Inclination towards atheism

Lately I have been thinking a lot about God, theism, and atheism. Does god exist, if there is then is there only one or many? If there is no god, why does the history of belief in god is as old as humanity itself.

Most of the people even in the modern times believe that god exists or at least a supernatural power exists which controls this 'world'. There have been people who are pro theism, and there are people who are anti theism and there are also people who are 'confused' about the existence of any such thing(like me).

I have had discussions about this with everyone who is close to me but I was never satisfied with an answer, it seems I am coming to my own conclusion about this, though it cannot be a conclusion because I will keep my mind open about this so that I could revive it again in future if I had to. Gradually I have started believing in Non-creationism and karma based evolution of a man's deeds and the best part is that even my religion allows me to believe in atheism and non-creationism, in fact Jainism is the only religion in the world which believes in non-creationism or does not believe in a creator deity which is very similar to modern science and Charles Darwin's 'Theory of evolution'.

There is no god who spectates us but there have been great people (like Ram, Krishna, Mahavira, Buddha or Christ) who have showed us the right path towards truth and salvation. We should give them their due right to be remembered and respected and even worshipped, but we cannot ask anything from them, simply, because they just don't exist. They were humans like us with great deeds who are remembered till date for what they gave to this world but they just don't exist now.

Most of the people misinterpret between being religious and being spiritualist, a man can be spiritualist even without being religious at all. but the question is how should we keep ourselves in moral control if we don't believe in god. The answers are available in our own scriptures which talk about karma, irrespective of god, you do good, you get good and you do bad, you get bad. I maybe a novice to think all this, but my options are open and so are my thoughts.

For them !

Not for us, for them,

for the next generation,

lets show some responsibilty,

lets think now, lets act now,

the tree we plant, will not help us,

it's for them,

it will bear fruit for them,

it will give them shade,

not for us, for them.

lets save fuel, for them,

lets save water, for them,

lets save the environment, for them.

not for us, for them.

let us evanish all the caste systems,

not just from our books of law,

but also from our hearts,

lets take the onus of changing future,

lets love our neighbour nations and teach our children the same,

lets teach the unprivilege the way to live,

to live a sophisticated and a civilized life.

lets help them.

not for us, for them

Lets, turn vegetarian,

to save the planet, for them.

For them, Lets do it.

Questioning austerity?

Austerity is as old to us (read: Indians) as our own culture, the good old ancient sadhus and gurus gave us the concept of austerity. But what exactly is 'Austerity'?

As to the Oxford dictionary austerity is severe or strict in appearance or manner and lacks comforts, luxuries and decoration.

In economics, austerity is when a national government reduces its spending, to pay back creditors. Austerity is usually required when a government's fiscal deficit spending is felt to be unsustainable. Well, being austere in Indian way means a lot more then stated above. All Dharmic religions have austerity as one of their major essence. In fact, austerity was one of the phase of education of the Raja's who used to live in an ashram abstaining from worldly pleasures.

Bhagwaan Raam had an austere 'vanvaas' for 14 years.

Bhagwaan Mahavir and Gautam Budhha had their own way of austerity.

Gandhiji gave up his clothes, one piece of home sewn loincloth, a glass of goat milk and a handful of food was all he had. He gave up his clothes, because he said once, 'to fight for them, i need to be one of them'

Now, austerity is again in news for political reasons. External affairs ministers SM Krishna and Shashi Tharoor were asked to leave the 5 star hotel. They were there because their houses were under renovation. Initiated by the populist leader Pranab Mukherjee, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul baba joined the band wagon by travelling in economy class and in train respectively.

Reason for such steps?

When questioned, the UPA spokesperson said, 'when the country is hit by drought and economic problems, we should cut back our expenses too'. Good thought MP saab, but do you think that this step will be taken in a positive note by the mass or will it be frowned upon as an another political stunt. Well, within three days, many have questioned its honesty already.

Well, austerity is a good idea politically to woo voters and even if it is a political gimmick by INC, it is better then playing on religious sentiments and promising a Ram Mandir and also better then Regionalist fundamentalist. Now, is the time to b a little less cynical and understand what is good for us and what is not.

Neither Indian, nor a sport.

The Indian media went as crazy as a loom when Force India had a podium finish. The Media banged its chest commemorating India's victory with a triumph. Well truly speaking this is really a good news.

But honestly speaking how much Indian is the Force India team actually, except the name and owner it has no connection to India. An Italian driver and a German engine. Thanks to Vijay Mallya who could have named it 'Team Kingfisher' but in stead chose the other. Having the name India doesn't make it totally Indian and we should stop bragging about it. The Indian media was full of frenzy news about the whole episode.

I like watching Formula one and I enjoy it totally but its irresistible for me to call it a non-sport, supporting our sports minister's statement that F1 is not a sport. It is one of the elitist sports ever which has it's contributions in the Global warming too.

The government cannot spend hundreds of crores to build up an international track in India because we have other sports which need an appreciation.

