Religious Tolerance

What does religious tolerance mean to us ? Why should one take time understanding it ? Here, I feebly try to explain what I mean by it:

We are all entitled to our own religious stance - whichever religion that we choose to be a part of and associate us with. In fact, going by the trend these days, there are a lot of people who are not religious, but believe in spirituality, and there are atheists, who are not even spiritual. What is important to note and what is also given in the Bhagavat Gita, is that the relationship that one has with God is personal and something that is unique to that person. What we as humans, can do is to accept this difference and lead more tolerant lives.

Religion is something that has been coming down for generations and almost every religion in the world has got its set of holy texts which claim  to be either the voice of God Himself, or the voice of the messenger of God. The difference is a fine one and ultimately means the same thing. Claiming that these books are absolute truth (the voice of God himself). Each one in his own religion must undertake a study at some point in his life to go over them in its native form and form his own opinion about them.

The problem I think today is that most of us only hear opinions about religion from Godmen of that particular religion and although we must at no point argue that their teachings are wrong. They too are opinions that are based from reading spiritual texts. The same texts that are available to each and everyone of us in that religion. The whole point of a religion is that we should agree to one another's view atleast inside that religion.

That being said, when someone doesn't stick to the pattern followed by everyone else in that religion, we tend to push that person towards what the majority does. Yet, if we are tolerant, we will respect that person's stand and let them be. The main thing to note that although both of you are following the same religion, and having the same God, same holy scriptures, yet, your relationship is different. That is in itself, is the basic teaching of any religion.

“There is no right or wrong, all there is, is the fact that we agree to disagree”

Now to the more touchy topic of respecting other religions. When someone is firmly rooted in ones own religion, other religions might seem irrational, inconclusive and even unacceptable. Yet, almost every religion has some basic underlying concepts that are universal in nature. These principals like: being kind, generous, not hurting others and so on as present in every religion. What we must see is that even though we might not accept other religions, we must respect them because all of them are a tool to attain religious well being and to live a more peaceful life on this earth.

I think that although religious leaders should be allowed to preach their teachings and religion, they should not claim that their religion or method of living is superior to others. It might be more appealing and might have more acceptance but that does not mean that everyone else is wrong. What religion to should be, is a set of concepts that if, you agree by, then you are following that religion. To at any point, state the such and such religion is not correct or against you is a sign of a person not being tolerant or enlightened enough to accept the different stance because ultimately, religion is personal and your relationship with God is also just as unique as someone else's.

Ultimately, what I would request everyone to do is to support each other through the time when each one of us are finding out who we are, what it means to be spiritual, or to follow a particular religion. It is unwise to push someone on any side of the field. What we can do, is to offer our opinion and let that person decide. I wish to everyone reading this article that they try to be more tolerant.

So, next time, when you find yourself in a tense situation where you have to interact with some who doesn't share your belief system and probably is lashing out at yours … take a step back, smile, remember the greater good of all religions is the same and merely agree to disagree.

God Bless.  

Born on this day.

Written on the night of my birthday: June 24th, 2012.

Life has bigger plans for all of us. You don't have to believe in this yourself but then  events, people and situations might convince you to believe so.

Loss is irreplaceable. That is the beauty of loss. Yet, we all are stagnant in it. But we shouldn't, we should be changing not being stuck on our losses. Loss is tied closely to pain and that is something we cannot avoid. My advice on dealing with loss is to avoid the pain and ignore it by keeping yourself busy with other thoughts. To not think about it at all. It is then, through cracks in the compartmentalization process that the really important parts seep out. The part that makes you grow and not the one that makes you want to cry. I have no idea if this is the best way to go about it. It is not that everyone displays their personal results while going through loss. But, this being the way that i have seen people dealing with it has almost always worked. Perhaps the magnitude of the loss also matters. Perhaps if one encounter a loss so great that nothing can be done about it, one can not keep it at the back of his mind, and then the best way to deal with it would be head on. But what if in this head on collision, one gets scarred permanently ? It is something that we should think about. We should hope that we don't have to bear a loss that is too great.

Greatness is not an easy path, it is not a path that is well known. The reason for its unknown nature is that all of us focus on the results. All great men emphasize about the work that goes into it, but we do not see that part. We are dazzled by the glamour. We should remember that the part that is not spoken often enough is the one that is most important. A couple on page in a autobiography, one minute or two in a biopic movie ... That is that part that doesn't look glorious. No one would want to hear about it. We just want to look at the results and be in awe of it.

Now, faced by difficulty, we do not know what to do. Faced by loss, we do not know what to do. We should hope that there is a path, there is a part of the puzzle, there is a past we can relate to in our future. All I want to say that, its okay if we don't have friends, if we don't have a very happening social life, because if you reach success, it will not matter. No one will ask how this phase was and you can ignore it and live in the present of that time. And the number of friends that prop up once you are successful is amazing. It will never make you feel lonely after.

