Between the last blog I had written and now, there has been a series of things that had my thoughts in sway every day after another. Probably something that had been disturbing me for quite sometime now. Man has risen from the days where things were merely accepted as either truth or divine, and questioning it doesn’t make real sense, to this date where we have tried to answer every single question through science and technology; from the days of mere superstitions, to this day’s true knowledge; from the days where there existed much of barriers because of cultures, and thoughts which were never understood by the other parts of the world, to this day where information about them are just a few clicks away; from the days where people outside their borders were just thought to be aliens, to this day where friendships need have no boundaries; from the days where external communication was never thought to be possibly easy, to this day where communication couldn’t have got any better; from the days where what I wished to write could only reach a few, to this day when most of this world will be able to read and understand what I write. Sometimes I get carried away in this thought, to feel ‘Am I living in the golden era of civilizations?’. I know some of you guys might be laughing at me, like myself.
With so much of advancements in thought and action, there are somethings which I haven’t got a real answer. Don’t worry, I am not saintly enough yet to ask the questions like ‘Who am I?’ yet. Did knowledge give us real wisdom to segregate truth and falsity?, right and wrong?, wise and unwise? Are we knowledgeable enough to understand the sublime meanings of things? Have our thoughts grown enough to love everyone around? Hmm.. I do not really know the answer, though I have tried to tell you the hidden truth in it. Lol. But if the answer was yes, I shouldn’t have seen so much of fights, terrorism and blood shed in the name of religion, which I thought true essence was to spread love.
I hear every day in the news about some hundreds and thousands being killed from everywhere. The sickest part of it being, they have been killed by our very own men. Even animals would think twice to do that, if so what is the sixth sense of ours for. If all of us here are one species of creature, called human beings, why should we support something that is leading us to extinction. Be it our religion, be it our ego, be it our selfishness, why do you need it?
In this, if you feel that ego and selfishness are innate, I agree to a certain extent, I don’t want to digress talking about it now, but what do you have to say about religion? Something that brought people together, who follow similar ideals and thoughts, so many centuries back. I feel that anything that is not going to lead to growth of humanity; I don’t find any reason following it. I don’t find any more relevance of it in modern day scenario. If we are smart and knowledgeable why don’t we have wisdom and knowledge to agree to the ideals and thoughts what we believe in every religion and follow them, like what Gandhiji did! In your modern day, our education should have taught us this, but none had the courage to.
Are we finding reasons here to fight rather than to love, if we start loving why would we ever fight and if so why would any knowledgeable creature in this god-damn-world not do that. If you take religion just as a sense of your identity in this world, to me, I would love to portray myself as an ‘Indian’, at a higher level an ‘Asian’, a ‘Global citizen’ and more so as just ‘Homo Sapiens’ rather than a Hindu or a Muslim. I don’t mean to say that I have no belief in God. I truly believe in God (Super power), who is above all of us, but in one of his forms within us. He is in the form ‘love’. It is for you to realize it. Worship any diety, go to any chruch/temple/mosque, pray in any language, but show ‘LOVE, the god inside you’.
I wish to end this with ‘Merry Christmas’ wish;
عيد ميلاد سعيد وكالة [Arabic]
If you transulate 'Happy Birthday Esa', into Arabic you will se the above script while transulated back shows up as 'Merry Christmas'. I had an Interesting observation here, Esa means Jesus, and Esa also means Esan, Lord Shiva (Hindu God). If a muslim language can connect Hindu and Christianity, to say we are all just one and the same. What more can I say! Start Thinking and start talking about it to people around you.
India and Indians, I love you. Pakistan and Pakistanis, I love you too! After all you are my brother! :)
- John Vignesh Mohammed! (Would have loved to have such a name)
27 comments:
A great post... Very thought provoking... It is shocking to see that over the centuries, with all the technological 'advancements' , we, in fact have deteriorated... to the extent that people have the will and weapons to kill themselves and others!
And quite expectedly, the most feasible answer to this problem lies in the post below - education. Education that would light up youung minds, take them away from the pangs of poverty, liberate them from the clutches of viscious politics of greed & power and make them see the futility of such fights. Without that, we cannot hope to see the human race ruling the earth for long..
