Regaining Paradise

Regaining Paradise

Paradise is not a physical place somewhere. Its a state of being. The good news is, we do not have to die to go to paradise. The best news is, all of us can live there, and now.

In paradise, nationality, religion, colour, race, gender, are irrelevant. Nor is our bank balance, wealth, social status of any consequence. Ego, hatred, lust, etc. all the things that define who we are but in the end corrode humans are not even a factor.

There is one very large group of people that live in paradise, they are called 'Children'. 

The ultimate state sought by all true seekers of spirituality is to reach this stage of being innocent, carefree, just like little children. The child is innocent because of purity and ignorance. The evolved adult is not ignorant but becomes innocent by an enlightened consciousness. They transcend human social failings to become unitary creatures, the always pure individual soul connected with the  The Divine, experienced as Creation which most of us call God by a multitude of names. 

We adults are so busy making a living and merely existing, that we forget that life is to be lived. By the time most of realise the folly of our actions or inactions its too late. 

There is a lot that children can teach us. Show us how to be carefree and happy.  

Today 14th November has been declared as 'Children's Day'. In fact everyday should be Children's day, if we wish to be happy and make others happy. 

'Ubuntu' - I am, because we are

An  anthropologist who had been studying the Xhosa people of Africa, was leaving to return home when he had a revealing experience, which he narrated.

While waiting for his ride, he decided to play a game with the little children who milled around him.  He placed some sweets in a basket, and tied the basket under a tree a small distance away. He asked the children to play a game and run a race. Upon his signal the children were to run to the tree and collect the sweets. Winner was to take all.

When he said “Go!” the kids ran towards each other and held hands, and together they ran off towards the tree. The untied the basket and happily shared the sweets amongst themselves. 

The Anthropologist was pleasantly surprised. He asked the children to explain what they did and why?
A young girl simply replied: “How can one of us be happy if all the others are sad?”

The anthropologist was dumbfounded! For months and months he’d been studying the tribe, yet it was only now that he really understood their true essence…

“Africans have a belief called Ubuntu (oo-boon-too, n.) which means, “I am because we are." The individual is a part of the whole universe, a part of other people and all living things, and they cannot be treated separately.

For centuries, many people have considered the people of Africa backward. When one witnesses such great wisdom and humanity, it makes one wonder who really is backward?

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” ~ African Proverb

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Source:  “This is the Age of Ubuntu” from The noble Sikh Hari Singh. I am deeply grateful to my friend Bobby Basu for introducing me to the concept of Ubuntu.

Where the Gods reside

“Yatr Naryasto Poojyantay,
  Ramantay Tatr Devta"

- Manu-Smriti*                   

Translated from the Sanskrit the statement means,

Where the women are loved and honoured, the Gods are pleased to reside there. 

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Nowadays one regularly reads about incidents of mistreatment and disrespect of women and that can never be condoned. Exceptions however do not define the majority. 

Contrary to common belief, in India, as in most agrarian societies the Goddess, the provider of all things as mother nature has always been revered. The female has always been respected, loved and worshipped. Hindu and later Sikh tradition has always honoured women with the highest status of which women are rightly deserving.

Somewhere along the way, this valuable lesson which kept man and nature in harmony got disturbed. Influence of patriarchal religions, industrialisation, urbanisation etc. amongst other causes has taught man that nature and hence females are to be exploited for man's convenience and pleasure. Exploitation can never bring dignity and love. 
Our salvation and lasting joy can come only by loving and cherishing nature which is manifested in the female.

Culture is shaped by both tradition and historical influences, and provide many valuable lessons. 
Love, trust, respect, and worship can never be legislated, it can only be instilled and cultivated in the hearts of our children. This is not the responsibility of the government, media, priests, schools, or even civil society but only by elders and parents in our own homes.

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* The Manu-Smriti, also known as Manav Dharam Shastra, is the earliest work on Brahminical Dharma in Hinduism. Manu-Smriti is believed to be the word of Brahma, the Creator and it is classified as the most authoritative statement on Dharma .

The scripture consists of 2690 verses, divided into 12 chapters.  It is presumed that the actual human  author of this compilation used the eponym ‘Manu’, which has led the text to be associated by Hindus with the first human being and the first king in the Indian tradition.

Who is a Warrior?

"No one has the right to take another life. A warrior for us is different from what you think of as. The warrior is not someone who simply fights and kills. 

The warrior, for us, is the one sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenceless, those who cannot provide for themselves and above all, the children who are  the future of humanity."

 - Sitting Bull

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Sitting Bull  (1831 – 1890) was a holy man and tribal chief of the Hunkpapa Lakota people, who led the Sioux Red Indian Nation against the American government which mainly constituted of Europeans who had settled in  America

While two thirds of who died were due to diseases imported by the settlers a third of the native American Indians were simply exterminated. It is estimated that approximately 18 million Red Indians died for the sake of 'freedom' and 'progress' of the settlers in North America.




It is estimated that the number killed in South America or what we also call Latin America was still higher at over 50 million native Indians killed.

It marks one of Humankind's greatest tragedies and depicts Man at his possible shameful worst.

The American colonisation of the West, and the dispossession of its indigenous peoples was carried out under the ideology of Manifest Destiny. Europeans believed that they had a superior culture, and that it was their God-given destiny to occupy the land and to extinguish the culture of its original inhabitants. 

Manifest Destiny - American Progress by John Gast (1872)

In this illustration, we see Progress leading the settlers across the prairie, Bible in hand, stringing telegraph wires with the other, while the “savages” flee ahead