Humanity is confronted with and got entangled with eternal fear. Fear is the driving force towards all complexities that we have built upon ourselves and upon the society we live.Fear over self and and everyone.Fear against fellow beings who seem to be in conflict of interest with us.Fear of getting offended; fear against disasters and catostrophies of all kinds;fear against death; fear against after life punishments; fear against one"s sins;fear of call of conscience;fear of facing truth;fear of pursuing truth;reflections of all those confluence of fears taught in childhood;fear against hunger ; survival;tyranny and prospect of losing freedom in expression thought speech one"s own faith and action.
From cradle to grave fear fear and fear ;nothing else but fear dominates us!!
While the real need is to confront these fears and investigate them the misconceived notions behind them
their origin their meaning their impact their futility their destrutive potentiality their dangerous and corruptive consequences to personality and life of the individual and to the community at large.human mind is quite conviniently and ignorantly looking for the scapegoat mechanism which does not guarantee liberation from fear .The scapegoat is FAITH.
While fear is amenable to analysis faith unfortunately is not.Faith commands analytical mind to STOP at one point orders it to beleive.Right from Saint Thomas beleivers mix both mad faith and cosmological proof rational principles and natural laws selectively to prove their point!
But there is no mad faith involved in analysing consequences of fear.The remedy ,therefore to banish fear lies in banishing ignorance.When we turn pages of history, however. we find that instrument of faith has been invented to banish fear.Major fear of humanity (until 15 th century) is fear against super natural forces. (underlying theme of Malthus)Faith bestowed on certain dogma religion cult or nation not only gave comfort against fear but it also saved people from being threatened with charges of sedition ban arrest labelled as rebel exile and excommunication. Paradoxically the institutions that ensured faith among its members feared of their survival and hence the coercive methods were put in place.Fear ruled. Yours faithfully culture flourished.Pol Plot feared educated and even those who wore glasses!
Feare is behind every human trauma.Faith is inevitably product of fear. But the product has its inherent weaknesses. When fera reaches its epitome its own byproducts which are deep rooted suspicion jealousy
anger vengeance revenge take control.
Our deep insights are to be drawn to various manifestations of fear all of them cannot be sufficiently gone through inthis essay,and the great philosophers and psychologists have observed that change is bound to arrive in deep echelons of mind and then fear ceases to exist.
Faith without this deep and innovative sense of digression is a failed weapon in our hands. A gun without ammunition!
To illustrate: Look at the plight of Kashmiris! Who are in immense grief and suffering.Our sage like Pm who is described as a man of uncommon decency and humility by people of the world is not able to help them.
Because here fear rules (what are CBMs) and faith a failed weapon between two nations.Look at any human conflict present past and future. Look at Israeli Arab conflict.Fear rules and faith miserable. Episodes of Sept 11 and Mumbai!The strained relationship of Muslims with rest of the world is built upon the foundation of fear where faith has no place.Faith is no longer an effective instrument withj most uprights like Obama!
Faith has played no role absolutely no role in ensuring peace and harmony within one"s self families communities cult religion and nations.
For majority of us faith or even beleif in God is earthly convinience or practical necessity.Here ther is no need to tell about the faction that make their living out of faith.
Before i wind up these personal thoughts I share anguish of Scott Adams in God"s Debris."If you beleive a truck is coming toward you--you will jump out of the way. This is reality of beleif"
If you do nothing about it despite your beleif you are lying!Because it is never true beleif if on the one hand I say God exists but on the other hand always fearful jealous suspicious full of vengeance do nothing except sinning ,allow people around me dying in suffering and I still concentrate on hoarding.
Freedom from fear is humanity"s inherent goal.(It canbe adopted incidentally as Ninth Millennium Development Goal).
Coming bto faith. If faith by any chance canbe truthfully practised as it is being preached LET IT UNITE FAMILIES--UNITE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD!!!
LET ME SEE IT TO BELEIVE IT!!
After all Love thy neighbour is underlying theme of all religions.(they vary only in detail)
Finally Descartes:''Error is the result of IMBALANCE between understanding and my will"
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
"reading" a pleasure leading to refinement!
Intensive reading rather than extensive reading is exploratory in nature.
Thirty years back when I first came across a hoarding which read "a sage who walks alone" I attended J.K."s first meeting.He was a genius of geniuses.When i could connect to him not logically or intellectually
but really my life changed. I could reach him at his terms. That is it. Inferiority and superiority both extreme states of mind dissolved into nothing. he said "You are the World" And I became the world.
The very famous allegory of "Cave Man" by Plato comes into mind which I wish to share with readers.
Men who are chained to unreviewed convictions values prejudices and ideologies are like human beings
facing the wall of the cave who have never turned to the entrance of the cave and so has never witnessed
the light of the day!
They only see the shadows of reality and the voices they hear are echoes.
If one such prisoner of circumstances is led out of the cave into the broad day light of the sun first thing that happens for him is inner resistance.
Finally if he is enabled to see the whole new world he transorms into a different person though outwardly he looks the same for the fellow human beings.
Imagine if that one person who is mentally liberated has to descend back into the cave!
What great difficulty he has to surmount to get accustomed to darkness of the cave.
No doubt he will be a subject of ridicule and scorn!
In a world of crumbling truths where all generalisaions and commonly accepted definitions of success justice and morality original thinking is the beaconlight and a torch bearer and he lives for this worthy cause.
Let him give the final word!
