the Light I knew that I would die and never return to earth. I thought about this and replied that I thought that I still had important things to do back there (on earth). At that point the Light began to recede. I found myself waking up on the bed of my dorm room." [Tom Sawyer: What I Learned by Dying]- "I saw nothing but absolute, total blackness. In this capacity, though, I was looking at absolute nothingness or darkness, but my eyes were not straining. I had the desire to look around inquisitively. What is this place? Where am I? Instantaneously, this darkness took the shape of a tunnel. It was perfectly level; however slightly ambiguous in that it was straight before me and it was cloud-like. It was very vast, as opposed to small and confining, and was anywhere from a thousand feet to a thousand miles wide. I was very comfortable and inquisitive. It was cylindrical. If you took a tornado and stretched it out straight, it would be similar to that..." [Near-Death Experiences - Rob]- "All was panic. The water was very cold. My heavy winter clothes were making it difficult to stay afloat. I continued to struggle mightily, thinking "I'm only nine. That's too young to die." The longer I was under the ice, the less significant time became. It was as if time had no meaning. Everything happened sequentially but simultaneously. I became very tired. I noticed that I could no longer feel the cold. My hearing was heightened. I could hear the movement of the water. I could hear the traffic on the bridge overhead and behind me. I could see clearly, even though it was dark and I was under the ice and moving downstream. Then, a complete calm and serenity overtook me. I was at total peace. I began to come into awareness that all was not over. I could sense a light. It was brilliant, but caused no discomfort when looking at it. In fact, I gained strength by looking into the light. I then sensed a presence. I had the knowledge that this was Jesus, and he was assuring me that everything was fine. I felt total love from this presence. I was home. More so than I was ever home before. I was presented with a sense that all questions were to be answered if I stayed."

The NDE and Pre-Birth Connection

It is not unusual for people in near-death experiences (NDE) returning from the clinical death, to report having received information concerning their pre-existence before they were conceived in the world. Some report of learning how they chose various aspects of their lives even before they were born. Some of the choices people have reported having chosen before birth include the selection of their birth parents, choosing their mission in life, and even choosing how they will die. This knowledge received by near-death experiencers of the past and future shows how some things in life are pre-destined while other things are not. It shows how free will and pre-destination both exist and work hand in hand. It means we choose our destiny in life before our birth into the world to live it. Since reincarnation is a concept found in many cultures and religions, the metaphor of life as a river which we chose before our birth, shows up in many of these cultures and religions. There are many aspects to a river which make it an excellent analogy to help us understand where we came from, where we're going, who we are, why we're here, and what life is all about.

Someone once asked Deepak Chopra, the famous endocrinologist and spiritual guru, "Does this mean that we are born into a pre-determined destiny and if so, why even bother cultivating free will or striving to be faithful?" He said:"This connection isn't fixed or automatic, it merely represents numerical probability. Our conscious choices help determine our destiny. The deterministic world is ignorance. When we navigate from awareness, we exercise free will. It's the difference between ignorance and enlightenment. To surrender to divine intelligence, know that everything both comes from God and belongs to God. If life is a river between the banks of hope and despair, our ultimate destiny is to become independent of both, unmoved by either."So the future is not fixed in stone but consists of probabilities based on current choices and trends. This answer from Deepak Chopra is another way of saying we choose our destinies.

Out of Body Experiences

The following is a true account excerpted from of Dr. George Ritchie’s book Return from tomorrow. In 1943, he died of pneumonia and nine minutes later returned to life to tell about it.

The men let go of my arms ... I heard a click and a whirr. The whirr went on and on. It was getting louder. The whirr was inside my head and my knees were made of rubber. They were bending and I was falling and all the time the whirr grew louder. I sat up with a start. What time was it? I looked at the bedside table but they'd taken the clock away. In fact, where was any of my stuff? I jumped out of bed in alarm, looking for my clothes. My uniform wasn't on the chair. I turned around, then froze. Someone was lying in that bed. I took a step closer. He was quite a young man, with short brown hair, lying very still. But, the thing was impossible! I myself had just gotten out of that bed! For a moment I wrestled with the mystery of it. It was too strange to think about - and anyway I didn't have the time.

He didn't answer. Didn't even glance at me. He just kept coming, straight at me, not slowing down."Look out!" I yelled, jumping out of his way.

