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An answer to the age old question -Does God Exist?
The above are two views of a building at the entrance of Narayana Hrudalaya, Bangalore where I had taken my cousin for treatment.
It has four entrances, each housing a place of worship of four religions, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians.
Most people who bring their near ones to Narayana Hrudalaya for treatment spend some time at the place of worship to request The Almighty to give good health to their patients.
Does The Almighty listen to their prayers?
One of our friends raised the question of the very existence of God itself.
Some thought provoking theological correspondence was exchanged between us (started after I returned from Bangalore) which I am giving below.
I am sure you will find the correspondence interesting.
Radheshyam
Hari Om, Sharmajee,
I am deeply saddened at your loss, on top of the stress you had to endure for those eight+ days. Even if the mission was successful, a man of your age and health condition would need time to recuperate... not to speak of the great expenses you must have had to undergo inspite of the failure of the mission.
You all are pious, vegetarian Brahmins. On the other hand, I am a blasphemous, beefeater Brahmin who finds idol-worship as repelling as the mussalmans do.
But the most simple and obvious conclusion escapes you.... that there is no GOD ? God is an invention of Brahmins to fool the rest of humanity, or at best an excuse for the corrupt to absolve their sins. As the famous 'sheir' goes...
Subah Piye, Shyamko Tauba Kiye
Rind Ke Rind Rahey, Jannat Bhi Haath Sey Na Gaye
God is precisely that excuse for us to be corrupt, cowardly, selfish and all that is evil, as HE is EVIL in its purest form... one who can be bribed by offering everything from a simple pooja to building a temple which does not feed or house anyone but the most corrupt again !
I am sorry if I am adding to your sorrows, but I felt that I must share 'truth-as-I-see-it', with a person who has (somewhat) adopted me as a younger brother,
Jai Shree Ram,
Hari Om ….,
I suppose everyone has a right to his views.
However, I could not have made the Universe nor could my fore-fathers.
I cannot explain how the Sun, Moon, Planets and the whole solar system and ever expanding Universe was made and how they have been moving in their orbits for millions of years and will continue to do so for millions more.
I could not have made the seasons by a slight inclination of the Earth's axis and its rotation in an elliptical orbit.
I could not have made the beautiful human body which runs like clock-work or the heart which pumps blood throughout the body, even when we are asleep, for all the years we live.
Why? I could not even make one of the elements in the Periodic Table. Scientists have only discovered them and put them in tables.
Hence, I prefer to give that credit to God.
It saves me a lot of bother and useless thoughts of trying to find the Hand behind all this order and disorder.
I suppose, you would be having an explanation?
I would like to hear that.
As far as bribing God is concerned, I have explained my views earlier.
It has no effect on God.
God is neither pleased when we praise Him nor does He get angry when we abuse Him.
We humans prefer to think that God is like a human being.
We assume He has the same likes and dislikes as us and hence we do to Him what we would to please another like our boss or our family or any other acquaintance.
Yes, I suppose, the Brahmins were partly responsible for these views as whatever was offered to God, finally went to them.
Yes, He has made both the Evil and the Good; I suppose for us to see the contrast.
If a person is good, the inner voice which we call conscience gives us satisfaction and we know this is what the Great Power likes.
If we are evil, the same conscience pricks us and we know this is not what He wants.
Of course, if we don't listen to the pricks, after some time it stops sending those pricks and we turn into hardened criminals.
However, we must understand that both the saint and the sinner have been made by God, for nothing can be outside His creation.
Thus, although I am regularly cursing politicians for the ills in India, I still know that they too are God's creations.
Everything moves as per His plans.
Global warming, melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice cover is also as per His plans.
We should all do what we can do for the environment so that many more generations can inhabit the Earth.
However, it is only He, who will decide when the earth with its entire flora and fauna and the human race should or should not be wiped out.
Cheers,
Radheshyam
Hari Ohm, Sharmajee,
I am sorry to cause more trouble than comfort in your hour of grief, but, if God made all these... the inevitable question is.... who made God? My explanation is that all these are a freak accident of science, something like 'the big bang theory'.
If there really was a God, he would not ensure that only the corrupt and evil survive and make merry, while the rightous suffer... and don't tell me all that about trials and sufferings being good for you -- they have given me gastric ulcers and bags under the eyes from insomnia !
If there really was a God, he would not fill India and China with roughly 300 crores of humans, at the cost of his less destructive creations. He would quietly get rid of mankind, and the "God-Debate" would end there!
Wishful fantasies !
Hari Om …,
Your question, who made God would naturally come to the mind of rationalists.
I would say our minds are too small to reach anywhere near that answer when we have not even been able to understand the working of the human body.
