Nat Yogachandra

This morning I sent a few Thanksgiving greetings to our friends back home in the States. After sending them, I came across an e-mail from Margaret Tash from Irondequoit , New York which I am going to share with you all. To me this reflects the true meaning of Thanksgiving. But, we also know that the marketers all over the United States use this occasion to increase their sales. This is the time when families and friends gather and say Thank You for their love and friendship.. But,we must take sometime to reflect on the spiritual significance of thanksgiving with the following words of Abdu ’l- Baha , son of Baha ’u’ llah , Founder of the Baha'i Faith. Abdu'l - Baha shared these thoughts when he visited the United States in 1912: “Thankfulness is of various kinds. There is a verbal thanksgiving which is confined to a mere utterance of gratitude. This is of no importance because perchance the tongue may give thanks while the heart is unaware of it. Many who offer thanks to Go...

Conference on undocumented children a Bahá'í point of view Recently I attended an Inter-Faith conference and panel discussion on undocumented children organized by Assumption University’s John Paul II Center for Catholic Social Thought at the University’s JOHN XXIII Conference Center, Suvarnabhumi campus in Bangkok, Thailand. This was organized in collaboration with the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace, Vatican and Rev. Bro. Dr. Amnuay, Director of John Paul II Center, invited members of Catholic, Jain, Islam, Judaism and Bahá'í Faith to represent and discuss what the relious writings say on undocument children. I enjoyed the presentations given by representatives all all Faith. My dear friend, Mr. Jayabalan presented a paper on Bahá'í Faith. First of all I applaud the efforts of Rev. Br. Dr. Amnuay’s efforts and the leadership of Rev. Bro. Dr. Bancha, President of Assumption University in organizing the forum for various religions to unite and discuss the pr...

Climate change is already reponsible for 300,000 deaths a year Let your vision be world-embracing, rather than confined to your own self Cyclone - South Asia - (courtesy: International Herald Tribune ) It is a very disturbing report.  I think we all should take this “warning” very seriously.  According to the Guardian Weekly, a think tank headed by former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, climate change is already reponsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is affecting 300m people. This first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming from the Global Humanitarian Forum projects that projects that increasingly severe heatwaves, floods, storms amd forest fires will be responsible for as many as 500,000 deaths a year by 2030, making it the greatest humanitarian challenge the world faces. Economic losses due to climate change today amount to more than $125bn a year. The report further says that civil unrest may also increase because of weather-related even...

Recently, I came across an interesting blog ( www.elikamahony.com/blog ) of  Ms. Elika Mahony.  I am taking the liberty of sharing a post entitled, “A violently Shaken World.” “Our world has been violently shaken in the last couple of weeks.  Thousands have suffered and countless lives have been lost in China and in Myanmar.  So many are suffering and many others are looking for explanations and trying to make sense of these catastrophes. From the wise counsels of  Abdu’l-Baha  I have gleaned the following:  In times of tragedy we are reminded that we are one human family, all with the same needs and all suffering from the same pain.  We also see how tragedy brings out the most noble side of humanity: strangers and friends alike arise to offer help, to contribute money and material goods, and to pray for their fellow human beings who are grieving and who are suffering.  Providing hurricane lamps to the fishermen families in the Eastern part of Sri Lanka immediately after the tsun...

A  new Learning Center is now opened in Cambodia I have a great news to share with my friends. Very recently, my family visited a small village in Battambang province in Cambodia where my daughter Natascha officially opened a Learning Center built by the Hope is Life Foundation. We were so glad to see more than 100 children in the village who will now have access to some form of education. The villagers, the Chief District Officer, Head of the District Education Department, the Head of Village Council village children and many of our friends attended the opening ceremony. It was a proud moment to all of us. The school is now officially opened.  Village children waiting for the guests arrival Visitors and children posed for  group picture during the opening ceremony After enduring nearly three decades of brutal warfare and the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodia still remains one of the poorest countries in the world. During Khmer Rouge’s rule, it was estimated nearly ...

Regional Bahai Conference in Battambang, Cambodia I was delighted and happy to spend a few days in Battambang recently with my wife Debbie. I attended a Baha’i Regional Conference, where some 2,100 members of the Baha’i Religion from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam gathered in this Cambodia's second-largest city for a historic conference that had citizens of all four nations sitting side by side to discuss service activities in their communities. It was very spiritual.  An Official Representative of the Government of Cambodia is seen                                                     delivering the opening remarks I was also amazed by the efficiency of the Cambodian friends, especially the the youths to organize such a large gathering in Cambodia.  This gathering was one of a series of 41 Baha'i conferences being held in major cities around the world. The events began on 1 November in Lusaka, Zambia, and will conclude on 1 March in Kiev, Ukraine. ...

Unity of all Religions Why are we fighting among each other in the name of religion?. The purpose of religion is to unite mankind and establish peace and unity among people of the world. But it is very unfortunate to see people are divide and fight against each other in the name of religion. Just recently, in India,  it was Hindhu against Christians in the Orissa state, and Hindhus against Muslims in Kashmir.  Just a few weeks ago, at least 16 people, mostly Christians were murdered, several churches destroyed and nearly 10,000 Christians became homeless in the State of Orissa, India because of religious war between Hindhus and Christians. According to International Herald Tribune , the missionaries built schools and hospitals, and their work persuaded many Adivasis and ethnic Panas, who belong to a Hindu lower caste, to convert to Christianity. The region turned into a hotbed of communal strife after hardline Hindu groups, who accuse Christian missionaries of converting peopl...