Religion or Fanaticism?
Friday, December 28, 2007
Its 2:30AM over here right now, but that's not the thing that's troubling me. Few hours ago my idiot box started blazing with the news of assassination of Benazir Bhutto; that my patrons is the news which is circling in my head. What would you call this? Terrorism? Fanaticism? Islamic violence? I had gone through the net and these are the terms that are been linked with this news.
Gone are the days when a religion was needed to guide the people in life, to answer the inborn curiosity in a human about its own existence, about 'why' and 'why not'. The fear of unknown had called for the concept of god, to ascertain that there is a supreme being. This gave in to the urge to make others conform to one's own views and ideology. We have now come to a stage where we see the fanaticism on rise.
Few days back it was hindutva being a concern, after Modi's iconic rise. Today its Islamic fundamentalists, few years ago it was khalistan and there will be lot many. A closer look and you will realise that all these had a similar DNA, a common thought process. So much that the commonness is much more than the commonness of these people along with other religion mates. An observation decent enough to say that all these people are from same religion - fundamentalism. This religion is mostly followed by uneducated lot who like to take religion word by word and have no clue about the crux of their own religious text.
If you are another of my lot, then this 'fatwa' issuing trend must have got you by now. There are so many and some are incredible ones, that one wonders if they are against the 'sinner' or for the publicity of issuing authority. The latest fatwa I heard was a girl for talking to a guy not from family and that too on a phone! I really wonder if Koran really prescribes this. So in case the Islamic scholars haven't realised this, there needs to be a movement by learned to eradicate this self-interpretation; no one else can push the knowledge in the heads of these fundamentalists.
Lets turn ourselves to shiv saniks, I would really love to know what is the vision statement of this group. Every next day we hear about some destruction or other on name of religion, but then I again come to same question - was the religion teaching about destruction ANYWHERE? or did it talk about the construction? If you really want to do something then do the betterment of public in infrastructure, development or public well being. Open as many hospitals in name of Hindutva or Jehad and let people understand what better way of life does their religion preach. But the restraint, the compassion that is involved there is difficult to come by and cracking bones, killing people is easier. So I would believe here that majority of people who are fundamentalists are just chickens who chose the easier path in life where one is just required to mug up the teachings without knowing the real meaning. Its like being lost in a labyrinth and chanting a statement taught to you by your father, not knowing that the statement which one is chanting actually translates to "take the red door to walk free".
Would like to wrap up with a couplet that has really hit me inside -
Logon ko zindagi lag jaati hai ghar banane mein;
tumhein ek shikan na aayi bastiyan ujarne mein?
Gone are the days when a religion was needed to guide the people in life, to answer the inborn curiosity in a human about its own existence, about 'why' and 'why not'. The fear of unknown had called for the concept of god, to ascertain that there is a supreme being. This gave in to the urge to make others conform to one's own views and ideology. We have now come to a stage where we see the fanaticism on rise.
Few days back it was hindutva being a concern, after Modi's iconic rise. Today its Islamic fundamentalists, few years ago it was khalistan and there will be lot many. A closer look and you will realise that all these had a similar DNA, a common thought process. So much that the commonness is much more than the commonness of these people along with other religion mates. An observation decent enough to say that all these people are from same religion - fundamentalism. This religion is mostly followed by uneducated lot who like to take religion word by word and have no clue about the crux of their own religious text.
If you are another of my lot, then this 'fatwa' issuing trend must have got you by now. There are so many and some are incredible ones, that one wonders if they are against the 'sinner' or for the publicity of issuing authority. The latest fatwa I heard was a girl for talking to a guy not from family and that too on a phone! I really wonder if Koran really prescribes this. So in case the Islamic scholars haven't realised this, there needs to be a movement by learned to eradicate this self-interpretation; no one else can push the knowledge in the heads of these fundamentalists.
