The "us" in the title refers solely to The Writing Lab team. We do not know about others, but religious books are definitely a source of confusion for us and for reasons that are glaringly visible to any logical mind. But then again, when it comes to religion, logic takes a backseat, which prompts the religious wars.
The Muslims rever the Quran, The Hindus the Geeta and The Christians the Bible. Each of these religious books have a story to tell and something to preach. There is one common point that each of these books agree on and that is of God being one. And that is where our confusion stems from.
The Quran has the beautiful story of a prophet ready to sacrifice his son following the wishes of God. According to the story, at the precise moment the prophet is about to sacrifice his son, God intervenes, saying it was a test of his loyality and he had passed the test, but since a sacrifice must be made, he should sacrifice a goat instead. That day is celebrated as Eid now, which involves the sacrifice of a goat as a part of celebrations.
On the other hand, The Geeta condemns the killing of any living being, be it man or animal. Now, when God is one, why is He preaching different things to different people? He surely isn't biased, is He? Confusion!
Another instance of our confusion which stems from the written word in The Geeta.
The Geeta says that killing a living being is wrong but the same book says that going to war against your own relatives to defend your rights is justified. Why has God made different rules for different scenarios?
Actually, He hasn't. To understand what religious books are all about, we must first accept the fact that at the end of the day, religious books are like any other books. The Quran, The Geeta, The Bible were not written by God as most of us understand Him. These books were written by ordinary people like us, who chose to pen down their beliefs. They chose to write down whatever their heart told them and in that sense, yes, these books were written by God, because God resides in our heart.
Their written word achieved the religious status because majority of people believed in their beliefs; but at the end of the day, they just wrote books and nothing more than that. You would not be condemned to hell if you eat meat as a Hindu and you would not be punished if you don't sacrifice a goat on the occassion of Eid or don't fast during Ramzan. These are just the beliefs of some ordinary men who came to be respected by a large number of people.
At the end of the day, it is all about your beliefs, about what your heart says is right. If you are happy eating non vegetarian food, God does not give a damn whether you are a Hindu or a Muslim. He just wants to see you happy and that will only happen when you believe in your beliefs. The written word is just there to guide you; it is up to you whether you believe it or not.
It is what you believe in, is what makes your religion. You may believe in "The Secret" written by Rhonda Byrnes or you may believe in some other spiritual writing. It is up to you to form your own beliefs because God has given you the power to choose and decide with the help of a magnificent instrument called the heart.
It may be no surprise if thousand years down the line, "The Secret" achieves the same status as The Bible or The Quran as more and more people start believing in it.
We are not here to demean any religious books; we are here just to pen down our thoughts. It is up to you to believe it or not!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
The address of heaven
Almost all religious books and writings refer to HEAVEN as a place where everything is picture perfect. According to them, heaven is a place where God resides and everything is serenading. And most of us come to believe that heaven is somewhere up there in space, with golden gates, beautiful princesses and all the luxuries that one could desire; because that is the picture painted by our ancestors.
Maybe our ancestors knew where heaven was or maybe they did not, but had they been more direct in their reference to heaven, life would certainly have been less complex for us. But then again, complexity is the essence of life, right?
But we need to understand that heaven is not a place in space where we go after death; it is not a place where we would be greeted by hooris and get to enjoy everything materialistic. After all, what is the point of enjoying after we die? God created us to enjoy life on this very planet, our Earth. Why would He reserve something so special and so magnificent as the HEAVEN for our death? Of course He would not. It is we who have not understood the meaning behind the word.
Heaven actually is a place in time when our mind, body and soul are in sync with one another. Because when that happens, we are at our happiest, we are full of vibrant energy and we radiate the kind of glow which even diamonds cannot.
The most primitive example of heaven is the act of sex. We feel true bliss after we orgasm. Ever wondered why? Because that is when our mind, body and soul are in unison with one another. It is a momentary feeling but one which we all enjoy and have or will experience at some point in our life.
Some of you may take offence to the fact that a pious concept like heaven is being compared to something as taboo as sex. To all those who are thinking this way, let me ask you- is it wrong to worship something that is the very core of the life process? All religions worship life in some form or another. However, most of us do not know that we are actually worshipping it. I would digress from the subject a wee bit here and quote a situation that would help me put my point across about life a little more clearly.
