Why women deserve to be respected

 The binding force for every family is almost always the female. Be they transmission of values, character, knowledge, the female members play a vital role.

if you develop a man you develop an individual, if you develop  a woman you develop a family.

The bedrock of a healthy, happy, prosperous civilisation is the family.

Societies that have valued and respected the feminine's contribution in all its aspects as much as they did the masculine, have been found to be deep, truthful, robust and resilient. All these traits that help realise the best in human potential.

High respect and regard for the female has been the bedrock of Indian civilisation for millennia and one of its secret of great cultural, social and economical success. Greed, arrogance and power from within and religious, cultural influences from without had minimised the value of women in Indian society. As a consequence India became easy prey for exploitation, loot and degradation.

Guru Nanak ji, the expounder of Universal Truths which is commonly known as 'Sikhism', awakened humanity to the need to value the all pervasive feminine aspects in Creation, The Guru says,

“From woman, man is born; 

Within woman, man is conceived; 

To woman he is engaged and married.  

Woman becomes his friend; 

Through woman, the future generations come.

When his woman dies, he seeks another woman; 

To the woman he is bound. 

So why call her bad? 

From her, kings are born. 

From woman, woman is born; 

Without woman, there would be no one at all”

Guru Nanak ji's teachings have had a profound and positive transformational effect and helped reinforce and revive the value and respect for women in general. This has been one of the key elements in the success of Sikhism as a way of life.

Respect for the other cannot be taught nor legislated, it can however be learnt. 

If one is guided to realise the transitionary nature of life, be it our body, beauty, strength, wealth, status, or position we will discover ourselves living simpler and healthier lives. 

By associating with good and noble people, by contemplation and listening to the Guru's advice we can awaken the consciousness. Then we need not be told by others as to what is right or wrong for we will know it.

When there's focus on awakening rather than teaching, we come to respect not only the woman but all of humanity and Creation. To respect is not to pamper, or worship but rather to cope with and accept that the nature of women is different from, but complimentary to men.

To respect the woman is to respect ourselves.

Who Created God?

 

Mr. God

 

Most people ask, 'Is God male of female?'

First we need to understand 'Who or what is God?'

All religions and believers claim that God is, omnipotent that is with unlimited power, omnipresent meaning whose presence is widespread, in fact everywhere. And of course God is indestructible.

The only thing that meets these three parameters is energy. God is nothing but this energy that is manifested in all of Existence.

Then how do we come to know and experience God?

Throughout history two pathways have been adopted by us humans to understand God and Existence.

The first approach being the emotional-spiritual approach, where we see and experience God in all aspects of nature which provides and nurtures us and hence God is primarily viewed as feminine in all aspects, such as mother earth, mother nature experienced through the elements.

The second approach being the material- intellectual approach which analyses God as an all powerful concentration of power in a human being hence God is seen as masculine.

The human mind generally employs intellect and logic to fit Creation into something we can understand. Because Creation is infinitely vast and our minds comparatively so insignificant  we cannot comprehend Creation, as a result we always tend to get lost in knowing God.

In fact those who know God cannot describe God. Thos who describe God do not know God.

But the curiosity of humankind must be addressed, an explanation has to be offered by the leaders in society to the simple minded and trusting masses who look to their leaders for guidance.

Some people have seen great opportunity to capitalise on this natural human desire. Thus was born organised religion to cater to the  greed and fears of mankind and the ability of a few to politically, socially, economically and militarily dominate and exploit others.

It is true, God was, is and will be. 

This does not mean, God is a man sitting somewhere on a throne in the sky, or a woman floating on a lotus flower, etc. Rather God is in every drop of water, every grain of sand in every bit of atmosphere, in every leaf, in each creature and the life throb in every being of Existence.

The starting question itself is erroneous, because God is neither male nor female, God is neutral.

God is not a being, but existence itself, manifested as energy.

Existence is God, and God is Existence.

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Paths to Truth

 

Most of us are in search for the truth, whatever that means.

The meaning of truth differs for different people and differs for the same being at different times.

There are three paths to discover the truth of reality. One is the scientific approach, the second is the logical approach, the third is the spiritual approach.

The scientific mind will experiment, and test repeatedly in the objective world. Only when there is proof, the scientific mind accepts.

The logical mind, by using philosophy, evaluating pros and cons, reasons out the truth and conclusions are drawn. No testing is carried out. The entire exercise is subjective and in the mind.

The spiritual approach, where one experiences the truth. They often know not why it is so, but it is.

Scientific approach is of the material world and the exterior, it deals with the objective. In this category belong great people like Newton, Aryabhatta, Ramanujan.

The logical approach is pure mind work and it deals with the subjective and is of the interior. In this category belong Socrates, Kautaliya and Einstein.

The spiritual is the link between the interior of our existence and the exterior world in which we exist. Linking our being and our world, and in this category belong Guru Nanak, Gautam Buddha, Jesus, Kabir Das, etc.

Every individual has a natural inclination and sometimes the gift of teaching and guiding others. Some go the scientific route and some logical and some spiritual.

The scientists often laugh at the spiritual and the logical people for their lack of hard facts and truth.

The philosopher thinks the scientist blind in his arrogance, and the spiritual being as a fake.

The truly spiritual being, simply smiles in bliss and says nothing about others. He or she simply knows.

We are like water, each one a droplet. We take birth springing out along with other droplets of water soon to form a stream. Soon streams merge to form rivulets and they in turn become the river.

Some rivers flow almost straight some wind their way forward. Some rivers flow east, others flow west. Thousands of rivers known by a million names some mighty and some little but all will eventually flow into the ocean where no one can describe which water came from which river.

Each droplet with all its arrogance will eventually return to the ocean. Who knows which drop is right and which is wrong, which is greater. No drop is insignificant but none is also eternally significant.

So it is with each individual and our truths Each one originating from the same ocean as a droplet and returning to the ocean through a long journey back to the ocean.

Truth is so evident and yet so elusive. It is like the air, we cannot grasp it with our hands and minds. It can only breathed in and experienced.

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Note: I am grateful to my elders and various friends and teachers who taught me so much and help me awaken even if so little.

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.