Gods and Goddesses of Nainital

  From breath to Breath From life to death Life is a room with six doors A life where the choice is yours Doors to doom and danger Lust, greed and anger Bright are the other three Love, truth and simplicity From the author of - The Babaji Affair

A view of Nainital and Naini Lake ( Photo by Jasdeep Sethi)    While everyone agrees that Nainital has become over congested and there is a need not just to stop new development but also relocate some of the existing one that is choking the hill sides, no concrete proposals are even being studied for it. Some promising areas for relocation are on the road to Bhowali or around Hanuman Garhi. However another very promising area is the location around Khurpa Tal. Geographically it is a very close to Nainital.  However, the existing road to it through the hills increases the distance considerably. What would be required is to connect both localities by the construction of a new road to it  involving a tunnel of about a quarter of kilometer length through the hill. The other side of the hill towards Khurpa Tal would then be a walking distance from the flats, the central location of Nainital. Presently much of the area around Khurpa Tal is used as farmlands. ...

There are some who believe that there is a mystic Babaji who is deathless and roams about in the Kumaon Himalayas hopping from hill to hill. Some even thought that Baba Haidakhan about whom there are several posts in this blog (see links to the left) is that deathless Baba. As regards that it is only the soul that is deathless, all physical bodies are transient, they are born and they die. Even the planets and the universe are transient. May I quote from another blogpost on this, "It is really very surprising how humans in this age of science and logic can believe, without the slightest shred of evidence, that there is a young Babaji who roams and hops about in the Kumaon hills and never dies! or for that matter a Lochness Monster or a Himalayan Yeti" http://ashokmalhotra.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/truth-about-yoga/

What Babaji of Nainital said. T he Himalayas have been a source of spiritual knowledge since ancient times. It has been the abode and/or origin of numerous saints, mystics, including the Great Buddha; and according to Hindu and Buddhist Mythology also of gods, goddesses and Bodhisattvas. Certainly if a location has to be chosen for that in the world it has to be The Himalayas as the Highest mountain chain of the world and also the most conducive to life and beauty. In 1970, a youthful saint of around twenty, called Baba Haidakhan or Babaji lovingly by his disciples appeared in the Nainital District of Himalayas. He died in 1984, even as he had said while he lived that the body is meaningless and transient but the soul lives on. While he lived, he lovingly and joyously demolished certain fallacies and myths about yoga that were spreading in the world. It was a time when there was a great interest in yoga in the west. Certain popular sects were propagating myths about yog...

 The Babaji Affair Hi, my new book - The Babaji Affair - has just been released by Amazon.com. Persons who find eastern mysticism and spirituality interesting are sure to love this book. The cover image is of me sitting in a boat in the middle of Naini Lake of Nainital. www.amazon.com/Babaji-Affair-Dr-Ashok-Malhotra/dp/149232955X/

Until a century ago, cannabis and its products were a legally and freely available in India. Presently it is an Illegal substance. This plant is indigenous to Himalayan region and its consumption has been common amongst hermits and mystics of the region since ancient times. Although it has been made illegal in many countries over the past century, it appears that it is less addictive than tobacco or alcohol and less likely to produce harm through improper use than alcohol. On the other hand when appropriate varieties of it are used properly this plant also has great medical benefits as well as meditative ones. Mystics have found it to be an aid in their meditative and spiritual pursuits. With the declaring of this plant as illegal, it lost its respectability around the world and was looked down at as a harmful drug. However, a recent documentary on CNN and the findings of Dr. Sanjay Gupta has gone a long way in restoring the respectability of Cannabis. It has either been leg...

There is much more on the Mother goddess in other posts of this blog for example here http://nainitalgoddess.blogspot.in/2012/11/sunanda-goddess.html The post contains a comprehensive view of the Mother Goddess as known in Asia, influenced by the spirituality of the Himalayas, the highest mountains in the world.