States affected by the Gulf oil spill have made a call to their citizens to pray to God for help in averting the disaster. Need we really experience peril in order to call on God?

A few days ago CNN reported that state senators in Louisiana had proposed a day for prayer against the oil spill that has devastated the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster on 20 April 2010. “Thus far efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail, it is clearly time for a miracle for us,” one of the state senators said.

The Louisiana senators designated 27th June as a day for citizens to ask for God’s help dealing with the oil spill. Their resolution calls on people of all religions throughout the Gulf Coast “to pray for an end to this environmental emergency, sparing us all from the destruction of both culture and livelihood.”

What does spiritual science tell us about the phenomenon of capturing ghosts in a bottle? Is it possible?

Recently the news of two ghosts captured in glass vials with stoppers and soaked in holy water captured the curiosity of world media. The ghosts were reported to have been not only captured, but also sold at an auction in New Zealand for almost $2000. There has been subsequent debate on whether the captured ghosts were for real.

This is not the first time that sale of ghosts in a bottle has caused a bit of a stir. A few years ago a mill-worker from North Ireland set up a similar sale on eBay, and one man in Florida has even set up a business of selling ghosts in bottles which are captured by professional ‘ghost catchers’ around the US.

Having gratitude for what has been given to us by God is an important aspect in the development of spiritual emotion. A few days ago, I witnessed one such example of gratitude.

Living in an āshram (hermitage) where SSRF has its research centre in Goa is not like living at home. It is a very spartan lifestyle and the frills and luxuries that are available to us at home are not available in the āshram. However seekers of God transcend their need for these luxuries as for them, the benefits of living in an āshram, far outweigh worldly luxuries with respect to the āshram providing a conducive environment for spiritual development.

While shooting the first episode of Horrifying Supernatural Encounters, I developed a feeling of closeness to the deities of the Absolute Cosmic Elements of Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. As the supernatural phenomena were taking place because of higher level negative energies using the Absolute Cosmic Elements we needed to explain what they were in the documentary script. While writing the script I would mull over how best to explain this concept and visualise it to a lay person. I often found myself in prayer to the deities of the Absolute Cosmic Elements asking them for guidance in writing that part of the script as I felt ill-equipped to do the explanation justice. I felt a deep sense of gratitude and privilege to share this knowledge about the deities of the Absolute Cosmic Elements with the world. It also deepened my appreciation for Them as they are the building blocks for the entire Universe. The production team spent quite some time in preparing a segment of the video…

We know that God is Omniscient. Saints are the manifest form of God. They have qualities related to spiritual practice, but most Saints do not have knowledge about worldly matters that is useful in spiritual practice. To my knowledge, H. H. Pande Maharaj is the only Saint who is an exception to this rule. Without thinking, He can instantaneously provide new perspectives on any subject like art, sculpting, spreading Spirituality, classes on raising children in a sattvik (spiritually pure) way, satseva related to collecting offerings through advertisements.

Science has failed to predict calamities which have never been experienced before. Saints, on the other hand, have predicted such things.

On the evening of August 20, 2009, the Canadian city of Vaughan (just north of Toronto) got hit by a series of tornadoes. The tornadoes were completely unexpected as the “Tornado Alley” of the region runs much further west of Vaughan. A later search on Wikipedia showed that there hadn’t been any reported tornadoes in Vaughan up until then.
I was interested in this because while I live in Toronto, and …