They did what they wanted to, is it not?

"I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a begger, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high values, people of such high caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient educational system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater that their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation" .

- Lord Macaulay in an address to British Parliament, 2nd Feb, 1835

the allegory of 'cave-men'.

The allegory of cavemen put forth by greek thinker Socrates is an excellent eye opener for today's so called techie intelligentsia that wants to abandon all the moral impositions and stretch out to live a king sized life free of all restrictions. Here's how it goes.

Once upon a time, there was a civilization which thrived deep below the ground. Everything in this civilization was pitch dark, and the concept of light was unknown. The inhabitants were habituated to live this kind of environment. Like the people on earth, they too had friends and relatives and a system of lanes to move in. However, the difference was that everything here was absolutely dark and was considered 'normal' by these people. There was, however, one person who hoped for a better world, for a world beyond darkness. Convinced about its existence and restless with the desire to discover it, he once set over a journey and started moving along one of those many lanes. After walking uni-directionally for long long hours, he noticed a small pinhole of light at the farthest end. He began to walk in the direction of that pinhole, which eventually grew bigger and bigger and ultimately into a human sized exit. As he stepped out of the cave, he was flabbergast at what he saw. He was looking at a beautiful scenic beauty lined by a clear blue sky with a bright sun, sweet chirping birds emerging out of beautiful mountains which lined the horizon, a clear lake at the bottom and the lush green surrounding with various kind of beautiful trees laden with fruits, with deers playing on the lakeside and squirrel having fun up and down the trees. He had feeling of unprecedented joy and satisfaction, a deep sense of inner fulfillment. He couldn't believe his eyes for this was something he had only dreamt of. After having obtained such an extraordinary vision, he obviously didn't want to go back into the cave anymore. But he was a person of selfless heart, and was forced from within to share his incredible discovery with the other members of his civilization who were suffering inside the cave. Reluctantly, he stepped back into the cave and walked to reach his underground city. Finding it difficult to contain the 'truth' that he had justseen, he walked straight into an assembly of people and yelled if off. Everbody heard him intently. As he described it, he could see that there was a change in their facial expression; something was definitely wrong. And before he could wind up the discription, one of them interrupted, "stop that nonsense! you are just another religious fanatic".

What an allegory! Like a punch hit squarely on the nose. Its interesting to see that such people existed even at the time of Socrates.

Why blame religion for wars?

I remember having an online discussion with one of my friends Pranav on a holiday afternoons while I was in IIT. Although he wasn't one of my regular chat mates, but the discussion which emerged that day was a result of a status message set by him, which squarely contradicted with mine. I don't remember what exactly he had written, but he essentially meant to say that we don't need religion. When I asked what makes him think so, he was clear, "because religion causes war...if there is no relegion, there won't be any inter-religious conflicts". This may sound very convincing and logical to most of the readers, but I know that such annotations emerge only out of immature pragmatism and limited understanding. Just to convey a simple analogy, one can use a knife for a purpose as noble as cutting vegetables, while the same knife can also be used to kill someone. Now is it the mistake of knife if somebody uses it for killing? Or is it the mistake of the person who used it for such a purpose? Yet interestingly enough, it’s often the knife which is suspected when it comes to talking about religion. Such contentions emerge simply because of our unawareness about the noble and divine purpose for which religions are created.

Every religion entails principles of benevolence and brotherhood in its foundation. No religion preaches hatred or enmity towards fellow beings. No religions criticizes other religions. All religion are supremely pure words of God assimilated into holy scriptures either by Himself or his pure associates. Why then there are conflicts and wars with religion as a subject? It is because some people misutilize it, in the same way as a knife is misutilized by a killer. They may do so because such an act helps them in fulfilling their selfish motivations, motivations which are fueled by political, social or economical interests. Others do it being driven by fundamentalism, which originates out of their shallow understandings about their religion which is pure and unalloyed word of God guiding us towards Him. As A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, one of the greatest exponents of modern spiritual wisdom remarks, “Any religion which teaches love of God is a genuine religion”. It’s the constitutional position of every living entity to love and serve God, and God gives holy scriptures like Quran, Bible, Gurugranth-Sahib or Bhagvad Gita depending upon the time, place and circumstance to guide all the living entities towards Him. Conflicts arise only when we interpret these messages in our own way to satisfy our ulterior whims. Hence its rather childish to blame religion for being a cause of wars, while the real purpose of religions is centered about attaining Love of God, something that can never be attained with such ‘warsome’ mentality.

mumbai's milling mortals...

Sakinaka junction, Mumbai's one of those hallmark traffic signals which is normally chocked unless the clock is not sweeping between 10pm to 6am, is a typical place where one can experience a 'Mumbai wala' jam. At peak timings, this place can be seen inundated with all kind of vehicles ranging from a cycle to those red giant corporation buses, all scrambling to take over every inch of space vacated by anteceding vehicles. Although two wheelers manage to tunnel their way through the jam, quite often, its a relaxation time for all the four wheelers as Sakinaka guarantees them a miserably comfortable break of atleast 1/2 hr to 45 min. But why do I have to elaborate so much about Sakinaka in my blog? The reason is simple, I'm astonished at bombayites who consider 4 hours of travel everyday as 'normal'.