We are all alone ..

 The lockdowns forced us to be just by ourselves. To our horror we discovered that in our seclusion that not only were we alone, most of us are leading lonely lives.

In life, one can be amidst a crowd and yet feel lonely, on the other hand be alone and not feel lonely. Alone we are born and alone we shall leave this world. We are ultimately all alone, but do we have to be lonely?

What we call 'my life',  is our existence between the time of arrival and departure of each body in this world. Maybe significant for the individual being, but an insignificant phenomenon in the larger scheme of the universe.

The whole idea of life is to live it. Living means different things to different people, each one choosing his or her own interpretation of life and trying to live it accordingly. That is why we are all unique, each one very different from the other and the paths we choose.

Earlier living was relatively simple even though it was more dangerous. Yet we had a good spiritual connection between ourselves, our fellow creatures and nature. 

With the passage of time and more the information we gathered, the more we intellectualised our evolution the more lonely and distant we have grown not only from our world but even ourselves.

The entire world is being nudged, pushed, dragged, generally encouraged to follow a Western driven one size fits all globalist model, with  the promise of success, love, happiness and contentment etc.

These promises have failed. Now the leading illness in the developed world is loneliness. 

Many have turned to social media, even addicted to it foolishly believing that technology and a virtual world  will take away our loneliness and bring us meaning and happiness. 

Belatedly we are discovering to our great disappointment that meaning, happiness or contentment do not exist outside of ourselves for outside there is nothing, all meaning is only within ourselves.

Confused about praying and meditating?

 It is easy to be confused by powerful words and concepts such as religion, prayer, worship, meditation, spirituality, etc.particularly when they are bandied about so cheaply and irresponsibly.

Most of us humans are obsessed with greed, material success and failures. We are also plagued by both genuine and imaginary fears and problems. To cope we have conceived of an all knowing, all powerful parent figure called God.

God, in the world of believers is someone high and mighty, before whom we prostrate and submit ourselves to constantly plead and occasionally thank.

The elaborate and complicated social system to connect Man to God is called 'Organised Religion'. 

Like all management systems, each religion too has its specialists, experts and managers and controllers and they are called priests.

Both greed and fear are matters of the mind and thus organised religions work on the mind, producing a heightened emotional state. Once emotions take over the individual becomes a believer, blind to facts and immune to rational thought and logic.

In all organised religions, priests connect humans to God through various paths by a system of standard procedures which include prayers, penances, rituals and pilgrimages.

One path for coping with life is the path of abdication, where we leave responsibility of our lives to God. If things work out that is good, if they do not, we can always attribute outcomes to or even blame God.

Submission, is another path which is adopted by the believer suitable for someone who is in fear of God. The individual simply follows what he or she is told or instructed.

Prayer is a pleading, a child appealing to a parent. The fearful yet expectant child that seeks protection from numerous fears, forgiveness for trespasses and never ending requests for gratification.

Prayer is worship, the reverence and adoration of God. Followers do not want anything except to worship and fear, sometimes to even love God. Their end objective is for the imperfect being to be accepted by the perfect being, God.

This is the main aspect of organised religion and prayer. God becomes master, parent, friend, spouse and partner,  and the follower can demand anything and hope for it to be granted.  The follower just wants fears to be addressed and needs to be fulfilled.

Each group of followers think that their God a Super-Human is the most powerful etc. and superior to all other Gods, therefore the followers are also superior to all other humans and all creatures who may or not believe believe in other Gods. This arrogance is the root of all conflict between organised religions. 

Blind faith helps political forces to tap into and exploit religion to easily control and govern the mass of people. The older the religion, and the closer it is to political power the more corrupt religion becomes. 

The person who prays is usually just a follower, a physical being who has no unique individualism but is part of and follower of a social group.  and therefore rarely do followers evolve intellectually or spiritually.

All of them looking for a God outside.

Prayer has some advantages, it is relatively less demanding, it can easily be outsourced for a small amount of money.  However the disadvantage is, prayer becomes a  bondage to the religious institutions and the priests in the name of God.

There are some individuals who see little or no merit in the path of prayer, and turn to meditation. The search for God within. This requires above all else the individual to possess personal integrity, to be honest with oneself.  Meditation is an individual's journey, it's the true seekers way. 

Each true meditator believes he or she is just an individual being and part of an infinite inexplicable universe with whom he or she seeks to merge with. A universe that is pure energy, without physical, mental or social boundaries. The meditator seeks to break all chains and dissolve back into this great energy which is what they interpret as God.

Meditation places demands on the individual to be physically and mentally healthy, invest some time, possess a fair degree of individual discipline, being loving without getting attached to thoughts, people, and things. Meditation holds the promise complete freedom. That is the continuous and positive evolution of the individual and the irreversible progress of society.