We are still down to the DNA level and have still to go below that.
I accept that I or anyone else will never be able to answer that question in a thousand lives for our brains and mind are also made by the same Infinite and we are finite having a shelf life of about 100 years so how can we understand Infinite Time?
"The Big Bang Theory" may sound very scientific but what caused the Celestial Bodies to collide and cause the "Big Bang". Someone must have made the Celestial bodies to cause the Big Bang.
I call That Power, God.
As I said earlier bad and good will always go hand in hand.
Only in Satyayug, the age of truth, we had only truth and no evil.
In Tretayug, we had the three Awtars (reincarnations) of Lord Vishnu. The Vamana, Parusharam and Shree Rama.
In that age the ratio of truth and good reduced to 75%. Thus we had the different demons like Ravana torturing and killing the people.
But among the demons too, we had good people like Bali who was willing to offer everything, including his head to Lord Vishnu, who appeared as a Vamana, a dwarfed Brahmin, asking for alms.
In Dwaparyug, when truth and good was reduced to 50%, we had the Awtar of Lord Krishna who said He would come on Earth to restore faith in religion and good every time Evil and untruth became excessive. He killed a number of demons, the main being His own mama (maternal uncle), Kangsa.
The present age is Kaliyug. Now the evil people out number the good in the ration 75% to 25%. This is very much evident in our Parliament where the evil MPs far outnumber the good, probably in the ratio 90: 10.
This is all as per our Purana.
We have to now wait for the next Awtar of Lord Vishnu, The Kalki Awtar, and Lord Shiva to once again restore Satyayug.
There is no point in having wishful thoughts of India and China.
He will do all that is necessary to destroy Evil and restore Good.
It may not occur in mine or your lifespan or even our grand-children's.
But our life spans are nothing in the plans of God.
In the meantime don't fill your life with tension.
Accept, whatever is occurring is happening because of the will of God.
Cheers,
Radheshyam
Hari Om, Sharmajee,
Leaving aside GOD, let us tackle lifestyles.
I am a high smoker, low drinker (blame that on the Calcutta heat), like pork lard the best, but do a lot of physical work in spare time, walk to short destinations, run up stairs etc. My dad had a massive myocardial infraction at 54, and he had started smoking in his forties ( I at 17-18 ). Yet I bet my lipid profile is better than yours, because Marwaris, like bongs, hate physical activities. Moreover, you must be a ghee-addict, like most.
My role-model is late Beant Singh, CM of Punjab, who used to have a whole hen for breakfast, and (probably) a whole goat for lunch! He said." cholesterol will not kill me", and he was right ! He died from an assassin's bullet! Way to go, man!
Let us go the whole hog.
Bye
Hari Om ……
You cannot leave aside God for He is there everywhere and in everything.
As I said earlier, at the time of your birth, God programmes your whole life just as NASA has programmed the Curiosity to work as per NASA instructions on Mars, 225 million km away. Because NASA is finite and fallible, NASA has to change its directions depending upon circumstances.
Would anybody believe you if you said that Curiosity was running on its own without any guiding force.
And yet people say, the whole Universe and our beautiful Earth runs without there being the Supernatural Power called by many names like God, Allah, Ishwar, Waheguru, Jehovah.
However, God is Infinite and so He does not have to change His programmes.
So whether you are a meat eating, chain smoking alcoholic or a completely vegetarian teetotaler, the programme for your death has been set and all your actions will be leading towards that with the help of your surroundings.
So go ahead and do whatever you like (for your likes and dislikes too have been programmed by Him), for everybody is going to die at some point of time.
Nothing can prevent that.
Radheshyam
Hari Om Sharmajee,
I feel better, already. May my horoscope be true then, as it says I will die at 58 in a road accident! I have noticed that I am already driving faster and more recklessly!
I agree with you that there is a superior/supreme power making the universe go round, only I refuse to call him GOD and offer him bribes in the form of poojas, prasads, etc, or build statues and prostrate myself in front of them. I even refuse to offer chaddars at tombstones, or go sit and fan the great book while I sweat myself! If we are pre-programmed, I might as well go ahead and enjoy myself rather than live an austere life, and loot. plunder, and rape !
I think 'the supreme power' is scientific, something not easily explainable yet, rather than some mumbo-jumbo listener who likes to bathe in cow's milk!
Hari Om
At last we have covered some common ground and you appreciate that there has to be a Supreme Being who is running the Universe. However, the beauty is He runs it so imperceptibly that we start believing that we are running it.
You don't have to call Him God or Allah or Iswar or Jehovah of Wahe Guru.
As long as you accept that there is this Supreme Being, it is enough.