We cannot pursue the dream of having 'Indian grand prix ' at the cost of other sports.

F1 is not a sport even the racing legend Sir Stirling moss had said once.

Influence of the 'influenza'

We dismay the threat of something more then the consequence of the respective. Lets take an example of the very 'Swine flu' which has been threatening us more then it can harm us in actual. Most of the people have the immunity to resist such a flu naturally, some people who don't suffer from the same. And with the lifestyle we follow in this modern world the fear of getting affected increases.

Where does the immunity in us come from? The food we have and the water we drink, the air we breathe and the health we maintain (exercise intended). Truly speaking, we consume none of the above in its pure and best form. Food is junk, water is impure mostly, air is polluted and exercises are not an interest of the common mass. Immunity comes from within, we have to change ourselves to improve the way we live.

Well coming to an another point, I had an interaction with an uncle of mine, he is a retired Doctor and has knowledge of the world. He has lived in US for sometime and told me something very explicit and shocking then.

He told me that most of the viruses are developed in the laboratories of the American pharmaceutical majors, only some our natural. H1N1, AIDS, Bird flu etc. are some of it. The virus is spread among the mass in sometime and only those corporations have the actual cure of the disease. Now when the influenza has already gripped our nation, the central government will be sending some billions of dollars to the corporation for the vaccine and cure. Developing an indigenous vaccine takes time and we don't have enough it and yes with the R&D level of India, it would be better off to get it imported.

Beat it!! the Companies play with peoples lives for profit making. It is not just the Pharmaceutical sector which are so much into unethical and inhumane activities, in fact many sectors are. What we can do in maximum is to increase immunity in ourselves and check any kind of influenza does not affect the mass. We should also develop our the Pharmaceutical R&D to combat such pandemic diseases.

Disclaimer: I have no proof of the above but the source of information is very reliable.

Understanding fear !

Marie Curie rightly said "Nothing in life is to be feared, It is only to be understood."

The fear we live with are deep feelings inside us because of a danger or peril around us. The danger is more antcipated then it is present in actual. The internal fear and the external fear are the two kind of fears we live in.

Internal fears are one which reside in us with our consent, it is very much in our control but we dont apprehend the fact that we can control it.

"Fear of losing acceptance of people around, fear of losing respect, fear of being wrongly interpreted, fear of losing trust of people around, fear of being considered “less”, fear of losing importance, fear of losing psychological security, fear of losing dear ones and many more. "

All of the internal fears are formulated because of three things: sorrow of past, anxeity of present and concernment of future.

In spiritual circles it is called that man can overcome his internal fears if he really works upon it, meditation and spiritual devotion are just some ways to overcome fear within us, there are a lot more ways. The dharmic religions (Dharmic religions: Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism) allow you to be an atheist, because dharmic religions want a man to look within himself and control his feelings to be a perfect 'human', Dharmic religions agree with the thought that god resides within ourselves and that is what should we preach that is why we are allowed to be an atheist.

If we really understand what fear is, then there is nothing in actual to fear about.

P.S. : This is my first psychological blog, please correct if you find any flaw.

Name game, who should we blame !!

"What is there in a name" asked Shakespear, well for the Indian mass a lot.

India got it's first indigenous nuclear submarine, becoming the sixth nation in the world to have this technology after USA, UK, France, Russia and PR China. Now the issue is nomenclature of the submarine. It has been named "INS Arihant" by the wife of our honourable Prime Minister. The name meaning 'destroyer of enemies ' according to her.

The word Arihant is widely used in Jainism and Jain texts, it is very important in the religious context for the minority group. According to them, arihant means the same 'destroyer of enemies' but in precise context. Here the enemy is referred to the greed, enviousness, hatred and all the immoral things imbibed within us. The word is also present in 'Navkaar mantra'. The Jain munis and community heads have requested the PM and President to rechristen the most powerful, violent force of the nation. Naming it after the most non'-violent character is surely not advocated.

Now, again when it comes to name the politicians play the game. BJP- Shivsena came into power in 1990's renamed our beloved 'Bombay' to 'Mumbai'. The Victoria terminus was renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus.

When it comes to naming infrastructure, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi are congress netas favourites, they have a short vision and so they cannot see beyond these populists.

Naming the nation's 7th IIM at Shillong after Rajiv Gandhi surely was a blunder, it was not at all needed. All the other 6 IIM have no additional names attached to them other then their respective city names, why did we need it for Shillong.

Bandra worli sealink as suggested by Sharad Pawar was named after Rajiv Gandhi again. Did we really need the name 'Rajiv Gandhi setu' or the better question would be 'are we going to call it as Rajiv Gandhi setu or simply Bandra worli sealink?'. I don't think people are going to use the first name.

Except the John F Kennedy airport, no other major infrastructure in the US is named after a politician. Even if we need to name them, why not have a longer vision and name it after our great freedom fighters like Shaheed Bhagat Singh or Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The name game is surely to be blamed on the publicity policy of the political party in power.