The next minute he was past me, walking away down the corridor as if he had never seen me, though how we had kept from colliding I didn't know. And then I saw something that gave me a new idea. Farther down the corridor was one of the heavy metal doors that led to the outside. I hurried toward it. Even if I had missed that train, I'd find some way of getting to Richmond!

Almost without knowing it I found myself outside, racing swiftly along, traveling faster in fact than I'd ever moved in my life. Looking down I was astonished to see not the ground, but the tops of mesquite bushes beneath me. Already Camp Barkeley seemed to be far behind me as I sped over the dark frozen desert. My mind kept telling me that what I was doing was impossible, and yet ... it was happening. I was going to Richmond; somehow I had known that from the moment I burst through that hospital door. Going to Richmond a hundred times faster than any train on Earth could take me.

Almost immediately I noticed myself slowing down. Just below me now, where two streets came together, I caught a flickering blue glow. It came from a neon sign over the door of a red-roofed one-story building with a Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer sign propped in the front window. Cafe, the jittering letters over the door read, and from the windows light streamed onto the pavement. Staring down at it, I realized I had stopped moving altogether. Finding myself somehow suspended fifty feet in the air was an even stranger feeling than the whirlwind flight had been. But I had no time to puzzle over it, for down the sidewalk toward the all-night cafe a man came briskly walking. At least, I thought, I could find out from him what town this was and in what direction I was heading. Even as the idea occurred to me - as though thought and motion had become the same thing - I found myself down on the sidewalk, hurrying along at the stranger's side. He was a civilian, maybe forty or forty-five, wearing a topcoat but no hat. He was obviously thinking hard about something because he never glanced my way as I fell into step beside him.

"Can you tell me please," I said, "What city this is?"He kept right on walking."Please sir!" I said, speaking louder, "I'm a stranger here and I'd appreciate it if... "We reached the cafe and he turned, reaching for the door handle. Was the fellow deaf? I put out my left hand to tap his shoulder. There was nothing there. I stood there in front of the door, gaping after him as he opened it and disappeared inside. It had been like touching thin air. Like no one had been there at all. And yet I had distinctly seen him, even to the beginnings of a black stubble on his chin where he needed a shave. I backed away from the mystery of the substance-less man and leaned up against the guy wire of a telephone pole to think things through. My body went through that guy wire as though it too had not been there.There on the sidewalk of that unknown city, I did some incredulous thinking. The strangest, most difficult thinking I had ever done. The man in the cafe, this telephone pole ... suppose they were perfectly normal. Suppose I was the one who was - changed, somehow. What if in some impossible, unimaginable way, I lost my ... hardness. My ability to grasp things, to make contact with the world. Even to be seen! The fellow just now. It was obvious he never saw or heard me.And suddenly I remembered the young man I had seen in the bed in that little hospital room. What if that had been ... me? Or anyhow, the material, concrete part of myself that in some unexplainable way I'd gotten separated from. What if the form which I had left lying in the hospital room in Texas was my own? And if it were, how could I get back to it again? Why had I ever rushed off so unthinkingly? I was moving again, speeding away from the city. Below me was the broad river. I appeared to be going back, back in the direction I had come from, and it seemed to me I was flashing across space even faster than before. Hills, lakes, farms slipped away beneath me as I sped in an unswerving straight line over the dark nighttime land. I was standing in front of the base hospital. And so began one of the strangest searches that can ever have taken place: the search for myself. From one ward to another of that enormous complex I rushed, pausing in each small room, stooping over the occupant of the bed, hurrying on. I backed toward the doorway. The man in that bed was dead! I felt the same reluctance I had the previous time at being in a room with a dead person. But ... if that was my ring, then - then it was me, the separated part of me, lying under that sheet. Did that mean that I was... It was the first time in this entire experience that the word death occurred to me in connection with what was happening. But I wasn't dead! How could I be dead and still be awake? Thinking. Experiencing. Death was different. Death was ... I didn't know. Frantically I clawed at the sheet, trying to draw it back, trying to uncover the figure on the bed. All my efforts did not even stir a breeze in the silent little room. Suddenly I was aware that it was brighter, a lot brighter, than it had been. I stared in astonishment as the brightness increased, coming from nowhere, seeming to shine everywhere at once. All the light bulbs in the ward couldn't give off that much light. All the bulbs in the world couldn't! It was impossibly bright. It was like a million welders' lamps all blazing at once. "I'm glad I don't have physical eyes at this moment," I thought. "This light would destroy the retina in a tenth of a second." No, I corrected myself, not the light. He. He would be too bright to look at.

