Beyond : Buddha

Long before our times he came
The Chakravartin with curly hair
Light of Asia was he called
Born to rule or liberate humanity
As would be his wont

In the life of you
Miseries of the post modern small
Looking at the light he showed
8 ways to leave your suffering
No expectations – he said
And that’s all you did

But the one question you still had
Is that, what you live for?
The samsara did have son and wife
Being the buddha was his wont
But a dead ascetic, not your middle path

Born and dead, a cycle they say
But, Go for Middle, what he said
A life of constant is deed great
Bow to him for teaching that
But, the answers blowing in the wind
Beauty greatest comes from love and pain
To be dead is kill expectations
Sinusodial of life you prefer

Casteism be not your chasm
Your pain is life and love
4,8,32 the numbers he gave
No, math didn’t stop there
You lookout for platform 9 3/4
Working to irrationalise the perfect

Honey does stay millennia 5 and half
But wisdom aged 2k might be stale
Your tale can’t be his
Its the journey of you
For you, the one who shall go, Beyond..

Admiring Wrong people

While I was growing up, I had read / listened a quote, quite a few times. I am not sure about the origins of the quote, a part of my brain says, it could have been the gyaan doled out by Gautam Buddha, other part says, it’s a basic tenet of Hindu Religion, while the other part of my brain says, it could have been just a general quote uttered by some unknown person, in some unknown text at some unknown time which has persevered through some pages of history. The quote says a very simple thing
“Hate the wrong, not the wrong-doer” or to say in hindi
“घ्रणा पाप से करो पापी से नहीं  “
Many years from then, I have no interest/affinity left for religions, hinduism or buddhism, but this one line has always stayed with me. One of the things I like to abide by in my life.

This, whole background, can be understood as continuation of my earlier post. The reason I can’t hate Hitler, the reason I can’t hate Godse, the reason I can’t hate Saddam or Osama. I will until the day of my death condemn the actions of these man and will argue for long hours with someone who doesn’t consider  these men’s actions wrong, or who appreciates/support their actions (again, not all actions, but my reader would be sufficiently intelligent and aware to decipher which actions I am talking of).

Yet, leave aside Hitler (who I have always been appreciative of in some sense). You ask me to hate the person Osama or you ask me to perhaps kill such a person if they are under my power (which would be a very fitting solution in eyes of many). I shall pull my hands back and strongly disagree with you.  Although I might not have problem with a court of law awarding them death penalty, as it the duty of the court to punish the guilty for their actions.This is one of the points of meeting of my mathematical/scientific philosophies and the humanitarian/historical ideas. I have always been a strong believer in the concept of duality, which in my opinion is one of the very basic fundamentals this universe/existence is based on.

Applying that scientific funda to humans/history is where I (just for myself) exonerate these wrong people from eternal hatred on my side. I consider a person and his actions as the two components of a single unit, which although can’t be separated from each other and shall always define each other. But, it is always possible to analyse the two different components of that unit individually which is, where you will find the support for all these ‘individuals’. Because leaving aside the actions of these people, they are humans, who have some ideas (talking about the ones different from their actions), who have done some deeds, who have achieved something in their life. Who might have been a success, who might have been examples to the future generations to achieve (preferably something else) in their lives.

All these arguments might seem fantasy words to the people who have suffered at the hands of such tyrants, and they have my heart-felt apologies. I will always like to such criminals meted out their deserved punishments. But I, myself would like to follow this funda of not overlooking the good/impressive qualities these ‘Wrong people’ have! Some people hate Nehru for the division of India, the loss of POK and many such things, some people might kill Jinnah for his actions which were instrumental in the partition of India, which resulted in such a horrendous blood bath and separated brothers on either side of the border.

And, as long as I have the belief in the concept of duality, I can always be found admiring a Gandhi, a Hitler, an Osama (perhaps, haven’t found anything very impressive in him yet) and mentioning them all in one single line with some respect, some disregard, some curiosity.

Will you ever ride?

It must have been around 5 months since that balmy night in August when I was posed with the question by a friend of mine. It was the time just after the 2nd operation, so I was at one of my periodic lows 😛 I thought about it, discussed about it and yet couldn’t just think it out.. Saying that it was perhaps the most important, cared for and (loved?) thing in my life might obscurely be meandering towards the point of exaggeration yet the fact remains that perhaps the time spent with bike was much more than the spent time with humans. My short lived biking career is something I will cherish through my life while also bearing the nails of its discordance.

