Ananda Marga Community is rich in writing skills. We wish to list those publications that are inspiring and useful. Ananda Marga Publications is working to publish the works of P.R. Sarkar as well as those works that are in line to Ananda Marga ideology.

Swami Muktananda's Sour Cereal

Neohumanism Is the Ultimate Shelter by Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar

Today’s humanity has no doubt made some progress in intellect, in wisdom, and in rationality. Human beings came onto this earth about a million years ago. The feelings and sentiments, hopes and aspirations, frustrations and disappointments, cares and anxieties, pleasures and pains, tears and smiles of the present-day human beings are almost the same as those of the primitive humans. The difference is that the emotions and feelings of the present human beings are deeper than those of their ancestors.

The philosophers of the past used to say that human beings are rational animals. They used to believe that the only difference between humans and animals was that the former were endowed with rationality and that latter were not. While it is true that humans are rational beings, it is not true that animals are completely devoid of rationality. You must have noticed that domesticated dogs certainly have some sort of rationality, and that they are guided by more than just natural instinct. By coming in close contact with human beings, a dog learns a lot. It learns what to do, when to do and how to do. This is a kind of rationality. Hence, it is not proper to say that humans are rational animals. In doing so one does not do justice to human beings.

Makes 8 scones

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup organic granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold butter
1/4 cup cold cottage cheese
1/4 cup cold buttermilk
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup pitted Medjool dates, coarsely chopped (about 8)
1/4 cup pomegranate arils (the edible red seed-like pieces of fruit)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped cashews or walnuts
Milk and 1 to 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw), for sprinkling on tops of scones

Procedure
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place oven racks in top and bottom thirds of the oven. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Honey Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Pomegranate Glaze

Potatoes:
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (about 4 1/2 cups)
2 teaspoons olive oil
3 tablespoons honey
2 sprigs fresh thyme
salt and black pepper

Pomegranate Glaze:
mix 2 tablespoons pomegranate juice with 1 tablespoon honey OR
mix 2 tablespoons pomegranate juice with 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

If you prefer, you could substitute 2 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses* for the glaze.

1/4 cup lightly toasted chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons pomegranate arils

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking dish or sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean up.

Water Conservation
25 March 1989, Calcutta

At the beginning of this earth, there was absolute silence – there were no living beings or even plants. This condition continued for hundreds of millions of years, until the earth was properly formed. Then a phase came when rain and storms started, and by a gradual process, life emerged. As a result of the rain, carbon atoms got infused with vital energy (práńa shakti). Carbon atoms along with protoplasmic clash and cohesion formed this vital energy.

Bhakti, Mukti and Parama Puruśa
23 November 1970 DMC, Hyderabad

The subject of today's discourse is “Bhakti, Mukti and Parama Puruśa”. [The existence of] living beings, and especially of human beings, is based on four principles, four fundamentals: physical; physico-psychic; psychic and psycho-spiritual; and pure spiritual. These four strata are known as caturvarga in Sanskrit. But human endeavours and human expressions are trifarious. Existence itself is based on the fourth one, that is, the spiritual one, so there cannot be any expression in that stratum.

Dhruva and Adhruva
14 November 1965 DMC, Calcutta

What is Dhruva? That which is ever-fixed, which is a certainty, that which undergoes no metamorphosis, no change, is called dhruva. That is, dhruva is that which is not subject to mutation or decay, which does not change its position, which does not deviate from its original stance.

Peach Cobbler

Nothing says summer like peaches. Good summer desserts should be able to be made with little fuss: a pile of fragrant, ripe fresh fruit, local if possible from a roadside stand, and a few staples from the everyday pantry. After eating your fill out of hand, a lightly sweetened stewed fruit filling can be topped with a roughly-shaped layer of plain old-fashioned biscuit dough. Probably peach cobbler is the most popular of the genre. Cobblers probably get their name from the method of spoon-dropping biscuit dough over the fruit, which bakes up into a lumpy, cobbled effect of golden-brown, sugar-crusted shortcake. The dessert is deceptively simple, with a balance of sweet and tart flavors. Cobblers tend to be juicy rather than thickened like a pie.

Orange French Toast

Genevieve’s Sour Cream Coffee Cake

This is nothing like a delicious piece of cake, sweet and moist after dinner or a potluck buffet. This recipe called Crazy Cake also goes by the name of “Wacky Cake” or “Folk Art Cake”, due to its roots in American baking during wartime when many basic foods were rationed. To vegans and AMarg vegetarians, it is more rational and wonderful than wacky. This moist chocolate cake recipe was developed sometime in the 1940’s and was popular due to it not having eggs, butter, or milk. With the rise of popularity of vegan baking, these old fashioned home recipes are coming back into mainstream kitchen consciousness again. It is a easy-to-prepare cake that can be mixed by hand (no mixer needed) right in the baking pan and in the oven in minutes. And it turns out perfect.

You could call this the Brassica vegetable dish since sturdy turnips, rutabagas, and broccoli are all members of the same family that include cabbage and kale. The root vegetables are often passed by for easier to cook leafy greens, but are a powerhouse of nutrients and very distinctly flavorful. The rutabaga is a cross between the turnip and cabbage found growing wild in Scandinavia, where the cooks make lots of different dishes containing them. Turnips were considered the most important food after the pulses in ancient Rome, as they were insurance during times of famine. No one knows where turnips came from; they were a wild vegetable growing all over Europe and Eurasia. If you have never enjoyed broccoli stems before, get ready.

Manicotti pasta shells are sold in 8-ounce packages containing 14 tubes, all laying contently in their individual beds of molded plastic to keep them from shattering. When I was learning to cook, manicotti shells became one of my favorite and most successful casseroles. The fact that my vegetarian boyfriend went crazy for them every time I made it certainly inspired me (thirty years later I can still show up with a pan of these manicotti and he expresses the same delight before devouring). The shells do not need to be precooked, unlike most pastas for stuffing, and this eliminates a messy, time-consuming step that always irritated me anyway since pre-cooked pasta is so slippery and breaks easy.