Discovery of Life

Kanav turned two and a half years just 2 days back

Every day in the morning, I try to leave for office before Kanav wakes up. But if he is awake, Preeti either takes him for Brushing his teeth or tries to do something innovative to divert his attention from me, for if he witnesses me leaving the house, it would become difficult to control him and he would just cling himself to me.

This sequence started from only couple of months and I don't even remember from when. Life is extremely continuous and with negligible knee jerks which sometimes make me look like the complete lifetime has been lived in present and the past seems to be a different life altogether. I and Preeti often wonder as to what was our life as a couple before Kanav and I am sure after our second kid this October we would be wondering about our current life with Kanav alone.

So much has been recited about living life in present that anything what I say about discovering life seems to be completely Bourgeois. But what happened today morning just cuts through this bourgeios from the surface and shows me as to what we call "the real discovery of life".

As usual I was about to leave office and was late. Suddenly Kanav came through his room, half awake and seeing me, he ran to occupy my lap. I winked at Preeti to do the obvious and Preeti on the pretext of playing with him took him to the kitchen. He saw me packing my office bag and suddenly said - "BYE PAPA". The moments of discovery are just Eureka and this was nothing less.

I and Preeti were just zapped and momentarily looked at each other with astonishment. While preeti sent Kanav along with his nani into the ground, I just can't stop myself exclaming that my kid has grown intelligent. WHY IS IT NOT A WEEKEND? I so much want to play with Kanav.

Manish

Religion or Culture

After seeing The Pianist, Kapil exclaimed "Why would these oppresed ones really believe in God during those times? Where was God at that time? Do these people really didn't believe in God? I am ashamed of being human!"
This was not the first time I heard these questions. I have myself questioned my faith and logic I don't know how many times. But Khalil rightly says "Faith is an oasis which cannot be reached by the caravan of reasoning".

The same day, I received a mail from a friend of mine in Malaysia who is an ardent follower of Sikhism. A few excerpts of the mail......I would like to share here -

" Its a very rare that a religious leader of one faith has laid down his life
for that of another religion. Principle, practices and rituals of Sikhs are
totally different than those of the Hindu religion, but even so Sikh
believed in the FREEDOM of people being able to practice whatever religion
was their choice.

Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji gave his life for the existence of TRUTH and JUSTICE.
The Martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji showed people that fear must not be
allowed to come between man and his love for freedom, justice and
God.....

Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji scarified his life but had not bowed against any
tyranny.

[Give up your head, but forsake not those whom you have undertaken to
protect. Says Tegh Bahadur, sacrifice your life, but relinquish not your faith]

Sawed alive and boiled alive and those who made sacrifices in the service
of the centres of the Sikh religion the Gurdwaras but never wavered in
their faith and remained steadfast in the cause of Sikhism to the last hair
of their body and to their last breath,
O, revered members of the Khalsa order, concentrate your minds on the
glorious deeds of those, and utter, glory to Waheguru."

I thought over the words in the mail again and again for Religion and God is the domains I really love to explore to their intriguing depths.

In my article http://msaini.blogspot.com/2006/09/is-it-possible-to-live-without.html sometime back, I had organized a few thoughts of mine which always cropped up now and then. But this mail helped me arrange my thoughts together once again.

300 years back when Guru Gobind Singh ji laid the foundation of Sikhism, he believed that Religion is a very powerful means to unite people for a cause.

But I strongly believe that in time this line of philosophy has been utilized more for notorious reasons than for any good. This has sent people commenting that “Religion is the Opium of the Masses today"

As I have said and as people also believe that Guru Gobind Singh ji lay the foundation of Sikhism as a religion– This is actually wrong. I am sure, that a person of his stature and vision would not have wanted this because he knew and had seen that what had happened to the religions. And this is the only reason that he said that from every house the eldest son would serve the Guru and his People.

Moreover, in my previous article I have said - "None of the people who are “Supposed” to have started a religion wrote down their analysis (which people term as preaching today); they merely shared it with others verbally. These analyses were merely based on empirical study and the validation was always in progress during their lifetime."

The last sentence of the previous paragraph falls under this category. Guru Gobind Singh ji always wanted humanity to follow the "Culture" of "Truth, Justice and Sacrifice". He never asked everyone to become a SIKH.

