My Reply - Posting in Blog only because it got very large

Sorry, Shivang but you seem to be completely out of context here. Why? Because I didn't say that men are fools to believe in cause/faith/religion/god/human, you interpreted that by yourself or more plausibly misinterpreted...What I wanted to say was just that WE SHOULD BELIEVE IN RELIGION BUT WITH REASON, WE SHOULD NOT BLINDLY FOLLOW ANY IDEA OR THOUGHT PROCESS. And, thereby those men who believe in religion, here I mean "true religion" and follow "true saints" not the saints (or crooks as you said) "who speak utter non-sense", are not fools.

Did it never occur to you that a man who once performed heinous crimes, suddenly takes a plunge in Ganges and then is proclaimed by those saints(or crooks) to be free of all sins, to be senseless and irrational. Then how in the world do you tell me to leave my power of reasoning behind.

And, when did I say "looking for the causes and rationality of every action". Here again you interpreted or misinterpreted by yourself...I only talked about religion and not every other action(of course, I won't reason whether I should brush my teeth or not, etc)....Religion surely deserves to be followed with reason.

"wouldnt have survived this long if we questioned our parents when they first fed us or clothed us whn we couldnt make sense of its utility" - Here again you wandered away from the topic, from where did the role of parents entered into play.....only religion and saints are in limelight...and not reason-ability of common actions....

"same is the case with the path that leads to truth" - Unreasonbleness, I don't think so. Why? Ramamkrishna parahamsa questioned about the viability of "bread-winning" education (moment of rationality) to his parents and then went on to learn vedas(that includes Upanishads-contains non-dual principle-that is, what was quoted by Vivekananda in earlier post), Puranas, etc....Buddha questioned his charioteer about old age, death and then he developed distaste for this life and finally became a monk (again arising from rationality and faculty of cognition)....look into autobiographies of everyone with minutest details...it will become inescapble for you not to find reasonable and rational approach of all these "true saints"....

"vivekanada was the chief disciple of ramakrishna paramhansa.to train the eye to see something that is esoteric one needs a guide." - Not agreed. Why? Buddha, Jesus found truth by themselves, didn't they? Yes, you might now say that they were extraordinary but that doesn't deny the fact that truth can be searched alone, if you have the will to do so....

"quote buddha and vivekanada without checking twice on their integrity/holiness bcoz u believe that they can guide u to the answer to ur dilemma." - How did you presume that I didn't check? From where did you deduce this statement? Did you perform extraction of stealing my ideas from the deepest hidden corners of my subconsciousness like that guy Dom Cobb did in the movie Inception? I seriously doubt this....As a matter of fact, I did check...but not now, it started when I first read of Buddha in 6th-7th of our NCERT book....and since then have been reading about him and others...And, now you tell me to check their integrity/ holiness...Well, I bet you, if you ever find something erroneous about them, please do tell me....

"it is our psyche/pride at work when we look to find means to demean others as it is hard to acknowledge that there do exist those who know/understand more than we do." - Please do tell me whom did I demean. And, where did I claim in my post that I am the most intelligent or for that matter wrote anything that made you interpret this....please do quote any sentence from my post....

"The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant." plato - Agreed one hundred percent....But this has nothing do with what I posted...Yet again comprehensively out of context...

And, once again I want to say this:-

WE SHOULD BELIEVE IN RELIGION BUT WITH REASON AND WE SHOULD NOT BLINDLY FOLLOW ANY IDEA OR THOUGHT PROCESS.

Why have I been so much concerned about reason can made more clear once you read this. During my childhood years I mostly lived with my granparents in village, did my schooling there till class-III. That must have been around 1991-92, good enough age to remember little bits of information. What do I remember? Once my grandparents or  parents, I don't remember whom, once informed me that there is a house of "bhangee" over there, and reprimanded me to never ever go near them, exhorting that God will punish me. Of-course, without any power of  reasoning then, I would've believed them, But, when I read of Buddha and works by others, as well as mathematics (practice of reasoning), I started to exercise my power of cognition. And, then what do I see now, what my grandparents/ parents were telling me was rubbish all the way, and had this power of reasoning and the urge to search & find the truth on my own, not taken place in me, I would've been blindly following what they call as religion, which in actuality is not. How the hell is that person whom they call "bhangee" or by any other name which they can pick up to make it sound more derogatory, be anyhow different from us? Does he not eat, sleep, drink as we do? Does he not has flesh, bones, hairs as we do have? To hell with all those irrationalists and fools, I pity them, for how long will it take them to realize the truth only the almighty knows. "A person with even an iota of rationalism would not believe in such non-sense."