If one chooses to pray then one simply believes unquestioningly and follows the priests and the herd. If one chooses to meditate, it becomes an individual's journey. It's the rejection of everything external to us and eventually even our own minds.

In prayer we fatten our lives, acquiring things, people and influence. 

In meditation we slim our lives shedding everything that is in excess. Discarding material wants, thoughts and even socially acquired traits of ego, anger, greed, lust, etc. Unburdened by all baggage, the soul which is pure energy attains complete freedom. 

Rarely is there a meeting of the two paths of prayer and meditation. That is why those who do both things simultaneously tend to become confused and lost.  However there is hope because we learn best when we fail. 

I am in the minority who chose not to follow the crowd. I started with prayer but achieved very little. I have since a while begun to contemplate and meditate, not to seek the infinite, but prepare myself to one day be received the universe, the infinite which we call God.

Religion is a private not public matter.

How feeble must be a God who needs the help of politicians, militants and priests? Yet we arrogant human fools persevere in our efforts to save God.

Every one talks about rights, and it's true that within a democracy each individual is promised certain rights, by the State. However these rights are not absolute, for they are linked to upholding responsibilities and they are granted on the condition that they do not trample over the rights of other citizens, society at large and the State. Does the State not have rights or responsibilities, other than appeasement?

Politicians see everyone either as an enemy or as a tool, and when priests and ideologists turn politicians they make everything worse even destructive.

Now children are being used by these forces in the pursuit of imposing their radical ideology on others. This includes Muslims demanding that schoolgirls attend schools in full hijab, and Hindus reacting by insisting that children where saffron scarves and shawls.

Slogan shouting and calls of 'Allah O Akbar' and 'Jai Shri Ram' rend the air, and education per se has been thrown into the gutter. If people do not accept the rules of secular institutions paid for by taxpayer money, then they are free to leave or not attend those places of education, work or government.

The best way to gain control is to never lose it. Governments and society have foolishly bent over unreasonably backwards to accommodate and appease various political constituents. It is human nature that what begins as a privilege soon became a right and inevitably trouble.

As to the current 'hijab' agitation, investigations have revealed that there are insidious forces trying to enflame India by driving a wedge between communities.

On students being denied admission into the premises of schools for failure to wear specified uniforms, Muslim leaders have approached the High court complaining that their religious duties were being infringed upon.

When the litigants were asked to substantiate this claim none could be found in the Koran, They quickly changed tack to claim, Article 25 (Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion). Article 25 however restricts the freedom as long as it does not impinge on the rights or others.

Based on past experiences in almost every country where the authorities adopted appeasement policies, the results have been socially regressive and often violent. This is because it is not a move for religious freedom but an act of aggression.

What then has been the standard playbook of Jihadi forces once preferential treatment in clothing and practices is permitted?

The worldwide trend after the hijab demand is accepted, higher levels of aggression begin to take place sequentially as follows;

1. "We need a chance to offer Namaz in secular schools.' (The next demand which is already being pushed)

2. 'We need a separate place to offer Namaz.'

3. 'Halal counter should be separate in the school/college canteen where only Halal food must be served.'

4. 'There should be exemption from class and studies during their prayer time.'

5. 'Why is Sunday a holiday? Give us a break on Friday.'

6. 'There are chapters of Krishna, Buddha and Ram in the syllabus, we cannot call them God, so they are not needed at all, they must be removed.'

7. 'Why is there a school holiday in April and May? Give in our Ramadan month.'

The aggressive cycle never eases.

Wherever Muslims become the majority, non Muslims are persecuted, harassed and tormented. Anyone can be accused of blasphemy and then even murder will be justified.

These acts will take Muslims back 1400 years dragging many other Indians back with them. Can this be permitted?

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Unfortunately, radical Muslims quoting the Koran claim, that Islam sanctions societal violence, with every Muslim having religious sanctity to murder anyone who they believe is not Muslim, or not good enough Muslim or a Muslim who intends to leave Islam.

Such thinking has no place in any modern, pluralistic, secular society. Thankfully many progressive Muslims are secular, respectful and patriotic.

I like the way the matter was summed up by my Muslim friend Mustafa, "We have been secular, pluralistic Indians for 10,000 years. Being a Muslim for 1400 years does not change that fact. India and Indians comes first then comes my religion and fellow Muslims"

Unlike in the past, the majority of Hindus are growing angry and hence becoming more aggressive in their choice of words. Opposition parties want a communal conflict (the bloodier the better from their point of view) to take place so as to discredit the Indian government and India itself. So far the Indian government and judicial system have handled the matter adroitly and peacefully, with calmness and maturity.

It is a lose-lose situation for radical Muslims. If they lose the case they would stand exposed. If they win the legal battle, their aggressive conduct will force the government to quickly push for India adopting the long pending demand for a Uniform Civil Code. The UCC will naturally receive wide national support that will compel Indian government and institutions to treat Muslims just like every other Indian, with no special rights, privileges and benefits which they currently enjoy.

