April 29, 2010

Why should I believe in god?

I do not know why but, many people define me as a communist whenever I start speaking about god!! So, I think it is time to redefine god for the second time in this blog. I am a person born in a Brahmin family who never used to visit temples or do any rituals which are supposed to do by our community. Today, some people define a communist as a person who does not believe in god! I do not know much but, basically I do not like to hear that I am a communist just because I externally look like an atheist! I consider myself as agnostic instead! Yes, I really do not know whether a god exists or not.

Why do I look like an atheist? I look like an atheist because; I really hate to do meaningless activities. If I am going to a temple, I feel so artificial in the way I behave. I will worship as others are doing it there. I always used to feel that I never worshiped my god with my true heart! So, if a god really exists, it will be the hardest thing for him to accept. I have a lot of examples for people who used to do many meaningless things. I have seen a person who used to be a follower of god on his birthdays and leads an atheistic life afterwards. I really hate this way of worship! I am not going to a temple just to make my family or my native people aware that I am a follower of god! I am misguiding them but, I really do not like to do it. Today, I believe in one thing, today’s concept of religion is bundled with misguidance and business! The main problem of today’s religious beliefs is a fact that it is not properly described or derived so that the true meaning of religions are still unaware to its followers!!

Why there are religions in this world? Consider the condition before religions in this world! If I kill someone and nobody is aware that I am the culprit then, I will not be afraid of the consequences! If someone says that god is going to punish me for what I’ve done. I will get afraid of the consequences from god so that I will be a little kind in the way I am. It is really easy to be a bad man in this world but, religions have successfully controlled people to several extend!! Today, we can feel the change! Today, religious beliefs are getting weaker and weaker so that people in this world are forgetting many important facts like humanity, kindness etc. My father always used to talk about lessons from religious stories but, how many of our people are aware of the lessons from those stories? Today, TV and films have a great influence in people but, in olden times, it was stories which influenced people. So, the best way to influence and force people to lead a successful and meaningful life is through these stories. Even today, grand mothers used to narrate stories and morals to small children just because it is the best way to reach the minds of the people. I know a little about Hinduism as I am a Hindu. So, my father used to say that “you can read mahabharatha just as an action thriller or you can read it by learning its lessons or you can consider it as a puzzle where it includes a lot of wisdom, yoga and many things which are meant to motivate people to do the right thing!!”

I am also aware of a lot of sensible customs which are implemented for health, protection of nature etc. So, the aim of religions is to enlighten the people. In Europe and other western side, it started as Christianity..In Arabia, it may be started as islam…In India, it may be started in the form of Hindus. The reason for this discrimination is a fact that many of the rituals in these religions are suited to the climate of the region. In Arabia, people used to wear long dress which covers their entire body to survive in the huge wind blows! In west, people used to wear tie and coats to survive in the cold. But, these two costumes are inevitable parts of these two religions in India too!! I think, it represents their origin. It is not a matter now. I just wanted to say that there is no point in fighting against each other just because their implementation is started from different regions! All religions are built to make some better sense among people!
A god always made a better sense to us. It is an indisputable fact. In Hinduism there is a belief that the end of the world will be with a flood where we are hearing about over melting of ice in both poles our earth which may result in floods! It may happen!! We are already seeing a senseless world which is described as “kaliyug” in Hinduism. So, our problem in this world is our intelligence! We believed that we are intelligent but, really we are nearly sinking our own ship! We are well known about it but, still we are running behind money, power and entertainments. If religions were still strong in this world with its true sense, the world will certainly be a better place than this! It is a powerful weapon against ignorance and selfishness.

You have the right to choose whether to be a follower of god or not. If you are an atheist you have to make sure that you can make a better sense than a god! If you are with the god’s side you have to make sure that you are grasping what god is trying to implement! You can act like a man who is atheist or you can be an atheist itself and I can assure you one thing, a god will not punish you for not being a follower of him because, revenge is a human nature and it is not suited to him. If you are capable enough to say that you can always be a perfect man in this world, take a mirror and address yourself as the god! I know, no one can take that responsibility just because “perfection is just an illusion”. But, god is perfect!! I know I can’t make it. So, I will always be a lover of god in my inner mind even though I look like an atheist!!

Faithfully

Raghu

Am I matured enough?