Thirty years back when I first came across a hoarding which read "a sage who walks alone" I attended J.K."s first meeting.He was a genius of geniuses.When i could connect to him not logically or intellectually
but really my life changed. I could reach him at his terms. That is it. Inferiority and superiority both extreme states of mind dissolved into nothing. he said "You are the World" And I became the world.
The very famous allegory of "Cave Man" by Plato comes into mind which I wish to share with readers.
Men who are chained to unreviewed convictions values prejudices and ideologies are like human beings
facing the wall of the cave who have never turned to the entrance of the cave and so has never witnessed
the light of the day!
They only see the shadows of reality and the voices they hear are echoes.
If one such prisoner of circumstances is led out of the cave into the broad day light of the sun first thing that happens for him is inner resistance.
Finally if he is enabled to see the whole new world he transorms into a different person though outwardly he looks the same for the fellow human beings.
Imagine if that one person who is mentally liberated has to descend back into the cave!
What great difficulty he has to surmount to get accustomed to darkness of the cave.
No doubt he will be a subject of ridicule and scorn!
In a world of crumbling truths where all generalisaions and commonly accepted definitions of success justice and morality original thinking is the beaconlight and a torch bearer and he lives for this worthy cause.
Let him give the final word!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Finding Simple Answers!
" Hindu" says Stephen Hawking in his new book "Grand Design" reveals God is not a factor in creation which is a departure from his earlier observation in "Brief History of Time" which I have read.
Now he says it is not necessary to invoke God for setting the universe going.
Bishops all around the world have contradicted. It is a beleif (rather convinient beleif!) Archibishop of Canterbury says to have a intelligent living agent for designing the universe.
Centuries old debate has come to full circle after the physicist"s recent observation.But it all started with Charles Darwin.Chromosomes and mapping of genomes came much later.The great genius unfolded the mystery of how and why we exist. The fact that we are 99.5% of chimpanzee really really startled all of us.
Scientific and intellectual quests were unrelently made for pursuit of truth. But same intelligence and philosophy were used fro making intrepretations to age old supersitions to pastoral and agricultural masses
who were quoted selectively and always out of context.
But the scientific inquiry did not cease.
Philosophers started asking very difficult questions.From Russell to Scot Adams. Very Many.
Russell for instance said that those who are earnest enough to think that sin is disobedience to god
are compelled to accept that God is not omnipotent. Had he been omnipotent nothing contrary to his will will occur.If god causes men and women to sin they cannot help it. And God has no right to send them to hell.
Living cell has been artificially made now and the tampering with heredity started long back from plants .
God is of course is a simple answer to many complicated questions. Why i came into this world/ Where shall I go? How i have to live and many.
But unfortunately a simple answer is not a right answer.
Secondly cling on to what i beleive is not awareness. awareness is accepting and unlearning.
Finally nothing is more dangerous than mad faith!
Now he says it is not necessary to invoke God for setting the universe going.
Bishops all around the world have contradicted. It is a beleif (rather convinient beleif!) Archibishop of Canterbury says to have a intelligent living agent for designing the universe.
Centuries old debate has come to full circle after the physicist"s recent observation.But it all started with Charles Darwin.Chromosomes and mapping of genomes came much later.The great genius unfolded the mystery of how and why we exist. The fact that we are 99.5% of chimpanzee really really startled all of us.
Scientific and intellectual quests were unrelently made for pursuit of truth. But same intelligence and philosophy were used fro making intrepretations to age old supersitions to pastoral and agricultural masses
who were quoted selectively and always out of context.
But the scientific inquiry did not cease.
Philosophers started asking very difficult questions.From Russell to Scot Adams. Very Many.
Russell for instance said that those who are earnest enough to think that sin is disobedience to god
are compelled to accept that God is not omnipotent. Had he been omnipotent nothing contrary to his will will occur.If god causes men and women to sin they cannot help it. And God has no right to send them to hell.
Living cell has been artificially made now and the tampering with heredity started long back from plants .
God is of course is a simple answer to many complicated questions. Why i came into this world/ Where shall I go? How i have to live and many.
But unfortunately a simple answer is not a right answer.
Secondly cling on to what i beleive is not awareness. awareness is accepting and unlearning.
Finally nothing is more dangerous than mad faith!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Dishonestly Speaking
We sometimes prequalify our statements as "honestly speaking". What about this virtue rest of the time?
Russell , I remember, has described "Love thy neighbour as thyself" as possessing generalised emotion towards everybody including towards oneself. It remains an abstract thinking.
For me mind"s travel commences from self pity to pity. Or from selfishness to selflessness in varying degrees.
Certainly there is great deal of difference in the degree of urgency one shows. For instance between my rushing forward to feed my hungry children to starving kids of my relatives or friends or millions who suffer for lack of food in distant land.
I am dishonestly speaking if i say that I do this:
"SELL ALL THAT THOU HAST AND GIVE TO THE POOR"
Russell , I remember, has described "Love thy neighbour as thyself" as possessing generalised emotion towards everybody including towards oneself. It remains an abstract thinking.
For me mind"s travel commences from self pity to pity. Or from selfishness to selflessness in varying degrees.
Certainly there is great deal of difference in the degree of urgency one shows. For instance between my rushing forward to feed my hungry children to starving kids of my relatives or friends or millions who suffer for lack of food in distant land.
I am dishonestly speaking if i say that I do this:
"SELL ALL THAT THOU HAST AND GIVE TO THE POOR"
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