A hindu woman protects a muslim man in Mr&Mrs Iyer, Mother Teresa slogged all her life to save the lives of thousands of Indians. In times of emergency, in times of distress, it doesn't really matter if u are an Indian or a Pakistani, a Hindu or a Muslim, all that matters is the person, the person concealed deep within!!!
We humans have many ways of classifying ourselves, and sometimes these distinctions overpower those subtle similarities. How far can we trace back on the timeline? The moment you make an attempt to go back on the time line, you come across many theories, the Hindu's talk about the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha and probably further back to the Shastras and the Vedas. A Christian might go back to the Bible and talk about Adam and Eve. A Muslim might come up with some other concept.
But then finally haven't we all evolved from a common root, a man and a woman (who probably evolved from an animal) !!! If it were a common root, then what made man split? How did he get dispersed across the oceans ? Or is it that we never had a common root? Man evolved "concurrently" from the ape, at different parts of the globe and each one "adapted" to his surroundings? What is it that made us so different? The climatic conditions, the geographic topology? After all, in the beginning all that man needed was food and shelter, protection, good health and 'the strength to survive' !!! Probably the distinction between people across the continents is justified. But then all of them had one trait in common - the urge to move out and meet other 'fellow humans', and there probably began man's urge to explore, to move on and mix.
At this stage surfaced the big question of 'who would follow whom'? 'who is stronger'? 'who was more confident'? And most importantly 'who communicated best'? And this was when the Europeans 'outdid' all the other fellow humans. And from then on, till date the world has probably evolved into a "vasudaiva kutumbakam", but ironically alongside the necessity to draw clear boundaries and deploy valuable resources to maintain the 'sanctity' of the borders has increased!!! Aren't we talking of contradictory concepts, we can travel faster, we can meet people across borders within a 24 hour cycle, but STILL we need to clearly demarcate our territories!!! And STILL we do not trust fellow humans!!!
We humans have many ways of classifying ourselves, and sometimes these distinctions overpower those subtle similarities. How far can we trace back on the timeline? The moment you make an attempt to go back on the time line, you come across many theories, the Hindu's talk about the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha and probably further back to the Shastras and the Vedas. A Christian might go back to the Bible and talk about Adam and Eve. A Muslim might come up with some other concept.
But then finally haven't we all evolved from a common root, a man and a woman (who probably evolved from an animal) !!! If it were a common root, then what made man split? How did he get dispersed across the oceans ? Or is it that we never had a common root? Man evolved "concurrently" from the ape, at different parts of the globe and each one "adapted" to his surroundings? What is it that made us so different? The climatic conditions, the geographic topology? After all, in the beginning all that man needed was food and shelter, protection, good health and 'the strength to survive' !!! Probably the distinction between people across the continents is justified. But then all of them had one trait in common - the urge to move out and meet other 'fellow humans', and there probably began man's urge to explore, to move on and mix.
At this stage surfaced the big question of 'who would follow whom'? 'who is stronger'? 'who was more confident'? And most importantly 'who communicated best'? And this was when the Europeans 'outdid' all the other fellow humans. And from then on, till date the world has probably evolved into a "vasudaiva kutumbakam", but ironically alongside the necessity to draw clear boundaries and deploy valuable resources to maintain the 'sanctity' of the borders has increased!!! Aren't we talking of contradictory concepts, we can travel faster, we can meet people across borders within a 24 hour cycle, but STILL we need to clearly demarcate our territories!!! And STILL we do not trust fellow humans!!!
Have we evolved from animals at all ? !! ??!!!
Now comes the next important classification, Religion. Religion signifies beliefs. A belief in an ultimate source of strength, a belief in the power within, and probably sometime when man lost faith in the power within he looked up to a stronger force.
This stronger force was termed God, when man felt that there were things that happened the way 'they had to', he consoled himself and drew strength from the unknown power within and gave the source many names. There is another way of looking at it, the concept of a leader, the man who had it in him to take care of himself and take care of the world around. Leader, guru, became the source of light. He was called Gods representative, but probably I would term him as the smarter amongst god's creations.
This elite class of leaders had to convince the 'lesser mortals' and this is probably the origin of the whole range of believes, superstitions, distinctions and classes.