You don't have to offer Him any Puja, Prasad, flowers or water.
He has no need for these as He is the creator of all these.
You don't even have to erect statues or prostrate yourself.
You don't even have to offer chaddars or fan the great book.
These rituals are for the people who think rituals make your religion.
There is a difference between being religious and being spiritual.
You can be religious without being spiritual.
All these Hindus, Muslims and Christians who are killing each other in the name of religion, fall in this category.
You can be Spiritual, without being religious.
Most of the great thinkers like Christ, Gautam Buddha, Mahavir, Kabir, Guru Nanak were Spiritual.
They gave their thoughts to the people asked them to follow those thoughts.
It was the followers who misinterpreted them and started converting people forcibly or by bribery.
The Crusades were an example of converting to Christianity by force.
Some of the missionaries in India are examples of conversion by bribery.
I don't consider Mohammed to be Spiritual.
His basic premise was that there is only one God called Allah and went about killing anyone who did not believe in what he said.
His followers are still doing the same, killing people who do not follow what they dictate.
Aurangzeb was a good example of conversion by force into Muslims.
By no stretch of imagination can Mohammed be called spiritual.
He was a religious fanatic and his followers are just following his footsteps.
Yes, you are pre-programmed and if you want to go and enjoy yourself, probably your programme has been set that way.
Yes, He is not only scientific but He is Science.
Everything comes from Him and His creation follows His laws.
All rituals are what people think He wants.
Thus people still recite all mantras in Sanskrit as if that is the only language understood by our gods.
It has been intentionally kept that way as only Brahmins used to study Sanskrit.
Similarly, the Christians used to use Latin in their dialogue with God.
That is gradually being replaced by English.
Prayers should only be your expression of thanks to God for all that He has given you.
Your life, your family, your friends and relatives, your neighbours, etc etc.
You can thank Him for the Sun, moon, Stars, for rain and sunshine, water, air, all the animals, birds, reptiles.
It can go on. There is so much you can thank Him for.
Don't ask Him for anything.
You use your own efforts to get it.
However, without your own effort you will not.
If it is in the programme He has made for you, you will get it. If not, you will not.
Sometimes He gives you without any effort on your part.
This is again because it was programmed by Him probably because of good deeds performed in earlier lives.
The same goes with your health.
The life you lead has been programmed in you so that you will reach the age He has fixed for you.
Radheshyam
Hari Om Sharmajee,
That was a long sermon ! But at last, I am in 100% agreement. I have not been able to offer solace in your hour of grief, but your 'spirituality' has raised you several notches in my esteem. Hope we meet soon at some get-together !
Bye
Hari Om,
It has been a long time indeed since we met. I was hoping to meet you in October when we went to the school sports but you could not make it since you had gone there in May.
Let us see at one of the parties.
I actually find myself out of place at these parties as there is free flow of hard drinks and non-veg food which is strictly no-no for me. That is why I usually give them a miss. I had asked the people who organise these events to every now and then have a party where vegetarian food and only soft drinks are served. But the meat eating alcoholics far outnumber me and so my voice is silenced.
I suppose, in a democracy, you have to go with the majority.
Radheshyam
Hari Ohm, Sharmajee,
No, I did not go in May as I was suffering from stomach ailments still to be correctly diagnosed, and could not risk the 14hr long bus ride without a toilet The organizers had mis-spelt my mail ID and I came to know too late for a confirmed train ticket. Anyway, the organizers ignored all my arguments for a group mail ID, and a Facebook page was formed but no one informed me of its location or invited me to become a member). Our BITS Pilani group is arranging another reunion in Dec-Jan, and just one line in the Yahoogroup invites replies, suggestions, and comments from all over the world. But GMS people are too smart to listen to an ignoramus like me !
I could not go in October because my mother was yet to recover from a hip-joint replacement surgery.
So it is that being only 650 kms from my school, I have been unable to visit it for some forty years. Anyway, I am glad that I did not go in October because I would have been more interested in really seeing the school, its environs, the places we would go for walks etc, and also Ghoom and Darj.
I would not mind a get-together with only veg food, as I really relish the occasional veg lunch/dinner with my Marwari or Tamil friends, but you should make allowance for booze, Sharmajee, because (a) it too is vegetarian, and (b) the life-&-soul-of-the-party types will not come if the spirits do not flow!
I have myself given up going for the once-a-month morning ADDA at the Rangers' Club at the maidan. But if you made an appearance there only once in a while, you may not find it too bad. I had invited Jayanta-da to that gathering, too, as I became quite fond of him after coming to know of his love for the outdoors, mountains, and jungles etc, but he never came.
