Who is John Galt?
Sunday, April 22, 2012
What are we teaching our kids about God?
Sunday, June 13, 2010
The Evolution of God
Who said that the wheel was man’s first invention? To me it is God The Almighty - The unquestionable, the Omni present and Omni potent, Universal donor, the You Know Who.
I visited my school chapel everyday and the temple at least once in a month. As expected, I was a mixture of both and original of none. I used to question my families’ practices at home and dared not to question those at school. Then came the question ‘whom to pray to’ (or honestly, which God was more powerful to grant wishes with zero waiting time). Also, during Thanksgiving, whom do I attribute my gifts to? I could say ‘Kadavulin Kirubai’ or ‘Deiva Sangalpam’, taking careful precautions not to offend any God. To solve these confusions, I adopted ‘generalization’ as a way of worship – The Universal One God!
I stopped referring to Gods by their proper names and was now more strategic in pleasing them. This saved me redundant requests and redundant acknowledgements on responses. As years passed by, even this became difficult. With more probing come more questions. With this common God, what would I imagine him as? What physical form is he? Does he have one? Is he of human form as we have always perceived him to be? If so, does he wear wealthy robes and latest fashion jewellery like the Saravana Stores advertisements (Is he a Capitalist?) or appears to be a pauper (communist?) With mounting confusions and more search for ‘knowledge’, I found a more comforting way of life. And that was ‘Aham Brahmmasmi’!
W
hy do we always glorify God as a third person? Because the ideals we associate with him, the omnipotence we assume of him are all too idealistic to associate to any second person, leave alone first person. We can not imagine our sibling, our boss, our flight pilot, our spouse, our neighbouring country as Living Gods since we are so intolerant to humans that we cannot accept their slightest shortcomings. And what about experiencing God in ourselves? We conveniently ignored it, since in this case, with the original objectives we have set for God, we wouldn’t be able to yield to ‘worldly pleasures’, which are the driving forces of most of our lives.
But I decided I should be doing a balancing act between my belief and pleasures by following Aham Brammasmi or Naan Kadavul. It gave me so much comfort to relish myself as God that nothing I did seemed wrong. I had my own world. I loved everyone (though with a varying degree), I hated none (with uniformity), I accepted others as they are. I observed myself, my reactions to my own bliss, solitude, depression, freakiness and framed my God.
All was not well. And then some more disturbing questions arose? Am I omnipotent? Can I stop a calamity? Can I fix a broken heart? Can I solve the Indo-Pakistan dispute? Can I assure a plane’s safe landing? No. But what seemed soothing was that even the universally much acclaimed, God The Almighty himself has not been able to achieve these. If he is everything that he is claimed to be, are these happenings beyond his power of influence? Furthermore, man has to wage wars to protect the existence of this unseen being with hundreds and thousands being killed in his name. What good is a God who would let millions of his believers mercilessly massacred during the Holocaust? How omnipotent is God who can not save people from diseases/ famines? Why can’t he stop global warming? Why can’t he uplift the oppressed and suppressed as he had done in my High School Moral Science books?
I think I like confusing myself. But after confusions come clarity. So, now after all these I strongly feel, if I could do everything that God could, and more so, if God can not do what I can not, then he is as good as non-existent. If men are in their right senses, doing good, or at least doing no harm, accepting each other and ever learning, the world would be a better place to live in, even sans God’s help.
Now, is that my final belief? No. I will continue to evolve, for my good! Who is John Galt?
Friday, October 30, 2009
His Majesty's Apologies
I have never heard him say a "Sorry" before!
We have fought over petty things quite a lot of time. And mostly he ends up being the pettiest! Not that I wanted him to win, but I love to see the violence in his fight for victory.But this time, it was a bit serious.
He resorted to physical abuse!
I slapped him back.I was furious.Wait your turn buddy! I warned him in silence.He was flabbergasted, but he hid it well.He had seen me like he had never before.Not a regret... Not a guilt in his eyes. Not even a wince...!It just said "Well. I gave you one and got one back... We are equals now"!He recovered soon and got back to his usual errands around my house ignoring me.I retired to my room, sick feeling. Ours has been a very undemanding relationship all these 3 years. Not many mind us. His mom is quite possessive about him as most other moms would be. We talk a lot. Sense and nonsense. We have always been happy together. Never do we long for each other. But the joy of togetherness never ceases to exist. Now... I could hear my dad trying to distract him by his 'specialized' blah blahing. My dad has such a varied skill set, and this was a cake walk for him.My mind was calming down.After 15 minutes, Screeeech… The door seemed to open in slow motion. I was expecting my dad to come in and lecture on "Why I should not lock my door inside”
But it was Him.
Yes, He was back. But now, surprisingly, I did not feel the resurgence of my anger. Neither did I want him to come in. He looked at me with a note of "Can I come in?" in his eyes. He conveniently took a "Yes" when I only starred at him for a little longer and turned my face away.He came beside me, and sat close.
Very close.
My heart counted exactly 72 beats a minute. I was looking elsewhere...He held my hand.And that was when he uttered those words.Never in his life… even when beaten up, bribed or begged... has he uttered these words..But he now said "Sorry, Shama. Nee ennoda Shama. Enna paaru.. En kooda pesu Shama."And He kissed me.There!!! I couldn’t hold back the surprise and love in me.
I surrendered.
I showered my love back on him. He seemed as happy as me. We joined hands and happily went on with our usual 'talks'. My dad smirked. Just that.And then, the time had come for him,To leave me…To go home and have dinner...To start another fight with me , another day, for another Kit Kat , like today..To wake up early and go for his LKG admission interview scheduled tomorrow at the "DON's"
I hate inconsistencies!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
கறுப்புப் பூக்கள்
விடுமுறையை கழிக்க விடை தேடிகொண்டிருந்த என்னை