something to think about

2006-07-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I do not wish to hurt the sentiments of any person - living or dead, theist or atheist. Other than the facts stated here, the rest is mere speculation and the opinions may vary from person to person. If you do not agree with the opinions presented here, please do not get personal, instead use the comments page to put forth yours.

Every event needs a catalyst; a seed that sets in motion a chain of events, each leading to another in perfect harmony, a balance so delicate which even the smallest of disruptions can destroy. Ok.. ok.. I admit, the introduction is a bit too eloquent when the event in question is just a blog. Anyway, moving along; the seeds in this case were the words written by Tolstoy, those that were written out of a desperate need to convey a message so truly believed in, those words that were suppressed out of fear by the men in power, those that would cause me to spend over fours thinking.

Religion. Something that has influenced the course of human history to a greater extent than what our feeble minds can ever comprehend. It has changed the way we think, our morality, our concepts of right and wrong, influenced culture; and in short, it has defined us. Even science has been, more often than not, subservient to this giant. It is only in the past few decades that we have, to some degree, managed to separate the two.

The modern day notion of religion seems to be quite different from that intended by the sacred books. We have confused religion, which was supposed to be a way of life, with a set of rituals and holidays. The true message of religion has been slowly pushed behind the curtain, leaving only a few rituals to take center stage. Let us look at Christianity, which by the way has the largest number of “followers” today. All that the average Christian, as a follower of his faith, does is go to church every Sunday to pray and to listen to a few sermons, baptize his kid when he/she is born, marry in the “true” Christian fashion, observe a few holidays, exchange gifts when required and confess his/her sins to the priest every year and believe that now that he/she has done so, he/she is cleansed of them, and proceeds to commit more. Is this all that is left of Christ’s legacy of non-violence, forgiveness, chastity [I guess he went a bit overboard there], etc? If films and culture are any reflection of reality, the fact that “heroes” often kiss the cross and then go off to kill people, should give us something to think about [pun intended]. There seems to be a complete contrast to what most people perceive religion to be and what it actually is. This is exactly what Tolstoy was trying to convey through these words -

“Then he is instructed that on holidays [the day that Christ was born – though no one knows when it actually was, the day he was circumcised, the day the mother of god died, the day an idiot hallucinated, which for some unknown reason has become more popular than the others] he must dress up in his best clothes, go to church, buy candles and place them in front of images of saints and pray. Also, according to this faith, it conduces to the salvation of the soul, to make pilgrimages to “Holy lands” and kiss “miracle working” icons. Is this religion?”

This seems to be the case with most religions nowadays, not only Christianity. Even though most people claim to be religious, there are very few real followers. What was supposed to be a path that would lead to a good quality of life has been distorted to such an extent, that today it is little more than idol worship. When and why has this distortion occurred? The answer to this is quite complex and encompasses a wide range of topics from politics and hunger for power, socio-economic factors all the way to the fear of standing up against society.

The atrocities commited by the church, in the name of god, during the middle ages is an excellent example of people trying to gain control over the masses. They would go to any extent - homicide disguised as "witch burning", sentencing/ threatening people like Galileo with death, so that people dont question the authority of the church. To indulge in violence, they naturally had to dismiss the non-violence part of the bible and convince the society of the same. The role that socio- economic factors plays is evident in the "gifts" that have to be given to brahmins during pujas and other auspicious days. I am not saying that charity is a bad thing, but the fact is that as time progressed, people started believing that giving charity is enough to achieve salvation of the soul and slowly dispensed with the other albeit more important messages; and they were of course encouraged by the "brahmins". Or for that matter, look at the pujas that are performed - they were in all probability initiated so that the brahmins would have a sustainable income from the financially rich, at the same time acting as a source of hope for them. Again, this is something that pushed the actual teachings to the background and convinced the people that praying was enough, and that actually following the teaching was unnecessary. As far as standing up against society is concerned, one simply does not want to hurt the feelings of his compatriots and hence the topic of religion is mostly sidelined.

We are now observing the slow death of the so called "religion" simply because more people are turning away from something that holds no real value. I just hope that the real religion, which in fact is really promising and worth following, does not take a battering.