The 5 months, as is the wont of life, passed in usual highs and lows. The point at the time of being asked the question, yet not was Will you ever ride? It rather was, Will you sell this bike? 5 months down the line, (actually happenedalmost a month ago, so 4) I am pretty sure about the answers of these questions . Whatever the answers be hardly matters in life, because any decision you take shall guide you to a different path where the comparison ends between the two sides, as life always moves on, some way or the other. It’s the fact that you took the decision which signifies an event in your life, and in some sense or the other you grow up, climbing up the ladder of life, one issue/question at a time. Looking at the process of growing on a very different level.

One of the realisations of this whole issue has been the fact that life does, infact move on. This line being called ‘just ‘ a cliché might considered be to be a matter of amusement in some circles. Yet the fact of life stays that they are clichés because, it happens that way and has happened that way. This phase was perhaps one of the time when I really realised what stopping of life really means. 3 months looking at a single window and 2 doors cant really be described as a pleasant experience to the best of my knowledge. Still, amidst all this gloom, steadiness and staleness, there remains always an idiot box of moving saas bahus and (if lucky) a net connection with some respite, and in some way or the other, some form or the second, life finds a direction, the stream might definitely be narrowed down, but it always manages to find the path. I can claim , to a huge extent, to understand the feelings of a permanent disabled person, yet their life too does move on.

After a point, it matters or pains a bit less because its not the decision, the point of contention or the furthermost issue on your mind. The mind, the master of all, has infact moved on to the next issue and yet again we climb another ladder of life.

Religion

PS : Politically incorrect and possibly offensive post.

Perhaps the only word which can garner more eyeballs and ear drums than sex is religion. Religion and Sex, if you ask me to come up with the most famous things in the world then it would be these two, and yet these two words are at different ends of the horizon . The perception of these two is completely different. One is a taboo, other is one who hear about all your life.

Coming to the main topic behind this post, what is religion??

Almost all of us believe religion to be a truth about which you generally dont argue much. Its there to be taken and you are not supposed to be questioning the things, you can question things about religion but you cant question religion in itself. You can always raise questions about the existence of Ram as an individual who was supposedly an incarnation of Lord Vishnu on earth but you dont question the thing called Hinduism (or Islam/Christianity) for that matter.

From what I can make out of religion is, its a set of rules and conditions which are laid down by some great intellectuals and you are supposed to follow/pay heed to them, which in fact could be a very nice funda if not distorted which almost always is the case even with religions like Jainism & Buddhism which were born against such practices. The only problem which I see creeping in religion is, instead of these things being the Directive Principles of living, people are making them rules written on stone, some lines which cant be crossed.

If I had to classify myself, I would neither be an atheist nor a believer in religion. I am a guy who reads Hanuman Chalisa in the morning and yet who doesnt have any problem if a cigarette packet is lying above the Hanuman Chalisa. I have relied on gayatri mantra since my young age to help me  when I had a nightmare. I voluntarily TRY not to eat non-veg on Tuesdays, and yet if I have to, then I have to, which is where my conflict with religion starts. Why the hell should I NOT have non-veg on Tuesday, i started believing in the concept because that is what I got from my parents and this has somehow stuck to me. Although I sincerely detest if I am forced to do this.

I have utmost respect for Geeta because its a source of great knowledge  and wisdom.

Similarly I respect Ramayana and Mahabharata as Great works but I would put them along with Divine Comedy, Iliad and Odyssey (none of which I have read and neither plan to do so) as great works of literature. I am not even sure about the existence of Ram or Krishna which stops me from considering these books any different from any other form of literature.

Similar is the case with Christianity, why should I start considering a guy who was hanged at the altar and did some acts of , as the son of God? He was a great icon, perhaps the biggest name in the world! But cant  Jesus’s influence  be compared to Gandhi’s to an extent ? Gandhi gave the policy of Ahimsa to Indians which helped them tolerate the English (and finally drive them away)..  Jesus’s contribution was Christianity which helped the people in his time.

Yet, I am not against the concept of something like God, I definitely believe there is something governing the world, it could be a God, it could laws of nature, there in something running the world but I am still not ready to believe that it is your all powerful God, even though I still pray to God when I am in trouble or thank Him when I am happy coz this is inbibed in me because of all these years of training by people around me and I guess I will keep doing the same all my life because after all everybody is afraid of troubles and tries to stay away from them and God gives us some sort of hope that he will keep or steer us away when we are troubled. 🙂

Btw just got to know that I complete 4 years blogging. Completed 4 years on 18th 🙂 the same day my bike completed a month 😀 Could read my first post HERE (wasn’t too happy with the college then :P)