Wonderful post.. :)
PS :
It was quite interesting to note the signature on the post...
No better analogy to explain religious tolerance. When abbreviated, it becomes JVM, a concept that emphasizes the distinction between the idea ( read 'god') and the underlying system (read religion).
Thanks a lot krishna! Its an awesome observation, this is the implicit meaning i was talking about though i didn't exactly mean it! perfect example! Ya I too certainly believe that 'Education' is the only answer for this! and everyone should realize it soon! :)
Its a fact and known truth that, I still have to much much more to comment or criticize the world today.
Next to it, Thank you very much Vignesh, for such a great and thought provoking post. True, not many can do much to prevent and love others just with this one single post. But True, at the same time that you reminded everyone of their responsibility. you made us think about what I am, what I should give to others and what I should expect in return for my own acts?
Dude you at least remind me of what i am supposed to do. Probably I should continue commenting on this as and when i get some new thought.
For now, this is it from me
Thank a lot Vigno
But before i end i have a wuestion. When you think about love your fellow human, Christianity strikes in ma mind. May be because of movies i watched. But the same Christianity is being forced on other by some ...... people for some ...... reasons, showing money or something else...
How far is it correct. Isn't it also responsible for todays situations?
I wrote this comment, the next moment i read the post. I didnt review it, because i didnt want to influence my feelings. I want to tell what exactly i thought. Be it right or wrong.Be it contextual or not.
Once again Thank you very much John Vignesh Mohammad
a thought provoking blog..john vignesh mohammed!!!!i wish everyone read's this n terrorism is totally eliminated from their thoughts...
i'm really proud of you!!
with love,
mom:-)
Thanks a lot sumanth for ur comment! ya the basis of Christianity is love, and many of its principles were similar to that of Buddhism. Its even said that for a matter of fact that, Jesus lived his pre-jeruselam and post-jeruselam in India. We should be proud Indians! :)
I do agree with you that, the religion as it spread from the one to another would have been through a whole lot of changes, which might even faltered at few places. As you said its perfectly possible. But we should have the knowledgeable to take the right thing out for us. Religion is just a principle of your living. If you have a set of principles that you think are best suited for you and also for the ppl around you, you have formed a religion for urself. It s for ppl to follow it r not.
Thanks a lot amma and sis. Its yours and appas thoughts and ideals that are passed on to me. So more than me, you should feel proud of yourselves ma. :) Thanks a lot for comment ma! Yours and appas comment count a lot to me. Looking for his comments! :)
Its actually shocking that there aint any serious actions taken by many countries yet apart from usa to staunch the activities of terrorists who in their opinion are doing the most righteous things in the name of religion.i just cant understand their purpose of living when their sole purpose of living is to kill someone else or thesedays themselves.I really cant understand hw come something known as religion which was supposed to bring ppl together is supposedly acting as a motive for many horrible things.i am exasperated really and these days i am so bothered abt these things that i want to become "hitler" and club all the religions and """command""" them to live in peace or die without disturbing anyone around.i know i am being dramatic but i hope u ppl understand the essence of unity.i want to be a humanbeing and a global citizen more than an indian,hyderabadi or a hindu or subcaste "oc or bc or bc-a,bc-d.... and all such crap. .hw many of u all like to be the same?i am grateful to vignesh to have expressed my opinions.
An interesting blog...which asks every one to rethink about "What a religion is to them??"...and if u/we feel that LOVE is god. Do follow it in "practical".
I liked your New name ..:)!!
I wish there would be a Day where every body would say "LOVE Is GOD"...:)
Sad that not everyone thinks this way (Even the well educated ones..) I don't think current education system can turn things around.. Change has to be from roots. A revolution in education should wipe out current thoughts and seed new ones.. Basically formatting and reinstalling.. :)
A good time to pick up this topic, in the midst of the turmoils,( and midst of the vacations of course :))..I had just seen the movie 'Zeitgeist' which critically analyzes the basic roots of all these problems focusing on religion, money and education.I believe, Love and Hope are the best medicine for the fractured human minds.
Peace.