To conclude, I have to say, yes, in democracy you have to go with the majority, but you and I seem to be going away from the majority! I would not have, probably, become a beef-eater if I had not gone to GMS and watched the unfair practice of charging us more for a limited quantity of mutton twice a week, while those who had beef paid less for twelve unlimited helpings a week! How did you manage, I wonder?
Hari Om …..,
I too felt short-changed when we veggies were charged Rs 140/- per month but the non-veggies paid only Rs 120/- per month.
We only got two Indian sweets, twice a week only for the Rs 20/- per month we were charged extra.
However, I decided to remain a veggie.
I am now 65 and have remained a veggie although once when I had got gland TB in 1975 I was advised to take eggs.
I tried for about three or four days but each day I had to fight with myself to take those eggs.
I decided to stop fight with myself and stopped taking any further eggs.
On another occasion, when I underwent Angioplasty at Rabindranath Tagore Institute, Mukandpur. I was being fed lying down. With one spoonful, I felt an unfamiliar taste.
I asked the nurse, what it was.
She said it was fish.
I immediately threw it out of my mouth.
The dietitian and other staff members came and apologized but it was done.
A similar incident occurred with my younger brother when he went there for after a heart attack.
Thus while RTIIC is good for heart treatment, we veggies have to be careful.
The above were the only two occasions I flirted with a non-veggie diet.
Of course, that does not count the numerous cakes and pastries I had during school days from Lobo's and Glenarie's.
During those years, I was blissfully ignorant of the fact that eggs are used in making cakes and pastries.
Some people include eggs in the veggie diet and call themselves eggetarian (a new word for many).
I am a true blue-blooded veggie. My wife and I do not take even onions and garlic (for the smell).
My sons and D-in-laws do take onions and garlic.
I had a terrible time when I had to go the Bangalore for the treatment of my cousin.
I had to remove the pieces of onion from the sambar before I could eat the idlis and dosas.
Br. Peter Gomez used to say in school, it is not important what goes into you.
What is important is what comes out of you - through your mouth and brains.
There have been many meat eaters and alcoholics who have been saints and on the other hand there have been many veggies who were the devils personified.
Having said that, I would add that diet does play a part in the behaviour displayed by its eater.
Thus we see that Muslims who are mostly meat-eaters are more violent than others although they may be reciting the namaaz five times a day.
The world has become violent and unsafe because of terrorist mainly because of the Muslims.
Our government agrees internally with me but won't say it because of vote bank politics.
George Bush saw the problem when he asked the US forces to invade Iraq using non-existent WMDs in Iraq as an excuse.
Obama wants to favour the Muslims because of his own Muslim background but the continued violence of the Muslims does not give him much chance to favour them.
Bye for now.
Hari Om,Sharmajee
I disagree with you about garlic and onion, they ARE veg, and they are very good for health, all around. But even you are not as strict as Bengali widows used to be, up to my grandmothers --- not even Masoor ka dal (too much protein - so heat inducing, I guess), no sugar (machine-made, using bone charcoal for whitening) but only gurh (molasses), only rock-salt, etc. My mother made some noises about not touching fish after my father died, but knowing she cannot survive without it, we forced her to continue, and all are happy. Moreover, the doctor said that as a diabetic, protein intake is essential to build resistance against kidney damage ... her brother's wife (also a diabetic) died of renal failure early as she had become a vegetarian even while her husband was alive ! But my mother, who does not take hen's eggs but only duck's, was blissfully unaware of what she was being fed in the four hospitals she has stayed in, in the last five years ... RNTagore, RSV in Tollygunge, Medica in Mukunapur, and Nightangel on Theatre Road, in that order.
During the last reunion at BITS Pilani in 2008, I survived on veggie food at all meals for three days, quite happily, at the VFAST (visiting faculty and students') Home, though I was getting tired of mattar-paneer at lunch and dinner every day !
I agree, about eggiterians, they are just looking for excuses to eat non-veg while staying veg by name. In fact, by the time we were in our final year at Pilani (1978) they had opened an Eggie section at the students' messes on top of the existing Veg and Non-veg ones ! The ideal solution would be Maneka Gandhi's VEGAN... where we shun ALL animal products including milk.
About Islamic fundamentalism, I think the petro-dollar prosperity is more to blame than meat eating. Americans and Europeans eat more meat than 'Allah Ke Bandey' . Beduins who used to stay in tents now have too much cash in hand, so they dream of spreading Islam over the entire world, but internally they are as insecure and paranoid as the Gorkhalandis. So they run amok at the slightest resistance. George Bush, I feel, was just protecting North American petro-security. Why did the USA never come to the rescue of Tibet, as communism was their favourite DEMON before the JEHADIS ?
To conclude, I also agree with Br P Gomez.