Religious fanatics of all faiths have to realise that,

India will not change for them. They have to fit in or accept that they will become misfits.

As a misfit, they are likely to be, educationally, socially, politically and economically left behind.

Could this explain why under their present political and religious leadership, the majority Sunni Muslim population in every country particularly in India are the most educationally and economically backward religious community who stagnate at the bottom of the social ladder?

Religion is a private affair and that is where it should remain, in our hearts and minds and in the designated places of worship. It has no place in our educational institutions or in the secular government for organised religion always trigger conflict, dividing rather than uniting people.

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At the time of writing this article, the High court has refused to grant permissions for wearing of or display of any religious symbols in educational institutions, and ordered the continuation of use of prescribed uniforms wherever it is the rule.

The Supreme Court did not pay heed to Congress party's top legal luminaries like Kapil Sibal that this matter required the urgent intervention by the Supreme Court.

Never submit to tyranny and injustice

 All organisations are political in nature and organised religions are just the same. This politicisation of religion by rulers, governments, politicians and priests, distances the individual from his or her spiritual quest. No organised religion can be exempt from this curse of corruption. Older the religion greater the corruption, and it must be rejuvenated from time to time.

Over time a materially and spiritually rich India became spiritually parched by follies and weaknesses of humans. Just as the thirsty seek the water, the water also seeks the thirsty. To quench the spiritual thirst, by divine grace there emerged great saints, and Gurus, and one of the most notable and transformational were the  Sikh Gurus.

Sikhism through the 'Prema Bhakti', (the path of love and universal brotherhood) built an inclusive humanity which shunned dogma, casteism, intolerance and violence while facilitating a user friendly path for individual spiritual realisation.

Sikhism was gifted to mankind by Guru Nanak ji more than 550 years ago, and carried forward by 9 more Gurus. The 10th Guru was Guru Gobind Singh ji (1677 - 1708 C.E.)

'Sikh' means 'student or learner', one who seek to awaken and cut through the complicated practices and  malpractices to embrace the whole world as one family, while granting full freedom to the individual to live and work as they wished, while being in harmony with all of existence.

No wonder Sikhism mushroomed and the general population who were spiritually awakened by Guru Nanak ji's teachings grew happy, successful and as a consequence a vast peaceful community of hardworking Sikhs flourished. This development surprised both the political and religious authorities, and naturally they felt threatened. Muslim rulers, and many Hindu Kings, who collaborated with Muslim invaders to rule India along with the clergy sought to destroy the Sikhs.

 

Any authority devoid of nobility and justice, will not have moral legitimacy. It always feels insecure and fearful.  Mughal ruler Aurangzeb and his Hindu vassals protected themselves from the people by suppressing all freedoms, backed by use of extreme violence to induce fear. They used organised religion both as a crutch and weapon.The general population was prohibited from formation of any group no matter how benign, good or noble it may be.

The history of the peace loving Sikhs is peppered with atrocities inflicted by Mughal rulers, and the priests of the day. Sikh Gurus were often imprisoned, brutally and publicly tortured and then martyred. In spite of all this the noble Sikhs imbibing Guru Nanak's teachings grew in numbers and in their spirituality.

When the 9th Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bhadur ji, was publicly tortured and beheaded at Chandani Chowk in Delhi on the orders of Moghul Tyrant Aurangzeb, the 10th Sikh Guru, young Guru Gobind Rai ji, proclaimed 'that to be a tyrant is wrong and to timidly accept tyranny is also wrong.'

On the auspicious day of Vaisakhi in 1699, Guru Gobind Rai baptised 5 Sikhs as the Khalsa (the pure) and then subordinated himself to the Khalsa by asking them to baptise him in turn. Each Sikh who became a Khalsa had the title Singh (meaning lion) appended their names. So Guru Gobind Rai became Guru Gobind Singh ji.

The miracle of the baptism convinced the Khalsa that the blessing of Guru Gobind Singh ji had truly transformed ordinary Sikhs into fearless lions. With a focus on self defence militarisation and arms training, the Sikhs had become a powerful force that could not be persecuted any more. 

The armies of Mughal Aurangzeb and his Hindu vassal kings mounted waves of attacks between (1700 to 1704 C.E.) to destroy the Sikhs and Guru Gobind Singh ji. All attacks were futile and the attacking armies fled under the stiff defence and counter attack of the Khalsa.

Eventually the generals of Aurangzeb offered a truce, in the name of Aurangzeb and the Quran that if the Guru peacefully handed over the fort and town of  Anandpur, the Moghul guaranteed free and unharmed passage to the Guru and his followers.