I remember, reading in my history book, that Napoleon was made fun of quite a bit and he nearly cried in the library because they did  not believe he could make it. Napoleon was apparently too short. Yet, he was one of the most influential men in history. To come from a point where everyone makes fun of you, to a point where everyone respects you is a journey that he probably went through friendless or at best with one or two close companions. Yet, we will not see that or think about it when we are faced with difficulties. None of us are exceptions to the rule, we are the rule. We cry at adversity when i should realize that it is a challenge to equate ourselves with great men and women who have been faced with profound sadness in their lives. Indeed, looking at it from this point of view, we should be happy that we have some loss or some reason to be sad. It gives us the opportunity to rise back and prove our worth. Not only to prove to everyone else who has been cynical of our talents but more importantly, to our own minds, for doubts often clouds our minds about our capabilities.

Lastly, I just wanted to say that the passion for success or the passion to become great comes from probably 3 sources (there might be more).

1. Is the passion in itself - when you love something a lot, you are already motivated to work towards it and you do not need a push as such.

2. Is at the face of some misfortune - It is strange that most people who are faced with significant amount of misfortune are the ones that are successful. I think there is something about being in a almost hopeless situation, makes your brain focused. and makes you take "all or nothing" risks because you have nothing much to lose in the first place. I think that is important because that helps one along the steepest curves in the path to achievement.

3. In the face of enmity - there are several occasions when people will come to you and say that you will not make it. At that time, you would want nothing more than to achieve something and scream at their faces. That sometimes drives us to achieving something. It might even feel nice to flaunt your achievement for once in front of them. Yes, this might be considered cheap or insignificant way of doing things. But there will always be people who question your motives and reasons - no matte what you do. A prime example of this rule is Chanakya whose main reason to rise to success and install his disciple as the king was the enmity that he had with the previous king.

There are three more things that are equally important. I think that they are interrelated to each other, but I would try and state in different ways.

1. Peace - one must try and find peace in everything that he does, it might be the most annoying thing in this earth, but still it is important to you. Taking a deep breathe and try relaxing. It will get us through even the worst of situations.

2. Compassion - we must put other people in front of us. It is important when to do it though. You shouldn't do it when you are making important decisions about life. Do it in your day to day activities, that exhibits character and is something that you and the other person will cherish. We should cherish it because making someone else happy makes us happy and that in turn is better than being selfish because there is a little voice within each one of us which tells us that we could have done things better. I think it is only fair that we listen to it at times and get things in better order.

3. Courage - It is one of the most important of human personality traits. Merely having thoughts about godwill or having the desire to do great things is never the only thing required. It takes great amount of courage to overcome that initial inertia. I am talking about that hesitancy that we see when we want to help a stranger in distress. And then we walk away wondering why we did not do it. Courage helps us taking that first step - the first step outside our comfort zone.

Dedicated to Kiran Swami Chandramouli - always alive in my heart. :) <3

Problems the world faces.

-- Intro --

Just a few random thoughts:

Most of my friends and I think that there are two problems that the world is facing (mind you, there are many) but then these are the two basic ones that I think lead to everything else. These being psychological, can bring about a change in every other aspect of everyone else's lives.

-- body --

1) Loss of common sense and the ability of think: I think this is because of the fact that technology has eroded into our lives every single day and that has made us couch potatos of sorts. Think of the last time that you have remember somone's phone number. We even use our cell phones to store a todo list, thereby lessing the use of our memory. Its not just memory, but the fact that we are being fed so much information on the net and otherwise also that it leaves no time for thinking or processing that information. The fact that the quality of internet content cannot be monitored leads to children becoming too mature at too early a stage or that they think they know too much already. Indeed, the next generation might have more information, but I think they will have lesser knowledge.

2) Loss of interaction and loss of human values: Also related to computers but slightly different from the point above. Facebook can be called "social" media, but its not the most social platform. The feeling of having a cup of tea with your friends and just talking and chilling is something that the next generation will miss on. Indeed, in Calcutta, the whole "para" culture is dying down and one part of it can be attributed to the internet. For 10 year old to have facebook accounts and spend 2 hours per day on that, rather than going outside and playing or calling your friends and talking to them will lead to a loss of social values. Pretty soon we would not know how to behave in social situtations and how to communicate verbally because everythign is shifting online these days. Indeed, when schools start teaching how to type and write at the same time, any kid would find it easier to hit keys on the key board than to take a pencil and write.

-- conclusion --

At the end, would like to say that we really do need to re-evaluate technology, computer and the effect of social media. Friends and me using phrases like "y u no" and "my gusta" in every day conversation does have a far reaching consequence and that is something that we need to stay out of. the essence of human beings is being human. That is something that the online world kills if it goes on at this rate.

Lastly, adults however are in a better situation to negate the effects that i;ve said above. That is why, the above post related to minors using computer/internet. That is something we need to look into right now.