Harish(JHM nah.. I love my name.. LOL)
@mahender - nice to see your comments! I can certainly understand ur feelings and thoughts. But we cannot take those drastic decisions as you said, but can enrich ppl with knowledge about all this. This is a slow process but ll definitely succeed though. Education is the only healer to all this! Educate ppl and spread the thought. Thanks for ur comments once again! :)
@krupala - Thanks a lot for ur comment. I like my name too! :)
@Insider - APV, well said! That is in our hands though! :)
@harish - Perfect harish! I haven'y see the film though, ll try to see it soon. Thanks for the comment JHM! :P lol :)
We should respect the fact: 'Religion is for man, but man is not for religion'.When the technology advances, when so much of comfort come into our lives, its necessary to have an unknown strength that guides us. Any religion has its end at God whcih is the supreme power though the rituals may be different. When you say John Vignesh Mohammed, its just a name. My frank opinion: A name should never be related to any religion even if its with the good intention of religious harmony. Even if a person's name is 'biscuit', its just his identity,there is nothing more than that.
I appreciate the pain you took in writing your feelings which have made a change in some minds. That gives me more thoughts.Let me pen down sometime when I get time.(I know I should make time, or else it will never happen coz of my laziness :D)
well Vinny i m a bit late in commenting ...
A good blog which has the reputation to go into ur most memorable writings. "zeitgeist" was the word i remembered the moment i had an understanding of wat u were trying to deliver.
I recently read an article on some newspaper. It was on terrorism and the author was mentioning even animals would think twice before killing their fellow species. Where has mankind's 6 th sense gone. Ah.. and i noted we call ourselves manKIND. Something had gone wrong somewhere in the civilization setup.
I agree that Education and Love would go a long way in repairing this damage. Religion is something which binds people and the customs which every group of people have is one way to live in harmony. But somewhere in the middle MONEY became a binding power. Terrorism does not differ much when compared to capitalism. All these activities has a money motive behind it. If the terrorists are shedding their blood, they are forced to do so, coz of the economic conditions of the community they are in. I feel depressed when i understand the same EDUCATED guys with their MONEY power try to take advantage of such disadvantaged people.
Is Education in the right path of enlightening human beings ?? This is one question which must be put forth to everyone. I can't think if love and education would help improving the situation but refining education certainly would help. At the same time we might need to invent a way to overcome the binding which MONEY brings in.
i think i had swayed a lot in commenting my thoughts. But i ve typed evrything tht came to my head.
JVM ---->> a good mokhai :P :P a very gud one indeed..
@ Sherin - I totally agree and understand what you wish to say. Perfect to say, God is an unknown guiding force, but if its for the 'welfare' of the entire society. It is the best form God could ever take. Somehow its been heavily inculcated in the mind of few even for 'warfare' which seems not pleasing. So 'Rationality with God' is what education has to teach us. When I mean education, I just dont mean school/colleges. Its the environment and surroundings too, that he learns the most than the benches.
About the name, its the major way one identifies religion, as you say it should just be an identity, is what my cry is also for. But for now, I don't belong to that idealistic world! :) Thanks a lot for the comment sherin. Looking forward for ur thoughts to learn from!
@harish - Good comment! rather could say a good post! :) Actually i sat down saw 'Zeitgeist' y'day. A great thought provoking work. I didn't know how I missed it. Then I realise how tough it is for a good thing to reach ppl.
Hehe! Seems like man was never kind and they atleast wanted it in the name. manKIND, and it is us who name everything.. so we have those biases to happen. :) I dont know wat if some other creature named us, probably would have been like manSICK. lol. With the humour give it a thought.
I agree a lot depends on Money today, is perfect to cent percent. Thinking about society without it might be tough now within the span we live. The change that we could be the thought that is to carried to the next generation. The way seems the same. The change might be slow, but should be persistent. Excuses in the name of God should be stopped.
About the sixth sense, I have a lot to say.. which I probably would plan t write sometime soon. Usage of it probably seems the culprit.. lol. Thanks a lot for the comment da!
