~ Reflections ~

My typical retort to anyone who said that they don't believe in God is whether they believe in 'What you give is what you get'.... because anyone who believes in this fine balance of life cannot deny the existence of the almighty.. whatever name might chose to attribute... But a discussion with a friend recently gave me a eureka moment... while I was seemingly smug about the realization of the existence, I seemed to be making the same error when talking about the form.  Till then, I always believed in the existence of an almighty, but was almost proud in declaring that I don't believe in the current propagated forms, like a Ganesh, Christ etc. Instead I believed in the Nirakaar  or Advaita form. But now I feel like a fool.. the existence of God, her form or the idea of her being formless is all the say. It is just a way we choose to perceive the almighty, or whatever you to choose to call her... The more I think about it, the more obvious my ignorance appears to be... H

I know I have harped on this issue one too many times in the past ... but nothing seems to be enough... everyone seems to have such strong and uncompromising views on the issue, that it is difficult to explain your views.... But reading this article  in Livemint really struck a cord... The underlying essence of each and every religion is the same... believe in yourself and have faith in the Almighty (irrespective of how you address your Almighty)  and be an honest person... the rest will just follow.... However, more than half the battles in the world seem to be fought over who the true Almighty is. People tend to associate religion with identity, and hence the lack of a firm choice on the first seems to affect the other. The author Natasha Badhwar  rightly points out "Often a question about identity is spoken as if it is a judgement in itself. Sometimes a question sounds like an accusation. It is fired to prove that any answer you give will be deemed wrong. Others are

All of us have our notions, or imagination, about god... Almighty exists... he doesn't ...  He runs our life... we do.... He has a form... he is infinite... He lies in that corner of that room called a temple... he lies within me.... Whichever form/format one prescribes to...  Whichever belief or non - belief one lives with... It's a choice best made by one self... It would be wrong to question the others belief or instigate the other...  However, it is equally important to respect other peoples thoughts on the issue... Somehow, we find it so obvious to explain our status/ line of thought on the issue that we often try and convince other to align their thought... Whatever else might be different, but we are all human (or are atleast trying to be! )...  And that should be enough to bind us... Belief might be important, but isn't there a bigger commonality between all of us which should ideally be sufficient to co-exist...

I was suddenly reminded of an earlier post of mine when I read about the recent controversy Sonu Nigam got caught in. Loudspeakers at religious places have always been a pain, and suddenly now, media seems to have caught wind of the problem. I hope people like Babu Khan , who are fighting lone battles on the issue should be get more support from the public. Maybe that will set the right trend. As The Supreme Court rightly pronounced earlier, no religion prescribes that prayers should be performed by disturbing the peace of others nor does it preach that they should be through voice amplifiers or beating drums. Despite all the noise (literally) around this issue, The noise persists... I wonder if we can ever learn.

A friend recently shared these quotes with me. Made a lot of sense. “An Atheist who refuses to enter a temple because he doesn’t believe in God actually does so because he believes there is God inside Temple.” “A Theist who prays to God, actually has no faith in God because he prays for God to do things his way, instead of trusting God’s wisdom and not praying at all.”

I have a specific complaint with Indians (pardon my targeting citizens of just the subcontinent... but here is where I've witnessed it !) Whether it is a bhajan/kirtan session.. a puja to celebrate a festival.... or a call for that day's namaaz ... or a sermon being given by a famous priest.. we have learnt to use microphones to the most....  It's as if we want to tell everyone around us what we are upto...  I always thought connecting with god, or atleast attempting to, was a very personal intimate thing... which is why it amazes me when all of us attempt to advertise these dialogues with god... I understand, that in today's world, everything needs publicity... from a tiny chewing gum to a man's ego... But I am always left wondering if the communication would have been more effective the other way... Afterall, how will you get peace of mind, when you are disturbing the peace in other people's lives..... PS: I am sorry if I hurt anyone's sentimen