Bye
The above are two views of a building at the entrance of Narayana Hrudalaya, Bangalore where I had taken my cousin for treatment.
It has four entrances, each housing a place of worship of four religions, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians.
Most people who bring their near ones to Narayana Hrudalaya for treatment spend some time at the place of worship to request The Almighty to give good health to their patients.
Does The Almighty listen to their prayers?
One of our friends raised the question of the very existence of God itself.
Some thought provoking theological correspondence was exchanged between us (started after I returned from Bangalore) which I am giving below.
I am sure you will find the correspondence interesting.
Radheshyam
Hari Om, Sharmajee,
I am deeply saddened at your loss, on top of the stress you had to endure for those eight+ days. Even if the mission was successful, a man of your age and health condition would need time to recuperate... not to speak of the great expenses you must have had to undergo inspite of the failure of the mission.
You all are pious, vegetarian Brahmins. On the other hand, I am a blasphemous, beefeater Brahmin who finds idol-worship as repelling as the mussalmans do.
But the most simple and obvious conclusion escapes you.... that there is no GOD ? God is an invention of Brahmins to fool the rest of humanity, or at best an excuse for the corrupt to absolve their sins. As the famous 'sheir' goes...
Subah Piye, Shyamko Tauba Kiye
Rind Ke Rind Rahey, Jannat Bhi Haath Sey Na Gaye
God is precisely that excuse for us to be corrupt, cowardly, selfish and all that is evil, as HE is EVIL in its purest form... one who can be bribed by offering everything from a simple pooja to building a temple which does not feed or house anyone but the most corrupt again !
I am sorry if I am adding to your sorrows, but I felt that I must share 'truth-as-I-see-it', with a person who has (somewhat) adopted me as a younger brother,
Jai Shree Ram,
Hari Om ….,
I suppose everyone has a right to his views.
However, I could not have made the Universe nor could my fore-fathers.
I cannot explain how the Sun, Moon, Planets and the whole solar system and ever expanding Universe was made and how they have been moving in their orbits for millions of years and will continue to do so for millions more.
I could not have made the seasons by a slight inclination of the Earth's axis and its rotation in an elliptical orbit.
I could not have made the beautiful human body which runs like clock-work or the heart which pumps blood throughout the body, even when we are asleep, for all the years we live.
Why? I could not even make one of the elements in the Periodic Table. Scientists have only discovered them and put them in tables.
Hence, I prefer to give that credit to God.
It saves me a lot of bother and useless thoughts of trying to find the Hand behind all this order and disorder.
I suppose, you would be having an explanation?
I would like to hear that.
As far as bribing God is concerned, I have explained my views earlier.
It has no effect on God.
God is neither pleased when we praise Him nor does He get angry when we abuse Him.
We humans prefer to think that God is like a human being.
We assume He has the same likes and dislikes as us and hence we do to Him what we would to please another like our boss or our family or any other acquaintance.
Yes, I suppose, the Brahmins were partly responsible for these views as whatever was offered to God, finally went to them.
Yes, He has made both the Evil and the Good; I suppose for us to see the contrast.
If a person is good, the inner voice which we call conscience gives us satisfaction and we know this is what the Great Power likes.
If we are evil, the same conscience pricks us and we know this is not what He wants.
Of course, if we don't listen to the pricks, after some time it stops sending those pricks and we turn into hardened criminals.
However, we must understand that both the saint and the sinner have been made by God, for nothing can be outside His creation.
Thus, although I am regularly cursing politicians for the ills in India, I still know that they too are God's creations.
Everything moves as per His plans.
Global warming, melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice cover is also as per His plans.
We should all do what we can do for the environment so that many more generations can inhabit the Earth.
However, it is only He, who will decide when the earth with its entire flora and fauna and the human race should or should not be wiped out.
Cheers,
Radheshyam
Hari Ohm, Sharmajee,
I am sorry to cause more trouble than comfort in your hour of grief, but, if God made all these... the inevitable question is.... who made God? My explanation is that all these are a freak accident of science, something like 'the big bang theory'.
If there really was a God, he would not ensure that only the corrupt and evil survive and make merry, while the rightous suffer... and don't tell me all that about trials and sufferings being good for you -- they have given me gastric ulcers and bags under the eyes from insomnia !
If there really was a God, he would not fill India and China with roughly 300 crores of humans, at the cost of his less destructive creations. He would quietly get rid of mankind, and the "God-Debate" would end there!
Wishful fantasies !
Hari Om …,
Your question, who made God would naturally come to the mind of rationalists.
I would say our minds are too small to reach anywhere near that answer when we have not even been able to understand the working of the human body.
