spiritual awakening

Faith And Religion

2008-03-10T21:58:00.003+05:30

I have often wondered what makes a person say he is a staunch believer in God. Religion and the very existence of God has been debated over the millennia but at the end of everything its only a matter of individual faith and belief. But what astonishes me the most is fanaticism about religion where a person of one faith refuses to acknowledge the existence of another faith or considers his own religion superior to any other.

I have felt the hatred for each other's religion in my own circles and due to my own beliefs, in time I have distanced myself from such people. But there is still one question which keeps coming back to me, is it worth fighting over religion? What makes one religion superior to another? Monotheism, number of followers or should I say blind faith. For all the religious books that I have read through trying to find an answer to my question I have found the same things repeating time and again; love,faith and tolerance.

The famous teaching of Christ:'love thy neighbour as you love thyself'. Is this applicable only when your neighbour is a Christian?

I have tried to remain secular all my life but after what I see around me Im beginning to question my own attitude towards secularism and actually finding it to be a largely misused word.

I have heard the most ridiculous things in the name of religion:
one Christian ex-friend says that her acquaintance lost his job because he made the mistake of walking into the Tirupati temple. On the other hand this very ex-friend would expect me to walk into a church with her if we ever came across one but herself would never step into a temple.
Another one says that she will not go against her God and walk into a temple. Thats when I asked her, much to her anonyance if Christ had forbade them to do so; because I never found any such thing in the Bible.
One says that she will not read any other book other than the Bible because if she does so it will amount to sinning.

Coming from a mixed family I certainly found all this quite strange. I was used to seeing Dussera and Christmas being celebrated with the same fervour in my house. I remember waiting to get my hands on the Easter eggs and Diwali sweets alike. I have had neighbours celebrating Diwali with us and we in turn celebrated Christmas and Easter with them. But never did I feel the difference of religions, it always felt like a huge family celebrating a particular festival.
I spent three years observing the fanatics of religion during my college years and the irony of the whole situation is that in the fervour of remaining faithful to their God and religion alike, they had forgotten the very essence of every religion:love,faith,and tolerance.

Lost But Found?

2007-11-02T20:56:00.000+05:30

I have always perceived religion or the existence of god to be an excuse which we use to connect with our inner selves. That connection which today is lost and is ridiculed if anyone has a rare glimpse of it and sadly not revered anymore. For me religion and consequently praying was always a via media of connecting with my inner self, to feel the peace that exists within me juxtaposed with the cacophony of the ever ephemeral world.
Whenever I entered the chapel in college, I found girls praying rather crying out in pain, surprisingly not for themselves but for someone else who was in no way related to them. Initially, I like the usual found it quite weird but when I spoke to them I found the connection present in them. The connection that exists between two human beings who are not related otherwise, a connection which enables them to feel the pain and sorrow that the other is undergoing. There was a degree of skepticism in me when I heard this wondering how long this faith in each other would last and I realize now that it has been 2 1/2 years I have been going to the chapel daily for my own peace and to an extent to see whether those girls are there or not but I always found them there praying with the same fervour for days together. The skepticism to an extent still exists in me, cause it is hard to perceive this type of bonding between two people acquainted for just few days, a bond which transcends all practicality which the present generation is based on. Experiencing something which is so different from the usual notions of what we have about the world surrounding us was astonishing because of the nature of the event. It has also left me with a hope that all is not lost and a reminder that there are exceptions to the rule of not completely trusting people outside the family.
Of the faith associated with Pujas, one incident which clearly stands out in my mind is the Ashtami aarti. It was a strange feeling to stand amongst absolute chaos and noise yet feel the immense silence and peace awashing me. A feeling which was accentuated by the festivity and the 'protima'. Idol worship has always been paradoxical but on certain instances I couldnt help but marvel at the chastity and innocence which the craftsman managed bring out. The clanging sound of the 'dhak' for those moments sounded like sweet melody and strangely brought about a sense of relief as if the day's tension had simply melted away with the vibrations produced by it. I tried to unravel the strange feeling and gave up after a while because some things are better left mysterious lest they lose their charm.

Food For Thought

2007-08-24T10:40:00.001+05:30

For all the festivals during which it is supposed to rain, like janmashtami and varlaxmi puja; is it bacause it will rain the festivals are to be celebrated on that particular day or because of the festivals it rains?

Tat Twam Asi

2007-08-13T19:30:00.000+05:30

We are often paradoxical when it comes to deciding whether man is the architect of his own fate or he comes down on this earth with a written fate and what he begets is thereby his destiny. Though it has been debated through the aeon by men, the only logical conclusion drawn is that our destiny is determined by our deeds or karma. We all come empty handed into this world and leave this world of 'moh and maya' in a similar fashion, carrying along with us only our karma; from the previous birth into the next. Henceforth all boils down to 'tat twam asi' which literally translates to 'that thou art'. what we are is determined by our karma, which as proclaimed by the holy books is accounted in our souls; the only permanence ever found in this ephemeral world.
Our soul is a glasshouse of silence and stillness yet it is buffeted repeatedly by the temptation of maya. A silence which helps dialogue with the inner self and enunciated the functioning of the sub conscious. Search for this silence & stillness has been ever present and eternal. My personal search for that elusive silence & stillness has intensified over the last few months and now as I embark on a journey with an acolyte, which requires intense soul searching in order to inculcate the consonance in our lives, I can but humbly call this experience as full-filling and cathartic.