Related Posts
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Apr2021-To-Freedom-Mastering-our-Tools.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
In recent years we seem to see an increasing number of people across the world calling to sharpen the fine boundary between technology employed to serve humanity, and that which takes over our freedom. We have smart phones and watches that make our lives easier, or sometimes more complicated… leaving users sometimes lesser and lesser capable, while devices become ever more sophisticated.
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Apr2015-Inner-Freedom.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
Freedom is a concept that has always preoccupied mankind. We all want to be free; but free from what? Do we really know what kind of freedom we are looking for or how we can reach that freedom?
We are going to use philosophy to investigate and to understand freedom with an emphasis on inner freedom, which is more important and valuable than the physical freedom that is popular today. Inner freedom is the freedom of our mind, emotions, and actions. What are those forces, which prevent us from finding inner freedom? What are the factors which prevent our free thinking, free feeling and free action?
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Apr2018-The-Secret-Truth-of-Ceremony.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
Last year we had a very special gathering of philosophers in Mumbai, and I had the privilege of looking after the meals for this wonderful event. A volunteer was helping me and I remember, as we started our first tasting of the many meals to come, she said, “Let’s make this tasting a ceremony!” Suddenly the whole atmosphere changed. We took our spoons from the chef with attention and care, and slowly scooped up the dish at the same time. We smiled as we put it into our mouths, savoured the wonderful cooking and declared it excellent! The chef was delighted as indeed were all who watched. A mundane task was turned into a memorable and meaningful one. What a joy!
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Apr2023Path_to_Victory.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
History is an extraordinary showcase where different ideas have appeared and given rise to many different ways of life, like coloured crystals whose hues vary according to the light. Each age has its parameters, and human beings, on their endless path of searching, have been ruled by those models, which they have tried to follow and obey more than they would follow an idea from any other source. What is commonly accepted becomes like a law and, as time passes, some of the ideas that have been accepted become even more powerful than laws themselves.
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Jan2019-Grace.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
Grace has become an old fashioned word, graciousness and courtesy have become old world values, almost valueless in today’s environment. The world has gone über brash. Billboards extoll the ‘virtue’ of Attitude, with a capital A: “Wear your Attitude,” screams one, as though attitude were an aspirational achievement! A young generation has grown up with an exaggerated sense of privilege and entitlement. If you say ‘please’ or ‘thank you’, people look at you as though you were an anachronism. We are encouraged to be ‘go-getters’, to demand, to seize what we consider is ours.
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/July2015-The-Best-Changes-Start-with-Ourselves.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
There is no point in compiling yet again a list of the situations afflicting everyone all over the world, because the media have already taken it upon themselves to broadcast them, and because, by repeating them, we only make the evils bigger without finding solutions.
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Jan2017-Philosophy-for-Living-Unesco-World-Philosophy-Day.jpg?resize=256%2C141&ssl=1)
Today is a special day; it is the day that UNESCO marks as World Philosophy Day. It is great for us to be able to celebrate philosophy. Especially, since we shall also use the opportunity to launch a book written by Delia Steinberg Guzman (Honorary President of the International Organisation New Acropolis), entitled Philosophy for Living. She has written quite a lot of books, published and translated in many languages. This is the first one that is translated to English, and I am very happy that we have this opportunity today, to launch it together.
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Oct2015-The-Inner-Mirror.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
Today, as the myth of equality is losing force, it is easier to appreciate the wisdom of the ancients, who affirmed that all things and all beings have a different existence. More than that, even within the same person it is difficult to find two identical states of mind throughout the course of a day, a month or a year. Unfortunately, apart from the exceptions
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Apr2023Dare_to_dream.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
This story was created by the volunteers New Acropolis India as a part of our 16th anniversary celebration. It shows the idea that to build a better world, we need the courage to first imagine it, and then conviction and persistence to make it come true. We need to sow the seed, which we then need to nourish for it to grow and flourish.
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/oct2022-Qawwali-Call-of-the-Spirit-Cover-scaled.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
This article serves only as an introduction to the legendary origins, metaphysical purpose, and the traditional form used in the practice of Qawwali. It would be impossible to capture the cultural nuances, complex history, and social impact of the genre in this brief work, but I hope to share some principal themes that have emerged from my own amateur investigation, to help the reader embark on their own exploration of this magnificent Sufi practice.
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Oct2016-Living-in-Interbeing_1.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
In the journey of life as we grow in consciousness, we start to become aware of a certain truth that dawns on us as gently and as lovingly as the first rays of the rising Sun – that we are all ‘One Life’, deeply connected to each other in mystic and mysterious ways.
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Oct2018-The-Myth-of-Unending-Progress.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
The term “progress” derives from the Latin “progressus” which means, quite simply, the action of going forward. It is a mere illusion of the senses, intoxicated with hope, the supposition that every forward movement is synonymous with improvement, happiness and joy.
The arithmetic progression of 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. does not mean that 2 is better than 1. If we humanize the process, it is evident that everything will depend on the quality rather than the number, for only a fool would prefer to be given two beatings instead of one.
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Apr2018-Life-Lessons-from-the-Amazon.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
The brief time that I recently spent in Peru’s southern Amazon Forest, really opened my heart to the beauty and infinite wisdom that nature has to offer. The potent combination of heat and humidity makes the Amazon the largest rainforest on Earth, with over four hundred billion trees, 16000 different species, growing in the region1. The unpredictable murky river, and the dense tree cover that envelopes the jungle renders the forest floor almost completely dark. It gave me the impression that beyond the obvious abundance of life, the unique biosphere contained deep mysteries, revealed only to the traveler willing to embark on an inward journey.
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Apr2021-The-Right-to-Speak-Right.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
The topic of freedom of speech has been much in the news in recent years. On one hand, there are those who view the freedom of speech as an inalienable sacred right (especially when it comes to their own speech…) that should not be infringed upon by other people, institutions, governments or corporations, regardless of the consequences or content of what one says. On the other end of the spectrum are those who want to “cancel”
![](https://i0.wp.com/theacropolitan.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Jul-2023-Mumbai.jpg?resize=256%2C256&ssl=1)
Mumbai has been my home for the past 45 years and this article is about my experience of the city which has shaped me and made me into much of what I am today. I received my shiksha – educational qualifications here; it is my karma bhumi – where I first started earning my living and it is here that I embarked on the journey of my spiritual development.