These tenets are stressed and re-stressed again and again in every Vaq of Guru Granth Sahib.

This holds true not only for the 10th Guru, rather all the Gurus propagated the same thing. So when we say that "Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji gave his life for the existence of TRUTH and JUSTICE", it is a perfect statement but when we say that "Its a very rare that a religious leader of one faith has laid down his life for that of another religion", we definitely missed on the teachings of the Gurus.

I still believe Sikhism to be a culture.....and not a religion. At times when it becomes difficult for me to find a guiding path in the Hindu philosophy (which is because, the continuous exposure of this philosophy to interpreters over more than thousand years has diluted it badly making it difficult to differentiate between the truth and the interpretation of truth), I turn to the Sikh culture to find my way.

Thank God that I am still born at a relatively earlier stages of a wonderful culture which is in a process of becoming a full fledged religion to be played with and exploited by the majority very soon.

Glimpses of this transformation you can see right now in the political struggle at the Takhts and pure commercialization of devotion (please visit Huzoor Sahib to see it).

I was very pleased to see one of the Temples going to the basic tenants of Hinduism - Faith and truth; and shunning off the wrapper of religion from itself in Hyderabad. Chilkur Balaji Temple, 35 kms from Hyderabad would be a good place to understand what I have tried to express.

Manish Saini

Is it possible to live without a Religion?

Yesterday, I happened to read an article by Dilip which made me go into the philosophical mode. I concur with Khalil when he says –

“Thought is a bird of space which in the cage of words can unfold its wings but cannot fly”.

but still instead of letting the conversations which I had with myself die down, I thought of penning them down.

Thought 1 –

Is it possible to live without a religion?

Thought 2 –

What is a religion?

- Till date, the world is struggling in finding out an appropriate definition of religion. But I believe a religion to be a set of thoughts, principles, facts and behavior which guides a person to overcome his fear of the unknown.

Thought 3 –

Why do people fear the unknown?

- Fear of the unknown can be used interchangeably with the fear of change.

Thought 4 –

Then why do people fear from change?

- No one fears change by birth. Rather a child is the best explorer. His sense of exploration is overcome by the feeling of fear by two things –

o When his explorations yield results in form of physical agony which for a child is a disincentive to further explore the source of his agony e.g. when child touches a heated press.

o Unknowingly parents would induce this fear within the child through punishments e.g. the child is scolded when he picks up a sharp tool like a razor or knife. Even though it might be for the good of the child; but a child is a very fast learner. When he finds no reward in exploring things like “the burning effect of fire”, “pain of a cut by knife” etc and instead is always garlanded with punishments, he gradually stops his exploits to please the ones who give him comfort – his parents. He starts depending on his parents for an art which they have long forgot – “Exploring the unknown”.

- As an individual starts depending on others to tell him what is good for him and what not - he starts fearing the change and the unknown whenever he has to face them by himself.

- Whenever needed, he would turn to someone for advice who has been introduced to him as an expert in that field.

- In the event of a lack of any expert (Guru), he turns to the set of thoughts, principles, facts and behaviors which someone spoke of at some point of time and which are now encapsulated in the form of a religion. These thoughts and principles act as a lighthouse for him not only for his day to day fears but also to his gravest fear – “Death”.

- We get introduced to a religion normally by our parents and peers. Some get chance to explore them and some don’t. But ironically, majority is formed by those who haven’t even explored the first religion they were introduced to. They simply rely on others to tell them that this religion is right so follow it.

Thought 5 –

This means that the purpose of every religion is the same?

- Yes.

Thought 6 –

Then, why so many religions?

- Years ago, someone must have sat down and done some kind of philosophical and psychological analysis and derived a few facts shortlisted a few principles to follow. Some of them we know; like Buddha, Mahavir and other learned men of their times. Sharing these analyses of theirs might have benefited quite a few men who shared them further. If you take a closer look into the history of most of the religions, you would find two common things across them –

o No two religions originated at the same place and around the same time period. Moreover, the same religion took time to spread in the region within the vicinity of its origin. The major factor can be attributed to the lack of the highly sophisticated communication network as the one we have today. (Man...., thats why I love this add).

o None of the people who are “Supposed” to have started a religion wrote down their analysis (which people term as preaching today); they merely shared it with others verbally. These analyses were merely based on empirical study and the validation was always in progress during their lifetime.