"For now I saw that it was not light but a man who had entered the room, or rather, a man made out of light, though this seemed no more possible to my mind than the incredible intensity of the brightness that made up his form. "Research Conclusions By Kevin Williams"

Kevin Williams on NDE Without a doubt, the most important lesson NDEs teach us is the supreme importance of unconditional love. Love is where we all came from and love is where we will all eventually return. Love is what life is really all about. Learning and growing in unconditional love is why we are all here on this blue marble called Earth. Life itself is God. Love itself is God. Everyone and everything is a part of God. All things are held together by the power of love. Love is the way to eternal bliss and the way to overcome the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. There is no greater force in the universe than unconditional love because it is universal and divine.

The more love we cultivate within ourselves and the more love we give to others and the more we evolve towards embodying unconditional love, then the closer we come to our goal - liberation from death. True love can never die. Love and knowledge are the only things we can really take with us when we die. Death doesn't change much of anything. I like how one particular experiencer, Chuck Griswold, put it. He said death is merely a body problem. This is so true. We are also continually born into this world and subjected to death until we have evolved and embodied unconditional love as Buddha and Jesus did. We don't go to heaven. We grow to heaven to become permanent citizens of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is within us. When it becomes fully manifested within ourselves and the world through unconditional love, then we are no longer the prodigal children away from God. To manifest our higher spirit of love within us into conscious reality is the way we return to our origins - to the Source of All Things. Then wherever we find ourselves, heaven will always be manifested within us and we will always be in heaven - never to die again. This is the evolutionary goal of humanity. (Article courtesy - http://www.near-death.com/ http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa082800a.htm)

Good Day People!! Be Blessed !!! Warm Regards, Aarti Kapoor!!

My Diary: Mixed emotions

This something I wrote recently. My diary has been misplaced actually since I have come back to Bombay. So out of my old stuff what ever I will keep coming across I'll keep udating it here. Simultaneously, I will be adding whatever new excerpts I write. This write-up is basically the struggle of a broken heart trying to deny still bein in love with the person who has broken it. It is a blend of confused emotions, broken promises and a longing to find love again.

I'll Never Know

I often sit and wonder how real is love and the conclusion is always ?uh huh? ?umm? ?err?. It?s funny how we all talk about love and yet don?t know for sure how true it is. In some cases love is the basis of everything in life, those I guess are the ?lucky few?. For love I say has never been true to me. Is it my bad luck or maybe I am just not lovable enough?

Time and again I ask myself, will I ever find love or worse still will love ever find me? Has my heart surpassed the need for love; after all the pain it caused, for all the nights that I cried myself to sleep or for all the times that it hurt so bad within I thought I?d never survive? Can that be a possibility? My mind repeatedly brings back those past memories of ache and upset. Frequently forcing me to ask myself- was it just that I was with the wrong person or did it just seem so real because it never actually was?

I guess I?ll never know the answers to these questions but I always mange to come above them. I manage to smile and feel good about myself and about love, however ironic that may sound. Because in my heart I will always know that through all the tears, even if just for a moment, the both of us --- had it all..................

Good Day People !!!! God Bless!! Love and Regards, Aarti Kapoor!!

My Diary : ~~ WHaT Do You Do ~~

Hello People!!!

This is a small write- up I wrote after almost a year had passed and my phase of depression was at its peak. (if you refer to some previous posts I have published I have explained my problems with addiction and then rebuke from my friends,this is a follow up of that) Everything was a mess as I was struggling to combat my addiction and the withdrawal symtoms which were like the compulsory blind and at the same time I had realised people who I called my best friends turned out be worse than enemies. It was hard tp push away thoughts suicide or harming myself in some or the other way amidst all this mess, that is when I decided to turn to my only resort; WRITING. So here goes.......

What Do You Do

You smile though within your actually dying, you keep moving on when your heart you know cant go on, coz if you don?t do all this then what do you do?

A million hopes are relying on you, a hundred smiles smile for you, if not for you some people would not wanna live, if not for you, your parents wouldn?t have sacrificed their desires, if not for you your father would come home early and rest rather than work overtime. If not for you your mother would not sit at home awaiting for you to return whether in school, whether in college, whether down to play or out on a outing whether your working, how ever big you get it still wont make your mother sleep till your not tucked in bed. So if at times you feel your lfe is just not going antywhere, that you would rather die than face your problems, what do you do?