Being a Hindu, I asked my mother the other day if she understood the meaning of Shiv Lingam. The answer was an emphatic yes but sadly, the explanation was totally off the mark. What she took Shiv Lingam to be was some kind of force which could give us prosperity in life. But actually, if you look closely at it, you would notice that Shiv Lingam is actually the penis standing atop the female reproductory organ. Maybe my mother knew it or maybe she did not, but the fact that we worship Shiv Lingam is proof enough that we worship the giver of life.
Of course, the fanatics out there would be after my blood if I argued with them that when the Hindu ladies and men alike rub the Shiv Lingam with water, milk etc. to please the Lord, why is our society so demeaning about the act of sex?
Coming back to the concept of heaven, sex gives us a momentary feeling of being in heaven, of total bliss. But that does not mean that we can get that heavenly feeling for a split second only. In fact, we can reside in heaven all our life without giving up on any material pleasures of the world.
All we need to do is get our mind, body and soul in sync with one another. And that can happen only when we live in the moment, do what we like and stop worrying about the future. Once we start living life in the present without getting stuck in the past or the future, we would start living in the heaven that has so often been described by authors and religious teachers.
So let us stop waiting for our death as an excuse to go to heaven, because that way, we never will. Let us create our heaven in this very world, because that is what we were meant to do.
Maybe our ancestors knew where heaven was or maybe they did not, but had they been more direct in their reference to heaven, life would certainly have been less complex for us. But then again, complexity is the essence of life, right?
But we need to understand that heaven is not a place in space where we go after death; it is not a place where we would be greeted by hooris and get to enjoy everything materialistic. After all, what is the point of enjoying after we die? God created us to enjoy life on this very planet, our Earth. Why would He reserve something so special and so magnificent as the HEAVEN for our death? Of course He would not. It is we who have not understood the meaning behind the word.
Heaven actually is a place in time when our mind, body and soul are in sync with one another. Because when that happens, we are at our happiest, we are full of vibrant energy and we radiate the kind of glow which even diamonds cannot.
The most primitive example of heaven is the act of sex. We feel true bliss after we orgasm. Ever wondered why? Because that is when our mind, body and soul are in unison with one another. It is a momentary feeling but one which we all enjoy and have or will experience at some point in our life.
Some of you may take offence to the fact that a pious concept like heaven is being compared to something as taboo as sex. To all those who are thinking this way, let me ask you- is it wrong to worship something that is the very core of the life process? All religions worship life in some form or another. However, most of us do not know that we are actually worshipping it. I would digress from the subject a wee bit here and quote a situation that would help me put my point across about life a little more clearly.
Being a Hindu, I asked my mother the other day if she understood the meaning of Shiv Lingam. The answer was an emphatic yes but sadly, the explanation was totally off the mark. What she took Shiv Lingam to be was some kind of force which could give us prosperity in life. But actually, if you look closely at it, you would notice that Shiv Lingam is actually the penis standing atop the female reproductory organ. Maybe my mother knew it or maybe she did not, but the fact that we worship Shiv Lingam is proof enough that we worship the giver of life.
Of course, the fanatics out there would be after my blood if I argued with them that when the Hindu ladies and men alike rub the Shiv Lingam with water, milk etc. to please the Lord, why is our society so demeaning about the act of sex?
Coming back to the concept of heaven, sex gives us a momentary feeling of being in heaven, of total bliss. But that does not mean that we can get that heavenly feeling for a split second only. In fact, we can reside in heaven all our life without giving up on any material pleasures of the world.
All we need to do is get our mind, body and soul in sync with one another. And that can happen only when we live in the moment, do what we like and stop worrying about the future. Once we start living life in the present without getting stuck in the past or the future, we would start living in the heaven that has so often been described by authors and religious teachers.