We are still down to the DNA level and have still to go below that.
I accept that I or anyone else will never be able to answer that question in a thousand lives for our brains and mind are also made by the same Infinite and we are finite having a shelf life of about 100 years so how can we understand Infinite Time?
"The Big Bang Theory" may sound very scientific but what caused the Celestial Bodies to collide and cause the "Big Bang". Someone must have made the Celestial bodies to cause the Big Bang.
I call That Power, God.
As I said earlier bad and good will always go hand in hand.
Only in Satyayug, the age of truth, we had only truth and no evil.
In Tretayug, we had the three Awtars (reincarnations) of Lord Vishnu. The Vamana, Parusharam and Shree Rama.
In that age the ratio of truth and good reduced to 75%. Thus we had the different demons like Ravana torturing and killing the people.
But among the demons too, we had good people like Bali who was willing to offer everything, including his head to Lord Vishnu, who appeared as a Vamana, a dwarfed Brahmin, asking for alms.
In Dwaparyug, when truth and good was reduced to 50%, we had the Awtar of Lord Krishna who said He would come on Earth to restore faith in religion and good every time Evil and untruth became excessive. He killed a number of demons, the main being His own mama (maternal uncle), Kangsa.
The present age is Kaliyug. Now the evil people out number the good in the ration 75% to 25%. This is very much evident in our Parliament where the evil MPs far outnumber the good, probably in the ratio 90: 10.
This is all as per our Purana.
We have to now wait for the next Awtar of Lord Vishnu, The Kalki Awtar, and Lord Shiva to once again restore Satyayug.
There is no point in having wishful thoughts of India and China.
He will do all that is necessary to destroy Evil and restore Good.
It may not occur in mine or your lifespan or even our grand-children's.
But our life spans are nothing in the plans of God.
In the meantime don't fill your life with tension.
Accept, whatever is occurring is happening because of the will of God.
Cheers,
Radheshyam
Hari Om, Sharmajee,
Leaving aside GOD, let us tackle lifestyles.
I am a high smoker, low drinker (blame that on the Calcutta heat), like pork lard the best, but do a lot of physical work in spare time, walk to short destinations, run up stairs etc. My dad had a massive myocardial infraction at 54, and he had started smoking in his forties ( I at 17-18 ). Yet I bet my lipid profile is better than yours, because Marwaris, like bongs, hate physical activities. Moreover, you must be a ghee-addict, like most.
My role-model is late Beant Singh, CM of Punjab, who used to have a whole hen for breakfast, and (probably) a whole goat for lunch! He said." cholesterol will not kill me", and he was right ! He died from an assassin's bullet! Way to go, man!
Let us go the whole hog.
Bye
Hari Om ……
You cannot leave aside God for He is there everywhere and in everything.
As I said earlier, at the time of your birth, God programmes your whole life just as NASA has programmed the Curiosity to work as per NASA instructions on Mars, 225 million km away. Because NASA is finite and fallible, NASA has to change its directions depending upon circumstances.
Would anybody believe you if you said that Curiosity was running on its own without any guiding force.
And yet people say, the whole Universe and our beautiful Earth runs without there being the Supernatural Power called by many names like God, Allah, Ishwar, Waheguru, Jehovah.
However, God is Infinite and so He does not have to change His programmes.
So whether you are a meat eating, chain smoking alcoholic or a completely vegetarian teetotaler, the programme for your death has been set and all your actions will be leading towards that with the help of your surroundings.
So go ahead and do whatever you like (for your likes and dislikes too have been programmed by Him), for everybody is going to die at some point of time.
Nothing can prevent that.
Radheshyam
Hari Om Sharmajee,
I feel better, already. May my horoscope be true then, as it says I will die at 58 in a road accident! I have noticed that I am already driving faster and more recklessly!
I agree with you that there is a superior/supreme power making the universe go round, only I refuse to call him GOD and offer him bribes in the form of poojas, prasads, etc, or build statues and prostrate myself in front of them. I even refuse to offer chaddars at tombstones, or go sit and fan the great book while I sweat myself! If we are pre-programmed, I might as well go ahead and enjoy myself rather than live an austere life, and loot. plunder, and rape !
I think 'the supreme power' is scientific, something not easily explainable yet, rather than some mumbo-jumbo listener who likes to bathe in cow's milk!
Hari Om
At last we have covered some common ground and you appreciate that there has to be a Supreme Being who is running the Universe. However, the beauty is He runs it so imperceptibly that we start believing that we are running it.
You don't have to call Him God or Allah or Iswar or Jehovah of Wahe Guru.
As long as you accept that there is this Supreme Being, it is enough.
You don't have to offer Him any Puja, Prasad, flowers or water.
