Hinduism

Somebody once said Hinduism is not a religion; it is a way of life. While searching for the meaning of Soundarya Lahiri I came across some verses. I am amazed how such simple texts have such profound meaning. Most of the slokas have very simple meaning, simple enough for a common man to understand and yet for one who wants to dig into it, he can find numerous interpretations and deep philosophical meaning.

My personal favorite has always been

“ Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti”.

Simply translated it just means “Let everybody in the world be happy. Let Peace prevail”. Now that’s obvious, all of us want each other to be happy. But look into it deeper, it says “loka samastha”… everybody in the world, no geographical boundaries, no religious boundaries, no ethnic boundaries, no language boundaries…. Only a person with a pure heart without any tinge of hatred against anybody can wish that. If only every one of us thought this way wouldn’t this world be a beautiful place?

I like another one from the Isopanishad

“isavasyam idam sarvam

yat kinca jagatyam jagat

tena tyaktena bhunjitha

ma grdhah kasya svid dhanam”

Direct Translation: “Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong”.

Can anything be simpler than that? Accept what is yours; do not accept what is not yours. Nowhere has it said that you will rot in hell if you don’t do this or that. Everything is self controlled. Knowingly or unknowingly if you do take something which is not yours, you will somehow have to give it away. With this there is no “fear” factor. Everything is controlled by him and he will lead us to realization.

Though I don’t deny that entry level Hinduism is filled with superstitions and blind beliefs, once you come out of that circle and start thinking independently you will realize it’s the most democratic way of finding God. You go find God however you feel like. Like a treasure hunt. Each clue will lead you to the next level. I don’t see any other religion giving so much of freedom. Maybe because of this depth, this level of maturity in the religion has helped us survive even after decades of influence by other religions and constant efforts to convert us all.

An American colleague once asked me ‘How do I convert to Hinduism”. I said just start thinking independently and freely. You can be a Hindu even if you pray to Jesus everyday.

where are we headed?

I thought I was dreaming. In the dream, P actually asked me to write a blog post! Yes the same P who rarely reads my blog that I sometimes have to tell him myself to please read where there are some references of him. By the way he wants me to write about Ram Sethu and even provided me with related links!! Thanks P, and here is the much awaited post.

I purposely didn’t want to write about it. I strongly believed that it had nothing to do with Ram or Hinduism. It was plain dirty politics. I was convinced I was right. My theory: MK is sure that congress will not be in power next term. He wanted to be out of the alliance, yet did not know how to say bye. (He has not seen Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna itseems!)So he played this game. Yes he invited a lot of trouble. But indirectly it’s the central govt that’s facing the storm. They can neither publicly denounce him and his comments nor can they openly go ahead with Sethusamduram Project. Congress is doomed which is what MK also wanted.

Things turned a little sour when he (as foolish as he is) made some stupid uncalled-for statements.

“Raama is a fictional character and neither he nor his bridge ever existed”

“Was Raama a civil engineer to have built that bridge?”

…so on and so forth. I ignored these as well; one of his ever famous stupid comments against religion. (Particularly Hinduism because nobody has the guts to say anything against any other religion in this country)

Isn’t it ironical that neither the British rulers nor the Mughal emperors questioned the existence of Lord Ram? They were the so called foreigners, invaders who came to loot and destroy India. But our government is doing it. The very body which is supposed to protect us is questioning our beliefs itself!

I am not saying that everybody should believe in Ram and accept him as the supreme God, but we are a secular country right? Shouldn’t we respect each others beliefs?

Though I didn’t write about it, I was really intrigued. I wanted to find out more about this bridge. Just one NASA picture was not going to satisfy me.

If we just look at it with a religious eye, there are no second thoughts. You cannot just go and destroy a religious monument; Not only in our country, but in any country for that matter.

Let us keep the religious aspects aside for the time being, because there is no “debate” on that. I want to look at it scientifically.

The reasons given “for” the project are as below

1. Obtain a navigable sea route close to the coast, with a reduction in travel distance of more than 350 nautical miles (650 km) (for larger ships).
2. Expected to provide a boost to the economic and industrial development of coastal Tamil Nadu
3. Development of other ports can be done once this project is complete.
   

So, as clearly seen above, the main “aim” is to reduce travel distance and hence boost the coastal business.

Now, let us see why this project fails to achieve even the stated purpose.

1. The depth of the canal is proposed to be of 12 meters. This is “enough” only for small ships but not at all enough for larger ships (which is what they are aiming for). The larger ships need atleast 17 meters.
2. The time saved is just 2 hours. How much of a difference that makes in the naval world? This is because ships cannot travel at the same speed through the canal as they travel on open seas. Also there will be pilotage delay; meaning a pilot will board the ship at the entrance of the canal and get off at the exit to “guide” the ship thru the canal. We know how much time it takes for a ship to come to a complete stop and start again for the pilot to board and get down the ship…. So!
3. It’s not economical for the ships to pass thru the canal either. The pilotage costs are huge. Why would a shipping company pay those pilotage costs, when it can travel cheaper around SriLanka?
4. The canal is in shallow waters which is a high siltation and sedimentation area. There would be annual dredging costs to just maintain the canal.
5. Security. The coastal lines of this canal are till date in control of LTTE. What they would is unpredictable and hence risky.
   

It’s obvious that there are too many scientific reasons which seem quite obvious to even a common person like me, without any deep technical knowledge in this area which go against the proposed project. But still there is heavy pressure from the government to continue with the project. Why?

1. The dredging cost which I have talked about is a constant source of revenue to the dredging company. They have tied up with the govt to go ahead with this. More revenue for the company and hence more under the table revenue for the Govt.
   