- As people slowly realized that these thoughts and principles are a panacea to all their worldly problems, they started following them in a dutiful manner. Herd mentality is not the problem of this century. It’s been there for long enough to get supporters for any new religion.

- Now as times were different, people (Preachers) were different, places were different and there was huge communication barrier in terms of geography - thoughts cannot be shared. This meant that someone with a set of analysis in India would not know that a similar analysis had been done in China by someone else. And hence religions kept on increasing.

- There is another reason too – As no one took the responsibility of the propagating the religion formally, it was a kind of mass movement which brought people together. History tells us that gradually as leaders, kings and politicians realized the power of these movements; they tried to use this power in their favor. This is how a religion started to corrupt and divide. The growing corruption made people loose faith in the movement they originally belonged to and started switching to the relative new ones which were relatively free from the evils. And thus the vicious circle just continued forever.

- The involvement of the powerful persons of that time in a particular religion, helped propogate it to far of places because of which some of them have survived e.g. Ashoka endorsed what Buddha had said, Constantine supported Jesus’ preaching, and Aryans supported what was written in Hinduism and so on. I am sure, there were more such religions started but being not endorsed by powerful men and due to the lack of enough masses behind it, they became extinct. Whatever religions we follow, see and hear of today are the ones which at some point in time found a mentor in the powerful men of their times.

Thought 7 –

But with the presence of the huge communication network, if you can share all your thoughts, ideas and principles with every living being-

Would this corruption go away?

Would people realize the real meaning of Religion?

Would the number of religions decrease?

Would there be no more new religion hereafter?

- This is quiet a troublesome question for me and I haven’t got any logical answer to even after pondering over it for quiet a long time. I believe the answer to the last question shall give me an answer to all the others. It is a very high probability that I might not get the answer in my lifetime if the answer has to be positive.

- But one thing I am sure of that Dilip might have got disillusioned by religions because of the corruption that crept in with time but I am sure that living without a religion is out of question (assuming my definition of religion)

Religion and School

The media today sells only if it can create confusion and whole lot of hulla boo around a minor event happening in some corner of the country.
For the record – it is very difficult to make out what actually happened in the first place but during a regular assembly prayer at more than a century old school in Lucknow – Loreto Convent, over a dozen students fainted after what can be called as–“manifestation of Lord Jesus Christ in physical form”.
Strangely enough people seem to be discussing the separation of Religion from school which in Indian context seems to be absurd for -

• Name a subject from which you can take away the 'Concept' of God and hence 'Religion'. –


• "Maths" - Try Explaining the divine Ratio "Phi".


• "Hindi" - What would it be without 'Kabir and Surdas'?


• "Science" - One cannot have a conceptual understandig of the subject at all without questioning the beliefs and superstitions which are part and parcel of one's religion. This only subject raises student’s interest in validating the theory and Concept of God and the only place which deems fit for this research is Religion.


• India has been known to be the land of origin for the famous "Gurukul" (Parampara) style of teaching. This style of teaching which is highly respected and still followed in India had the roots of religion deeply ingrained within it. When the media raised hue and cry on Professor Sabbarwal's death, the only question it targeted was the "Guru-Shishya" Parampara, which itself had its genesis in the aforementioned style.

In the absence of data, when the media raises questions like – “Are these schools centres of conversion?” it degrades the century old image of such institutions for cheap publicity. Instead it should thoroughly probe into the history of the School and find out the total number of cases of conversions in the school in the past.
Religion is a personal choice and not a society imposed thing. Parents sending their children to schools like Loreto Convent are themselves quiet educated and aware of the schools teaching methodology. Rather, they have to share the load of the studies of their children and hence are involved in the day to day activities of the school themselves; resulting in a automatic third party monitoring of the school activities. They do not require the Bajrang Dal Vandals for this purpose. If the school is resorting to any sort of mischief, all sane parents would withdraw their students from the institution.
Learning under the shadow of multiple religions does not result in students converting from one religion to the other, rather it cultivates “Tolerance” within them; the absence of which is the root cause of world’s biggest problem today – Terrorism.