"Where shall we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in EVERY LIVING BEING. To me God exists in everyone as much as He does in me, for we are nothing but self-multiplied, just for ever once try to visualize yourself in that thoughtlessness state, which would have existed at the time of our births, before all this rubbish was forced into our minds, JUST TRY ONCE"

Religious superstition

Why do we believe in these saints, who often speak utter nonsense with no reason whatsoever? The answer to this question lies in the fact that we are fools or more appropriately we want to be fooled. Why does not even an iota of doubt arise in our minds when they say, "Perform this or that ritual, you will get to God." ? Here I would like to quote a dialogue from one of my favourite movie The Prestige, it says, "Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled."

 

With above question in my mind, I turned to one of the greatest Indian philosopher to look-out for an answer, and as usual he didn't disappointment me. This is what he had to say about God and Priests.

"We want to worship a living God. I have seen nothing but God all my life, nor have you. To see this chair you first see God, and then the chair in and through Him He is everywhere saying, "I am". The moment you feel "I am", you are conscious of Existence. Where shall we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being? "Thou art the man, Thou art the woman, Thou art the girl, and Thou art the boy. Thou art the old man tottering with a stick. Thou art the young man walking in the pride of his strength." Thou art all that exists, a wonderful living God who is the only fact in the universe. This seems to many to be a terrible contradiction to the traditional God who lives behind a veil somewhere and whom nobody ever sees. The priests only give us an assurance that if we follow them, listen to their admonitions, and walk in the way they mark out for us — then when we die, they will give us a passport to enable us to see the face of God! What are all these heaven ideas but simply modifications of this nonsensical priestcraft?" - Swami Vivekananda

And there's more, this is what he had to say about miracles:-

"I look upon miracles as the greatest stumbling-blocks in the way of truth. When the disciples of Buddha told him of a man who had performed a so-called miracle — had taken a bowl from a great height without touching it — and showed him the bowl, he took it and crushed it under his feet and told them never to build their faith on miracles, but to look for truth in everlasting principles. He taught them the true inner light — the light of the spirit, which is the only safe light to go by. Miracles are only stumbling-blocks. Let us brush them aside." - Swami Vivekananda

And this is what Buddha himself had to say about the need for rational approach:-

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” - Buddha

Now, it is upto us whether we want to believe in God, the way we have had for years or we want to apply our rational mind and search for the truth, the way we should. I bet the latter one is a better option.

Summing it up with one more quote from the same movie, it is, "But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you... then you got to see something really special... you really don't know?... it was... it was the look on their faces... " 

Arbitrary thoughts: Religion and Osama

Hello Guys....seems like an epoch since I posted last...Any-ways I hope you all are having a good time.

Today at lunch, one of my friends went berserk while explaining to us each and every aspect of the mission in which Osama Bin Laden, world's most viscerally loathed terrorist, was killed by United States Navy SEALS in a covert operation authorized by President Barrack Obama, in a way nothing short of a Hollywood movie.

While, discussing or for the most part of our listening, he told us that Osama was buried with proper funeral rituals as per Islam, although in Ocean. And, since then I have been contemplating about the concept of religion and its significance, especially for terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden.

What is religion? In my reckoning, it is a set of ideas, principles or rules, laid down before you or more plausibly fed forcibly into your immature and naive mind which is able to accept anything at that time, by your parents, grandparents, teachers, relatives, friends and so on. But why would you believe them? It's simple, because you see them from the time of your birth, you trust them, for they protect and love you. And, love is the only language that a human or a living creature is able to understand right from their birth. But, what if your "well-wishers" were themselves ill-informed and ignorant. Did you ever doubt them? No, why would you, for you didn't even knew how to doubt or even the definition of doubt.

And, then comes the revelation of your association with a particular tribe or race, nationality, all these notions being continually inscribed deep into your personality during your initial years, by the so called "wise-people/ well wishers". After conditioning of your mind for years with such thoughts, you develop a strong or unmovable sense of belongingness as if it was existing primordially. Now, if someone asks you your religion, tribe/ race, nationality, you would without any second thoughts, say at the top of your voice, " I am a Hindu/ Muslim/ Christian......" or "I am an Indian/ American/ German......". TO ME EVERY HUMAN BEING IS SAME SKELETON OF BONES WOVEN AROUND WITH FLESH & NERVES, AND NOTHING ELSE, IT'S JUST THIS DELUDED SENSE OF BELONGINGNESS WHICH DIFFERENTIATES US, AND WE FOOLISHLY FIGHT WITH EACH OTHER OVER PETTY ISSUES, SHAME ON US.

Religion, in my opinion, meant to be a set of ideas, principles or rules laid down to lead a proper and purpose-driven life, a way of life. All the world's greatest religions, in a nutshell, only teach you all these rules and principles, some of them being "Universal Brotherhood", "Tolerance", "Non-Violence*", "Truth", "Honesty". But, observe yourself honestly, are you really following these teachings in all sincerity. Here, I can emphatically say "No. you are not nor I am". So, can you still say you are a Hindu, Muslim, Christian... etc, I doubt... (To be Continued... for now ending with following final thought...)