Combining the two concepts- civilization and religion in the context of the Indian subcontinent .
There would have been one civilization in and around the Indian Subcontinent and there would have been one religion. But still today this subcontinent is home to almost every religion know on the planet. How did this happen? Assuming that the historians have got there theories right, its the Hindus who originally lived in India. Now does that mean that all the Muslims and Christians immigrated ? Zooming in a little further, Kerala is a small strip of land in South India, but this land is a home to Hindus, Muslims and Christians. But fundamentally they were all people living in a coastal strip of land. Europeans came, converted a few of them to Christrians. The Mougals converted a few of them to Muslims and a few remained what they were - Hindus. But essentially is the primitive binding force is nature and its topological classification.
What exactly distinguishes me, a Hindu from my Muslim neighbour. We have the same environmental stimuli, we work in the same office, we eat the same food, we drink the same water, in case of an emergency or a natural calamity, we respond exactly the same way !!! Except for the prayer he utters and the prayer I utter, there's fundamentally NO DISTINCTION!!!After all don't all these prayers mean the same, with a few different names ??? Then what exactly makes us question each other so much, what makes us hate each other so much? What ever the caste, creed, religion, nationality, what matters is the person within. And if every human being realizes this, we'll truly have a 'beautiful world. The sense of brotherhood, a sense of equality, love and affection will prevail.
"Religion is the reason, the world is breaking out into pieces, colour of the people, makes us locked in hate, please release us, God, come down and help us, save all the little ones, we need a teacher, you are the only one"..!!! Mind you..I said God...Not Inshallah, Jesus or Krishna !!!
Now comes the next important classification, Religion. Religion signifies beliefs. A belief in an ultimate source of strength, a belief in the power within, and probably sometime when man lost faith in the power within he looked up to a stronger force.
This stronger force was termed God, when man felt that there were things that happened the way 'they had to', he consoled himself and drew strength from the unknown power within and gave the source many names. There is another way of looking at it, the concept of a leader, the man who had it in him to take care of himself and take care of the world around. Leader, guru, became the source of light. He was called Gods representative, but probably I would term him as the smarter amongst god's creations.
This elite class of leaders had to convince the 'lesser mortals' and this is probably the origin of the whole range of believes, superstitions, distinctions and classes.
Combining the two concepts- civilization and religion in the context of the Indian subcontinent .
There would have been one civilization in and around the Indian Subcontinent and there would have been one religion. But still today this subcontinent is home to almost every religion know on the planet. How did this happen? Assuming that the historians have got there theories right, its the Hindus who originally lived in India. Now does that mean that all the Muslims and Christians immigrated ? Zooming in a little further, Kerala is a small strip of land in South India, but this land is a home to Hindus, Muslims and Christians. But fundamentally they were all people living in a coastal strip of land. Europeans came, converted a few of them to Christrians. The Mougals converted a few of them to Muslims and a few remained what they were - Hindus. But essentially is the primitive binding force is nature and its topological classification.
What exactly distinguishes me, a Hindu from my Muslim neighbour. We have the same environmental stimuli, we work in the same office, we eat the same food, we drink the same water, in case of an emergency or a natural calamity, we respond exactly the same way !!! Except for the prayer he utters and the prayer I utter, there's fundamentally NO DISTINCTION!!!After all don't all these prayers mean the same, with a few different names ??? Then what exactly makes us question each other so much, what makes us hate each other so much? What ever the caste, creed, religion, nationality, what matters is the person within. And if every human being realizes this, we'll truly have a 'beautiful world. The sense of brotherhood, a sense of equality, love and affection will prevail.
"Religion is the reason, the world is breaking out into pieces, colour of the people, makes us locked in hate, please release us, God, come down and help us, save all the little ones, we need a teacher, you are the only one"..!!! Mind you..I said God...Not Inshallah, Jesus or Krishna !!!
1 comment:
Spot on!! As an old story about AdiSankara's life says 'Whatever be the religion, color or caste of the person, blood remains of the same color'. Excellent piece of writing. Stepped on your blog just incidentally. Bold and intelligent writing - A bit of 'Basheer' thoughts jumping in!!. Feel it was really worth it!! Keep on going!!
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