A few days back, me and my friend was talking about maturity in the class. It was a small chat and he was pointing out how many matured people are there in our class. There was a funny fellow in my class, and he said he is immature and he also considered a lot of students as immature where he considered me as a matured!! It made me think about my condition in maturity. Am I matured enough? How can I measure my maturity?
I have already written somewhere in my blog that it is really easy to be an intelligent man. No one can have a balanced knowledge about everything. I think, maturity has something to do with this! Why funny fellows are always considered to be immature? I think it is a wrong concept that whoever you look funny is really a fool. I always used to notice one thing in Mark Twain’s quotes! I have a small collection of his quotes somewhere in my bundle of DVDs!! He always has something funny to say in his worth thinking quotes!! In a similar fashion, I was really astonished to see a small piece of paper in which that same funny guy has written something about his college life! It was so funny but, it was a worth thinking one! A perfect view of what he had gone through!! No one can call him immature if he is happened to see what he had written! If you are analyzing a man with his external view, it is the greatest mistake that can ever do you in your life!
In our country, everyone is allowed to vote after an age of 18! Why 18 years of age is considered as a qualification for maturity? How can you feel that you are matured? I think, before the age of 18 no one can ever imagine someone to be eligible to take his own decision! Maturity is all about eligibility to take your own decision! At the age of 18, you are expected to have your own views! A few years back, when my father bought a new bike in my home, I happened to give a lift to one of my cousin to my home! It was a short journey but, as I was on a thrill to ride my bike my driving style was a little “rash”!! After reaching my home, that cousin, who is 5 years younger than me, told my mother that I am driving the bike really fast and it is because I am immature! So, to be frank, maturity has nothing to do with age! And I accept that that cousin has made a better sense than me.
In my life, I always used to feel that I am a little immature in the way I am! But, I feel a little better when I see people of my age doing a lot of stupid stuffs than I do! It can be because of their attitude but, I call a matured person as a man who can make sense of his own. In this life, you have a lot to analyze and realize from the outside world. If you feel that you are getting matured, it should be a time when you begin to see the world. We have a lot to realize from this world, we have a lot to analyze from our life which is what we call experience but, today it feels like many of us are acting and behaving like they are blind! Anyone can live a life like that because it is really simple to stay away from everything with a small stupid philosophy “Ignorance is bliss!”. In my view, ignorance is a curse if you are wasting your opportunities to do what is right to yourself! You can live a 100 years on this earth without watching what you are supposed to watch but, a life which lasted only for one day which changed a lot of people can make a better sense!

Faithfully

Raghu

Education!!