He has no need for these as He is the creator of all these.
You don't even have to erect statues or prostrate yourself.
You don't even have to offer chaddars or fan the great book.
These rituals are for the people who think rituals make your religion.
There is a difference between being religious and being spiritual.
You can be religious without being spiritual.
All these Hindus, Muslims and Christians who are killing each other in the name of religion, fall in this category.
You can be Spiritual, without being religious.
Most of the great thinkers like Christ, Gautam Buddha, Mahavir, Kabir, Guru Nanak were Spiritual.
They gave their thoughts to the people asked them to follow those thoughts.
It was the followers who misinterpreted them and started converting people forcibly or by bribery.
The Crusades were an example of converting to Christianity by force.
Some of the missionaries in India are examples of conversion by bribery.
I don't consider Mohammed to be Spiritual.
His basic premise was that there is only one God called Allah and went about killing anyone who did not believe in what he said.
His followers are still doing the same, killing people who do not follow what they dictate.
Aurangzeb was a good example of conversion by force into Muslims.
By no stretch of imagination can Mohammed be called spiritual.
He was a religious fanatic and his followers are just following his footsteps.
Yes, you are pre-programmed and if you want to go and enjoy yourself, probably your programme has been set that way.
Yes, He is not only scientific but He is Science.
Everything comes from Him and His creation follows His laws.
All rituals are what people think He wants.
Thus people still recite all mantras in Sanskrit as if that is the only language understood by our gods.
It has been intentionally kept that way as only Brahmins used to study Sanskrit.
Similarly, the Christians used to use Latin in their dialogue with God.
That is gradually being replaced by English.
Prayers should only be your expression of thanks to God for all that He has given you.
Your life, your family, your friends and relatives, your neighbours, etc etc.
You can thank Him for the Sun, moon, Stars, for rain and sunshine, water, air, all the animals, birds, reptiles.
It can go on. There is so much you can thank Him for.
Don't ask Him for anything.
You use your own efforts to get it.
However, without your own effort you will not.
If it is in the programme He has made for you, you will get it. If not, you will not.
Sometimes He gives you without any effort on your part.
This is again because it was programmed by Him probably because of good deeds performed in earlier lives.
The same goes with your health.
The life you lead has been programmed in you so that you will reach the age He has fixed for you.
Radheshyam
Hari Om Sharmajee,
That was a long sermon ! But at last, I am in 100% agreement. I have not been able to offer solace in your hour of grief, but your 'spirituality' has raised you several notches in my esteem. Hope we meet soon at some get-together !
Bye
Hari Om,
It has been a long time indeed since we met. I was hoping to meet you in October when we went to the school sports but you could not make it since you had gone there in May.
Let us see at one of the parties.
I actually find myself out of place at these parties as there is free flow of hard drinks and non-veg food which is strictly no-no for me. That is why I usually give them a miss. I had asked the people who organise these events to every now and then have a party where vegetarian food and only soft drinks are served. But the meat eating alcoholics far outnumber me and so my voice is silenced.
I suppose, in a democracy, you have to go with the majority.
Radheshyam
Hari Ohm, Sharmajee,
No, I did not go in May as I was suffering from stomach ailments still to be correctly diagnosed, and could not risk the 14hr long bus ride without a toilet The organizers had mis-spelt my mail ID and I came to know too late for a confirmed train ticket. Anyway, the organizers ignored all my arguments for a group mail ID, and a Facebook page was formed but no one informed me of its location or invited me to become a member). Our BITS Pilani group is arranging another reunion in Dec-Jan, and just one line in the Yahoogroup invites replies, suggestions, and comments from all over the world. But GMS people are too smart to listen to an ignoramus like me !
I could not go in October because my mother was yet to recover from a hip-joint replacement surgery.
So it is that being only 650 kms from my school, I have been unable to visit it for some forty years. Anyway, I am glad that I did not go in October because I would have been more interested in really seeing the school, its environs, the places we would go for walks etc, and also Ghoom and Darj.
I would not mind a get-together with only veg food, as I really relish the occasional veg lunch/dinner with my Marwari or Tamil friends, but you should make allowance for booze, Sharmajee, because (a) it too is vegetarian, and (b) the life-&-soul-of-the-party types will not come if the spirits do not flow!
I have myself given up going for the once-a-month morning ADDA at the Rangers' Club at the maidan. But if you made an appearance there only once in a while, you may not find it too bad. I had invited Jayanta-da to that gathering, too, as I became quite fond of him after coming to know of his love for the outdoors, mountains, and jungles etc, but he never came.