I find people mentioning again and again here that 'education' and 'love' can improve today's situation. We need to explore the sense and the reach of these two words. First of all, the education we receive today teaches us nothing related to human values/religion. We are not taught religion but only 'about' religion. That is why most of us do not know what is the essence and the goal of our religion itself is. For example, ask a hindu to explain any one verse/developed idea of any one of the scriptures of his religion. Mostly he will draw a blank. This is the state of affairs. Here, there is no way the surroundings will teach a person about his religion because very few people care for the actual meaning of rituals or symbolism. While students seem to be interested in watching porn, boozing, going to strip clubs, watching worthless movies and listening to worthless songs almost all the time, they seem to be least pondering over issues other than their technological education(which yields money ofcourse). So the society goes on uncared. Money seems to be the only thing most people care about.
I feel there is a need to teach each person his/her traditional religion along with the values in it including tolerance towards other religions. There is no need for anyone to lose the identity of their religion and say i am everyone because, the identity is needed for humans going by their very nature and upbringing. Moreover every religion has the basic values same though the ultimate goal might not be the same. India was always a religious country where people from 3 different religions co-existed for a long time(we do witness religious fights in history but they were limited to few extremist elements unavoidable anytime).
Few comments above are very valid in terms of the quality of the education they prescribe. Love is something which we have lost, i would say purely due to materialistic education we receive. There is hollowness and artificiality in it.
I liked the emphasis on tolerance towards other religions in your post. I would rather advise you(and others including me) to explore deep your own religion and follow the timeless values beyond the rituals which we see to understand what a tresure trove it is and what we can gain from it.[ It has become a fashion to either tell that you have no religion or you follow every religion. Actually i feel there is no need for such a thing at all. Be what you are from your roots and that will automatically lead all of us to peace]
Brilliant post..! I always used to think,
"What causes people to hate those they do not know?"
I remember once, long back in Coimbatore (where hindu-muslim clashes are always on a high) i happened to pass through a muslim dominated area with my dad on the bike. We were just taking the route to avoid traffic and before we realized what was happeneing, we were surrounded with muslims with guns in their hands. They asked my dad for his religion.. he said hez a hindu.. the second after "hindu" was pronounced they started to advance to beat us.My dad tried to pacify 'em and tried telling all religion are one and we have nothing against muslims and why should they hate us (as in common people). They said they dont know anything about hinduism but for the fact that they have been taught that hindus are to be slaughtered. So what we sadly see here is that education has failed miserably.
The "Pride"..... "Moral superiority"... (our god is better than yours, we have the guns to prove it.) is wat we see happening.. which sprouts buds to terrorism..
People just want to be "felt" right.. at the expense of others.. they dont care about any logic nor use their common sense or morals. "Ethics" is invisible here. Saddest thing is that people have their own perceptions and convince (i shud say "force") others to follow them.
The question arises - Why do we feel that its so important to be "right"? Why do we divide the world into us-and-them?Education has to be tuned in such a way that people become aware of their own thought process.. to be able to distinguish between wat is right and what is wrong.. when one becomes aware of the underlyin force n d consequences dat are involved, thr wud certainly be less bloodshed and no religious-wars.
We need this to achieve a shining, war free world.. wat say John Vignesh Mohammed? :-)
@Gayathri.. when did such a thing happened in coimbatore ?? u did not complete the incident .. i agree there were religious conflicts long back in cbe but those "gun" part seems imaginative .. did u enact a Bombay story line to escape from them.. sry if it was sarcastic
@Harish: yes it sounds real movie like.. but thats wat typically happened.. this happnd durin 1998 serial bomb blasts thr.. to complete dat incident.. they just left us and asked us to nvr come that side.. and trust me.. they did have guns with them.. not shotguns ofcourse!
@Anand - Thanks a lot for the comment! It has a lot of sense in itself. Seems to be a better post than my own. :) I liked your school of thought. Your thought of understanding the deep root of the each religion, tolerance that it has to provide and the value system that education should have. I here feel, the concept of religion in itself has the sole purpose of spreading the value system to the people, but people forgetting to understand what it wishes to convey, fight for the identity of it which is what I wished to point out.
