Sunday, September 25, 2011

A new morning.

Cult:
Noun:
1) Followers of an unorthodox, extremist, or false religion or sect who often live outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.

Religion:
Noun:
1) A strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny.

Interchangeable, aren't they.
Religion, by definition is, a strong belief in supernatural power that control human destiny. I think it should be modified to, a strong belief in a made up power that control humans. Just to clear the air, I admit that I am an atheist. I chose this. I wasn't influenced, converted, nor am I following a "cult" blindly. I am doing just the opposite, in fact. I am not against religion, just the way its being followed.

Its not logical to me, the way religion stands against humanity. Yes it does. Humanity teaches us to be together. Religion does the opposite. It creates sects and make them stand together against each other. Consider this for instance, every other religion states that if you don't follow 'so and so' religion, you'll go to the eternal pit of fire/hell or whatever that is called. What are they trying to do here, scare people into following one? Why is it never a time when we here a religion proclaim togetherness in spite of cultural/religious/regional differences. I have personally, never heard any  of the religious heads saying, "if you don't follow my religion, but some other, doesn't make a difference because its all same to God". It's always about their God and their religion.

What's worse is one religion banning every other, to even slightly be involved, and they are proud to be exclusive. Rubbish. Its more like the royal families of the English. They marry their own cousins just to keep their lineage pure. Really? Are you that stupid? Its like diving into the gene pool, with nothing new in it. Scraping the bottom in hope of survival. What results from it is genetic diseases, cancer and the IQ down the toilet. Spiral into itself and die. Don't believe me, research it. It's true.

Almost every religion, these days is attacking the other, hopelessly trying to prove and establish superiority. They are so blind in the quest that they fail to see the obvious, that they are not moving anywhere. They are exactly where they started from. Are they this dumb to actually believe that someone will admit the inferiority of his/her religion against theirs? Leave aside the inferiority-superiority issue. I grew up with the notion that God is the single point of pureness and religion is God's way of imparting that pureness to everyone. But soon I knew that this is how fairytale sounds.

When people kill each other just because they worship different Gods, I knew the whole idea was moot on the society. The very notion of a creator is disturbed when every other sect has one of their own which eventually sets out to be the most superior of them all, and if not followed, promises you of burning in hell. And then there are ones that forbid you to follow them because your are born into some other.

Would I be any different if I was born a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian or a Parsi? Would I suddenly have extra human power or would I lose the use of a limb or two?

There's one other thing that really bothers me and its the position of women according to the religion. Always blamed, pushed around, burnt at stake and said to have caused adversities.
  • Hindu: Ram questions Sita's morality and loyalty after fighting an entire epic war, killing Ravan. Sita finally submits herself to the fire.
  • Christianity(Protestant): Virgin Mary was not a virgin after she gave birth to Christ and was just another woman and hence the cause of all the bad in the world.
  • Both Islam and Christianity have condemned woman(Eve) of committing the Original Sin and God said "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you" and to the man he said "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life". So basically he gave PMS, childbirth and male dominance to women and the pain of earning to men. 
Really...???? 
Plus it really bugs me that when people talk about God, the creator of everything, somehow they always portray a male figure. Talk about equality.

Well I don't agree with any of them. What I'd want to do is, to have all the like-minded, right-minded people who rather than giving into the the shackles of the so established religions, would like to have a blend of all the good and practical approach towards being with each other and make a cult religion of my own. Call it Illuminati. In essence, it'd do the same thing the secret society tried to do. Free thinking. 

Be Illuminated....!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

End to A random 2010...

Well, an end to a great and weird year…  2010 will certainly go down in my life as the most random. At the end of the year, I can only sit and think back, see what I did wrong, and what I could have done, and the people who made it matter.
Its no secret that I thrive on friends who are most of the time existing only on my facebook and my gmail, but you haven’t ever felt any less than the ones I see in real. And that’s very special, and I am thankful for that.

This year has seen me be more thankful for what I have than things that I’d rather have otherwise. Really, I’ve begun to appreciate it more and more. This year also, I discovered I cant write like I used to. I spoke to someone about it, and she said, as people change, their writing also changes. I used to write effortlessly, bearing my soul to anyone, but I don’t seem to be able to do that anymore. Either I start to write too late after the thought has come and then it seems stupid, or I plain forget! I had planned to write a series of travel journals of my epic trips that I took this year, but that’s yet to materialize.
Speaking of which, I’ve realized this year that I was meant to travel. Its one thing that I can see myself doing forever. In the last 4 years, I’ve seen 8 capital cities and I can feel genuine love for some of the places that I’ve seen. There was Calicut and cochin to start with. Absolute love. And then there was BBSR, which grows on you. That was partly due to the awesome company and new friends I got there, and then there was Shillong. I’m going to live there for a year sometime. All this traveling has made me fall in love with the incredible country that India is. That said, there are a few major regrets. I haven’t seen GOA till now. Yes, go ahead and laugh. Its just that its never caught my fancy all that seriously yet. And I haven’t seen Balmuri. All my mysore friends will know what I’m talking about. Its funny actually.

I got a really good deal on a damn good digital camera, ofcourse all of you know that already, and I haven’t been doing it justice. I should make it a point to spend more time with it occasionally.
2010 has been quite hard on me. I’ve had to say goodbye to a lot of special people this year. Some, I had it coming, and some I have a few unsaid things left. There are some others who have drifted farther, with their careers, and life as a whole and yet a lot more have made their way in. it’s a beautiful balance at the end of the year. This year I’ve had some of my best dreams coming true: like experiencing Cherrapunji and some of them shattered to bits. This year I’ve seen the happiest of moments, be it surprise hugging a sister at an airport at 1 AM or getting a sudden call from someone special just when I was thinking of her though she is 4 hours in the past. I’ve seen my share of terrible luck and pure hatred too.

I’ve had things said to me that felt like white hot Arabian schimitars tear through my guts and pull it out. I also had kittens fall asleep on me, and it’s the most blissful thing ever. I fell in love this year, and fell out equally hard ;)
There’s a few other things I’d want to remember, riding in the coldest night in Mysore for 117 years, making new random friends, google maps helping lost friends in Bangalore, 3 days at Igoor, and my new phone!
I will also remember 2010 for being the most painful for a lot of people that I know, and will cherish it for bringing the people so close to me.

Anyway, that seems to be a long enough Rant. Have a great year ahead and don’t forget to keep the faith :) Its not that bad afterall, y’know.

Cheers,
TomCat