To conclude, I have to say, yes, in democracy you have to go with the majority, but you and I seem to be going away from the majority! I would not have, probably, become a beef-eater if I had not gone to GMS and watched the unfair practice of charging us more for a limited quantity of mutton twice a week, while those who had beef paid less for twelve unlimited helpings a week! How did you manage, I wonder?
Hari Om …..,
I too felt short-changed when we veggies were charged Rs 140/- per month but the non-veggies paid only Rs 120/- per month.
We only got two Indian sweets, twice a week only for the Rs 20/- per month we were charged extra.
However, I decided to remain a veggie.
I am now 65 and have remained a veggie although once when I had got gland TB in 1975 I was advised to take eggs.
I tried for about three or four days but each day I had to fight with myself to take those eggs.
I decided to stop fight with myself and stopped taking any further eggs.
On another occasion, when I underwent Angioplasty at Rabindranath Tagore Institute, Mukandpur. I was being fed lying down. With one spoonful, I felt an unfamiliar taste.
I asked the nurse, what it was.
She said it was fish.
I immediately threw it out of my mouth.
The dietitian and other staff members came and apologized but it was done.
A similar incident occurred with my younger brother when he went there for after a heart attack.
Thus while RTIIC is good for heart treatment, we veggies have to be careful.
The above were the only two occasions I flirted with a non-veggie diet.
Of course, that does not count the numerous cakes and pastries I had during school days from Lobo's and Glenarie's.
During those years, I was blissfully ignorant of the fact that eggs are used in making cakes and pastries.
Some people include eggs in the veggie diet and call themselves eggetarian (a new word for many).
I am a true blue-blooded veggie. My wife and I do not take even onions and garlic (for the smell).
My sons and D-in-laws do take onions and garlic.
I had a terrible time when I had to go the Bangalore for the treatment of my cousin.
I had to remove the pieces of onion from the sambar before I could eat the idlis and dosas.
Br. Peter Gomez used to say in school, it is not important what goes into you.
What is important is what comes out of you - through your mouth and brains.
There have been many meat eaters and alcoholics who have been saints and on the other hand there have been many veggies who were the devils personified.
Having said that, I would add that diet does play a part in the behaviour displayed by its eater.
Thus we see that Muslims who are mostly meat-eaters are more violent than others although they may be reciting the namaaz five times a day.
The world has become violent and unsafe because of terrorist mainly because of the Muslims.
Our government agrees internally with me but won't say it because of vote bank politics.
George Bush saw the problem when he asked the US forces to invade Iraq using non-existent WMDs in Iraq as an excuse.
Obama wants to favour the Muslims because of his own Muslim background but the continued violence of the Muslims does not give him much chance to favour them.
Bye for now.
Hari Om,Sharmajee
I disagree with you about garlic and onion, they ARE veg, and they are very good for health, all around. But even you are not as strict as Bengali widows used to be, up to my grandmothers --- not even Masoor ka dal (too much protein - so heat inducing, I guess), no sugar (machine-made, using bone charcoal for whitening) but only gurh (molasses), only rock-salt, etc. My mother made some noises about not touching fish after my father died, but knowing she cannot survive without it, we forced her to continue, and all are happy. Moreover, the doctor said that as a diabetic, protein intake is essential to build resistance against kidney damage ... her brother's wife (also a diabetic) died of renal failure early as she had become a vegetarian even while her husband was alive ! But my mother, who does not take hen's eggs but only duck's, was blissfully unaware of what she was being fed in the four hospitals she has stayed in, in the last five years ... RNTagore, RSV in Tollygunge, Medica in Mukunapur, and Nightangel on Theatre Road, in that order.
During the last reunion at BITS Pilani in 2008, I survived on veggie food at all meals for three days, quite happily, at the VFAST (visiting faculty and students') Home, though I was getting tired of mattar-paneer at lunch and dinner every day !
I agree, about eggiterians, they are just looking for excuses to eat non-veg while staying veg by name. In fact, by the time we were in our final year at Pilani (1978) they had opened an Eggie section at the students' messes on top of the existing Veg and Non-veg ones ! The ideal solution would be Maneka Gandhi's VEGAN... where we shun ALL animal products including milk.
About Islamic fundamentalism, I think the petro-dollar prosperity is more to blame than meat eating. Americans and Europeans eat more meat than 'Allah Ke Bandey' . Beduins who used to stay in tents now have too much cash in hand, so they dream of spreading Islam over the entire world, but internally they are as insecure and paranoid as the Gorkhalandis. So they run amok at the slightest resistance. George Bush, I feel, was just protecting North American petro-security. Why did the USA never come to the rescue of Tibet, as communism was their favourite DEMON before the JEHADIS ?
To conclude, I also agree with Br P Gomez.
Bye
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