Religious India

About a couple of years ago I got a chance to visit one of the most sacred place near Ramgarh called Neemsar. Ramgarh is a village near Lucknow in the hinterlands of UP. People here have a lot of faith in the temples of Neemsar. Excuse my thoughts if I’m hurting anyone’s sentiments and my due apologies to them but the feeling that I got after visiting the place was not very pleasant. The temple was very dirty. The sweets being sold for Prasad were full of flies and not to mention the crowd. Inside the temple there were donation boxes everywhere and the pujaris inside also didn’t fail to remind you of the donation that should be made to make you a god lover. And yes I forgot to mention the most important thing, the darshan of the diety for which we had gone. Once inside the temple I didn’t even get to see the diety because of the crowd and the pushing and shoving.

Isn’t the visit to a temple or a shrine supposed to bring peace and calmness instead of arousing the thoughts that I’m having. And this has been my experience with almost all the shrines and temples that I’ve been to. What’s the point of going all the way to a temple when you can’t even see the deity at peace, without being pushed and shoveled?

I will not get into the debate of whether god exists or not and whether we should believe in him or not. I believe in God. For me God is someone I can look up to. Someone out there watching us. For me God is Hope. So I’d rather believe in him sitting at home rather than going to temples in search of him.

Just a Thought: Three

So many times God is sending us signals but we simply refuse to see them... but then that's why we are humans

(Dis)Illusioned

It’s worth noting that despite all the “gyaan” and wordly wise, clichéd suggestions freely available and one being aware of them, it becomes highly difficult when one has to implement the same obvious things in their own lives. When a 20 year old something begins to lose the brashness that comes with the age and begins to feel disillusioned, then an alarm bell should ring somewhere.

Why is it that despite knowing that life is short, unpredictable and worth living in the moment, one keeps screwing up the present for a future which never seems to arrive. The future is like that elusive mountain summit, forever in sight but always out of reach. One keeps sacrificing and working hard thinking that now’s the time to do it. Let me struggle now for a better future, but when does that future come – Boards, college, first job, post graduation, good paying job, marriage, kids, kids marriage - when???

One talks about the mid-life crisis but I see a quarter life syndrome creeping in. One begins to feel the heat if by 20 something one doesn’t know what to do with his/her life. Listen to “the sunscreen song” and you’ll know what my take on this is. I think it’s time I stop writing and listen to the above mentioned song and pick up some useful advice.

Accommodating

I’ll begin with the question when do you stop to compromise, adjust, understand or accommodate in a situation. Some people will be of the view that why should one do all the above things in the first place. Just go on and do the things you believe in and to hell with the world and the people who don’t think the way you do. Why the hell do you need to compromise? However that’s not how things are and one has to keep a fine balance between the two ways of looking at things and choose the middle path. That brings us to the question where to draw the line and the need to draw the line altogether? Till when to adjust and when to put your foot down?

You do the “right things” and are “Mr. Nice”. Not complaining, always smiling etc. and that’s indication enough for people to not take your concerns seriously. Ok I’ll accommodate because that’s what I believe in, in not being difficult and not causing any hassel to anyone but for how long? Don’t people start taking you for a ride and take undue advantage of your cooperation. Maybe even stop valuing you as you are Mr. No Issues. “Nice guys finish last” – how true is that? I might sound cynical here but isn’t that the way things truly are?

A large section of people will of the view that the people themselves are responsible for this state. You get pushed because you let people push you but then aren’t the people also pushing these guys to be what they are not? These people are genuinely nice, simple people who believe in going about doing their jobs and following certain value system. By not taking their concerns seriously when put across by them you are forcing them to be manipulative to get what is truly theirs. Some of these guys change in the garb of “practicality” and a lot of them don’t as it’s simply not them and in the event get “pushed”.

Why should the question arise of drawing the line? Are we scared of taking a stand? Are we afraid of what people will think if we don't agree with them or be very different in our thought process?

I think it's important to take a stand, at least when the situation demands..