I am a student for the last 17 years of my life. I’ve already written about my concepts about education in some other post in this same blog. Today, it feels like I need to update my educational concept as it has changed a lot recently. What is the real aim of education? To gain knowledge? In my opinion, the real education should not concentrate only on knowledge. Success depends on how it is utilized in your life. The overall result of education must be wisdom! I always used to notice that there are still people in this world who are still motivating their child to memorize their lessons for examinations. I still remember when my mother used to teach me when I was in my primary school. Mugging up my lessons was a difficult task since I was 4 years old. I still remember the definition of “domestic animals” where my mother imitates my learning ability like this “Animals that we keeeeeeee(a pause of 5 seconds will end if my mother threatens me with a sharp look) ppatt our home are called domestic animals”. Actually, I was not aware that the words are “keep” and “at” I was just mugging up and I always used to mess up my examinations as the efforts given for it was too much to accept!!!
Today, I am nearing to a situation where I am implementing a new technique for education. “Use and throw” knowledge!!! That is what I call it! Memorizing things just to write an exam! After the exam, we can forget everything. Just as in the primary school, I am just mugging up! This is not what education is meant to be. The funniest part of education is not mugging up! It is a fact that the knowledge through education is used only up to 7.5 % in our job! Why should I waste my 92.5% of my efforts by learning irrelevant things? It doesn’t make any sense to me! It looks like, learning is just a waste of time if you consider the benefit you are about to receive. Learning irrelevant things in your life is simply a waste of time!! Do not waste your efforts and memory! The real education should concentrate on lot more than knowledge. It is the reason why I consider the job of a teacher as the most responsible one in this world. No one can predict how influential a teacher’s role is!! Thoughts of a teacher are the thoughts of the students and it must be. This must be the reason why I believe that the most influential teacher of my life is a teacher who hasn’t taken a book to teach me!!
In some aspects, there is a teacher in every single man in this world. What we have to do is to realize that you are influencing people around you and you are just doing the job of a teacher. If we see a movie, you may be inspired by the hero of that movie and you may have some tendency in copying him. Indirectly, he is going to be a teacher to you. I’ve noticed some actors in Malayalam cinema, who had taken an oath not to act the role of a drinker in their movies! But, one of our actors justified his part by saying that the liquor he used in movie is made up of just coco-cola and water! It doesn’t make any difference as the truth about his liquor is not known to any of his fans. Nobody is going to avoid liquor and drink coco-cola and water instead! The best thing that a teacher has to do in his life is to avoid being responsible for misguiding his students.
In the last day of my college life, I had an experience. It was a university exam where our invigilator told us a sentence like this “I will give you five minutes to copy the one word answers!”. May be, it will be the reason for this post at this time. It made me think about a lot. It is the biggest mistake that can ever do by a teacher. If I were him, I must feel shy of being a teacher. If a student gets motivated to stop learning by such an activity as they can earn free scores without even a risk or effort, a teacher is responsible for it! From my past experience, many of my school and college mates used to copy each others' papers just to pass their examinations. In the last exam of my college life, I didn’t do well just because I couldn’t stop thinking about the condition which I’m going through. If I can’t make myself believe that I really earned that degree, why should I waste my three years of life just by stealing other’s efforts? Some tried to dominate, others tried to survive but, what makes sense if both of them receive the same result?
I got a lot to talk about this subject. Let me shrink it a little. I was a student of an entrance exam coaching teacher who is renowned for his strictness. I went to his class for one year and left the place as I felt useless to be there. He was a devil to some of his students (I think, I can nearly replace the word “some” with “majority”). All he used to do is to threaten the students and thus the students will learn more efficiently. I remember my tuition teacher who used to praise him a lot because of this strictness but, I got no reason to praise him. I heard a lot about the abusive language which he uses to threaten the students. If I had an opportunity to meet him now, I will ask him whether he is ashamed of being a wrong teacher like this. Many parents are forcing their children to join this master of threatening in sake of a good engineer or doctor through entrance exams. The best way of education is to achieve it with your passion. If a teacher could motivate a student to follow his passion, he need not threaten the students to do his homework. Today, that master of threatening is a great inspiration!! Never ever be a teacher like him. Some teachers are like this they motivate us a lot by being a perfect model of what you should never be in your life.
Everybody have their own subjects of interest. A real teacher’s job is to nourish the student’s interest by making aware of his desire! One day or another, a student can reach his destiny if he is properly guided by someone. I remember a dialog from the movie matrix “I can show you the door, you have to open it!”. Being a worst professional which you have no interest is much worse than being a man with a small earnings. Today, I used to hear a lot about IT professionals who works more than 16 hours a day and earns a lot of money with short time. I accept that they are getting a lot of money but what will you do if there is no opportunity to use it. Never ever assess a job with salary, assess a job with the amount of satisfaction! To achieve that satisfaction, education is the base!
If I were a teacher, my primary objective will be to share my wisdom with my students. It is the best thing that can ever do by a teacher. Enlightenment is the purest motivation to achieve success. It can destroy immatureness and realize what life is! Some teachers may help students to achieve their success by their marks but, I do not like to assess a student by marks.Everybody is unique and different in their own ways so it is difficult to measure one’s wisdom as there is no measurement to compare!If a student can gain marks just by mugging up his notes, I know I am supposed to award him marks but, it is not just the way it should be because, that mugged up knowledge is not going to achieve anything in his life. Then why should he waste his efforts? "Hardwork has nothing to do without a little 'common sense'!! The real inspiration in one’s life will come from himself! If he defines his own rules and his own destiny, no one can ever stop him by any means! I do not know how many times I am referring the movie “School of Life” in this blog but, it is the most relevant time to refer it. If I am describing some valuable points from that movie, I may have to write 3/4th of the entire script of that movie. I do not know how many times I’ve watched that movie in my life. The most important quote in that movie is “You are your own teacher!”. So, just try to be a good student to yourself!

Faithfully

Raghu