You love someone with all your life, yet you have to let that person go, you hurt that person though its tearing you apart within, but you know if you really want to see that person happy you have let go, you have to let them grow. Coz when you had to learn you learnt it the hard way too, so you realize that its your turn to pass the torch and stop being selfish. The essence of love is not being happy with the person you love, but making sure whereever you may be, that person you love is happy. That is love.

So in the end the thing to do is simple yet hard. Coz it?s the simple things in life that matter.So you have to smile no matter what and you have to keep moving on, for your parents who brought you here and did everything for you, without any fear. You have to live, you have work and become a person pf scruples and principles. Coz in the end it doesn?t matter what you have, but what you chose to do with that what you had.After a while you will realize that even when you thought you couldn?t go on, you did and you feel glad you did. We don?t regret the things we do as much as we regret that which we dont do..So next time your heart asks you what to do, do just this, go to your parents hug them tight, and your heart will know you did it right.

My Diary - 1st submission

Hello people!!!

I am posting this write-up that I wrote in 2005, back when I was in college. Writing has always been my only refuge. I decided to start maintaining my writings in the form of small write-ups in a journal or a diary. I wrote this piece (it was the first entry in my diary as well) when I was going through one of the worst phases of my life,in an unknown city.I had been friends with this girl ever since the first day of college. We clicked right away and then there was no looking back. Though we never said it, it was clear there is no room for a third person. So you can imagine the closeness. However it was shortlived. Due to a number of reasons. So I did vent out my feelings though,to date I still feel the need for someone to just hear me out, an what could a better medium than the net. Its a bit lenghty but I hope you guys enjoy reading it. Do leave your comments. Criticism is more welcome than praise as it will only help me grow in my writing.

Thanks.....

FRieND$ oF ouR LiVe$ !!!

FRIENDSHIP, one of the most cherished of all relations. Two people from separate worlds, castes, backgrounds and not related by blood, easily understand each other. The love they share is far above every other relationship in the whole world. It could not get better than this. Imagine your friend & u so far apart from each other in perception, ideas, personality and mind frame are still closer than peas in a pod. I will be presenting ahead a small compilation on friends that I call “Friends of Our Lives”.

If ever the need arises, friends give their life for each other without any complaint or hesitation. Friends are mirrors, who are a reflection of the person that stays in us. It’s only with a friend that you can be yourself. However stupid you may sound about certain things your friend will always listen patiently. Even if you keep crying like a broken record, your friend will wipe your tears all the times you do. If at times you don’t feel like talking, your friend will sit by your site quietly but not leave you.

A Friend is God’s gift to Life. So you better handle your gifts with care. Unfortunately in most cases that I have seen, people realize what they have let go off only after losing their closest friend/friends. Well, it doesn’t mean that you’ll have to be sugary. Just be yourself. I mean everyone has their own share of arguments and quarrels. It’s a natural phenomenon and a healthy one at that. Where there is love, there is room for some problems and misunderstandings as well. Moreover the world we live in gets shallower day by day.

The trust two people share play a major role in changing and breaking friendships. However, it even depends on how credible your friend thinks you are. If your closest friend is filled in by a third party (irrespective of whether the source is credible or not) that you have snitched about that friend secretively. Your friend has two options, though being your closet pal that stage shouldn’t otherwise arise.However if your friend doesn’t believe then it will only make your bond a 100 times stronger. But if your friend chooses to believe, BAAM!! It’s the beginning of your end with your friend. When doubt seeps in your friends mind regarding you, it only means trouble, more trouble & even more trouble.

I will explain it in a simpler way. A sky scraper 105 stories strong is only cement mixed with water with out its foundation. If the foundation happens to deteriorate the 105 story building would crumble into a pile of fine dust. In the same way trust is the foundation of friendship. Doubt is the first step towards distrust. Hence if the foundation gets weak and shaken the relation will just shatter to pieces.Trust is what holds the relation and pulls it together.