So let us stop waiting for our death as an excuse to go to heaven, because that way, we never will. Let us create our heaven in this very world, because that is what we were meant to do.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Rendezvous with God
When it comes to religion and spiritualism, there are three kinds of people that we encounter- atheists, theists and agnostics. Usually, atheists do not believe in God because they have never seen Him and nor have they experienced Him; agnostics are not sure whether God exists or not because although they think they have experienced Him, they have never seen Him ,which is the cause of their indecisiveness; theists are people who are absolutely sure that God exists and most of them spend the rest of their lives looking for Him.
In other words, hardly anybody understands the meaning behind the word “GOD”. To understand this three letter word, it is important to understand our roots, our evolution. When man came into existence, he had to fight with the forces of nature to survive in this world. He was given a very primitive brain and had to use it to the best of his ability to carve out a niche for himself.
In these hard times, he had to find solace somewhere; and he found that solace, that strength, by believing that there is somebody up there who will guide him to survival and success. He started giving this source of strength names and forms which we know today as Jesus, Rama, Krishna, Shiva etc.
He began to have faith in these forms and names and believed that they are the key to his happiness and success on this earth. He began praying to these figures and names to bring him luck and prosperity. And when the prayers started getting answered, his belief grew stronger and this belief gave rise to the three letter word -”GOD”.
But it still does not answer the question -”who or what is God?”, right? It actually does. If you read carefully the words written above, you will realize the hidden meaning which is glaringly visible and has been that way right from the time of inception.
GOD is our faith. Yes, the line sums up the complete meaning of God. It is our faith which gives us strength and courage to go on in times of difficulty. It is our belief in ourselves that helps us achieve milestones in life. It is our inner strength and our belief that a solution exists which actually leads us to the solution.
There is ample proof in scriptures and religious books that the spiritual teachers and gurus always understood the meaning of God and have been propagating it through their writings since times immemorial. Pick up any holy book out there- Bible, Quran or Geeta, you will come across a section which says -”God is within us”. It is an indirect reference to our inner strength, our belief system, our faith.
When we say God is within us, we actually mean that the solution to our every problem lies within us. We just need to connect to our soul and listen to our heart for once. Our heart always tries to give us signals and give us directions to the path of success and of prosperity. But it is important that we listen to our inner voice and trust it completely, because it is the voice of God, the voice of our faith. If we ignore this inner voice, it stops talking to us and that is when God stops existing or starts existing only in the physical world as idols and names.
The connection with your soul is of paramount importance if you are to experience God, because God is not up there, nor is it residing at some hard to reach place; God is residing within us but we need to give Him a ring before He goes to sleep forever. After all, He gets bored too when He does not get a response from the other side.
In other words, hardly anybody understands the meaning behind the word “GOD”. To understand this three letter word, it is important to understand our roots, our evolution. When man came into existence, he had to fight with the forces of nature to survive in this world. He was given a very primitive brain and had to use it to the best of his ability to carve out a niche for himself.
In these hard times, he had to find solace somewhere; and he found that solace, that strength, by believing that there is somebody up there who will guide him to survival and success. He started giving this source of strength names and forms which we know today as Jesus, Rama, Krishna, Shiva etc.
He began to have faith in these forms and names and believed that they are the key to his happiness and success on this earth. He began praying to these figures and names to bring him luck and prosperity. And when the prayers started getting answered, his belief grew stronger and this belief gave rise to the three letter word -”GOD”.
But it still does not answer the question -”who or what is God?”, right? It actually does. If you read carefully the words written above, you will realize the hidden meaning which is glaringly visible and has been that way right from the time of inception.
GOD is our faith. Yes, the line sums up the complete meaning of God. It is our faith which gives us strength and courage to go on in times of difficulty. It is our belief in ourselves that helps us achieve milestones in life. It is our inner strength and our belief that a solution exists which actually leads us to the solution.
There is ample proof in scriptures and religious books that the spiritual teachers and gurus always understood the meaning of God and have been propagating it through their writings since times immemorial. Pick up any holy book out there- Bible, Quran or Geeta, you will come across a section which says -”God is within us”. It is an indirect reference to our inner strength, our belief system, our faith.
When we say God is within us, we actually mean that the solution to our every problem lies within us. We just need to connect to our soul and listen to our heart for once. Our heart always tries to give us signals and give us directions to the path of success and of prosperity. But it is important that we listen to our inner voice and trust it completely, because it is the voice of God, the voice of our faith. If we ignore this inner voice, it stops talking to us and that is when God stops existing or starts existing only in the physical world as idols and names.