PS - I did not feel the need to mention Islam here, cause the ridiculous way in which it is being mis-interpreted is quite obvious.

2006-06-28T05:37:00.000-07:00

Seldom do we pause and think about what we have accomplished in life so far, and figure out where we want to be, the heights we want to scale, the things we want to do. We are so caught up in the eternal rat race that we have converted life into, always running from one milestone to another, we forget which ones really matter. Take a moment and look around you, see how many people are doing what they really like, what they dreamt about as a child. You will find that the number is dismally low. All those dreams that we used to lapse into during the boring classes at school, where we would picture ourselves as astronauts flying towards the stars, or as scientists or as writers working on the book that would win the next booker prize, where have they gone? These dreams reflect our true passion, and yet we sacrifice them just so that we can reach that next milestone. The most distressing part about this is that, the milestone for which we have given up all this, in the long run, simply does not matter. The blind rush towards making more and more money, working day and night just so that the stock value of some company goes up by 4 points, is that really what matters? Can our entire life's work be summed up in just one single sentence - he/she helped increase the profits by 90%. What can we say and how do we answer that child, who dreamt that someday, he/she would be a poet.

We have ended up centering our entire life on that piece of paper, the one with Gandhi’s picture on it. Wonder what he would have said if he knew that people would give up everything they have - life, family, friends and go to any extent, even murder, just to acquire that piece of paper. But the question still remains; does money actually deserve such a high status, which the capitalist economy has bestowed upon it? Is there no other aim, no other goal nobler? It is in our inability to answer this question that we placed money up on that pedestal. We have begun measuring the success of a person by the amount of money he has, but does money alone signify success? This is where I feel that the society has gone astray. By giving that piece of paper so much importance, we have condemned ourselves to an eternal rat race; from which the only way to get out, is to bring it down from its high stand. Society has, for long, perceived money as being synonymous with happiness and success and it is this perception that has to be altered. This is, unfortunately, something that is not possible overnight. To change the outlook of the entire society, we must first try and change that of an individual.

We have, long since said that money is not everything in life, but have we ever seriously tried to look deeper into that statement. I feel that the answer to that child lies in here. Remove those pair of blinkers that causes us to move only in one direction, and we will find that fewer of us will have to answer to those children. Most of our dreams will lead us onto the roads less traveled, making the monetary rewards uncertain. This is what we have been unwilling to face, and instead opt for careers where the financial gains are abundant. Effectively, we sell our hopes and dreams, the very characteristics that make us human, for cash, making it the ultimate Satan’s pact. The freedom, which we all fight for, seems to be in vain, because we ourselves are willingly entering into slavery, replacing one master with another. There are very few in this world, who resist this and go on to fulfill their dreams. These are the people who are successful, not those rich CEO’s or their hotshot lawyers. We, in our failure to realize this fact, often look upon that struggling poet or that musician with little more than sympathy, and say, “ Poor guy, has misplaced his goals”, when it is in fact, only he, who hasn’t.

To change this situation, there are two things that are highly essential - the willingness to take risks and the guts to go against the norms of society. Most of us prefer a life of certainty, so that we know where our next meal will come from. It is obvious that if you give a poor guy a book, he would rather use it as firewood than read it. But at least, once our basic needs are met, we should risk following our dreams. Time would be better spent, a lot better spent, if we did so; and in fact it would be criminal if we did not. If we spent our entire life in the blind and unceasing pursuit of money, when do we get time to actually enjoy it? I believe that happiness comes from doing what you love and not from having more cash than you can spend in a lifetime. The multitude of the current society would of course reject this, and probably mutter, "This guy is crazy"; but this is where the willingness to stand up to society comes into play. I hope that the time will come when people accept this as common sense, and cease to serve a fickle master.

This is something that has plagued mankind for a very long time, and I believe that it is about time we cut the chains with which we have bound ourselves. Life would be a lot more fun and adventurous if we did so. Please don’t regard the above thoughts as the product of a deranged mind, instead take some time off to think about it.