Aurangzeb's generals dishonoured their oaths and attacked and killed many Sikhs. In the subsequent pursuit and battles the Guru and his family were separated and his mother and his four sons were martyred.

Alone without even horse and sandals, the Guru was rescued and carried to safety by two Afghan disciples (Ghani Khan and Nabi Khan) to Jatpur where he became the guest of the Muslim chieftain. Here Guru Gobind Singh ji was contacted by one of his Muslim disciples who also had excellent relations with Aurangzeb. The disciple had a message and proposal from Aurangzeb for a compromise with the Guru to end hostilities.

Aurangzeb would call off the war if the Guru conceded defeat and joined Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb was sure that the Guru would agree, after all the Guru's father had been martyred as also his four young sons, his forts demolished and his Sikhs decimated, in fact everything material had been destroyed as per Aurangzeb. 

The Guru agreed that he had lost much, but for the Guru to concede defeat would be tantamount to conceding the defeat of God and Dharma before an evil tyrant like Aurangzeb.

When the disciples pleaded to the Guru that, "You are a fakir, a man of God and you should accept the truth and proclaim it, that you are finished". The Guru in response drafted and despatched the Zafarnama to Aurangzeb, stating, "If a heavy stone boulder should be thrown on a golden cup, it is true the cup would break. Yet in the encounter the value of the boulder would not be enhanced nor the value of the cup be diminished."

Guru Gobind Singh ji refused to concede defeat, nor join Aurangzeb, and over the next four years rebuilt the Sikh movement and revived the Khalsa until he breathed his last in 1708 C.E. The atrocities of the Mughal rulers led to the rapid downfall of their rule.

The world owes Guru Gobind Singh ji a great debt for gifting humanity with the Khalsa Sikhs a hardworking loyal and fearless people endowed with the highest and noblest values of humanity. Sikhs, are friends not only of the strong and brave, but also of the needy, weak and oppressed, continuing to serve and even sacrificing themselves to protect India and her people. It is  the Sikh Guru Gobind Singh ji whose birthday we celebrate today. 

On this day like always, we Sikhs send to you our good wishes and salutations, as we renew our Guru's promise to all of humanity.

Respecting the right to worship

  

Because we seek the meaning of our existence outside of ourselves, we humans have not realised our own potential and our own divinity.

Rarely if ever looking within ourselves, wherein our soul is the same as that which encompasses the entire universe.

That is why we humans need someone or something to worship.

Our arrogance and unlimited desire to dominate, does not allow us to accept that others have essentially the same desire but expressed differently. That is why more blood has been shed and destruction wrought in the name of religion than any other cause.

Every individual is inherently born free.

However with the passage of time we get shackled by some individuals or institutions to them through some ideology or the other. The more sophisticated the ideology the more tactfully are individuals robbed of their individuality. Crude ideologies impose rather than convince and seduce.

Freedom and liberty essentially means that individuals have the right to choose, as long as it does not intentionally harm others. In essence liberty is the right to be wrong.

Philosophies are realised, ideologies are imposed.

If an idea or thought has to be implemented using mainly fear, it will be unsustainable as many ideologies, religions and belief systems have discovered to their dismay. 

All empires eventually crumble under the strain of imposition and fear.

The best of humanity can flower only in free societies.

There is too much talk about tolerance and intolerance, and that misses the entire point for we need respect for the other not tolerance.

I, Me, Myself, my Guru and my God

  

30th November 2020 was the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak ji, whose disciples are known as the Sikhs.

A few acquaintances of ours wanted to accompany and join us in the celebrations of the Guru's birthday. So we set off for the 'Gurudwara', (Sikh congregation hall) where they could partake in the prayers and the singing of hymns and receive some prasad.

I remembered a similar visit of Gurpurab about a decade ago.

My chest expanded with pride, as I answered their questions about Sikhism and the Gurus. On and on, I went about religion, My God, My Guru. Suddenly I had an epiphany. I realised and felt very foolish as I realised that not only was I boasting, as a Sikh I was taking  ownership of God, Guru, and all of Creation.

It dawned upon me that my expression was just the jabbering of a petty, arrogant and unawakened mind. Foolishly rather mindlessly like countless myopic followers of various faiths  I too was blinded by my arrogance, I too was trying to usurp not only God and Guru, but everything I came into contact with.

'My Guru, my God, my Faith'. How could I for even a fraction of a moment presume that all these belonged only to me?  Me, an insignificant piece of creation was now claiming exclusive ownership over Guru, God, all Creation.

Guru Nanak ji, was not a Sikh Guru, he was a Jagat Guru. A Guru for the entire universe. I realised I had begun my journey as a Sikh (student), leaving the path of the follower to become a disciple. Luckily my companions did not comment. They either did not notice or were too gracious to overlook my ignorance.

Anyone who knows God cannot describe God. Anyone who can describe God does not know God.