The connection with your soul is of paramount importance if you are to experience God, because God is not up there, nor is it residing at some hard to reach place; God is residing within us but we need to give Him a ring before He goes to sleep forever. After all, He gets bored too when He does not get a response from the other side.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
What does it mean to be selfless?
If you have ever listened to spiritual gurus and teachers, or have followed spiritualism of any sort, chances are that you must have been advised to be selfless to attain true happiness. And it is this very thing that is the most misinterpreted in this universe. For most laymen like you and me, being selfless means to forget about your wishes and desires. To such people, being selfless means to keep others happy while going through all the hardships and difficulties in life. I do not know how and when such a meaning of ‘selfless’ took birth. All I can say, from my own experience, is that this meaning of selfless is far removed from the actual meaning of selfless which God wanted to communicate to the world.
‘Selfless’ in its true form means to follow your heart irrespective of the situation at hand. But then the question arises- “How can one be selfless while following his heart? Because then, essentially, the self is still there, right?” Actually, wrong!
Being ‘selfless’ means to give in to God’s will. Confused? To understand this, you must first undo all that you have read till now, because a famous author once said- “A bucket full of water will not be able to retain any new drops that may fall in it”. Although God is omnipresent, He cannot or does not intend to be everywhere to guide people around; maybe because he is shy and likes working in the background. And that is why he gave us all a heart so that he can communicate with each one of us.
But the problem is that most of us fail to listen to our heart most of the times and end up giving in to our mind, which is a very logical being indeed. And when we fail to listen to our heart, we fail to listen to God himself, because our heart is the only instrument we have to communicate with Him. In other words, when we stop listening to our hearts, we become selfish. We put our own will before God’s will and that is where the sad part of life begins.
To be selfless really means to listen to our hearts at all times, to follow our dreams, to be what we always wanted to be, to take risks in life, to follow each and every beat of our heart without thinking of the consequences. That is what being ‘selfless’ is all about.
But sadly, today, people think that following their dreams would actually make them selfish and that is the reason why most of them shy away from having any wants and desires. They instead do what others want them to do, or what logic wants them to do because they think that being ‘selfless’ means following the will of their fellow beings rather than doing what they want to do. This is just a small effort on my part to make people understand the true meaning of being ‘selfless’- the word people so often come across through spiritual gurus.
It is time that the spiritual teachers help make them understand the joys of life and more importantly, what being selfless actually signifies.
‘Selfless’ in its true form means to follow your heart irrespective of the situation at hand. But then the question arises- “How can one be selfless while following his heart? Because then, essentially, the self is still there, right?” Actually, wrong!
Being ‘selfless’ means to give in to God’s will. Confused? To understand this, you must first undo all that you have read till now, because a famous author once said- “A bucket full of water will not be able to retain any new drops that may fall in it”. Although God is omnipresent, He cannot or does not intend to be everywhere to guide people around; maybe because he is shy and likes working in the background. And that is why he gave us all a heart so that he can communicate with each one of us.
But the problem is that most of us fail to listen to our heart most of the times and end up giving in to our mind, which is a very logical being indeed. And when we fail to listen to our heart, we fail to listen to God himself, because our heart is the only instrument we have to communicate with Him. In other words, when we stop listening to our hearts, we become selfish. We put our own will before God’s will and that is where the sad part of life begins.
To be selfless really means to listen to our hearts at all times, to follow our dreams, to be what we always wanted to be, to take risks in life, to follow each and every beat of our heart without thinking of the consequences. That is what being ‘selfless’ is all about.
But sadly, today, people think that following their dreams would actually make them selfish and that is the reason why most of them shy away from having any wants and desires. They instead do what others want them to do, or what logic wants them to do because they think that being ‘selfless’ means following the will of their fellow beings rather than doing what they want to do. This is just a small effort on my part to make people understand the true meaning of being ‘selfless’- the word people so often come across through spiritual gurus.
It is time that the spiritual teachers help make them understand the joys of life and more importantly, what being selfless actually signifies.
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