If your friends can believe others over you then your friend never deserved you to begin with. You should be thankful to those that save you from such toxic friends. Even if you were to give your friend benefit of doubt, anyone genuine enough who would really give importance to your friendship will always approach you and will want to hear the truth from the horse’s mouth itself.If ever you have come across such a friend or if god forbid you ever happen to please do remember that reality is not what we perceive it to be, but, unfortunately reality is bitter & most of us don’t genuinely realize it. We live in a world of illusions, where everything is based on hope, where faith can move mountains, where god sees all and knows all and bad times are followed by good times. Beware of friends who are all talk and no show, they are the ones to be wary of..

GOOD TIME CHARLIE!

If the previous type of friends disheartened you then you better get your act together before venturing ahead..

The worst kind of betrayal or usually given by friends who are closest. But, this is My Personal Opinion. The best way to find out who your real friends are is during the time of a crisis. It’s an old saying, “When a ship is sinking, the 1st one to leave is the rat”. Its really heartening to find out that if god forbid you were to be stuck in a life & death situation, with minimum chances of survival, & at that point, your best friend, childhood chum, buddy, pal whatever you may call them were to leave you in the middle of nowhere and then without looking back even once, would walk away forever, what would be your plight?

Well I’ll tell you from experience. You won’t mind dying physically when you you’ve already died from within. That’s exactly how I felt. I hope it doesn’t ever happen to anyone. Please be wise in choosing your friends and even wiser in selecting whom to trust.I hope this article has served some purpose for at least one person.

Good Day People !!!! God Bless!!

Love and Regards,

Aarti Kapoor!!

Urdu Poetry: The Language of Love

Introduction

Ever since I can remeber I have been pssionate about poetry and urdu poetry has always topped the list. Its simple yet sutle. The reason being the softness of this beautiful language. Many of you may never even have heard of Urdu Poetry before, and even fewer of you may actually understand its nuances and meaning is. This article is a humble attempt to give you some basic knowledge about Urdu Poetry. This wtite up is a humble attempt to give those of you who are interested, some basic knowledge about Urdu Poetry.

A Bit About Urdu Poetry & Poets

Many of you may never have heard of Urdu Poetry before, and even fewer of you may know what Urdu Poetry actually is. This article is a humble attempt to give you some basic knowledge about Urdu Poetry. An appropriate place to start at would be the Urdu language. Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language that is spoken by an estimated 250 million people in India, Pakistan and neighbouring South Asian countries. Urdu is the official language of Pakistan and is the major language in some Indian states. But the language is not confined to the sub-Indian continent; Britain has one of the biggest Urdu communities in the world today. The Urdu language emerged in the 13th century in North India as a mixture of the Hindi language, other local languages, and the Persian language that was brought to the area by merchants and military men. Many Arabic and Turkish words have also been incorporated into Urdu. Its colourful mix of elements from many languages is the main reason for its highly poetic nature. Urdu Poetry traditions are deeply rooted in time, but like with many other types of poetry, a firm starting point simply cannot be established. Some of the major literary influences for later Urdu Poetry can be traced as far back as Kabir (1440-1518) and Amir Khusro (1253-1325 AD). Urdu Poetry is a melodic and elegant type of poetry whose major themes include human feelings, nature’s beauty, and the passion for love. A majority of Urdu Poetry is written in Nasta`liq calligraphy, a beautiful Perso-Arabic script. Since Urdu Poetry is very popular in India, where there are many people who can understand Urdu but are unable to read the Nasta`liq script, many of the poems have been translated into the Devanagari script that is used by Hindi speakers. With the advent of globalization, there are even some Urdu poems that have been written in Roman Urdu. Roman Urdu is simply the Urdu language written using the Roman alphabet. Poets of Urdu Poetry use a pen name which is called a takhallus. The takhallus will normally become a part of a poets real name and is added at the end of it. In Urdu Poetry, the takhallus is incorporated into the last couplet of the poem to act as a sort of signature. Mushairas, or Urdu Poetry recitals, are entertaining events where poets perform their works. The Mushaira is a deeply-loved and cherished part of the Pakistani and North Indian cultures. At a typical Mushaira, several invited guest poets will sit along a long table at the front of the room, just like you would expect with a panel of judges. There is one host who will invite each poet to perform his work. The audience participates by calling out “va” at the end of important couplets. An Urdu Poem is essentially composed of couplets, or pairs of versed lines that rhyme and have similar meters. One couplet is called a “Sher” and many couplets are called “Ashaar”. Although Urdu Poetry is characterized by several basic ingredients, there are many different forms of Urdu poems.

(Coutersy: http://www.amazines.com)