Thursday, April 29, 2010

Rediscovering India rediscovering yourself

Stories of explorers and archaeologists discovering evidence supporting the existence of faith , religion , spirituality and belief in a superpower (God ) aren’t unheard of .The search for truth is no different for followers of Hinduism than it is for preachers of the other faiths. Then again is it?

We have often criticized the way of life “Hinduism” and religious texts advice Hindus to follow, while the criticism is necessary in itself, in doing so we have neglected the very depths of our own history of thought. Hindus have always been conscious of the concept of parallel universes, a world divided into Maya and Truth, by the Gods. The division of men into castes is no longer relevant and yet we are constantly aware of these divisions made by man 

.Despite the error of our ways, there is one thought that has perpetrated our minds for centuries. The belief that God is within us, the knowledge that we are responsible for the life we lead and awareness of a power that guides us , this power is not just above , it is the power inside .For a lot of people who refuse to believe in God , the image of God for them is that of a magician , someone who ideally “should”  treat ill people , fight evil , and perform miracles .God cannot solve all our problems, what God is capable of doing is ease our problems not by a miracle but by giving us strength , strength to deal with the situations in which we call him for our assistance. He or she is the torch that enlightens us . Haven’t we often compared our parents and Gurus with God? They cannot perform miracles though at least not in the literal sense of the word. We do not need to search for God, or see him,he is always around us. However, listening to him can help steer clear most obstacles. Listen to his voice. The above discussion isn’t specific to Hinduism, the discussion is about sensitivity to a higher power. 

If you go exploring and digging up for truths and secrets hidden under multiple realms of our country you shall find - NOTHING for truth is seldom hidden, all has been laid out in the open. You don’t need to go to places to enlighten your soul, you don’t have to cross geographical boundaries, all you have to do is have some faith and take the leap into the realms of clarity, places without deception. Even as it isn’t necessary to go to different places, there are places where one crosses over the fragile veil between Maya and truth .The very soil on which we stand has witnessed all that has passed,one might argue that how different is one place from the other and I agree the soil is no different . The soil isn’t different but the air which we breathe is, what has passed on different soils is deterministic. Only when you clear the air of deception will you be able to  breathe in the true aroma of the soil which is nothing but the aroma of your own thought . This is what India teaches me everyday, despite the mirages that surround us , the truth is not hard to get to , for these mirages  do not hide the truth they simply co-exist , just as mythology and history do.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Thoughts put into words

The sun loves the earth for it doesn’t’t want to burn it, it stays away the soil loves the scavengers for which it produces and nourishes its bait , the trees love the birds for whose nests it grows its branches” \
These lines from Paulo Coelho ‘s book the “Alchemist” inspire me everyday , helping me find love , kindness and warmth in every aspect of life .
I have experienced various forms of love in life. I love my nation and always have. When I see that my India is still in such a bad state my heart cries. To me love means care and trust . If you expect anything other than care and trust from the person or thing you love then alas! You have never loved.

..
” Vasudhev Kutumbakkam”- the world is a family. I am fortunate enough to have interacted with students from different countries. I went on a foreign exchange program t a school in Stuttgart Germany . On interacting with them I realized that besides language we were no different from them . The very thought makes me remember few lines from Pablo Neruda’s (Nobel laureate) keeping quiet
“Now we will count to 12 and we will keep quiet for once on the face of earth lets not speak in any language and stop for one second
And not move our hands so much
We would all be together in a sudden strangeness”
We are all part of the same universal soul only when we come together as one does the heart of the world beat . I remember how my heart wept for all those victims of 9/11 and how I felt sorry for the victims of apartheid of whom I have read in my history books . The world is a family and I love my world like I love my family
It is impossible for me to separate books and love .I have always been fascinated by books and love to read them , it is my belief that all the stress we experience in our life can be swept away through books. We enter a world where we can be anything , anyone be it Harry Potter , Alladin , Kane from Kane and Abel, or even Alice from little women . Reading brings out in me a love even for those whom I don’t know as in the case of the characters of “A thousand splendid sons” and “Kite runner” by Khaled Hosseini .
Love is a virtue , it is omnipresent be it love of Romeo and Juliet , love between mother and child, love towards animals or love towards art and literature. Love is supernatural and yet a part of the very nature itself . Love is a flame which enlightens all , it is not fire hence it cannot burn anyone

What about Love

You are a song written by the hands of God - is how i will describe Love.... Micheal Jackson sings What about sunrise What about rain What about all the things That you said we were to gain.... I ask what about love .? We are so caught up in terrorism , earth crises , population rise .. so much so that we no longer remember what love is or so to say what love was . YOU might say that combating terrorism , controlling population , is a way to greater good to greater love, but in the drive to greater good we have forgotten the everyday good. What is love is a question some used to ask , but it has been replaced by what about love? as if it as something as common ans unnecessary as a nail. But to think that it is a nail is not a bad idea , for love nails the world together ,it is the binding force ( yes all you physicists it is like the binding energy in a nucleus-just way more powerful) . Einstein , Newton all tried to combine forces to get the universal force , well i am no Einstein but it seem s I have cracked the code , it is love that is the universal force . I have seen many form sof love , but moreover I have read love , heard love and seen love ( no i haven gone mas) Love is in books , music films , Yes in films too. Since love is like energy it can flow from our heart to our creations ,Some say love is more to do with others , to love someone else , But hear it from me , it is perfectly allright to love yourself , just make sure that you are not the only one you love. the way a jain nun roams the earth bare foot , sacrificial and unaffected by the gifts of life , is her love for spirit , it is not just an urge to be free of the cycle of love and death , it is the love for her spirit .A mother who has seen her brother send her own parents to old-age homes still gives herself totally to her children , this strong power is not just love for her children , it is the love for motherhood. Ambition is the seed of devil , some say but i say different it is not the seed of devil it is the love of satisfaction . One who is ambitious is on a journey to attain it , but the driving power in this journey is ambition ( which is love and not evil). Enough has been said on the forms of love , but liitle on the celebration of love , . You might still find Indian women over 30 secretly watching the same " dilwale dulhaniya genre" movie a forty fifth time . She watches these movies not to get a high or to watch others falling in love so as to indulge in self pity, she watches it to remeber the time when the same fire was alive in her ages ago and a part of the fire remains flickering excitedly like a spark. We are Indians but we hardly celebrate our love for a country , for love is not celebrated on some specific days( just as life is not celebrated only on your birthday) . We are progressing but not progressing in our own league , we compare our progress to Europe and USA, We always consider it relatively ,And in this relativity we forget what progress was and so we start to cheat or copy.It is awesome to go to discos , blog on the net do facebooking etc , but it isn't good to ignore your origin , either , it is a negation to your love for your country. To forget your heritage and to become mindless clones is not the way to progress and neither is it a way to love. Love your country by not peeing on its walls , not spitting on its lands , and most importantly by accepting it and making it better ( not making it USA making it a better India) . Most among us have different opinions on who really freed our country ,The NON-violence Clan of Gandhi or the Revolutionary clan of S.C Bose and Bhagat Singh .But all of us agree that whatever their methods were it was love for nation that lighted the lamps on those dark streets . There is so much on love and so much to say but I guess thee is more to discover and so I give you all the luck in discovering it , nurturing it and celebrating the song written by God -LOVE