Things I ponder....
Bhaiyya once wrote to me this...He wanted me to think on these lines
"Has Mr. God something to with Hindu? Religion has nothing to do with god.
God is not a religious guy and he has no religion.
Sixty years ago there were no Pakistanis or Bangladeshis, till we divided this country into different parts. Before we divided Earth into continents, there were no Asians, Africans or Europeans, and we just had people of one earth. Before divisions were created, a source of thought existed and that had no divisions, so how can we give a religion to a source of thought?
This division into Christians, Muslims, Hindus is dangerous because we are all human beings. This division has created only miserable people. a miserable human being will make a "miserable father, sister, mother, son, teacher, or a miserable follower of this religion or that god. If all are happy, the colour of one's dress doesn't matter at all. Dress here signifies race, color, creed etc.
Only if we understand this we can be better citizens of the planet Earth. Everybody should love himself/herself. A garbage given to us is that loving ourselves is selfish. That is rubbish. On an airplane, if the cabin pressure falls we're asked to first wear the oxygen mask and then help the child. That is not selfish, because if we want to help somebody, we must first find strength in ourselves. Only then we can help others. Only if we love ourselves first we would know what loves would mean to others as well."
I wrote back asking...
"More than the isms, the world has now come down to a level of beliefs and rituals. That is part of your and my day to day routine. If Bali is not given, Gods will curse. If the family deity is not paid its regular due of pooja and austerities then something bad will befall. More than rationality, we have become more and more accustomed to such beliefs that have been passed on to us.
The passing on of things also, mostly we do it to please the 'elders' no matter how our own rationality opposes it. We call it giving "respect". Giving respect to what - to their feelings. what about our own feelings then. Do we "respect" ourselves then.
In the process of pleasing a few, we often end up hurting few whom we love and funnily we end up asking them to forgive and forget. Aren't those qualities ever present with the elders? For the favour of a few ununderstanding we "under" "stand" the ones who are forced to understand our inability. In short - we take the ones we love for granted.
In the whole fiasco, our question of understanding comes to - Understanding what? Understanding the unknown. Which unknown? Almost everything is unknown.
So which is reality? Our beliefs should determine our action. For the sake of external we put up masks on our face. One to please people who believe. One to those who believe but would like to put a mask in front of us. Where is our real face? Where are our real beliefs?
If our beliefs are real, then why are we forced to comply to others beliefs. If their beliefs are real, why aren't we convinced about it. If our beliefs are real why aren't we able to convince them.
Further more, aren't we going to pass on these beliefs. A flicker of a lamp is considered inauspicious. A Mispronunciation of a verse is inauspicious. Our hearts flicker. Aren't we passing on these to the next generation.
We are neither this nor that. Ultimately we end up believers of things we never wanted to believe because over the years of mute compliance in the name of respect, we have trained our rationality to fall in place with something which we now know to be false and later accept as ways of the world. It rightly befits to say "That's the way we are brought up" (that's the way we will bring up our children too) "That's the way it is" (Because we don't want to fight it. Just meekly accept it - For sake of respect, for sake of peace)."
Well, the thought is still on...
"Has Mr. God something to with Hindu? Religion has nothing to do with god.
God is not a religious guy and he has no religion.
Sixty years ago there were no Pakistanis or Bangladeshis, till we divided this country into different parts. Before we divided Earth into continents, there were no Asians, Africans or Europeans, and we just had people of one earth. Before divisions were created, a source of thought existed and that had no divisions, so how can we give a religion to a source of thought?
This division into Christians, Muslims, Hindus is dangerous because we are all human beings. This division has created only miserable people. a miserable human being will make a "miserable father, sister, mother, son, teacher, or a miserable follower of this religion or that god. If all are happy, the colour of one's dress doesn't matter at all. Dress here signifies race, color, creed etc.
Only if we understand this we can be better citizens of the planet Earth. Everybody should love himself/herself. A garbage given to us is that loving ourselves is selfish. That is rubbish. On an airplane, if the cabin pressure falls we're asked to first wear the oxygen mask and then help the child. That is not selfish, because if we want to help somebody, we must first find strength in ourselves. Only then we can help others. Only if we love ourselves first we would know what loves would mean to others as well."
I wrote back asking...
"More than the isms, the world has now come down to a level of beliefs and rituals. That is part of your and my day to day routine. If Bali is not given, Gods will curse. If the family deity is not paid its regular due of pooja and austerities then something bad will befall. More than rationality, we have become more and more accustomed to such beliefs that have been passed on to us.
The passing on of things also, mostly we do it to please the 'elders' no matter how our own rationality opposes it. We call it giving "respect". Giving respect to what - to their feelings. what about our own feelings then. Do we "respect" ourselves then.
In the process of pleasing a few, we often end up hurting few whom we love and funnily we end up asking them to forgive and forget. Aren't those qualities ever present with the elders? For the favour of a few ununderstanding we "under" "stand" the ones who are forced to understand our inability. In short - we take the ones we love for granted.
In the whole fiasco, our question of understanding comes to - Understanding what? Understanding the unknown. Which unknown? Almost everything is unknown.
So which is reality? Our beliefs should determine our action. For the sake of external we put up masks on our face. One to please people who believe. One to those who believe but would like to put a mask in front of us. Where is our real face? Where are our real beliefs?
If our beliefs are real, then why are we forced to comply to others beliefs. If their beliefs are real, why aren't we convinced about it. If our beliefs are real why aren't we able to convince them.
Further more, aren't we going to pass on these beliefs. A flicker of a lamp is considered inauspicious. A Mispronunciation of a verse is inauspicious. Our hearts flicker. Aren't we passing on these to the next generation.
We are neither this nor that. Ultimately we end up believers of things we never wanted to believe because over the years of mute compliance in the name of respect, we have trained our rationality to fall in place with something which we now know to be false and later accept as ways of the world. It rightly befits to say "That's the way we are brought up" (that's the way we will bring up our children too) "That's the way it is" (Because we don't want to fight it. Just meekly accept it - For sake of respect, for sake of peace)."
Well, the thought is still on...
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