2. MK wants his name to be etched in history (now it’s already done for all the wrong reasons anyway!) to be known as the man behind the Ram Sethu. This project was first conceived in early fifties; he will surely get the credit if it gets done in his tenure.
3. It’s a huge project and hence lots of employment opportunities to a very large number of people which inturn formulates into hefty contracts for some companies. (Any idea which companies and what contacts they have with MK?)
4. MK wants to send a strong message to his DMK community that he is anti religion and does not give importance for religious monuments (specially Hindu monuments because he has no guts to oppose other religions. Hinduism is a very easy and susceptible target.)

These are my imaginative reasons for them vouching so hard for the project. I might be right or wrong. There might be some other hidden agenda.

Interestingly here is a link which kind of proves that Ram Sethu is man made.

But at the end of the day, I am scared to see the path we are taking. Today it is one MK, but tomorrow there might be 100s of them. We have Muslim terrorists plotting to kill all of us, we have our own leaders against our religion… what more threat can we ask for?

Update:

References :

1. A Mythical Bridge to Voters
2. The Adam Bridge
3. The Nautical Details
4. Save Ram Sethu
5. The wiki story

and so on...

Am I really a vegetarian?

The usual topic of debate right? I was always defensive about me being a vegetarian. I would give 101 reasons as to why eating plant is vegetarianism and eating animals is non-vegetarianism. But this time, I did a serious retrospection within myself... and here are my findings.

• CURD: The one thing which I cannot live without. No meal is complete without curd-rice. But isn't curd full of yeast? A micro-organism?
• Mushroom: Though I have no idea how to cook it and all.. and have hardly cooked at home. I like to eat it when I go out for dinner. But mushroom is classified as fungi. Another micro-organism.
• Egg: Though I agree it's not considered "purely-vegetarian" if you eat egg. After all it's chicken in the making. But my father being very orthodox didn't object us to eating it. On top of that, forget about eating directly. Even if I can avoid it, how about all those nice yummy cakes and pastries? Don't they have chicken-in-the-making?
• Bread: Again, it's formed by yeast. So should I stop eating all bakery products?
• Milk: Who can live without it? Actually the milk we drink is not meant for us, it is meant for the calf. But we still take it. So aren't we indirectly hurting the animal? So should I just stop having all dairy products?
• Plants: The good old dialog, "plants have life" too. So is it OK if I kill one form of life but not other?
• Medicines: They are direct killers. The so called anti-biotic. The things which kill bacteria and virus. So is that OK? Or is it also a sin and I should stop taking medicines?

My point is not veg vs non-veg. My point is people associating religion with it. Pronouncing that eating meat is equivalent to sin.

I very well understand from Hindu mythology point of view. All our gods and goddesses have one or the other animal as their vehicles. We worship these gods and goddesses along with their "vaahanaas" and hence it is difficult for us to kill and eat them. It's as though we are killing a part of our God.

But, I am against the definition of vegetarianism = sanctity. I think veg or non-veg is just a classification. One group is plant-eating and the other group is animal-eating. No one is higher or lower than the other.

P.S: I am a strict vegetarian. But recently I found that some kinds of cheese (specially used in Pizzas in USA) have cow's gelatin. As that is supposed to make it more cheese-like. After knowing this, I am forced to think... what about the countless Pizzas I had already savoured? Indirectly I have had a piece of our sacred animal. Will I even get a place in hell? Or will I be banished from hell too????????

Religion : Fashionable?

As we all know this world has many main religions. Islam, Christianity, Jewish Religion, Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism. There are other religions as well of course but these are more in the news I can say.

Of these, the two religions which are discussed for all wrong reasons are Islam and Hinduism.

Islam: It's anyone's knowledge why it is in the news for all wrong reasons. Some of the so-called jihadi's associate with it and the whole world considers Islam as dangerous. How wrong they are! Islam for one talks more about peace than any other religion. Also, polygamy which is legal in Muslims is interpreted all wrong.. In the actual scripts it is mandatory for Muslim men to have more than one wife. One "normal" wife, one "poor" wife and one "disabled" wife. How noble the thought was and what a mockery we have made of it in today's times!

Anyway this was not the intent of my post.

If there is another religion which is in the news for all wrong reasons, it is Hinduism. Why? For one, for it's so-called ridiculous customs, the orthodox principles. Have we seen any other religion being made fun of other than Hinduism? How we ridicule the poojaris who have a small pony in the back of the head while the rest of their head is shaven off? How we ridicule the way they tie their dhoti? How we ridicule the way Indian Hindu women dress...What with all their bindi, bangles and jewelry.

So what started all this? WE...We Hindus make fun of ourselves. So what more can you expect from an outsider?

This article here has what triggered the creation of this post. Religion is supposed to be "hip" huh? Is religion defined by the clothes you wear? Specially Hinduism preaches that it is not a religion, it is a way of life. Alas! None of us have understood the real value of it!

Why is that we always crave for recognition from the west? Aren't we happy with ourselves? Why should the west acknowledge Hinduism?

It seems wearing some religious symbols are "in style and in fashion"! Is that what they are meant to be? Are religious marks fashion symbols?

Just because Hinduism is liberal and gives you the freedom to practice however you want to, does not mean you can ridicule it.

I do not have anything against any religion. It is just a means to realize God... So you pray or do namaaz it's all one and the same. Ultimately you are asking HIM to release you from this worldly ordeals and be one with him.

It's one thing to be a believer or a non-believer. It's all together another thing to ridicule someone's faith!

People... Religion is not fashion! Neither is it supposed to be hip! It is supposed to be the way of life.