In this society where individual identity/group identity has been given more importance, things like this would tend to happen. I feel that, the one whom you don't fight much is only yourself, but for everyone around you, you see them just as a competitor. This is foundation of clashes probably among people, groups, religions etc. that exist. Since religion was the way of unity in earlier years, within boundaries, things seemed to be much peaceful, now since the boundaries have expanded where unity among different thoughts(religions) come into play, the problem arises, coz of the lack of tolerance limits, thought sharing; and increase in ego. This is the sole motive of my thought on religion not to be characterized as an identity. I feel you ll be better equipped to learn and understand values from every religion rather than just one.
For Eg. For most of ppl who know Ganesh, as just as a deity and no one knows what he conveys, and fighting whether is a bramhachari or not (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh). I feel a society which understands these values (through him being conveyed) without even referring to the identity Ganesh seems better to me.
I completely agree and accept, the my thoughts could be wrong, coz I feel I m not matured enough to understand everything. I have age, so ll try to get better :) I jus tried to convey my thoughts, to learn from them, if they were right/wrong.
One sole thing I wanted convey was, anything that is hindering the harmony among ppl thats in our hands and thoughts which if we think could be stopped for the well being of all, do so! Your comment did make me think and learn more! Thanks a lot! Will love hear more from you. :)
@Gayathri - thats seemed a very horrible experience, that even made Harish to think on the lines of Bombay! :)
Thanks a lot for your comments! :) As you said, certainly, one needs to start thinking more as why hes doing so before really doing it logically, coz we should be proud users of the sixth sense at such situations. If he considers everyone to be just his bros and sis, he would definitely not do so, and the thought that the very existence of his to spread the existence of his race and not to destroy it.
Jus as a note, if first set of ppl born in this world (be it Adam & Eve or anyone) even if one of them would have thought that the other is hindering his living and growth, I find no human race now. I felt they rather had this in their idea, 'Pathenettu petru peru vazhuvu vazhga' (Get 18 and live happily), which either meant habits/babies! :P lol :)
@Vignesh
I understand the part where you mentioned about the need to dissolve boundaries between religions. This is a way you prescribe for getting rid of the rigidness that has crept into people's minds. Quite true.
The problem is that any institution gets corrupted in the delivery of its original message over long periods of time and hence even if religions teach harmony, peace, non-violence and other values, a group of people from the same religion continue with the practices like mass killing and mass conversions.
What i feel as the best way to do things is like this. Each person can talk about the positive things in his religion and if interested and knowledgeable, can also talk about values from other faiths. No need to denounce any other religion or convert people from anywhere else. The ultimate problem is that again, just one set of people would keep following this while the other does not and hence results in loss to the more amicable side.
I feel i have lectured too much in this comments section. I would just like to mention one last thing about god and religion. According to me religion is not just a set of rules arrived at to discipline the human race nor is it a money-power minting factory as zeitgeist puts it (though that is the way we perceive it in the present era)and god is not just an entity to induce fear to follow these rules. It goes beyond all this. Fundamentally, religion is a science that answers the pressing questions like the purpose of our existence and the nature of reality(roughly called by the word 'god') and how we can attain permanent happiness. The outward rituals are just to spice up this learning process as well as to make even the common man to understand the importance of these questions.
A good question is raised here :) and one of the solutions to the problem is Education. But also the point to be thought about is what kind of education? There are many terrorists who are highly educated and some of them might even hack into any god-damn security system and create disaster :( . So there should be some adjectives attached to the word 'education'. There is also a lot of thought process to be done to truly understand Terrorism rather than just commenting on the after effects of it. Also there are different kinds of Terrorism - religious, region based, caste based etc. which differ in their basis, I might support the cause of one n oppose others but I definitely wont support their ways to achieve the causes. Well, above all lies LOVE. yeah Love each and everyone. Even if u don't wish to Love someone, don't hate them either. Lets hope for a better tommorrow. We should take pledge to be better citizens bring our chidren into a peaceful world :) Atleast I hope so.
@Anand - Ya perfect! I agree what wished to mention, and jus wanted to remind you that this is no more a lecture. If so, better than the ones we hear at classes! :)
@Avinash Sonee - Well said Avinash! and dont stop hoping! :)
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