Lets turn ourselves to shiv saniks, I would really love to know what is the vision statement of this group. Every next day we hear about some destruction or other on name of religion, but then I again come to same question - was the religion teaching about destruction ANYWHERE? or did it talk about the construction? If you really want to do something then do the betterment of public in infrastructure, development or public well being. Open as many hospitals in name of Hindutva or Jehad and let people understand what better way of life does their religion preach. But the restraint, the compassion that is involved there is difficult to come by and cracking bones, killing people is easier. So I would believe here that majority of people who are fundamentalists are just chickens who chose the easier path in life where one is just required to mug up the teachings without knowing the real meaning. Its like being lost in a labyrinth and chanting a statement taught to you by your father, not knowing that the statement which one is chanting actually translates to "take the red door to walk free".
Would like to wrap up with a couplet that has really hit me inside -
Logon ko zindagi lag jaati hai ghar banane mein;
tumhein ek shikan na aayi bastiyan ujarne mein?
Labels: Experiences, Philosophy
posted by Jas @ 5:43 PM,
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Why is man a social animal
Monday, December 10, 2007
I was in class second or third when I would have read this eternal line of insignificant significance at that time, "Man is a social animal". Since then we have read it on the walls of our schools, from our parents, in our sibling's books, on our bookmarks and god knows where all. But all that matters is that it got etched in our minds inseparable like our skin.It has been almost twenty years since then and I still am astounded at how deep is the meaning of this line. I don't question the statement but I question the very much need for the same. Why is man a social animal, why is it that we feel the primal need to socialize as we feel the need to feed. If it has brought happiness to mankind it surely has brought the curse of pain even more on us. Look at our relations, show me one relation which has not inflicted the pain on an individual. Irony is that generally its not that a person is wrong or has sinned that the pain comes, its just a conflict of two individuals trying to express their own set of beliefs and mind set. So that is the reason we see so many fights where both the sides are right in their own but still wrong or catastrophic or incorrigible in other sense.
Let's take two scenarios, first one (the only one that I will discuss) where the person is having a stereotype in mind and hence that creates a prior barrier in communication, like Americans are money minded, Asians are secretive, North Indians are aggressive, Keralites are lecherous etc etc. These stereotypes pre-program the stimulus of an individual, unlike a fair ground where you try to understand a personality; but at the same time they are helpful many times in times of dangerous situations. But once we come to know each other then the stereotypes should pave the way for newly learned personality else it comes out as taunts and abusing.
Coming back to our social selves, what comes out as the most complex part is that investment that an individual does in these social contacts. When you fall in love, you get a whole new social baggage from other side. Irony is that love is guided more by need to be loved, cared and security than a rational choice. So many may say that best part about friends is that you get to choose them yourselves, I don't agree. Love just happens.
Most of relations will survive if distance is there, the yet another peculiar characteristic of us humans. The closer we get, the more negatives we find; the farther we go the more we remember of the good times. I guess the distance aggravates the emotional needs of above said love, care, affection and security; and the closeness brings in the personality specifics, the stereotypes. So I have come to a conclusion after trial and errors that one needs a personal space in every relation, be it your spouse, parents, siblings, friends or relatives. Inability to quantify these limits will always play a devil's advocate here.
To wrap up these erratic musings, I present one more alibi for my question - Why is man a social animal - the pain. That is the biggest side effect of socializing. Irony is that the pain inflicted by these separations is not just limited to emotional but it oozes out to become physical. It's surprising to see in your early twenties that how these relations can make you a power house or a rotten silhouette of your normal past. The solitude, the fear and the glumness that creeps in is analogous to a death of near one, good enough to turn you to being a handicapped. Still as they say, the life goes on. So one should pick up one's emotional luggage and move on, keep walking. The billion dollar question then is, if one can?!And we come back to the square one, why is human a social animal? Wouldn't it have been lot more better had we been just animals?
Labels: Experiences
posted by Jas @ 10:55 PM,
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